[B-Greek] "Saved you" or "made you well"?

frjsilver at optonline.net frjsilver at optonline.net
Sat Jun 23 11:44:36 EDT 2007


Dear Friends --
There's a natural tendency in Christian translators to keep the notion of 'salvation' fairly high on the list of possible renderings for SWTHRIA, but this is occasionally problematic.
SWZW -- just like Latin _salvare_  and English 'save' -- has a very wide range of meanings in Greek, even in sacred scripture and other religious texts.   This can go all the way from SOS to our hope for a blessed eternal destination. 
While I don't always agree with Father Ephrem Lash's take on things, he hits far more than he misses, and he's one of our most productive modern translators of liturgical Greek into English.
Here's a little of what he has to say about our present question:
'...the greater the translator’s knowledge of the relevant languages, the greater the difficulty of translation. This is because the translator knows how much is being missed, how many nuances of meaning just cannot be conveyed in the translation. To solve this problem translators adopt various devices, of which the most obvious is that of paraphrase in the manner of the Revised English Bible. If liturgical texts are one of the principal means by which the truths of the Faith are handed on, if they are one of the principal vehicles of the Tradition, then translations must be as precise and accurate as possible. One technique, which was used by some ancient translators of Greek into Syriac, is to use two words for one in the original. This solution has been adopted in the Litany of Peace in the new translation of the Liturgy. 
Ὑπὲρ πλεόντων, ὁδοιπορούντων, νοσούντων, καμνόντων, αἰχμαλώτων καὶ τῆς σωτηρίας αὐτῶν. 
hUPER PLEONTWN hODOIPOROUNTWN NOSOUNTWN KAMNONTWN AICMALWNTWN
KAI THS SWTHRIAS AUTWN
TOU KURIOU DEHQWMEN
Here the word σωτηρία SWTHRIA refers primarily to physical safety, but since the Greek word, and its Slavonic equivalent, also means ‘salvation’ in the theological sense, we decided, unlike previous translators, who simply put ‘salvation’, to put both words in our version.' 
'For those who travel by land and sea (and air), for the sick and the suffering, for those in captivity, and for their safety and salvation, let us pray to the Lord.'
(quoted with slight adaptations from:  http://www.anastasis.org.uk/TransLit02.pdf 
where Archimandrite Ephrem's entire essay on liturgical translation. can be read)

As you can imagine, it's also very possible, perhaps even desirable to 'spiritualize' concepts such as illness and captivity;  we metaphorize them all the time in sermons and moral exhortations.

The fact remains, though, that we ought to dust off Occam's Razor once in a while and go for the _lectio facilior_, generally letting the words just be themselves and glossing them only in commentary, not in direct translation.  

Yet even as I write this, I can think of exceptions I'd probably make, maybe for EXOMOLOGEO(MAI), e.g.  

'A FOOLISH consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds,' quoth Emerson (emphasis added).

But that's why God made footnotes, right?

Peace and blessings to all.

Father James Silver

Monk James
Orthodox Church in America
----- Original Message -----
From: "Hahn, Joshua R." 
Date: Friday, June 22, 2007 3:57 pm
Subject: [B-Greek] "Saved you" or "made you well"?
To: b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org

> I have a quick question for the group. I am not an experienced Greek
> scholar though I've had a couple of semesters. In Mark 10:52 
> the Greek
> appears to say "Your faith has saved you" instead of the NASB 
> "has made
> you well" or the NIV "has healed you".
> 
> Am I correct in reading this verse? Any insights would be 
> appreciated.
> Joshua
> ---
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