[B-Greek] Hebrews 1:8
George F. Somsel
gfsomsel at juno.com
Tue Jun 29 23:04:15 EDT 2004
On Wed, 30 Jun 2004 11:59:51 +1000 Mark Saward <msaward at bigpond.net.au>
writes:
> Hi,
>
> In the Jehovah's Witnesses translation, the New World Translation
> (of
> which I have heard numerous criticisms), they translate the start
> of
> Hebrews 1:8 as:
>
> 'But with reference to the Son: "God is your throne forever..."'
>
> Whereas in NKJV and others it is akin to:
>
> 'But to the Son He says: "Your throne, O God, is forever and
> ever..."'
>
> I'm only a novice at New Testament Greek, so was looking for some
> advice
> from those who know a lot more. In my primitve understanding, THEOS
> in
> this verse is the subject, meaning that it is referring to His
> throne,
> not Him being the throne. What I want to know - is the New World
> Translation's translation of this passage permissible or incorrect?
>
> Why?
>
______________
I find this translation a bit tendentious. First, with regard to their
"with reference to": If this were the intent then one would tend to
expect PERI rather than PROS DE TON hUION which we have here.
Furthermore, it would be interesting to see what they did with 1.7 where
it reads KAI PROS MEN TOUS AGGELOUS LEGEI . . . since 1.8 is the
continuation of the MEN . . . DE clause. This is clearly stating that he
is speaking to the ones mentioned, not concerning them. See, e.g. Mt
3.15 (and this is chosen because it was the first example I noted and not
for any other specific reason) where it is stated hO DE IHSOUS EIPEN
PROS AUTON AFES ARTI, hOUTWS GAR PREPON ESTIN hHMIN . . . Jesus did not
make a statement REGARDING John the Baptist, but TO John.
QEOS is in the nominative. This much we can agree upon. Then again, so
is hO QRONOS a nominative. Now, I'm not sure what it would mean to say
that God is a throne, but we do have a nominal sentence here. The
question is regarding what the most natural manner of reading it would
be. Since this is a quotation from the OT, it would be possible to go to
the Psalm from which it was excerpted and see what the Hebrew might be.
This, however, is not necessarily the best policy for at least 2 reasons:
1. Many quotations are taken from the LXX rather than the Hebrew and
the text sometimes differs in addition to there being a question of
translation. 2. Sometimes quotations are a bit loose so that what is
quoted is really a reapplication. The problem is rather easily solved.
Wallace in his _Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics_ notes on p. 56 that the
nominative is used for the vocative.
I would therefore say that something along the lines of
But to the Son [he said], Your throne, O God, is eternal"
would be most correct.
george
gfsomsel
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