[B-Greek] Coat of what?

Bart Torbert Bart.Torbert at ihsenergy.com
Tue Jan 13 13:13:05 EST 2004






Thanks for your comments Michael.

The context of the passage does require trying to get across the notion
that Joseph got something extra special and fancy (as contrasted to the
lesser goods given his brothers) without straying too far away from the
original verbage.

I do not in any way envy the translator's job.

Bart Torbert
bart.torbert at ihsenergy.com



                                                                           
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1/13/2004 bart.torbert at ihsenergy.com  Bart Torbert wrote:
>So how can POIKILON get translated to all these other terms?  Is the word
used in other senses the "mottled"?  I am truly confused how other
translators would justify the diversity on this point.
___________

Hi Bart,
Yes, for instance the leopard spoken about in Jer 13:23 uses this same
word.
But you and I know that a leopard is spotted, yes?  And so it is these
spots
that make a leopard multicolored  :-)

Translators will often nuance a word according to a particular context.  We
are dealing with a archaic language that doesn't have the massive
vocabulary
options as English; behold > variegated, dappled, discolored, motley,
multicolor, multihued, parti-color, parti-colored, varicolored, versicolor,
versicolored, checked, checkered; piebald, pied, skewbald; freaked,
streaked; flecked; stippled; marbled; mottle, mottled, spattered, speckled,
spotted; calico; pinto

Now I have defined POIKILON for your passage (Gen 37:3)  = many-colored.
Now for other contexts it may mean: 2. of metal work, P' DESMOS = intricate
Then there are its metaphorical uses: changeful, various, diversified,
manifold, as in the P' MHNES the changing months 2. of Art, diverse art 3.
intricate, complex as in P' AUDWMENOS speaking in double sense  4.
changeable, changeful, unstable as in P' ECEIN to be different
(I was looking at the Liddell and Scott lexicon)

We may also note that the most basic terms do not have exact correspondence
to English, for instance Hebrew yad does not = hand.  English "hand" has
its
range of possible meanings (see English dictionary) and Hebrew has its
range
for yad.  Therefore we translators constantly nuance terms for each and
every context. We can see the origin and choose for ourselves.  And that's
why we read hELLHNIKOS.

Michael Tarver
Oregon, USA
mrt at hisurfer.net

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