STOCKHOLM — In a development that will surely make the early Church Fathers clutch their pearls and Saint Paul demand a refund on his missionary expenses, the Swedish Bible Society has released NT 2026, a fresh translation of the New Testament.
But it something else: the most polite heresy Sweden has produced since they decided midsummer required both herring and existential melancholy.
The changes are not minor footnotes. They are the sort of revisions that make one wonder whether the translators first consulted the Greek manuscripts or the latest HR policy document.
Judas Iscariot No Longer “Betrays” Jesus:
Judas Iscariot: Now Just a Logistics CoordinatorFor two millennia, Judas has enjoyed a rather consistent reputation. He handed Jesus over. He took the silver. He later experienced what modern therapists might call “acute regret followed by a tree.” The Greek verb is paradidōmi — to hand over, deliver, or betray, depending on context and how much you dislike the man doing it. He is a man performing a bureaucratic function.
Junias Becomes Junia:
Another significant change concerns one of Paul’s key associates, The First Documented Biblical Gender TransitionRomans 16:7 has long been a small battlefield. Paul greets Andronicus and a person named Iounian, “outstanding among the apostles.”
However, the Swedish Bible Society holds a different view, maintaining that a woman must appear among the apostles to demonstrate women’s eligibility for the episcopate.
This is Sweden: even doctrinal earthquakes are scheduled, well-lit, and served with coffee.Yet the satire writes itself. A document that once thundered about sin, judgment, and a kingdom not of this world has been gently edited so that the villain is less villainous and a previously male-coded figure is now correctly female.
By Fr. Spyridon Tanous
