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PaperclipPerfector  2d ago (text post)   1346 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for May 22, 2026

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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A New Testament That Actually Feels Like an Anthology:

Most of these translations are available on BibleHub, except Phillips, and BibleGateway, except Weymouth. The REB is available on neither.

At some point it makes more sense to just learn Greek and read the original text.

I mean, Hart already did that.

The New Testament: A Translation by the Eastern Orthodox theologian and philosopher David Bentley Hart, first published in 2017.

Hart explicitly stated that his goal was to provide a "pitilessly literal translation" that preserves the distinct linguistic talents—or lack thereof—of each individual writer, rather than smoothing them out into an artificial, uniform majesty.

I’m planning on grabbing a copy soon.

that preserves the distinct linguistic talents—or lack thereof—of each individual writer

Kek, which apostle is he throwing shade at?

Probably Mark. His Greek is noticeably unpolished, even for Koine (“common” Greek, as opposed to the more refined literary forms of Attic Greek).

Which, ironically, makes his the most likely to have been genuinely attributed to a scribe writing out the memories of a Galilean fisherman.

I personally take the traditional attributions at face value. Between AD 30 and the destruction of the Temple, the movement (and the Jerusalem church in particular) swelled to such size that good scribes and decent writers would have been readily available to help the Apostles write out their recollections of the Master’s teachings, and their letters to other cities’ bodies of believers.

As for who wrote Hebrews, since we don’t know which human wrote it, we can call it the book of the Bible in which the authorial guidance of the Holy Spirit is most transparent.

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