The NEW New Testament

 (New 2026 Swedish translation of the New Testament)

I mentioned in my post about the autumn street market, that the only purchase I made that day was not from the market stalls, but in the book shop. 

New Testament 2026
(new Swedish translation)

 

What I popped in there to ask for was a brand new Swedish translation of the New Testament; officially released this past week in connection with the an annual big Book Fair in Göteborg (Gothenburg). 

The Gbg Book Fair as such started in 1985, and has kept growing to nowadays being a huge event with around 80.000 visitors (40% professionals, 60% public) over a week or so. 

I know I visited the book fair once in the early years, together with a friend living in Gbg back then.  Must have been in the late 1980s or early 1990s. It seemed "big enough" then, but has grown a lot since. 

Anyway, one major "event within the event" this year was the release of a new Swedish translation of the New Testament - also celebrating 500 years since the publication of our very first translation of the New Testament into the Swedish language in 1526 (followed by the whole bible in 1541). 

That first Bible goes under the name of "King Gustav Vasa's Bible". Besides the importance for the church, it had a major impact on our language (especially spelling and grammar) for centuries to come. In 1703 a revision was made, named after King Karl XII. That one in turn was not replaced until 1917, when there was a new translation made directly from the original Hebrew and Greek (while the previous ones had been translated from Latin). 

The 1917 Bible was the one still used in my childhood and youth, even though the grammar in it was by then old fashioned, and quite hard for many young people to grasp. During my first six school years, Christianity was still the foundation in our schools in Sweden. Every school day was started by singing a psalm (there was a pump organ in each classroom, and teachers were supposed to be able to play it); and prayers were said before we went to have lunch in the school canteen. And the school subject was called Christianity rather than Religion. This changed the same year that I started "junior high" (year seven) - in a larger school in town rather than in the village where I lived. Morning assemblies then also became less religious, and the school subject was renamed Religion, including a broader spectrum of beliefs.

But that same year, on Saturday mornings, I attended confirmation classes in the village where I lived, and also a number of Sunday church services. (Before that, I had rarely ever been to church, as my parents weren't church-attenders.) Most of my old classmates took the same classes. The Church of Sweden was still State Church (and remained so until 2000) - which meant (among other things) that most of us were born members of the church, because so were our parents (whether active or not). - In connection with the confirmation in our early teens we were also each given a copy of the Bible; which was then still the 1917 edition. (By my grandmother I was also given a more modern translation of the New Testament from 1965, though - which was my first encounter with alternative translations.)

I might add that personally I never had all that much problem with the 1917 Bible, as I was also used to reading other old books with "dated" grammar. 

From my mid teens on I also got involved (via friends) in "free" church contexts, and along the way I also attended an international and interdenominational summer camp held in English, which gave me even more insight into comparing translations - even before we got an official new Swedish translation of the New Testament in 1981, and finally also a revised Old Testament in 2000.

Back to 2026: Even if nowadays not "active" in church context, I still wanted to add this new edition of the New Testament to my collection. So when passing the bookshop in town yesterday, I popped in to ask if they had it. In spite of quite a lot of fuss being made of it this week in the media, here in our local book shop it was (rather surprisingly) not on display at the front - but they did have some on a bottom shelf in an obscure corner at the back... (And the shop assistant who helped me dig it out, and completed the affair, waved me good-bye with a somewhat ambiguous "remains to be seen if they 'got it right' this time!"...)

As with most books these days, the print is rather small for me to read; so I'll probably actually be reading more of it online, where I can adjust the size. I still like to also have a hardback copy, though. 

I'm looking forward to see if anything special "stands out" to me. (One thing I like already is that they've added a short introduction to each book, explaining a bit of the historical context.) - But I suspect that as for famous quotes etc, it will probably still be the 1917 versions that stick in my memory - whether I like it or not! ;)

Luck vs Silver Lining - A Sequel

 This photo has been posted before on my blog here  (25 April 2025)

I ended yesterday's post with a question:

In Swedish we have a saying: "ha tur i oturen", meaning "to have good luck in the midst of bad luck"... I can't think of a corresponding common expression in English? If you can, please enlighten me!

I got several replies (thanks!) referring to the English quote about "clouds with a silver lining" - while no one seemed to have a different suggestion.

As perhaps not all readers are in the habit of going back to check replies to comments, I decided to put my "afterthoughts" in a separate post as well. 

I'm familiar with the saying "every cloud has a silver lining" in English since before. To me there is a slight difference in meaning between that and the Swedish expression about having "good luck in the midst of bad luck", but I suppose it's as close as we'll get in finding an equivalent :)  

The Swedish expression kind of involves a turn of events [i.e. first something bad happens; but after that, something good happens to at least partly kind of balance that out]; while to me the "silver lining" seems to be more about finding a brighter side to a dark situation.(?) 

I looked up the phrase "silver lining" in my copy of Wordsworth Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, and here is what they say:  

A silver lining. The prospect of better days, the promise of happier times. The Saying, Every cloud has a silver lining, is quite an old one; thus in Milton's Comus, the Lady lost in the wood resolves to hope on, and sees 'a sable cloud turn forth its silver lining to the night'.

Though outwardly a gloomy shroud
The inner half of every cloud
Is bright and shining;
I therefore turn my clouds about,
And always turn them inside out,
To show the lining.
Ellen Thorneycroft Fowler, The Wisdom of Folly

---

I also asked Google AI, which gave me the following summary:

A "silver lining" refers to a positive or hopeful aspect within a difficult or negative situation. It signifies finding something good, even when things seem bleak. The phrase often appears in the idiom "every cloud has a silver lining," suggesting that even in the worst circumstances, there's always a potential for something positive.

The phrase originates from a poetic image of clouds with a bright edge when the sun is behind them. This suggests that even when things are cloudy (bad), they can still have a bright, positive aspect. It's a metaphor for optimism and finding a reason to be hopeful, even when facing adversity. 

 
And Google AI's comment about the Swedish expression  "tur i oturen" goes something like this (translated from Swedish to English by me):

"Tur i oturen" is a Swedish expression describing a situation where something bad leads to something good. It's when an accident or adversity brings an unexpected positive result. For example: You miss a train, but because of that, you get the unexpected chance of meeting an interesting person. Or your flight gets delayed, but because of that you get upgraded to first class. 

I'm now thinking that perhaps a better translation to English of the Swedish expression would be "bad luck bringing good luck". However, this is not to be interpreted as something that always happens, or is always possible - it's only used when it happens.

Let’s Raise A Toast

It’s not been a great weekend for toast. I can only hope you had better luck with yours than I did with mine…

On Sunday morning my breakfast toast was burned to cinders (almost) by my old toaster, which refused to throw the bread put in back up again.

Later on in the day I went out and bought a new one; and then decided to give it a test run for my afternoon tea.

So far, so good. It seemed to know how to do its job.

Then I bit into the toast and broke a tooth…

Which meant oatmeal porridge for supper, and just a banana-soy milk smoothie for breakfast this morning; and then a visit to the dentist instead of the pool…

I was lucky though, in that my usual dentist was able to receive me on short notice. At first when I called they squeezed in an emergency appointment around lunchtime; but ten minutes later the nurse called me back and said they’d just had a cancellation if I could come earlier. I could, so I did.

It turned out to be one half of a tooth with an old root-filling that had cracked. (The root-filling explains why I did not get into more pain than I did.) As the other half still seemed okay my dentist managed to do some magic at both less cost and less pain than I had expected.

Coming home from the dentist’s at lunch time, I was hungry but still sore and numb… Solved it by making myself some “baby food”! (Leftovers chopped in the mixer, and eaten luke warm… No culinary hit, but it did its job.)

Not ready to try toast again this evening, I think! Possibly a soft cheese sandwhich with a cup of not-too-hot tea while I contemplate the possibilities of getting the manufacturer of the toaster to pay my dental bill…?

Nah, maybe not! ;) But if I’d had a different kind of accident – like a fire caused by placing an inappropriate object on top of the toaster – then perhaps I might have been able to sue someone re the Swedish manual. (The new toaster came with a few more functions than my old one, like defrosting and reheating; that’s why I bothered to read it.)

Translation jokes are not easy to convey unless the reader knows both languages… But maybe if I turn part of it back into English it may give you a rough idea:

"To heat up, place the bowl in bread compartment, to sink the lever the wagon the control until it clicks in place and push reheating the button.”

The most puzzling part was the bowl (“skålen” in Swedish). What bowl?? 

So I turned to the English part of the manual:

"To reheat, place toast into the bread slots, lower the carriage control lever until it clicks into place and press the Reheat button."

Toast in English has two meanings, rarely confused with each other: 1. “sliced bread heated and browned” or 2. “A proposal to drink to someone or something or a speech given before the taking of such a drink.”

In Swedish:

 
toast 1 = rostat bröd

toast 2 = skål!

BUT
a skål is also – a bowl

(Try to get that into the toaster if you can!)

Let’s have a vote. Do you think the translation was made by a human or by a computer?

(Pictures in this post from Google Images)