[B-Greek] Would "legitimate" be a better translation of DIKAIOS?
Iver Larsen
iver at larsen.dk
Sat May 6 04:13:45 EDT 2006
Hi, Jeff,
I'd like to respond to one of your passages below.
You said among other things:
> "I tell you that there will be more joy in heaven over one AMARTWLWi that
> repents than over ninety-nine DIKAIOIS that need no repentance (Luke 15:7)."
As I have struggled to complete a modern communicative translation of the Bible into ordinary non-Biblical Danish during the last five years, one of the difficult words to translate was DIKAIOS and related words. The traditional words used in Danish Bible tradition are too obscure and not part of everyday language, just as "righteous" and "justify" are not common English words. They are mainly used today in terms of self righteousness and self justification.
I see two basic senses in DIKAIOS. One has to do with "doing what God wants or has prescribed". So, a person who is DIKAIOS is one who does the will of God. The second is closely related and has to do with "being acceptable to God". There is quite a bit of overlap between DIKAIOS and the EUDOKIA group of words. DIKAIOSUNH is that which is acceptable to God because it conforms to his will. In Modern Danish, I therefore prefer to use "acceptable to God", "accepted by God" or something similar to render the meaning of DIKAIOS/DIKAIOSUNH. I do not see "legitimate" as a legitimate translation option, although it is a good try.
Sometimes Jesus uses irony. Now, in terms of relevance theory, irony is defined on the basis of "echoing". When Jesus says in Lk 15:7 that the DIKAIOI do not need repentance, he is using irony. The Pharisees considered themselves to be DIKAIOI (doing God's will and being accepted/approved by God). However, the audience knows that Jesus did not consider them to be DIKAIOI, so Jesus is echoing the words/thoughts of the Pharisees and using irony as a subtle rebuke. They certainly need repentance, but they think that they don't. Jesus and the audience know that they do.
Iver Larsen
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