This translation of the New Testament attempts to deepen the reader's understanding of the Bible, by seeking a way between the strictly literal and contemporary idiom, so that something of the spirit working in the early Church can become part of the reader's modern experience. The translator was inspired both by sacramental language used in his works as a priest and by Emil Bock's translation of the Gospels into German. Madsen, like Bock is convinced that the living wisdom of the Gospels needs uncovering. He seeks to recover the overtones and subtleties of the ancient language to bring out the hidden depths of meaning.
