SCOT McKNIGHT

the Second TESTAMENT

A NEW TRANSLATION

An imprint of InterVarsity Press

Downers Grove, Illinois

InterVarsity Press

P.O. Box 1400 | Downers Grove, IL 60515-1426

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©2023 by Scot McKnight

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All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are translated by the author.

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Cover design and image composite: David Fassett

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ISBN 978-0-8308-4700-6 (digital)

ISBN 978-0-8308-4699-3 (print)

CONTENTS

Preface

The Gospel of Matthew

The Gospel of Mark

The Gospel of Luke

The Gospel of John

The Acts of the Apostles

To the Romans

The First Letter to Corinth

The Second Letter to Corinth

To the Galatians

To the Ephesians

To the Philippians

To the Colossians

The First Letter to the Thessalonians

The Second Letter to the Thessalonians

The First Letter to Timothy

The Second Letter to Timothy

To Titus

To Philemon

To the Hebrews

The Letter of James

The First Letter of Peter

The Second Letter of Peter

The First Letter of John

The Second Letter of John

The Third Letter of John

The Letter of Jude

The Apocalypse of John

Glossary

PREFACE

A wonderful problem with translating the Bible, in my case only The Second (or New) Testament, is familiarity. Everyone’s got a Bible, and everyone’s also got an opinion of how it should sound or read, even when someone has no knowledge of the original languages. What sounds familiar and right in English might not sound like the Greek text itself at all, and when we translate into English, we can do a disservice to the original language and authors. This translation will do its best to make the text sound more like the Greek original, and sometimes it will not sound all that English-y. As such, “The Second Testament” is unlike any translation you have seen. Most translations take the original and convert it to something as close to English as possible. Most do this well, so well, in fact, that an alternative can be useful. My goal is to help English readers experience what the Greek reader experiences in reading the New Testament in Greek. If The Second Testament feels awkward and choppy and crunchy it is because the Greek feels that way. This translation is not correcting other translations but providing a supplement to our many fine translations.

Most of our translations are concerned with what the original text means in modern English, and they should be. But the moment we are most concerned with what the text means in our world, we shift into interpretation and into what makes most sense in English—that is, with natural, dynamic equivalents. Take 1 Petros (1 Peter) 1:13. Here are ...