[B-Greek] Re: Generous and Stingy in Mt 6:22-23
Oun Kwon
kwono at upstate.edu
Sat Oct 4 23:46:24 EDT 2003
Note: I am a fist time on this list. This e-mail is as a reply to the
e-mail sent in by James J. Rizzo on Oct. 4, which I picked up from the
Archive.
Note: My e-mail system does not allow italics. In the following I put in (
).
Mt 22b - 23a may be rendered in the following
"... So, if you have a sound eye (of generosity), your whole body will be
full of light, but if you have a bad eye (of stinginess) ..."
Here my rendering is based on the Jewish New Testament. The expression may
be an Aramaic idiom, as I read somewhere.
In this, (of generosity) and (of stinginess) should be in italics and in a
smaller font. My scheme is to put these addtional words in italics
(following KJV convention) in a smaller font (to de-emphasize it since
italics is used in modern writing for emphasis). This scheme may not be for
a mainline translation, (For my personal level, it helps quite a lot. Sort
of a personal annotated bible for study.)
That means, these are inserted (by me) to help the readers for the sake of
improved readability while adding something which are not in the original or
which are of further helpful explanatory nature (acceptable within the
context and supported by others; not too-far-out interpretive).
You have a rightful concern about the way it was rendered by as the example
of this text. A translated text thrown on to the reader without any
indication how they got the renderign, which is quite different from what
you expect as from other versions, rather radical one at that, however it
may be better or correct, etc.
One example: The text of Heb 11:11 my rendering on newer itineration would
be:
"By faith {barren} Sarah herself was rendered capable of conception even
though beyond (her child-bearing) prime age, {and gave birth}, (Sarah)
having put trust on the One who had made promise."
Here, those bracketed by { } may be omitted since some mss do not support.
I have taken care so that when the readers omit these, even while reading
aloud, it should still maintain flow of English without a jarring effect and
would not alter meaning at all.
Note: This text on Heb 11:11 has been discussed lately on Bible-Translation
list. The source of the main issue was, I believe, from the unclear subject
(here I put Sarah in parenthesis) of the verb 'put trust on'; NIV, NET, and
other modern ones takes Abraham as the subject and renders this text
accordingly, which, I think, are wrong. FYI, See
http://www.geocities.com/bible_translation/
where several discussion groups including Bible Translation Group are
listed.
Shalom,
Oun
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