[B-Greek] Coat of what?

Albert Pietersma albert.pietersma at sympatico.ca
Tue Jan 13 13:13:53 EST 2004


There is probably nothing new to be said and the initial confusion is 
being teased out.
1. When LEH says that CITWN is a Semitic loanword it does NOT mean that 
it is a word that entered Greek at the time of the LXX. CITWN was 
borrowed from SEMITIC  before Homer. Consequently, by LXX times it was 
a normal Greek word widely used in the LXX.
2. Since the Gen translator did not know the meaning of the Hebrew word 
in Gen 37:3,  he could either transcribe it and thus pass the problem 
on to his reader or 'solve' the problem by picking a contextually 
suitable Greek word. He opted for the latter.
Al
On Jan 13, 2004, at 12:21 PM, mrt wrote:

> 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
>
> ---
> B-Greek home page: http://metalab.unc.edu/bgreek
> B-Greek mailing list
> B-Greek at lists.ibiblio.org
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-greek
>
>
—
Albert Pietersma
Professor of Septuagint and Hellenistic Greek
Near & Middle Eastern Civilizations
University of Toronto
Home: 21 Cross Street,
Weston ON Canada M9N 2B8
Email: albert.pietersma at sympatico.ca
Homepage: http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~pietersm




More information about the B-Greek mailing list