Andy Gaus

Andy Gaus (born 1946) is a translator and author, known for his 1991 work The Unvarnished New Testament.^[1][2] Gaus is also active in musical theater and has written music for several operas, revues, and musicals.^[3]

Unvarnished series

In 1988 Gaus released The Unvarnished Gospels, which led into the 1991 release of The Unvarnished New Testament, which he made in an attempt to render the New Testament in more simple and straightforward modern spech than other Modern English Bible translations.^[2] In addition to simpler sentence structure, Gaus also chose to translate a number of words that are important in Christian theology using words that are more commonplace and familiar (such as "doing wrong" for the more traditional word "sin").

The Unvarnished New Testament received criticism from William E. Paul and Robert Bratcher, the former of which stated that "There are places where it seems the translator misunderstood the Greek text... The Glossary (493-508) has things new and old, some good, some worthless... I do not think this translation should be recommended".^[4] Phillip Goodwin was highly critical of the translation in his 2013 book Translating the English Bible: From Relevance to Deconstruction, writing that Gaus "does not explain to us on what theoretical basis he has approached the work". He further commented that the claims that "what Gaus has done is to translate the Greek as if the nearly two thousand years of Christian history had not occurred" were invalid, as Goodwin felt that this would be an impossible task for any author.^[2]

Bibliography

As author

• The Unvarnished Gospels (1988)
• The Unvarnished New Testament (1991)^[4][5][6]
• Lessons In Governing: The Inseparable Relationship Between God, Man and Government (2011, with Peter Lawrence Alexander)

As translator

• Requiem for a Woman, and Selected Lyric Poems (1981, Rainer Maria Rilke)
• Max and Moritz and Other Bad-Boy Stories and Tricks (2003, Wilhelm Busch)^[7]

Theater

• Gabriela (1983)^[8]
• I Choose to Live Here in the City (1984, revue)^[9]
• Emma (1986, music)^[10]

References

1. The Quest, Volume 5. Theosophical Society in America. 1992. p. 291. Retrieved 21 December 2015.
2. Paul, William E. (2003-01-08). English Language Bible Translators. McFarland. pp. 87–88. ISBN 9780786442430.
3. Wildman, David (December 6, 1998). "New troupe stages Weill on the run". The Boston Globe (subscription required). Retrieved 2015-12-24.
4. Bratcher, Robert (1993). "Review: Unvarnished New Testament". The Bible Translator 44 (1): 147–149. Retrieved 20 December 2015.
5. Goodwin, Philip (2013-02-28). Translating the English Bible: From Relevance to Deconstruction. James Clarke & Co. p. 37. ISBN 9780227173916.
6. Esteves, Lenita Maria Rimoli. "Revelation or understanding: some ideas about the translation of religious texts". Trabalhos em Linguística Aplicada 50 (2): 235–256. doi:10.1590/S0103-18132011000200002. ISSN 0103-1813.
7. Wagner, Michael; McCurdy, Katherine (2010-11-01). "Poetic rhyme reflects cross-linguistic differences in information structure". Cognition 117 (2): 166–175. doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2010.08.007.
8. Rosenberg, Scott (January 18, 1983). "Just Desserts". The Boston Phoenix. Retrieved 2015-12-24.
9. Foster, Catherine. "Washington Squares: folk at the Rat; Picasso at Fogg; songs of city life; City life in song". Christian Science Monitor. ISSN 0882-7729. Retrieved 2015-12-24.
10. Goodman, Walter (1986-02-17). "STAGE: 'EMMA,' HOWARD ZINN'S TALE OF RADICALS". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2015-12-24.