[B-Greek] Rom 12:1 LATREO
Ted Shoemaker
tedsmath at yahoo.com
Fri Nov 7 13:24:52 EST 2003
SPOILER:
This letter has more to do with the theory of translation than about
Greek in particular. I am trying to respond to the original poster's
questions, and to be helpful to other students, also, but some of you
will find it off-topic. My apologies to you.
KENBFRAZIER at aol.com wrote:
> Will I get as many different answers from Greek
> scholars, as I have from students of the English Bible?
> If so, why?
This problem is certainly not unique to biblical or other ancient
translation. Consider, for example, the simple English sentence
"The cat sat on the hat".
What does this sentence mean? How shall we translate it into, say,
Spanish or Bengali or Yanomamo?
Possibility 1.
The sentence is intended as a literal statement about a Siamese cat
sitting on a winter snow cap. The Bengali reader might think about a
very different kind of cat (a tiger, maybe) sitting on a different
kind of hat (a straw hat previously worn by the man the tiger has
just eaten). How shall we translate our sentence for him?
Possibility 2.
The sentence is intended as a simple exercise for beginning readers.
All the words are two or three letters, and one syllable each. Three
of the words rhyme. Thus the literal Spanish translation "El gato se
sentio en el sombrero" is not useful as a reading primer. A more
suitable Spanish sentence for this purpose would probably have
nothing to do with cats and hats.
Possibility 3.
The sentence is intended as a joking reminder of the Dr Seuss book
"The Cat in The Hat". Speakers of the Yanomamo language (a tribal
language of South America) who have never seen that book have no such
reference to relate to. Translating the *intent* is impossible,
without teaching a lot of cultural background.
All that for a very simple sentence. Now imagine the size of the
problem when a complex idea is being communicated.
When we translate we must ask not only "What does a word mean?", but
also "What does a text mean?".
The more important the text is to you, the more diligently you will
want to transmit the message correctly.
Hence the many paraphrases of the Bible.
> How does a scholar or a
> preacher of the gospel handle the fact that there is so much we
> cannot be truly certain of?
Humbly, we hope.
Someone said, "The more educated you are, the more you realize how
much you don't know."
=====
Ted Shoemaker
I keep saying I'm going to write a signature line about irony, but I haven't done it.
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