[B-Greek] DIAKRINW and prophets

Iver Larsen iver_larsen at sil.org
Wed Apr 2 01:17:45 EST 2003


>
> >Yes, here I think DIAKRINW must mean evaluate and it needs to be
> the other
> >prophets, possibly including other mature leaders in the church,
> especially
> >any apostles present, but not the whole assembly.
> >
> Please pardon an uneducated question, but I was curious after looking
> this verse up in a few English translations. Phillips (in an obvious
> paraphrase) renders it as "think over what has been said" and New World
> (usually very literal, but sometimes idiosyncratic) translates it as
> "discern the meaning". I don't have BDAG available to me right now, but
> L&S give the Latin equivalent of DIAKRINW as discernere. So do you think
> that it's plausible that the verse refers to interpretation rather than
> criticism?

The verse in question was 1 Cor 14:29. DIAKRINW has a number of senses,
including creating separation. That is why it can mean discern, because in
discerning you evaluate the various elements. The good ones you accept, the
bad ones you discard. I take the meaning in this context to mean neither
interpretation nor criticism, but evaluation. In the different context in
Didache that was brought up, the meaning seems to be "criticize" which is
one of the possible meanings of the word. I cannot see that the Didache
passage could possibly mean "interpret". DIERMHNEUW (interpret) is actually
used in 1 Cor 14:27.

In the case of 1 Cor 14:29 I would consider both the Phillips and NWT
translations as mistranslations due to a lack of understanding of the
practice of prophecy. This is also born out when Phillips quite wrongly
equates "prophets" with "preachers". Just as Paul says that prophecies must
be discerned and evaluated, so must translations of the Bible. Notice that
KJV says "judge", RSV "weigh", NEB "exercise their judgment", NIV "weigh
carefully", NLT "evaluate". I could give you other meaningless or wrong
translations like JB "attend to" and LB "listen".

Iver Larsen



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