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The New Testament in Scots
Edited by Robin Lorimer, and with a new introduction by James Robertson. The Greek scholar William Lorimer spent the last ten years of his life working on this project. Each Gospel has a different form of Scots to match the different forms of Greek used by the various apostles and scribes, and the vigour and immediacy of the language is everywhere apparent. Transcribed, edited and published by his son Robin Lorimer, this scholarly and dramatically fresh reading of an already familiar text caused a sensation when it first appeared in 1983. Beyond the poetry of the King James version, here are the voices of the disciples themselves, speaking, as they undoubtedly did, in 'plain braid Galilee'.
285 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 31, 1983
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
May 21, 2018
Enjoyed working through this in a painstaking way. My favorite was the rendering of "earthen vessel" as "bruckle pigg."
September 3, 2025
Reading the New Testament in the Scots dialect forced me to slow down and that was a good thing. It was a fresh look at the best book in the world.
I'm so used to one of the fruits of the Spirit being "self-control." But reading that as "self-maistry" (mastery) gave me a new perspective.
Some gems that I copied into my journal:
I'm so used to one of the fruits of the Spirit being "self-control." But reading that as "self-maistry" (mastery) gave me a new perspective.
Some gems that I copied into my journal:
But knawledge maks big, luve biggs up.
Luve is patientfu;
luve is couthie an kind;
luve is nane jailous, nane sprosie, nane bowdent wth pride, nane mislaired;
nane hame-drauchtit, nane toustie.
Luik at the facks at is glowrin ye i the face.
Binna in nae mistak: there is nae begowkin God. A man maws what he saws.
Be blythe i the Lord at aa times.
Aathing at God hes made is guid, an naething he hes made is tae be rejeckit;
I mind ye constant in my prayers...
The tung, tae, is a fire.
Ye maun be your Faither's biddable bairns.
August 3, 2018
1967 CE:
In the form that survived, Scots is a uniformly profane language – not in the sense of profanity, but as in worldly and comic and demotic. Some of that opinion is classist stereotype; it certainly wasn't true four hundred years ago (the devotional poems of Dunbar and Henryson stand up to the sacred efforts in any language); but most is real, down to Knox's decision on a legally-mandatory bible in English, but even more to the cultural capture of the nation’s Anglicised elites, but even more than that to the simple dictates of shared economic activity, over three hundred years: i.e. we gave English our sacred talk, then we gave English our intellectual talk, and then trade talk, and law talk, and all their formal accoutrements. Until only the informal and proletarian was left. Atweill, the kitsch prevails (“Hoots ma wee bonnie lassie! Ahiiii wid wauk fyv hhundrid myles”). When Lorimer wrote this, the dialectisation of Scots, and the cutesy granny-aff-a-bus process wasn’t so advanced - but this is the register we moderns read it in, unless we are rural and lucky.
(Nasty but probable thing I once heard a linguist lecture on: relatively few languages develop the scientific-philosophical register and benefit from its sharpening vocabularies. He reckoned that only nine ever have, fully: Chinese, Arabic, Latin, Greek, Sanskrit, Russian, German, French, English. Scots definitely had speakers sophisticated enough, in its High Medieval heyday, but the internationalist use of Latin precluded it.)
Lorimer saw a Bible translation as one of two conditions of revitalising braid Scots - the language, rather than the dialect Scots English. (The other big brick being the Dictionary.) Well, we have both now, and they are not enough. The argument for bringing back languages is only superficially humane, since language is for communication first, and our condition is more and more a global one. (I find it difficult to fault Katja Grace’s analysis: the standard arguments fail, the present matters more than the past: because it is where value happens.)
Lorimer translated it straight from the Koine Greek over a full decade, finishing the second draft just before his death. The art comes in his rendering the apostles with their own voice and distinctive idiolect. (Paul is, here as ever, a nasty little man: smug and litigious.) While I’m very glad this exists, the book itself can do little for me, whatever language it’s wearing. (Nothing takes me further from religious awe than the actual things we said God said. Hauflin’ indeed.)
N/A.
Gin I speak wi the tungs o men an angels, but hae nae luve i my hairt, I am no nane better nor dunnerin bress or a rínging cymbal. Gin I hae the gift o prophecíe an am acquent wi the saicret mind o God, an ken aathing ither at man may ken, an gin I hae siccan faith as can flit the hills frae their larachs - gin I hae aa that, but hae nae luve i my hairt, I am nocht. Gin I skail aa my guids an graith in awmous, an gin I gíe up my bodie tae be brunt in aiss - gin I een dae that, but hae nae luve i my hairt, I am nane the better o it.
Aa our knawledge is hauflin; aa our prophesíein is hauflin: but whan the perfyte is comed, the onperfyte will be by wi. In my bairn days, I hed the speech o a bairn, the thochts o a bairn, the mind o a bairn, but nou at I am grown manmuckle, I am through wi aathing bairnlie. Nou we are like luikin in a mirror an seein aa thing athraw, but than we s' luik aathing braid i the face. Nou I ken aathing hauflinsweys, but than I will ken aathing as weill as God kens me.
In smaa: there is three things bides for ey: faith, howp, luve. But the grytest o the three is luve.
In the form that survived, Scots is a uniformly profane language – not in the sense of profanity, but as in worldly and comic and demotic. Some of that opinion is classist stereotype; it certainly wasn't true four hundred years ago (the devotional poems of Dunbar and Henryson stand up to the sacred efforts in any language); but most is real, down to Knox's decision on a legally-mandatory bible in English, but even more to the cultural capture of the nation’s Anglicised elites, but even more than that to the simple dictates of shared economic activity, over three hundred years: i.e. we gave English our sacred talk, then we gave English our intellectual talk, and then trade talk, and law talk, and all their formal accoutrements. Until only the informal and proletarian was left. Atweill, the kitsch prevails (“Hoots ma wee bonnie lassie! Ahiiii wid wauk fyv hhundrid myles”). When Lorimer wrote this, the dialectisation of Scots, and the cutesy granny-aff-a-bus process wasn’t so advanced - but this is the register we moderns read it in, unless we are rural and lucky.
(Nasty but probable thing I once heard a linguist lecture on: relatively few languages develop the scientific-philosophical register and benefit from its sharpening vocabularies. He reckoned that only nine ever have, fully: Chinese, Arabic, Latin, Greek, Sanskrit, Russian, German, French, English. Scots definitely had speakers sophisticated enough, in its High Medieval heyday, but the internationalist use of Latin precluded it.)
Lorimer saw a Bible translation as one of two conditions of revitalising braid Scots - the language, rather than the dialect Scots English. (The other big brick being the Dictionary.) Well, we have both now, and they are not enough. The argument for bringing back languages is only superficially humane, since language is for communication first, and our condition is more and more a global one. (I find it difficult to fault Katja Grace’s analysis: the standard arguments fail, the present matters more than the past: because it is where value happens.)
Lorimer translated it straight from the Koine Greek over a full decade, finishing the second draft just before his death. The art comes in his rendering the apostles with their own voice and distinctive idiolect. (Paul is, here as ever, a nasty little man: smug and litigious.) While I’m very glad this exists, the book itself can do little for me, whatever language it’s wearing. (Nothing takes me further from religious awe than the actual things we said God said. Hauflin’ indeed.)
N/A.
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May 22, 2012New Testament translated into Scottish dialect
William Lorimer undertook aproject of recreating the New testament into Scots prose. He scrutinized upwards of 180 translations in more than 20 languages.
Using original manuscripts, the Greek scholar William Lorimer spent the last 10 years of his life working on the New Testament, in which each of the Gospes have a different form of Scots dialect to match the different forms of Greek used by the various apostles and scribes.
There is nothing so sweet as to hear the original gospels in ones own mother tongue.
Beyond the poetry of the King James version, here are the voices of the disciples themselves, speaking, as they undoubtedly did, in "plain braid Galilee."
Lorimer was born to Rev. Robert Lorimer, a minister of the Free Kirk of Scotand, an Isabella Lockhart Robertson. He was educated at the High School of Dundee, Fettes College and Trinity College, Oxford where he learned at Classic languages. In 1910 he was appointed Assistant in Greek to Professor Burnet at the Varsity of Saint Andras. He stayed in Saunt Andras, where he married, Marion Rose Gordon, in 1915.
He was commisioned in the Gordon Highlanders in 1914, problems with his health meant he could not perform active duty so from 1916 to 1919 he worked in the Intelligence Directorate of the War Office,
After setteling down he took in a maid to help with the raising of his son. This maid, Mrs Helen MacGregor (1873/4 - 1930) was a native speaker of Scots, and over the years both William Lorimer an his son learnt most of the native Scots from her.
William Lorimer undertook aproject of recreating the New testament into Scots prose. He scrutinized upwards of 180 translations in more than 20 languages.
Using original manuscripts, the Greek scholar William Lorimer spent the last 10 years of his life working on the New Testament, in which each of the Gospes have a different form of Scots dialect to match the different forms of Greek used by the various apostles and scribes.
There is nothing so sweet as to hear the original gospels in ones own mother tongue.
Beyond the poetry of the King James version, here are the voices of the disciples themselves, speaking, as they undoubtedly did, in "plain braid Galilee."
Lorimer was born to Rev. Robert Lorimer, a minister of the Free Kirk of Scotand, an Isabella Lockhart Robertson. He was educated at the High School of Dundee, Fettes College and Trinity College, Oxford where he learned at Classic languages. In 1910 he was appointed Assistant in Greek to Professor Burnet at the Varsity of Saint Andras. He stayed in Saunt Andras, where he married, Marion Rose Gordon, in 1915.
He was commisioned in the Gordon Highlanders in 1914, problems with his health meant he could not perform active duty so from 1916 to 1919 he worked in the Intelligence Directorate of the War Office,
After setteling down he took in a maid to help with the raising of his son. This maid, Mrs Helen MacGregor (1873/4 - 1930) was a native speaker of Scots, and over the years both William Lorimer an his son learnt most of the native Scots from her.
November 14, 2023
I highly recommend this! it's so hard to find anything in Scots in the US. The translation is great. It's not paraphased its a real translation from Greek. Scots is such a beatufiul language, it's not just a dialect.
May 21, 2022
A Scots modernist master-piece
December 13, 2025
Very good for anybody interested in the Scots language. The Bible speaks for itself.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews