[B-Greek] 2 Thes 2:3a
Iver Larsen
iver_larsen at sil.org
Thu Jul 22 14:43:00 EDT 2004
> MH TIS hUMAS EXAPATHSHi KATA MHDENA TROPON; hOTI EAN
> MH ELQHi hH APOSTASIA PRWTON KAI APOKALUFQHi...
>
> NET Bible has...
> 2:3 Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day
> will not arrive until the rebellion comes6 and the man
> of lawlessness is revealed,
>
> Footnote 6
> tn Grk "for unless the rebellion comes first." The
> clause about "the day" is understood from v. 2.
>
> What is the grammatical principle that accounts for
> the NET translators not Englishing "first" (PRWTON) in
> their translation?
It is covered by "until" since the event of the coming of the Lord is
contextually implied, as the note says. Instead of saying "Unless A happens
first, B will not happen" or "If A does not happen first, B will not happen"
one can say "B will not happen until A has happened" or "before B is going
to happen, A must happen." The meaning is the same. This is an interesting
aspect of translation: You can express essentially the same meaning with
quite different grammatical constructions. But some constructions are more
clear and natural in the receptor language than others. It is only the most
literal versions like (N)RSV that keep the unnatural "unless - first"
construction. Most modern versions have changed to "until".
It is not a grammatical principle, because translation is much more than
grammar. A proper translation has to take into account semantics and
pragmatics, including contextual implications and relevance theory.
> What would be the temporal relationship between the
> rebellion coming and the man of lawlessness being
> revealed? Are they both one and the same thing?
Grammar doesn't tell you, but contextually one would assume that the
rebellion occurs more or less at the same time as the leader of the
rebellion comes forth. But the rebellion is not the same thing as its
leader.
Iver Larsen
More information about the B-Greek
mailing list