The New Testament

Rating:
Summary: A Translation Worthy of Its Subject
Review: Greek of the Hellenistic period is notoriously tricky to translate. First there is the matter of distance in time. Many of the idioms have lost their meaning, words have been recorded in the lexicon as having a variety of and often conflicting definitions, and the simple (or not so simple) matter of the differences between a pre-industrialized Mediterranean society and a post-industrial western one all can put seemingly unassailable walls between the scholar and his text. Yet despite all these obstacles, Professor Lattimore has provided the world with one of the finest English translations of the New Testament ever produced.

To say that Professor Lattimore's skill in translating both ancient and Hellenistic Greek is outstanding is to understate the matter. His ability is now legendary. Readers of his translations of Homer, Aeskylus, Euripides, and many others have long hailed them as the superlative editions of the works. We can all thank God that he saw fit to apply his talent to this, the most famous of all the Hellenistic Greek documents.

Doing away with the numbering system and printing the individual books in paragraph form is something someone should have done long ago. The text can now be read as it would have been recited long ago - cleanly and without the distraction of meaningless numbers (they were added centuries after the texts were written).

The texts themselves are splendid. Professor Lattimore took the time to convey the flavor of each one to the reader through subtle changes in style and word choice that most often accurately reflect the original Greek. For example, the stilted and simple language of the Gospel of Mark versus the more refined style of the Gospel of Luke is well established in the English translations. What's more, Professor Lattimore offers notes to the reader explaining why he chose one word or phrase over another. That is a sign of true scholarship rarely, if ever, seen in commercial translations of this text. The only regret that can be stated is that he did not team up with a noted anthropologist of the period, such as Richard Rohrbaugh or Jerome Neyrey, to put the final touches to the cultural subtleties so often lost in translations.

The only detraction from the work is the cover. The Andres Serrano photo on the cloth bound edition is unfortunate. North Point tried to depict the suffering and death of Jesus of Nazareth but ended up simply being gratuitous. It will likely put off many readers who will pass by the book simply because the cover photo is so repulsive. This is a shame. Thankfully, North Point thought the better of using the same photo on the paper bound edition.

Without a doubt, this edition of the New Testament is superior to all the well known editions, from the KJV to the NRSV. It makes such partisan tracts, such as The Book (perhaps the worst, I hesitate to write translation as I think it to be more a conglomeration of various other translations which were then simplified for a fourth grade reading level, edition of the New Testament ever produced) look like the intellectual laughingstocks that they are. I would hope more clergy, both Catholic and Protestant, would read Professor Lattimore's translation and also encourage their congregations to do so. It brings a collection of stories too often obscured by time, distance, and dogma much closer to intelligibility.

Rating:
Summary: beautiful, literal, faithful
Review: I often joked with my Greek Professor that Homer's Iliad read better in Lattimore's translation than it did in the original Greek. He would give me a cynical look, shake his head at my apparent blasphemy, and we would continue our translation. Then he would offer a wry smile, which indicated that he could identify - at least in part - with what I had said.

Richmond Lattimore is generally regarded by scholars of ancient Greek as one of the greatest translators of Greek this century. His translations of Homer, the Greek Tragedies, and countless other classics have won him this reputation. When he decided to turn at the end of his life to the NT, classicists were understandably pleased. Lattimore is NOT a biblical scholar and so he comes to the text without many of the prejudices and biases apparent in so many English translations. In addition, he translates with a wealth of experience that no other scholar of his day possessed, and with a mastery of the English language.

The translation is thoroughly literal, though not pedantically so. Lattimore believed that form and meaning were closely related. He tried in his many translations to convey not only the meaning, but also the style and form of the Greek.

At the end of the day the most important aspect of translation is the strength of its scholarship. Lattimore had few peers and no rivals in his field. His single goal was to represent what was in the text. Although this beautiful translation of the New Testament did not reach the wide audience of some other translations, for overall reliability and fidelity to the writers of the NT, it is like Lattimore, in a class of its own.

Rating:
Summary: The best translation of the New Testament by an individual.
Review: Lattimore is generally regarded by classicists as one of the greatest translators of Greek this century. His translations of Homer, the Greek Tragedies, and countless other classics have won him this reputation. Lattimore is not a biblical scholar and so he comes to the text without many of the prejudices and biases apparent in so many English translations. In addition, the translation is literal because Lattimore believes that form and meaning are closely related. He even tries as far as it is possible to convey some of the form of the Greek in the English style he uses.

At the end of the day the most important thing in a translation is the strength of its scholarship. For those who have studied Greek, it is scary how often Lattimore gets it right. For the most part, Bible translations today are rated according to their number of sales. Hence the NIV is thought of as a great translation. Lattimore may not be the kind of translation you find in the pockets of devout Christians, but for overall reliability and fidelity to the writers of the NT, I give it 10/10.

Rating:
Summary: Smell the Ink in Your Nostrils
Review: Lattimore's translation of the N.T. seems so new it's like it just came off the presses. It's so fresh you can smell the ink in your nostrils. It's so vibrant you can easily forget it's the N.T. and then forget to put it down. It's so gripping that instead of dreading the daily dose of a couple of verses, you look forward to overloading on your next fix. At least I do, and that's after reading countless translations, studying all sorts of helpful guide books, and knowing the Sunday School stories front to back.

But Lattimore's translation is different. He's a Greek translator not a theologian, concerned not so much with making the text say something in English, as with letting it live. And stripped of adornment, the Word is pulse-pounding, heart-racing, blood- pumping alive. "Wait a minute," someone may say, "Are we talking about the Bible?" Yes, we are. But reading Lattimore's version, one sees why people think the story is so exciting.

The genius of this book is in what it leaves out. So not the stately King James. Nor the Not-so-New International Version. No chapter or verse numbers. The four Gospels sound like stories, and the letters of St. Paul read like letters. Lattimore's other genius is his uncanny ear; he often uses simpler words than other translations, but sometimes he chooses bigger ones. Some parts flow together connecting half-remembered tales into a larger narrative, but others are told at a breathless pace: "we did this, and then we did that and then this happened, and then some other thing occured." This is exactly how someone, face to face, would relay a story.

In the preface Lattimore modestly says, "I was struck by the natural ease with which Revelation turned itself into English." I am struck with how he turned it into great reading.

Rating:
Summary: A Step In The Direction
Review: Richmond Lattimore's translation of the New Testament is a valuable addition to a thinking person's library. It gave me a much better sense of the styles of the various authors, and perhaps, even of their personalities. In many ways it is fresher and more readable than the church-approved translations, while at the same time being pretty literal. That being said, however, it's not quite as fresh as all that. Even though, for instance, Lattimore's avowed goal was to let the Greek style dictate the English style, Mark's use of the historical present in telling his stories is nowhere in evidence. In other words, despite the fact that Mark wrote in a narrative style which resembles that used in my old neighborhood ("And he says to me...", or "Then he goes...") for some mysterious reason, Lattimore, like virtually all other Bible translators, wants us to read Mark as a more elegant writer than he actually was. Why? In the arena of vocabulary, too, Lattimore makes a number of capitulations to tradition which are far from fresh. A prime example is the word 'ekklesia', which Lattimore, like every standard version, translates by the exclusively Christian term 'church', even though 'ekklesia' was a generic term for any group of people meeting/assembling for any purpose, sacred or secular, public or private, lawful or unlawful. Why use a misleading term like 'church' which suggests an institution and organization which was not yet contemplated in the first century? Similar theologically and culturally anachronistic views are reflected in other word choices, and even in capitalization practices, which again, were not thought of at the time the NT was written. I still am looking forward to the day that a translation allows the Biblical text to speak its own language, without pushing agendas not actually present in the text!