[B-Greek] him which is, and which was, and which is to come

Webb webb at selftest.net
Mon Nov 21 13:09:34 EST 2005


Dear HH,

The reason to translate it that way is to convey into English as much of the
feel for John's poetry as possible. I'm operating on three principles:

1. Prophets--and John in particular--typically use poetry to convey their
inspired messages.

2. The effect of the sounds of the words is of the essence of poetry. Rhyme,
assonance, alliteration, meter, and so on all describe poetic techniques
that deepen the impact of a message through sound. It is universally
understood that poetry gives itself "license" to bend the usual conventions
of grammar in order to create these effects.

3. To the extent that I as translator am able, I should do my best to
transmit into English some sense of the poetic texture that my author is
creating.

Between them, these principles explain why I might render the expression APO
hO WN KAI hO HN KAI hO ERCOMENOS as "from the is, the was, and the coming
one," and not, "from the one who is, the was, and the one to come". In
English, the two breaches together, through their sound resonance, support
and explain one another, whereas in Greek, the one breach is supported and
explained by its sound relationship with the participle that it parallels:
hO WN KAI hO HN. 

Grammar, after all, is not inspired. :)

Peace,
Webb Mealy

 

-----Original Message-----
From: b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Harold R. Holmyard
III
Sent: Monday, November 21, 2005 9:41 AM
To: b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] him which is, and which was, and which is to come

>Well, I, for one, am going to translate it as "from the is, the was, and
the
>coming one", and I won't be doing it because I don't know English.

HH: As far as I know there is no reason to translate the first term 
as "the is," since it can be translated "the One who is." This seems 
like needless solecism. It is the second term that is a solecism, but 
the Greek is evidently to be understood as "the One who was," in 
parallel to the first term.

					Yours,
					Harold Holmyard

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