[B-Greek] Biblical Translations Re: Greek Text
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Mon Aug 23 06:33:50 EDT 2004
At 12:42 AM -0700 8/23/04, Seth VM wrote:
>Greetings B-Greekers!
>
>If you have time to respond to this email, I was curious as to which english
>translations of the Holy Scriptures you felt best rendered greek in its most
>literal, word-for-word form, that would have more correctly rendered the
>original meaning of the authors and avoids superfluous scriptural bias that
>ultimately communicates idealogical and/or theological perspectives of its
>translators.
>
>Thanks for your input.
>
>- Seth Moran
This is a question that might more appropriately be addressed to the
B-Translation list; moreover, there are some unwritten and explicit
presuppositions here that may not be shared by several more serious and
better-experienced students of NT Greek.
For one thing, I think it is questionable whether a "literal, word-for-word
form" version is more likely to communicate the message of the Biblical
text than a version based upon a sound understanding of the meaning of the
original text as well as upon competence at expressing that meaning in good
idiomatic formulations in English or another target language. Some would
hold that a "literal, word-for-word form" distorts and misleads as an
expression of what the original language text actually sets forth.
There may be more consensus as to which of the widely-distributed
translations could best be described as "literal word-for-word" versions,
but I think there might be some diverse views about the value and
importance of such versions. In my own opinion, it would be more useful to
evaluate versions in terms of a variety of criteria, including intended use
(private study, group study, liturgical reading, etc.) and preferred levels
of intelligibility and formal or informal style. In sum, I don't think any
one translation fulfills all the criteria 100%, and that there are several
"good," several "quite good," and several "not-so-good" versions.
--
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/
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