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God’s New Covenant
Entitle, “God’s New Covenant,” Cassirer’s New Testament was translated by Heinz W. Cassirer, a Jewish philosopher who had not read any part of the Bible before he was forty-nine years old. The experience of discovering these texts was so great that he spent the next twenty-one years studying them. This translation is the result of the need for personal clarity and the meaning of the New Testament texts.
He began his work on the letters of Paul in 1957. It wasn't until 1972 that he began translating the New Testament in its entirety. He aimed for clarity that would be sensitive to every inflection of the original Greek. His style is probing rather than a watering down. Although he didn't want his work to be a paraphrase, he did draw out a meaning with greater spiritual accuracy, if warranted.
Cassirer had a tough time with the Gospel of John. The decision to translate the New Testament came only when he was satisfied that the passages that had long fueled anti-Semitic reactions had been disastrously distorted and misinterpreted over the centuries and were not in themselves anti-Semitic. He later advocated its essentially Jewish character.
Old Testament quotations are in bolder typeface. References are at the bottom of pages. Many of these were found in the Greek New Testament texts and Old Testament texts that he used.
Since he had no interest in publishing his work, this was not done until after his death. Never a best seller, his translation is no longer in print, but you may be able to purchase a copy used from an Amazon.com bookseller.
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