[B-Greek] Gender issues in translation

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Tue Jul 25 15:30:56 EDT 2006


On Jul 25, 2006, at 12:59 PM, Revdpickrel at wmconnect.com wrote:

> In a message dated 7/25/2006 4:58:05 AM Central Daylight Time,
> cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu writes:
>
>
>> I regret to see that the protracted discussion of the "two in one
>> bed" passage has
>> gotten side-tracked into questions of "political correctness" and
>> pronoun gender
>> in English. If people want to discuss these issues as they bear upon
>> the proper
>
> Howdy Carl,
>
> I was thinking, Luke 17:34 says "one bed, two people," could that  
> be better
> translated, "one bed, one couple?"  The only thing really clear is  
> there are
> two people and one bed, one is taken and one is left.

The problem with this is that there's no clear indication that a  
"couple" is
being spoken of. We are told no more -- and no less -- than "two persons
in one bed."

 From my own benighted perspective, this was a dubious question from
the outset inasmuch as assumptions (that there were sexual factors at
stake in the two persons being in the same bed) seemed involved
for which there never was any justification.

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad2 at mac.com
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/





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