Sarah Ruden
Author of Paul Among the People: The Apostle Reinterpreted and Reimagined in His Own Time
About the Author
Sarah Ruden was educated at the University of Michigan, Johns Hopkins, and Harvard. She has translated five books of classical literature, among them The Aeneid, and is the author of Other Places, a book of poetry. She is a visiting Scholar at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, where show more she lives. show less
Image credit: Wesleyan University
Works by Sarah Ruden
Paul Among the People: The Apostle Reinterpreted and Reimagined in His Own Time (2011) 327 copies, 26 reviews
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Ruden, Sarah
- Legal name
- Ruden, Sarah Elizabeth
- Birthdate
- 1962
- Gender
- female
- Education
- Harvard University (Ph.D)
The Johns Hopkins University (MA)
University of Michigan (Ph.D) - Occupations
- poet
translator
essayist - Organizations
- University of Pennsylvania
- Awards and honors
- Central News Agency Literary Award (1996)
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Ohio, USA
- Associated Place (for map)
- Ohio, USA
Members
Discussions
[Paul Among the People] by Sarah Ruden in Christianity (December 2011)
Reviews
This is an EXCITING addition to Pauline studies. And it is a MUST read for anyone who has ever grumbled at this man--although I must admit, I left that class of people once I actually read his letters. Of course, scholars and non-scholars alike quibble over who wrote what and when....
Sarah Ruden (a Quaker! Who knew?) brings a new dimension to understanding the times in which Paul wrote, which I find key in understanding any book by any author. Whether Biblical scholars will embrace her as I show more have...yet to be determined. I will be talking about this book for months to come. Now back to reading.... :-)
Ruden takes on the poor translative quality of the KJV. Hatred should rather be translated as hostilities. Variance meant not dissention and dispute, but rather merciless competition.
Emulation: not imitations, but selfish rivalries.
Wrath: strife and sedition are too mild, instead think explosive shows of fury.
And etc. It is almost as though the translators were afraid of the high feelings expressed. Hmmm.
The stories Ruden recounts to support her arguments as to who Paul was and why he used the language he did make one wish to reconsider the value of a classics education!
True liberty ~vs~ self indulgence
Love, service ~vs~ flesh
Love, law ~vs~ tearing one another to pieces
Spirit ~vs~ flesh
Christ ~vs~ flesh, affections, and lusts (I.e. Passions & self indulgence)
Spirit ~vs~ egotism, resentment
Instead of trying to read excuses into Paul's letter to the Romans, which has been used as a flail against homosexuality for centuries, if not millennia, Ruden once again carries us to the society in which Paul lived. Not necessarily Jewish, certainly not Christian, but Roman and before that, Greek). To hear Ruden, we worry more for our young innocent boys than ever our daughters!
"Paul's Roman audience knew what justice was, if only through missing it. ...Christ, the only Son of God, gave his body to save mankind What greater contrast could there be to the tradition of using a weaker body for selfish pleasure or a power trip?" (71). show less
Sarah Ruden (a Quaker! Who knew?) brings a new dimension to understanding the times in which Paul wrote, which I find key in understanding any book by any author. Whether Biblical scholars will embrace her as I show more have...yet to be determined. I will be talking about this book for months to come. Now back to reading.... :-)
Ruden takes on the poor translative quality of the KJV. Hatred should rather be translated as hostilities. Variance meant not dissention and dispute, but rather merciless competition.
Emulation: not imitations, but selfish rivalries.
Wrath: strife and sedition are too mild, instead think explosive shows of fury.
And etc. It is almost as though the translators were afraid of the high feelings expressed. Hmmm.
The stories Ruden recounts to support her arguments as to who Paul was and why he used the language he did make one wish to reconsider the value of a classics education!
True liberty ~vs~ self indulgence
Love, service ~vs~ flesh
Love, law ~vs~ tearing one another to pieces
Spirit ~vs~ flesh
Christ ~vs~ flesh, affections, and lusts (I.e. Passions & self indulgence)
Spirit ~vs~ egotism, resentment
Instead of trying to read excuses into Paul's letter to the Romans, which has been used as a flail against homosexuality for centuries, if not millennia, Ruden once again carries us to the society in which Paul lived. Not necessarily Jewish, certainly not Christian, but Roman and before that, Greek). To hear Ruden, we worry more for our young innocent boys than ever our daughters!
"Paul's Roman audience knew what justice was, if only through missing it. ...Christ, the only Son of God, gave his body to save mankind What greater contrast could there be to the tradition of using a weaker body for selfish pleasure or a power trip?" (71). show less
This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.
Seven Ways of Looking at a Misogynist*
A review of the NetGalley eBook ARC of the Liveright hardcover/ebook/audiobook (to be published March 3, 2026).
I've been both backtracking and following the ongoing work of translator Sarah Ruden, a self-described Classical philologist, since reading her translation of [book:The Gospels: A New Translation|54312363] (2021). That work has expanded recently into biographies for the Yale University Press's Ancient Lives series (e.g. Vergil (2023) & Perpetua show more (2025)) and now into social commentary with this new work Reproductive Wrongs.
For this study, Ruden takes a look at the historical basis for the policing of women's reproductive rights and points to 7 documents / books written over a two-thousand-year span as epitomizing or promoting that control. Some of the choices are to be expected, some are a total surprise and some others might be viewed as being rather obscure. But each of them to have a part to play in the overall scheme of things. The focus is on Classical Western writing as that is admittedly Ruden's area of expertise.
The 7 documents / books are as follows:
1. Satire VI aka "Against Women" from [book:The Sixteen Satires|132873] by [author:Juvenal|5838650] (c. 55 to 138 AD)
2. The Pastoral Epistles aka Timothy I & II and Titus from The New Testament in [book:The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (with Cross-References): Old and New Testaments|219428348] attributed to [author:Paul the Apostle|20483201] (c. 5 to c. 64/65 AD) but likely written after his death by someone else.
3. [book:The City of God|900967] (426 AD) by [author:Augustine of Hippo|6819578] (354 to 430 AD).
4. [book:The Malleus Maleficarum|771091] aka [book:The Hammer of Witches: A Complete Translation of the Malleus Maleficarum|6196797] (1485) by [author:Heinrich Kramer|593042] (1429-1504).
5. [book:The Chimes|2452383] (1844) by [author:Charles Dickens|239579] (1812-1870).
6. [book:Radiant Motherhood|22974595] (1920) by [author:Marie Stopes|153736] (1880-1958).
7. [book:Gianna: Aborted, and Lived to Tell about It|9431768] (1995) by [author:Jessica Shaver Renshaw|514964] (?) and [author:Gianna Jessen|4389466] (1977-).
The Augustan poet Juvenal leads the way with his Satire VI Against Women. The Bible's Pastoral Epistles begin Christianity's female subjugation. The late-in-life repudiation of women by Augustine advocates for celibacy. The mediaeval Hammer of Witches sets the pattern for the persecution and torture of independently thinking wives and midwives. Charles Dickens and his "magical waif" philosophy propagandizes multiple child production regardless of economic circumstances. Stopes' Radiant Motherhood disguises an agenda driven by selective eugenics. The biography of abortion survivor Gianna Jessen acts as a banner for the anti-choice movement.
I am admittedly biased about Ruden's writing, but I found this to be a fascinating and revelatory overview. Many may point to omissions of other major classical misogynist texts, but you have to draw the line somewhere and the selection of these 7 as being significant is well thought out and researched.
Footnote
* My lede header is inspired by the subtitle / alternative title of Umberto Eco's [book:How to Spot a Fascist|53293285] which is "Eternal Fascism: Fourteen Ways of Looking at a Blackshirt." show less
A review of the NetGalley eBook ARC of the Liveright hardcover/ebook/audiobook (to be published March 3, 2026).
I've been both backtracking and following the ongoing work of translator Sarah Ruden, a self-described Classical philologist, since reading her translation of [book:The Gospels: A New Translation|54312363] (2021). That work has expanded recently into biographies for the Yale University Press's Ancient Lives series (e.g. Vergil (2023) & Perpetua show more (2025)) and now into social commentary with this new work Reproductive Wrongs.
For this study, Ruden takes a look at the historical basis for the policing of women's reproductive rights and points to 7 documents / books written over a two-thousand-year span as epitomizing or promoting that control. Some of the choices are to be expected, some are a total surprise and some others might be viewed as being rather obscure. But each of them to have a part to play in the overall scheme of things. The focus is on Classical Western writing as that is admittedly Ruden's area of expertise.
The 7 documents / books are as follows:
1. Satire VI aka "Against Women" from [book:The Sixteen Satires|132873] by [author:Juvenal|5838650] (c. 55 to 138 AD)
2. The Pastoral Epistles aka Timothy I & II and Titus from The New Testament in [book:The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (with Cross-References): Old and New Testaments|219428348] attributed to [author:Paul the Apostle|20483201] (c. 5 to c. 64/65 AD) but likely written after his death by someone else.
3. [book:The City of God|900967] (426 AD) by [author:Augustine of Hippo|6819578] (354 to 430 AD).
4. [book:The Malleus Maleficarum|771091] aka [book:The Hammer of Witches: A Complete Translation of the Malleus Maleficarum|6196797] (1485) by [author:Heinrich Kramer|593042] (1429-1504).
5. [book:The Chimes|2452383] (1844) by [author:Charles Dickens|239579] (1812-1870).
6. [book:Radiant Motherhood|22974595] (1920) by [author:Marie Stopes|153736] (1880-1958).
7. [book:Gianna: Aborted, and Lived to Tell about It|9431768] (1995) by [author:Jessica Shaver Renshaw|514964] (?) and [author:Gianna Jessen|4389466] (1977-).
The Augustan poet Juvenal leads the way with his Satire VI Against Women. The Bible's Pastoral Epistles begin Christianity's female subjugation. The late-in-life repudiation of women by Augustine advocates for celibacy. The mediaeval Hammer of Witches sets the pattern for the persecution and torture of independently thinking wives and midwives. Charles Dickens and his "magical waif" philosophy propagandizes multiple child production regardless of economic circumstances. Stopes' Radiant Motherhood disguises an agenda driven by selective eugenics. The biography of abortion survivor Gianna Jessen acts as a banner for the anti-choice movement.
I am admittedly biased about Ruden's writing, but I found this to be a fascinating and revelatory overview. Many may point to omissions of other major classical misogynist texts, but you have to draw the line somewhere and the selection of these 7 as being significant is well thought out and researched.
Footnote
* My lede header is inspired by the subtitle / alternative title of Umberto Eco's [book:How to Spot a Fascist|53293285] which is "Eternal Fascism: Fourteen Ways of Looking at a Blackshirt." show less
The history of suppressing women’s health practices goes back a very long way, and despite advances in diagnostics and care, is getting even worse in the USA. Sarah Ruden has assembled an ugly history of reproductive rights, called Reproductive Wrongs, to elaborate on the disaster that continues to unfold, for no reason at all - unless you count misogyny.
It is a most unusual kind of history, consisting of just seven chapters. It begins with Roman Empire times and Jesus. It moves to just a show more hundred years later and the founding of Christianity as anything but what Jesus taught. Then back to the Roman Empire for Augustine’s tortured teachings, and the spread of Christianity to the whole empire.
There is a jump to the time of Charles Dickens, where his child characters were always beautiful, innocent saintly beings. The world was a far better place for having more of them all the time, while the rest of humanity was miserable, misshapen and ugly. Then into the awful Eugenics era, where women’s inferiority was “scientifically” proven, and that message hammered into institutions by women themselves. And finally, in a chapter delightfully entitled “You Can Make This Stuff Up,” Ruden arrives at America in the 21st century, not much better off than the era right after the respect directly shown by Jesus, unless you count the deficit of medical advances now denied to women, which makes today far worse.
In Jesus’ time, he always respected women. He often had them at meetings, at their homes, and elsewhere. When he was crucified, seven of the eight who attended the event were women. Only a few decades after his death, men took over his name and launched a new religion called Christianity around it. Because they were starting from scratch, they could load it with all kinds of patriarchal rules, specifically and directly meant to repress the role of women in society. Barefoot, pregnant and in the kitchen, Ruden concludes, was an invention of this new religion. She says ”Christianity, after its initial wave of evangelism in the first century, had no room for such expansive and indulgent treatment of women” as Jesus demonstrated throughout his own life. It has been downhill from there.
Women were tolerated only to the extent they produced children. Men instructed them that this was the only way to salvation for their original sin. They had to pray all day, make babies and shut up. They were denied rights and compensation as widows (who could no longer produce babies), and denied justice at the hands of violent spouses. Roman pagan laws, Ruden says, were kinder. It is quite astonishing as how all this is laid out as actual doctrine. It is a mean, nasty religion that Ruden portrays.
The Dark Ages saw the Church surge, in both wealth and control. Witchcraft charges saw off more than a hundred thousand women, who were basically declared guilty when charged, because proof of innocence was made all but impossible. Then, and still today “I found a conviction that only a ban on abortion could force a corrupt and decadent society to return to strict morality based on the godly nuclear family.”
Slavery was the basis of the economy, and women were enslaved and made into machines to produce more slaves. They “had no more right to withhold their bodies, and their fertility, than cows do.”
Ruden reviews the literature of the era, (particularly the horribly misogynistic The Pastoral Epistles) including portions of the bible, showing twisted and neurotic if not psychotic men adding to official Church doctrine in nonsensical chapters, verses and whole books detailing the perils of the very existence of women in society and how they must be controlled; neither seen nor heard. Jesus would be less than thrilled, particularly that all this was being done in his name.
The rationalization against abortion continues to grow farther and farther away from Jesus’ teachings. Ruden says in today’s USA, “Abortion reduces respect for life and thus promotes other crimes and vices,” even to the point of blaming a mass shooting on abortion (in Maine). And the flock will believe it is the word of God.
The latest trend in the USA is so-called pregnancy centers, where women volunteers dress in scrubs to appear as nurses, which they are not. First, the fearful girl fills in a simple form, with items like next of kin. Then, while another volunteer counsels her, they use the form to immediately call the girl’s mother: “Did you know your daughter is pregnant?” I don’t think more need be said about that.
Women have been so brainwashed they actively subvert other women to produce more babies. And the country faces all manner of insanity like the Association of Abortion Survivors, and using children to block entry to abortion clinics.
There are several points where Ruden finds herself compelled to refer to Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, where the vision is both forward and backward-looking. Women who sought any kind of normal life had to be at least as vile, vicious and violent as the men in control, in order to stay near power themselves. It is the worst kind of self-policing, and it is normalized today in the USA. But when the choice is power or slavery…
Ruden herself came to this from an odd angle. She is a classicist. She has spent her life researching, writing about and translating classic texts and poetry. Quakers, she says, are her religious community. But she found so much in the way of hypocrisy and viciously wrong turns in the documents she was handling, she felt she had had to weigh in with her research and help set the record straight. And then in 2024, Republicans swarmed Quaker communities to get them to vote for the first time ever, solely based on the word abortion. Hence this book.
She was particularly alarmed at the prohibition on abortions for crisis pregnancies. It doubles down and goes the other direction, instructing doctors to reattach dead and dying fetuses from ectopic pregnancies back into the uterine wall, where they rot and cause sepsis, possibly killing the mother, for example. Dealing death to women for the crime of a failing pregnancy is madness, no matter how much God loves little children everywhere.
The book is therefore unusual, relatable, pop cultural, and damning. It is in no way a feminist creed, but an eyes-wide-open history. Readers will likely retain the psychotic madness of numerous revered writers like Augustine, Tertullian and Kramer. They are the cornerstones of oppression, not God.
David Wineberg show less
It is a most unusual kind of history, consisting of just seven chapters. It begins with Roman Empire times and Jesus. It moves to just a show more hundred years later and the founding of Christianity as anything but what Jesus taught. Then back to the Roman Empire for Augustine’s tortured teachings, and the spread of Christianity to the whole empire.
There is a jump to the time of Charles Dickens, where his child characters were always beautiful, innocent saintly beings. The world was a far better place for having more of them all the time, while the rest of humanity was miserable, misshapen and ugly. Then into the awful Eugenics era, where women’s inferiority was “scientifically” proven, and that message hammered into institutions by women themselves. And finally, in a chapter delightfully entitled “You Can Make This Stuff Up,” Ruden arrives at America in the 21st century, not much better off than the era right after the respect directly shown by Jesus, unless you count the deficit of medical advances now denied to women, which makes today far worse.
In Jesus’ time, he always respected women. He often had them at meetings, at their homes, and elsewhere. When he was crucified, seven of the eight who attended the event were women. Only a few decades after his death, men took over his name and launched a new religion called Christianity around it. Because they were starting from scratch, they could load it with all kinds of patriarchal rules, specifically and directly meant to repress the role of women in society. Barefoot, pregnant and in the kitchen, Ruden concludes, was an invention of this new religion. She says ”Christianity, after its initial wave of evangelism in the first century, had no room for such expansive and indulgent treatment of women” as Jesus demonstrated throughout his own life. It has been downhill from there.
Women were tolerated only to the extent they produced children. Men instructed them that this was the only way to salvation for their original sin. They had to pray all day, make babies and shut up. They were denied rights and compensation as widows (who could no longer produce babies), and denied justice at the hands of violent spouses. Roman pagan laws, Ruden says, were kinder. It is quite astonishing as how all this is laid out as actual doctrine. It is a mean, nasty religion that Ruden portrays.
The Dark Ages saw the Church surge, in both wealth and control. Witchcraft charges saw off more than a hundred thousand women, who were basically declared guilty when charged, because proof of innocence was made all but impossible. Then, and still today “I found a conviction that only a ban on abortion could force a corrupt and decadent society to return to strict morality based on the godly nuclear family.”
Slavery was the basis of the economy, and women were enslaved and made into machines to produce more slaves. They “had no more right to withhold their bodies, and their fertility, than cows do.”
Ruden reviews the literature of the era, (particularly the horribly misogynistic The Pastoral Epistles) including portions of the bible, showing twisted and neurotic if not psychotic men adding to official Church doctrine in nonsensical chapters, verses and whole books detailing the perils of the very existence of women in society and how they must be controlled; neither seen nor heard. Jesus would be less than thrilled, particularly that all this was being done in his name.
The rationalization against abortion continues to grow farther and farther away from Jesus’ teachings. Ruden says in today’s USA, “Abortion reduces respect for life and thus promotes other crimes and vices,” even to the point of blaming a mass shooting on abortion (in Maine). And the flock will believe it is the word of God.
The latest trend in the USA is so-called pregnancy centers, where women volunteers dress in scrubs to appear as nurses, which they are not. First, the fearful girl fills in a simple form, with items like next of kin. Then, while another volunteer counsels her, they use the form to immediately call the girl’s mother: “Did you know your daughter is pregnant?” I don’t think more need be said about that.
Women have been so brainwashed they actively subvert other women to produce more babies. And the country faces all manner of insanity like the Association of Abortion Survivors, and using children to block entry to abortion clinics.
There are several points where Ruden finds herself compelled to refer to Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, where the vision is both forward and backward-looking. Women who sought any kind of normal life had to be at least as vile, vicious and violent as the men in control, in order to stay near power themselves. It is the worst kind of self-policing, and it is normalized today in the USA. But when the choice is power or slavery…
Ruden herself came to this from an odd angle. She is a classicist. She has spent her life researching, writing about and translating classic texts and poetry. Quakers, she says, are her religious community. But she found so much in the way of hypocrisy and viciously wrong turns in the documents she was handling, she felt she had had to weigh in with her research and help set the record straight. And then in 2024, Republicans swarmed Quaker communities to get them to vote for the first time ever, solely based on the word abortion. Hence this book.
She was particularly alarmed at the prohibition on abortions for crisis pregnancies. It doubles down and goes the other direction, instructing doctors to reattach dead and dying fetuses from ectopic pregnancies back into the uterine wall, where they rot and cause sepsis, possibly killing the mother, for example. Dealing death to women for the crime of a failing pregnancy is madness, no matter how much God loves little children everywhere.
The book is therefore unusual, relatable, pop cultural, and damning. It is in no way a feminist creed, but an eyes-wide-open history. Readers will likely retain the psychotic madness of numerous revered writers like Augustine, Tertullian and Kramer. They are the cornerstones of oppression, not God.
David Wineberg show less
Stunned almost beyond [the] capacity to be stunned
Review of the Modern Library hardcover edition (2021) translated from the Koine Greek of the Novum Testamentum Graece (Greek New Testament) (Nestle-Aland 28th edition 2012) based on the original manuscripts (70-110 CE) first published 382 CE
My lede is perhaps overly dramatic, but I couldn't resist adapting this new Mark 5:42 translation to introduce this very readable new translation of the 4 Evangelist Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) show more from the New Testament of the Bible. That verse was the first point* in the book where the language used definitely reinforced the idea that I was reading a 21st Century translation. For comparison:
Overall, I wouldn’t say that there was anything shocking about this translation, but very rarely some 21st century phrasing did make me sit up and pay close attention. This was especially so in John 19:5 and Matthew 22:50:
The use of "guy" and "pal", instead of the commonly known "man" and "friend", is explained by Ruden in her notes, which distinguish the levels of contempt or distance from a person in various Koine Greek phrasings.
Overall this was a fascinating reading experience and was especially user friendly compared to most Bible publications with their cramped two columns per page design. Ruden’s The Gospels is printed with regular one-column pages and with copious footnotes at the bottom of each, to avoid the annoyance of having to constantly flip to the back of the book.
I am looking forward to seeking out further translations by Sarah Ruden, of which there are several.
*Ruden's translation gives the Gospels in the order of their most likely historical date of writing, so it is Mark, Matthew, Luke and John (actually given here as Markos, Maththaios, Loukas and Iōannēs) rather than the conventional order of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
Trivia and Link
You can see the Novum Testamentum Graece (Nestle-Aland 28th edition 2012) online at Academic Bible. It is mostly not translatable by online translators due to the archaic nature of most of the Koine Greek words. show less
Review of the Modern Library hardcover edition (2021) translated from the Koine Greek of the Novum Testamentum Graece (Greek New Testament) (Nestle-Aland 28th edition 2012) based on the original manuscripts (70-110 CE) first published 382 CE
My lede is perhaps overly dramatic, but I couldn't resist adapting this new Mark 5:42 translation to introduce this very readable new translation of the 4 Evangelist Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) show more from the New Testament of the Bible. That verse was the first point* in the book where the language used definitely reinforced the idea that I was reading a 21st Century translation. For comparison:
καὶ εὐθὺς ἀνέστη τὸ κοράσιον καὶ περιεπάτει· ἦν γὰρ ἐτῶν δώδεκα. καὶ ἐξέστησαν [εὐθὺς] ἐκστάσει μεγάλῃ. - Mark 5:42, Novum Testamentum Graece (NA28 - 2012)Ruden’s translation with its occasional 21st century vernacular has the curious effect of bringing us closer to the original text but at the same time making it newly strange and different. The ‘newly strange’ effect is from transliterating the Koine Greek, but not ‘translating’ the Aramaic, Greek and Roman personal and placenames, but rather leaving them as they are given. The occasional Aramaic word or phrase is also left as is (but explained in the generous footnotes). So you have to adapt to regularly seeing Iēsous for Jesus, Galilaia for Galilee, Pilatos for Pilate, etc. I’m only giving a few examples, but there are usually dozens on every page.
And straightway the damsel arose, and walked; for she was of the age of twelve years. And they were astonished with a great astonishment. - Mark 5:42 King James Version (1611)
Immediately the girl stood up and began to walk around (she was twelve years old). At this they were completely astonished. - Mark 5:42 New International Version (1978)
And right away the little girl stood up and walked around; she was twelve years old. Then [right away] they were stunned almost beyond their capacity to be stunned. - Mark 5:42 Sarah Ruden Version (2021)
Overall, I wouldn’t say that there was anything shocking about this translation, but very rarely some 21st century phrasing did make me sit up and pay close attention. This was especially so in John 19:5 and Matthew 22:50:
Then came Jesus forth, wearing the crown of thorns, and the purple robe. And Pilate saith unto them, Behold the man! - John 19:5, King James Version
When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, "Here is the man!" - John 19:5, New International Version
So Iēsous came outside again, wearing the thorny garland and the purple robe. And Pilatos said to them, “Look at this guy.” - John 19:5, Sarah Ruden Version
And Jesus said unto him, Friend, wherefore art thou come? Then came they, and laid hands on Jesus and took him. - Matthew 26:50, King James Version
Jesus replied, "Do what you came for, friend." Then the men stepped forward, seized Jesus and arrested him. - Matthew 26:50, New International Version
But Iēsous said to him, “Do what you came for, pal.” Then they came up to Iēsous, laid hands on him, and took hold of him. - Matthew 26:50, Sarah Ruden Version
The use of "guy" and "pal", instead of the commonly known "man" and "friend", is explained by Ruden in her notes, which distinguish the levels of contempt or distance from a person in various Koine Greek phrasings.
Overall this was a fascinating reading experience and was especially user friendly compared to most Bible publications with their cramped two columns per page design. Ruden’s The Gospels is printed with regular one-column pages and with copious footnotes at the bottom of each, to avoid the annoyance of having to constantly flip to the back of the book.
I am looking forward to seeking out further translations by Sarah Ruden, of which there are several.
*Ruden's translation gives the Gospels in the order of their most likely historical date of writing, so it is Mark, Matthew, Luke and John (actually given here as Markos, Maththaios, Loukas and Iōannēs) rather than the conventional order of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
Trivia and Link
You can see the Novum Testamentum Graece (Nestle-Aland 28th edition 2012) online at Academic Bible. It is mostly not translatable by online translators due to the archaic nature of most of the Koine Greek words. show less
Awards
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 9
- Also by
- 4
- Members
- 765
- Popularity
- #33,260
- Rating
- 3.9
- Reviews
- 43
- ISBNs
- 31
- Languages
- 2
