[B-Greek] Clarifying Iver's John 1:18 position

Iver Larsen iver_larsen at sil.org
Mon Aug 14 03:19:21 EDT 2006


Hi, Jason


> Iver Larson previously wrote:

>  Iver, I am trying to clarify your position so as to
>  find confirmation regarding the proposed translation:
>
>  "God no man hath seen at any time except the only
>  begotten. God, the one being in the bosom of the
>  Father, that one declared."
>
>  Apart from the fact that you believe that theos was
>  originally huios in the second clause, and that you
>  disagree with monogenes tranlsated as "only begotten,"
>  could the passage otherwise be translated thus
>  accurately without violating any grammatical laws?

OK, let me clarify that the only place where I agree with your various suggestions is that making the implicit contrast 
explicit is legitimate if you are thinking of an ordinary, communicative translation rather than a very literal one.

However, I can see from your proposed "translation" that your aim is not to produce an ordinary, communicative 
translation in English. In my view of translation what you suggest is not "accurate" in the sense of clearly conveying 
the meaning of the original(?) text, and it violates the grammar of English.

Iver Larsen 




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