[B-Greek] Translating Mark 1:8

Mike Sangrey MSangrey at BlueFeltHat.org
Wed Nov 2 19:19:01 EST 2005


On Wed, 2005-11-02 at 12:45 -0600, Dan Gleason wrote:
> Translating Mark 1:8
> 
> EGW EBAPTISA UMAS UDATI
> I immersed you in Water ...
> 
> AUTOS DE BAPTISEI UMAS EN PNEUMATI AGIWi
> but he will-immerse you in a-Holy Spirit.
> 
> Is this translation accurate?
> ______________________
<snip>
> DG: another question re holy spirit:
> The term Holy Spirit is being anartharously introduced for the first time.
> Something like a character in a play who is making his first appearance.
> The audience who are "in the know" know it refers to God ... but for the 
> pagans in the audience ...
> Is it possible that an indefinite translation was intended until the 
> character was more fully developed in subsequent verses?

>From Stephen Levinsohn, "Discourse features of NT Greek", pg 150.  This
is under the heading of 'default rules':

        When a participant is activated (introduced for the first time),
        reference to him or her by name typically is anarthrous.
        However, onc he or she ihas been activated, subsequent
        references to him or her by name within the same episode are
        articular.

If Carl is right, and I tend to agree with him here, that PNEUMATI AGIWi
is pretty much a proper name at this point, then the above statement may
apply.  The gotcha as to whether or not this applies, however, is that
the Holy Spirit is not really participating in the discourse at this
point.

Also, if I may say so, your definition of 'accuracy' keeps bouncing
around.  And that is going to generate a fair amount of confusion.
You've said something to the effect that you are essentially using
English details in an incohesive way in order to get at the Greek text.
That being the case, "a-Holy Spirit" is probably quite accurate.  With
your definition of accuracy, you have to keep in mind that one can't
really understand the translation as being English.  That is, you can't
use your fluency in English to understand the translation.  Or to say it
differently--interpreting the translation as English will only lead to
confusion.

In keeping with your definition of accuracy, one has to interpret the
translation as an amalgam of the Greek and English languages simply
because that is what your translation is.  That is extremely difficult
to do if, in fact, it is at all possible to begin with.

-- 
Mike Sangrey                               (msangrey AT BlueFeltHat.org)
Exegetitor.blogspot.com
Landisburg, Pa.
                        "The first one last wins."
            "A net of highly cohesive details reveals the truth."




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