[B-Greek] NWT: Is it an accurate translation of the Greek?

Mondo Pascal mondofive at hotmail.com
Fri Feb 24 09:30:21 EST 2006


Iver,

You are really begging the question here.  You seem to assume what the 
"intended" meaning was.

Mondo Pascal


>From: "Iver Larsen" <iver at larsen.dk>
>To: "Gene Gardner" <g_gardner1234 at yahoo.com>,<b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
>Subject: Re: [B-Greek] NWT:  Is it  an accurate translation of the Greek?
>Date: Fri, 24 Feb 2006 10:03:14 +0100
>
> > In The New World Translation, John 1:1 is rendered as follows:
>
> >  Joh 1:1  In  [the]  beginning the Word was,  and the Word was with God, 
>  and the Word was a god.
>...
> >  I would like to hear the opinions of the forum as to the accuracy of 
>this rendering.
> > Thanks
> > Gene Gardner
>
>Well, neither "the Word was God" or "the Word was a god" are accurate 
>translations into modern English for the average
>reader.
>However, "accuracy" is a huge and complex topic, and it involves much more 
>than Greek and English grammar. It is
>primarily a question of successful communication. Does a particular 
>rendering communicate as faithfully as possible the
>intended meaning of the original text in its context to a new audience in a 
>new context with different suppositions and
>using a different language?
>
>To get a reasonable rendering of the intended qualitative and descriptive 
>rather than the identificational sense of
>QEOS, I would suggest:
>"the Word was with God and was like (or equal to) God", but I am not 
>expecting consensus. The NET rendering (the Word
>was fully God) is also possible, and they have an excellent, brief comment 
>on exegetical and translation options. Of
>course, a key question is what the intended audience understand by the 
>words "God" and "god" in English.
>
>Iver Larsen
>SIL Translation Consultant
>
>---
>B-Greek home page: http://metalab.unc.edu/bgreek
>B-Greek mailing list
>B-Greek at lists.ibiblio.org
>http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-greek

_________________________________________________________________
On the road to retirement? Check out MSN Life Events for advice on how to 
get there! http://lifeevents.msn.com/category.aspx?cid=Retirement




More information about the B-Greek mailing list