OUAI = "DAMN"?

Jane Harper jharper at ix.netcom.com
Mon Sep 14 11:39:02 EDT 1998


> I'm just starting to look at these passages. At first blush, though, I
> don't think that the translation "damned" can be justified, at least not as
> an exclusive meaning of the term. A quick browse makes me think that "woe"
> is a very good translation.

I'm no fan of the JS, but my impression of the Scholars' Version is that they
are attempting to render the Greek into *idiomatic* English, as if we were
listening to Jesus preaching today.  When was the last time anybody heard the
words "woe to you" in conversational English?  If "damn" doesn't carry the
sense of the Greek, we must look elsewhere than to "woe" in order to make the
translation into contemporary idiom, don't you think?

Jane Harper    jharper at ix.netcom.com
Pacific School of Religion, Berkeley, CA
**************************
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.  (King, 1963)



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