What Andy Gaus has accomplished (and brilliantly accomplished) in his new translation is to present the ideas, words, and context of the various books of the New Testament as they would have been perceived by most educated Greek readers in the third and fourth centuries. . .
To take just one example, Gaus correctly points out that the Greek word “hamartia” does not mean “sin” in the sense of a profound separation of human beings from God’s will and purposes. It is an archery term that simply means “to miss the target.”
However, I think Gaus misses the mark when he chooses to translate “pneuma” as “breath” instead of “Spirit.” It is true that “pneuma” can mean “breath”, but in the Septuagint the word is used widely to describe the Holy Spirit. For example, in Wisdom 9:17, the inspired author writes: “Who has known your advice if you do not give wisdom and send your Holy Spirit from on high?” Surely the author is not asking for God’s holy “breath”, but for his Holy Spirit.
However, while he still refers to his “original Greek,” the main problem that Gaus does not attempt to solve is that the original New Testament texts no longer exist. Gaus does not indicate which of the rival texts he has used, so he has presumably consulted Nestlé and the American Bible Society and other editions and reached a consensus. He has made no attempt to correct obvious errors on the part of editors and copyists (John 18:40, for example), nor does he explain what method, if any, he has applied to punctuation. (The original texts do not have any punctuation).
The result is certainly very legible. Even a bit controversial. But the reader who is eager to discover what the New Testament authors actually wrote will not find it here. For example, in John 18:18, Gaus writes that slaves and servants were standing around a coal fire and “Peter was there with them.” Now that’s not what John wrote at all. That is a “correction” made by copyists of the third and fourth centuries. In earlier manuscripts, John states that “Peter was lounging around with them.”
Gaus also does not attempt to complete the implied words. For example, in John 20:17, Jesus almost explicitly tells Mary that He “had not yet ascended to the Father” because He was waiting for her, which He obviously was, as He was eager for her to give him a message. He!
Altogether, Gaus has made the New Testament readable, but generally completely conventional.
