[B-Greek] Greetings & Question
Harold R. Holmyard III
hholmyard at ont.com
Sun Oct 17 16:22:40 EDT 2004
Dear Richard,
Thanks for the question.
> The question has to do with certain
>comments about, and the translation of 1 Cor.
>13:8, by Rev. William J. Morford, who also
>translated the N.T., samples of which may be
>found at http://www.thepowernewtestament.com/.
>I suppose (without discussing theology of
>course) my question is, "What do you think about
>it?" A copy of the text in question follows.
>
>
>Note by the translator:
>
>UBS is The United Bible Society, a group of
>Greek scholars whose life work is studying the
>ancient Greek manuscripts to determine which
>texts are closest to the original first century
>manuscripts. This takes considerable detective
>work since our oldest manuscripts date from the
>second century.
>
>Regarding 1 Corinthians 13:8:
>
>"And whether prophecies will be abolished; or
>tongues will cease, or knowledge will be
>abolished: love never perishes." I Corinthians
>13:8. The Power New Testament
HH: I don't think this is a good translation. The
standard translations are better. EITE comes in a
pair or more, here three times. "If" is a good
substitute for "whether," and the change from the
KJV was probably made for purposes of style. The
lexicon (BAGD) gives "if . . . if" or "whether .
. . or" as valid translations for a pair of
EITE's. As you can see, the phrase "love never
fails" comes first in Greek. Then EITE DE
PROFHTEIAI KATAPGHQHSONTAI. This short sentence
really has two clauses with an understood "to be"
verb in the first clause. "But whether (there
are) prophecies, they will be done away with."
>In almost all other translations, the Greek
>ëeiteí (which means ëwhether) has been either
>ignored or mis-translated, resulting in a weaker
>emphasis regarding this important teaching on
>the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
HH: "If" is not a mistranslation. The thought
might be along the lines of: there may be
prophecies and there may not, but if there are,
they will be done away with." Paul speaks of the
gift of prophecy, and it may be that there is not
a continual gift of prophecy that has existed
throughout the church age. The word EITE is
listed in the lexicon under the word EI, which
means "if." The force of "if" can sometimes be
"though." You might want to think of the force of
EITE here as "though." The reason I say this is
that prophetic gifts did exist at the time Paul
spoke. So he could be saying: "But though there
are prophecies, they will be done away with."
>Why is this small Greek word ëeiteí so
>important? Eite is used, not only in the 4th
>Edition UBS (?), but in every Greek text,
>including the Vatican text #1209. (Vatican
>Library). My interlinear copy of The Diagolott,
>although translating closely to The Power New
>Testament beneath the Greek words, ignores eite
>in its parallel English translation.
HH: I don't know how important it is, but Paul
forms three similar sentences or clause patterns.
He contrasts three items with love.
Yours,
Harold Holmyard
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