[B-Greek] PARAKLHTOS
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Fri Jun 9 05:18:17 EDT 2006
Seems to me that this thread has gone just about full-circle. There
is clearly no consensus here, either on what the exact intended sense
of the Greek word PARAKLHTOS might be or on the most appropriate
target-language word to convey it. Of course, just about every
contributor to the thread has a strong opinion on these matters, but
there are almost as many opinions as opinionators -- quot homines tot
sententiae. And now we've really come to focus more on translation
philosophy than on the Greek word. The attempt to handle the
Johannine PARAKLHTOS has (curiously?) been about as successful as
attempts hitherto on this list to handle the Johannine word LOGOS.
Most English translators have conveyed LOGOS with "word" as if they
either (a) were satisfied that "word" adequately conveys what the
Greek LOGOS of the prologue really means or (b) were unable to
conceive of anything better than "word." As I suggested the other
day, I rather think that the evangelist actually intended the
listener/reader to be challenged by "his" selection of words and
images. The old saw applies here, I think: "traduttori traditori" --
"translaters betray their trust."
On Jun 9, 2006, at 2:34 AM, George F Somsel wrote:
> Bryant,
>
> I don't think it wise to simply transliterate words from the GNT
> into English [or any other language] and use them as a part of a
> translation. In the case in point I took the time to look it up in
> two dictionaries which confirmed my suspicion that the term
> "Paraclete" is used in English only with regard to the Holy
> Spirit. In the Bible Translation list this was referred to as
> "biblish." Basically only those who are intimately acquainted with
> the Bible and the usages of terms therein are going to understand
> such terms. If you truly wish to communicate (which is, I assume,
> your object in translation) then you must "get them where they're
> at." If they have to go to a dictionary to see what the term means
> only to discover that the term "Paraclete" is used only with regard
> to the Holy Spirit which is singularly UNINFORMATIVE regarding the
> nature of the function of the Paraclete. I would recommend that
> one stay about as far away from this practice as possible.
>
> "Bryant J. Williams III" <bjwvmw at com-pair.net> wrote:
> Dear Iver,
>
> I am curious, why is the word "Paraclete" not used? It does have
> the advantage
> that Paraclete does advocate, comfort, instruct, teach, counsel,
> mentor,
> intercede on one's behalf, legal Friend , etc. In fact, if I
> remember correctly,
> both Plummer (I John, Notes: pages 33-34) and Morris (John,
> Additional Note F:
> The Paraclete, pp. 662-) make the comment that the use of
> PARAKLHTOS was used
> for all the mentioned above. The aspect of an advocate is lying
> beneath the
> surface (F.F. Bruce, John, p. 307, fn 10 gives references favoring
> "advocate"
> showing that PARAKLHTOS is a Hebrew/Aramaic loanword for "peraclit"
> and shows
> that the Holy Spirit as the PARAKLHTOS is a defender of the
> believer, but is the
> prosecuting attorney against the unbeliever, p. 318), but PARACLETE
> encompasses
> all these roles and then some. The word itself is unquestionably
> passive with
> meaning "called to the side of," but as a substantive it has the
> idea of the
> Latin "advocatus" (Morris, p. 663). Morris does indicate in
> footnote 92 that is
> rare in this use. Interestingly, we have the Holy Spirit and Jesus are
> interceding on our behalf before the Judge of all the universe.
>
> At the same time, we find in John and I John that Jesus and the
> Holy Spirit
> perform the same roles (why else is the Holy Spirit called "
> 'another' (of the
> same kind) PARAKLHTOS?"). Some would argue that transliterating the
> Greek term
> would not be correct, but I would counter that we do that with
> "BAPTIZW." (Let's
> not go there, please).
>
> En Xristwi,
>
> Rev. Bryant J. Williams III
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Iver Larsen"
> To: "Fridolin Janzen" ; "BG"
> Sent: Thursday, June 08, 2006 03:35 AM
> Subject: Re: [B-Greek] PARAKLHTOS
>
>
>>
>>> I am working on a Portuguese New Testament translation and looked
>>> for a long
>>> time for the ideal word for PARAKLHTOS. We have the transliteration
>>> "paracleto" in Portuguese. I could use a footnote and explain the
>>> term, but
>>> preferred to use the word "mentor". I seems to covers all
>>> possibilities for
>>> PARAKLHTOS. A mentor encourages, counsels, instructs, guides,
>>> defends, etc.
>>
>> I have been working on a modern, communicative translation into
>> Danish. We
> have the same problem. It is not easy to find
>> a good word for PARAKLHTOS.
>>
>> The traditional Danish translation is "talsmand" which means
>> "spokesman". But
> in the language of today it is used
>> narrowly for political spokesmen or a spokesman for a group or
>> workers in
> relation to the management. So we rejected it.
>>
>> We ended up with "advisor" which is very similar to mentor. I
>> didn't think
> about using "mentor", but it may be
>> possible. The main problem I have is that it implies someone who
>> has been
> doing a particular job for a long time, has
>> lots of experience and is now "handing over" to those he mentors.
>> For those
> reasons, I prefer the more general
>> "advisor". My daughter has an MA supervisor, but in Danish he is
>> not called a
> supervisor, but an advisor (vejleder). An
>> advisor (in Danish at least) is expected to encourage, instruct,
>> guide,
> counsel and even defend.
>>
>> I am not sure whether the best word in English or Portuguese is
>> "advisor", but
> it seems to work fairly well in Danish.
>> (We put a footnote giving alternative renderings.) In the case of
>> 1 John 2:1,
> we are using a word that talks about
>> intercession rather than advisor, which is used in the four
>> instances in
> John's Gospel.
>>
>> Iver Larsen
>> Translation consultant
>>
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>
> george
> gfsomsel
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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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