During Dr Johnson’s conversations with a Quaker lady, Mrs Knowles, she mentioned an “amiable” young woman who had left the Church of England and joined the Society of Friends. At this Johnson “frowned angrily” and said, “Madam, she is an odious wench.” Moreover, she was ignorant. But, said Mrs Knowles, she had the New Testament before her. “Madam,” said the Great Cham, “she could not understand the New Testament, the most difficult book in the world, for which the study of a life is required.”
Johnson, whom Boswell often found poring over his large copy of the Greek New Testament, would appreciate this translation by David Bentley Hart, an American academic, philosopher and member of the Orthodox Church. It recognises the extreme difficulty of the texts that we all think we know, or understand, so well; and it frequently shocks us, as the sometimes clumsy, sometimes charming “Koine” – the vernacular Greek of the early eastern Mediterranean – of the original is able to do if we are lucky enough to be able to read it.
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