Orthodox New Testament

Reading from the Old Testament, Holy Gospels, Acts, Epistles and Revelation, our priests' and bishops' sermons, and commentary by the Church Fathers. All Forum Rules apply.
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IsaacDavid
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Post by IsaacDavid »

Orthodox Christian Books, based in Staffordshire, UK, can supply each volume for around £40.

gphadraig
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Post by gphadraig »

IsaacDavid, Thank you, Sir

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Post by IsaacDavid »

You are most welcome.

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Post by 尼古拉前执事 »

Justin Kissel wrote:

I agree with Nicholas, I think it's the best Orthodox Bible--and really the best Bible period--in the English language. I sometimes use the NKJV when quoting a lot online, but for a truly Orthodox rendering and commentary, that Bible is the place to go. Even the introductions are good reading for the Orthodox Christian, since they weren't afraid to speak as Orthodox Christians (whereas most Bibles try to appear "objective," and so they don't say much more than a bunch of technical, grammatical, and critical stuff.) As an example, they quote Saint John Chrysostom's lament about people in his time having a lack of knowledge of the Scriptures... it's stuff like that that helps you connect today's Scripture reading with the mind of the Church, because it opens you up into the past (and this is continued throughout the translation, especially in the footnotes, which contain many passages from the Church Fathers)

Here are some other reasons others have given for using this bible:

King James in the 1600's wanted to be named after an Aposlte. So, instead of
changing his own name to that of an Apostle, he decided to change the name
of an Apostle to his own. He took the name of the Apostle Iakovos, and told
his translators that when they translate the Gospels and the Epistles, to
change the name of the Apostle Iakovos and put his name instead. Therefore,
we read in all English versions the names of the Apostles Peter, JAMES, and
John. Also, the Epistle of the Apostle Iakovos is now wrongly translated as
the Epistle of the Apostle James. Iakov in the Greek is Jacob in English.
Iakovos is the greekicized, or Greek rendering, of Iakov. All three
Evangelists who wrote in Greek wrote the name of the Apostle as Iakovos,
which is different from Iakov, and therefore we are very justified when
translating the name Iakovos, by keeping it as Iakovos in English. The early
Greek translators of the Evangelist Matthew also used the word Iakovos.

Another example is in the Acts of the Apostles, Chapter 9, verses 4-6, where
St. Paul, on the road to Damascus, received the visitation of Christ, where
our Saviour asked him,

"Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me? And He said, "Who art Thou Lord?" And
the Lord said, "I am Jesus Whom thou persecutest; but rise up and enter into
the city, and it shall be told thee what is needful for thee to do."

This is the rendering in the Orthodox New Testament, which is according to
the Greek, and all known Greek codices, which means that this is exactly
what it says. There is no other authority than the Greek.

The translators of the King James Version, on the other hand, decided for
some erroneous reason, to take part of verse 14 of the 26th Chapter of Acts,
and insert it, on their own authority, here in Chapter 9, verse 4. So the
King James Version reads:

Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest:
it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. And he trembling and
astonished said, ‘Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?'
And the Lord said
unto him, ‘Arise and go into the city and it shall be told thee what thou
must do.

The Endnote in the Orthodox New Testament for this verse reads:

9:5. See Acts 22:10 and 26:14. Without the authority of a Greek codex, the
KJV adds, "It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. And he trembling
and astonished said, ‘Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?' And the Lord said
unto him, ‘Arise and go into the city...[Acts 9:5, 6].'" These additional
words are absent elsewhere [Uncials a A B C E; Ver. Vulg., Syr. Pesh., Sah.,
Boh., Armenian; Editions Constantinople, GLTTrAW, NBA, Tischendorf].

So we see that the words, "And he trembling and astonished said, ‘Lord, what
wilt Thou have me to do?'", came from nowhere.

Luke 2:22

KJV - And when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses
were accomplished, they brought him to Jerusalem, to present him to the
Lord;

ONT - And when the days of their purification according to the law of Moses
were fulfilled, they brought Him to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord;

2:22. “Their purification” (the Greek verse given) that is, of the Jews, and
not as the KJV erroneously translates, “her purification.” Saint Bede: “Now
the law commanded that a woman who had conceived and brought forth a male
child shall be unclean for seven days, and on the eighth day she was to
circumcise the infant [Lev. 12:2, 3]. And for another thirty-three days she
was to abstain from entry into the temple [Lev. 12:4] and marital relations,
until, on the fortieth day after the birth, she was to bring her son with
sacrificial offerings to the temple of the Lord [Lev. 12:6]. The firstborn
of all the male sex was to be called holy to the Lord. The Virgin did not
receive seed, but even as our Lord willed to be under the law, so that He
might redeem us [Gal. 4:4, 5], so too did the blessed Mother, who by a
singular privilege was above the law, nevertheless she did not shun being
made subject to the principles of the law for the sake of showing us an
example of humility.” [“Homily I.18, Feast of the Purification,” Homilies on
the Gospels, Bk. One, 179, 180.]

The Virgin needed no purification. If one would read the correct
translation, one would certainly understand that this is not referring to
the Virgin. The Virgin kept their days of purification, not hers.

We have taken great care in preserving the tenses and word order as much as
possible, which the King James Version does not. We have also endeavored to
be more accurate in the translation process, such as this passage indicates:

When Christ was asked by the Virgin Mary concerning the depletion of the
wine at the Marriage of Cana, John 2:4

KJV - Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is
not yet come.

ONT - Jesus saith to her, “What is it to Me and to thee, woman? My hour is
not yet come.”

The King James version makes Christ sound very disrespectful to His mother,
the Virgin Mary. For He Who made the Law, this is not possible, for we are
commanded to love and respect our parents. Further, the King James Version
changes the meaning of this passage from Holy Scripture. One can see this
in this small portion of the endnotes for this passage in the Orthodox New
Testament.

2:4a. “What is it to Me and to thee, woman?(The Greek verse given.)
Saint Gregory the Great: “At the marriage, when the Virgin Mother said that
wine was wanting, He replied, ‘What is it to Me and to thee, woman? My hour
is not yet come.’ For it was not that the Lord of the angels was subject to
the hour, having, among all things which He had created, made hours and
times; but, because the Virgin Mother, when wine was wanting, wished a
miracle to be done by Him, it was at once answered her,...as if to say
plainly, ‘That I can do a miracle comes to Me of My Father, not of My
Mother.’... [“Epistle XXXIX, to Eulogios, Patriarch of Alexandria,” Bk. X,
in Nicene, 2nd Ser., XIII:48.]

Saint Kyril of Alexandria: “It was not becoming that He should hasten, or
freely offer, to perform miracles....Things asked for are more gratefully
received....Here too Christ gives us an example that the greatest honor is
due to parents, since it is out of reverence for His Mother that He now
undertakes to do that which He had not yet desired to do.” [Hom. 22, P.G.
59:126, 127 (cols. 133, 134).]

2:5. Saint Kyril of Alexandria: “The Woman, having, as was fitting, great
weighty influence over the Lord, her Son, persuades Him to work a miracle.
She also prepares the way for it, bidding the waiters of the feast to be at
hand, and to have prepared that which the Lord will presently command.”
[Ib.]

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Post by 尼古拉前执事 »

The Orthodox New Testament is now available in a pocket-sized version too.

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Odd... Very Odd Indeed!

Post by Грешник »

According to review of the pocket sized ONT the pocket sized ONT was published by the EP?!

Reviewer: Peter A. Papoutsis (Tinley Park, Illinois United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)
The One-Volume Edition of the Famous Orthodox New Testament by Holy Apostles Convent is exceptional. I highly endorse this English translation of the Official Greek New Testament text as published and approved by the Patriarch of Constantinople for both private study and liturgical use in The Holy Orthodox Church. The English translation is beautiful and sublime. The cadence of its sentences with the accuracy of its English in its proper translation of the Greek is a great combination. More than any other English translation this is the ONLY english translation of the New Testament that should be used by every Orthodox Christian (It gets the energy words exactly right!). It is literally the Best English translation of the New Testament on the market, and probably the best one ever since the King James Version. I highly endorse and recommend the Orthodox New Testament one-volume edition. Axios!

Interesting.. Can anyone tell me if this might be true?

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Post by 尼古拉前执事 »

It is a translation from the Greek version of the Septuagint approved by the EP about 100 years ago. :-)

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