[B-Greek] my wooden interlinear translations
Eric Weiss
papaweiss1 at yahoo.com
Mon Nov 7 08:15:36 EST 2005
> "To translate is not to put the words of one language into another:
> it is to express the meaning of the words in another language".
All well and good if there is a single or clear meaning in the original text. One point argued by
the gender-neutral dissenters is that the use of male pronouns in, e.g., the Psalms could very
well be messianic in meaning. I.e., they point to a MAN, and not just a "person" or "human
being," and hence to render ADAM or ISH as "human being(s)" or "person(s)" may be to read
out some of the meaning of the original. Also, as Moule points out in his idiom book, there are
NT examples of possible double-meanings in some passages - e.g., Paul speaking of our
present light affliction working for us an eternal weight of glory - "weight" and "glory" being 2
words in the Greek, but a single word in the Hebrew that may have been a deliberate play on
words in the Apostle's mind. And then you have Moises Silva's essay in THE CHALLENGE OF
BIBLE TRANSLATION where he describes the agony he went through trying to convey in
English something straightforwardly written in his native Spanish. Why the agony? Because he
was aware of all the nuances in the Spanish original that were lost with every English phrase
he attempted. "The Translator as Traitor?" I believe he entitled his essay.
(Note: I am not disagreeing with your "rule" at all; it's in fact what I try to convey to those who
let me teach them Greek. I.e., "How would you say this IN ENGLISH?")
Eric S. Weiss
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