Customer Reviews

The Restored New Testament: A New Translation with Commentary, Including the Gnostic Gospels Thomas, Mary, and Judas

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Restored New Testament is just what it claims to be. This is a new translation 2009, that was done by a man who is not a Catholic, baptist, pentacostal or born again; he is in fact a Professor of Comparitive literature. This aspect of the translation, of the translator not bringing a personal Christian religious bias into the translation, has made for an amazingly readable, alive and more accurate translation.
I love to study scriptures and recently read Scholar and textual critic, Bart Erman's "Misquoting Jesus", which I also highly reccomend, which gives the whole background and history of the translation of the bible. That said, if you know anything about the history of the Bible and its translations, then you know that this book is a pretty historic piece of work. It is the 1st time, to my knowledge, that anyone outside of the Christian religious community has attempted to translate the Bible, looking at it just from a literary standpoint. Barnstone has also returned into the New Testament all the removed Gnostic gospels related to other disciples.
When I checked it out at the library I was skeptical at first, but once I started reading it I could not put it down. In this translation Barnstone restores the original names and places in the NT to Hebrew and this brings a new comprehension and feeling to the teachings of Jesus and his disciples. One that reveals how they were not English, Greek or Roman but Jews. To have removed the Jewish flavor from the bible when it was originally translated by St. Jerome was a major mistake. Possibly one the many reasons that reinforced a perception that Jesus was somehow not Jewish but "Christian". A word not even used by him in any of the 4 gospels.
Restoring all the Hebrew brings Jesus teaching alive in a new way that is hard to explain. One can begin to see clearly how Jesus was really a revolutionary Jew who sought not to create a new religion called Christianity, but to restore a degenerated Judaism, or to restore simply his truth of God. If you read the additional chapters by the author and the footnotes, it is easy to see that this translation is probably, aside from its sources issues, one of the most accurate in english today. A monumental work that should be read by everyone who loves the teachings of Yeshua.
I cannot reccomend it enough. I would give it 6 stars also if I could.

Willis Barnstone aimed high with this volume and exceeded the mark. This new translation is a towering achievement. In restoring Hebrew personal and place names, he gives us a sense of continuity between the old and the new, and rightfully places the lives of Jesus, Paul, Peter, John and the many other figures in their proper context as 1st century Jews. In viewing the words of Jesus as blank verse, he unveils a poetic beauty that adds to the spiritual beauty of the lessons. Finally, his commentary and notes are extraordinary. If I could give this bookThe Restored New Testament: A New Translation with Commentary, Including the Gnostic Gospels Thomas, Mary, and Judas six stars, I would.

Historically, bibles were the most important of books. They transmitted family histories, served as the foundation for the oaths of office and inspired much world literature. Special as such, they were illuminated and bound in leather, gold, and jewels to denote their preciousness.

Publishing today is about ephemera, that driven by PR, briefly sell and then sink below memory, just junk food for the mind. Along comes the simply bound, but astonishingly beautiful Barnstone translation, that rightfully should be printed on vellum and bound in leather and rubies.

Thoughtful, gracious, careful, meaningful, and fulfilling are some of the appropriate descriptive adjectives that come to mind. Each page is richly satisfying, without being cloying, obtuse, or spicy.

The result is as striking as a Rembrandt that has had its historically yellowed, encrusted varnish gently removed, to reveal the exquisite detail, lucid transparency, and dazzling radiance of the original work.

The Restored New Testament is a remarkable book.

While familiar with the NIV, the RSB, the ASV, the New KJV, and the Amplified Bible, the newer translations can seem tamed down and less 'Jewish'. I find that the restoration of the Jewish names and geographical locations is salt that transforms this book into a vibrant been there, are there translation. I appreciated the indepth lexicographical changes that reflect the political and cultural climate simply.

When Jesus becomes Yeshuda, the Jordan becomes Yarden, John becomes Johanan, and Mark becomes Markos, the text jumps off the page. I cannot explain that once the Holy Spirit grabs hold of this, this becomes an enriching experience.

The inclusion of the four gnostic gospels, and the re-organziation of the gospels (sequence) casts new light on what the New Testament is.

Think this is just another tranlsation, you would be wrong.

The Holy Spirit is bursting out of this.

Tim Lasiuta

The Barnstone Restored New Testament includes fascinating, accessible background information and commentary and is so much more than just another translation. I very much recommend reading all of the introductory material and commentary. I'm a Christian and I've read the New Testament more than a few times in various languages and translations at different times in my life. The Barnstone translations are a joy for me to read because they cast refreshingly new light on the early records about Jesus/Yeshua and his students. The translations challenge me with a richer understanding of the New Testament's letters and gospel stories when I ask myself "What would Jesus want me to do?"

This is one of the most awe inspiring versions of the New Testament that I have ever read. Not only does it answer the questions I have always had and couldn't find answers to, it has set my feet on a new path of discovery. Thank you!

This major work serves at several levels: as a translation of the New Testament plus the gospels of Thomas, Mary and Judas into contemporary American English; as a study in itself of the scriptures covered and a pointer to further study of the ancient writings and many scholarly studies referenced; and as an exposition of Barnstone's views on aspects of biblical translation, not least what, if anything, can or should be done about the pro-Roman anti-Jewish whitewash that he perceives in much of the New Testament as we have it.

I am not qualified to comment on the accuracy of the translation, but the fact that the great majority of the text is closely similar in structure and conveyed meaning to that of most other translations from Tyndale onwards confers confidence. Barnstone does not introduce much modern idiom. Where he makes a word choice that might be regarded as controversial - "the darkness could not apprehend/comprehend it"; "If I speak in the tongue of men and angels But have no love/charity" - all aspects of the issue are fully discussed and become in themselves an occasion for constructive reflection on the part of the reader.

Requiring much more mental agility on the reader's part is Barnstone's decision to use the Hebrew/Greek/Latin form of virtually all proper names in accordance with how they would have been used at the time. Thus we read throughout the translation not of Jesus Christ but Yeshua the Mashiah, of his mother Miriam, the place of his birth as Beit Lehem, and his place of death Yerushalayim. So far, so good, you might think, but when it comes to the prophets Yeshayahu (Isaiah) Yirmayahu (Jeremiah) and others, a glance at the relevant footnote or the appended glossary is likely to be necessary almost every time.

The decision to use the (predominantly Hebrew) original names is in accordance with Barnstone's desire to overcome in as much as he can the appropriation of the Christian story by a much later and much more western culture. As he sees it, in the interests of their personal survival and the propagation of the faith, the gospel writers and their later redactors slanted the story in favour of imperial Roman power and against "the Jews" (even though Jesus, his disciples, the apostles and virtually all the early Christians were Jews). When further translation was made into English and other vernacular languages, names were removed yet further from their original (to Peter, James, John, etc.) and the story still further from the original participants. He writes at great length about these matters, and with impressive erudition. Whether or not persuaded that it is helpful at this stage to re-adopt the original nomenclature, the reader will certainly finish the book with a very full perspective of the issues, informed with much detail on matters such as the standpoint of the Pharisees relative to the Sadducees (and Rome), the savagery of the Roman occupation of Palestine, and much, much more.

Rich in attention to detail, historical accuracy and contextualization. This book is a work of love that resets the New Testament into its Judaic origins, and what likely did and did not happen. The cultural practice of circumcision created a major impediment to messianic Judaism's (later Christianity's) spread to Hellenistic civilizations. The mental gymnastics conveyed in the writing of Paul are astonishing, and probably for obvious practical reasons. It's not light reading, but its faithfulness is profound and it puts new light on an oft told story that has affected us for 2000 years.

Having enjoyed Robert Alter's scholarly yet beautiful versions of the Five Books of Moses, The David Story and The Wisdom Books, it's become clear that we need something similar done for the New Testament. The King James version is beautifully written, but it is in a language now 500 years old. We need a new version that offers the beauty and the historical context to understand what is happening. Willis Barnstone's The Restored New Testament may be that book.

Barnstone, a poet and translator, offers a more beautiful text than many scholarly translations (for example, the Jesus Seminar translation of the Complete Gospels). His numerous footnotes and essays are also very helpful in understanding the historical context of the various books of the New Testament.

Oddly, though, he renders Jesus' speeches, Paul's letters and other books into loose blank verse. The justification for that - other than he felt like it - is a mystery to me. I'm pretty sure the original documents were not in a rhythmic form used by the Greeks or Israelis of the time. (Parts of the Gospel of John are in verse, however.) Just because prose is beautiful doesn't mean it should be translated into verse.

Then there is the naming he chooses to use, which is confusing. Barnstone uses Jesus' Hebrew name, Yeshua throughout the book. (Jesus comes from the Greek Ieosus, which comes from the Hebrew Yeshua - which is normally translated as Joshua. Oh my!) I understand Barnstone's intent: One of his continuing themes is that over time the books of the New Testament took on an increasing anti-Semitic tone -- compare the gospels of Mark and John - as the early Christians tried to distance themselves from the Jewish religion - and align themselves with Rome and the Roman empire. Barnstone argues that first and second century Christians starting using the Greek names to minimize the Jewishness of Jesus. He uses the Jewish names to put Jesus back in historical context.

It's also sometimes confusing whether Barnstone is trying to be true to the Greek original that he is translating, or the Hebrew underlying it historically. For example, Barnstone uses Greek and Aramic words (for which we have English equivalents) rather indiscriminately. "Messiah" becomes the Hebrew "Mashiah." "Amen" becomes "Amain." "All mighty" becomes the Greek "pantokrator." Why are these terms singled out for this treatment? I'm not sure I understand.

These are rather minor quibbles. Overall, this is an outstanding and useful book (thus I rated it highly). Alter's translations from the Jewish holy books have raised the bar and Barnstone's translation is the best and most thoroughly researched of all the translations I've read. The King James Version is, obviously, the standard for all English translations in terms of beauty and scope. But if you are seeking a version that provides the context along with beauty, Barnstone's is the best I've read. Be forewarned: This may not be the book for those who are religiously conservative or traditional.