[B-Greek] UBS Reader's Edition GNT

Carl Conrad cwconrad2 at mac.com
Tue Nov 20 19:37:58 EST 2007


On Nov 19, 2007, at 1:50 PM, Jonathan Robie wrote:

> What would an ideal "Readers Edition" GNT look like?
>
> Suppose we want something to assume the functions of Zerwick/ 
> Grosvenor + the GNT. How would you design that?

These are two different questions. Let me tackle the second one first,  
hUSTERON PROTERON.

(2) It would appear that we are defining "Reader's Edition GNT" as a  
Greek NT for people who (a) really can't read NT Greek, i.e. recognize  
at sight the inflected forms of verbs, nouns, adjectives, and adverbs,  
and (b) can't cope with a lexicon that lays out the full range of  
potential meanings of Greek words but must rely instead upon someone  
else's selection from a short list of glosses in what is just about  
the weakest of all lexical aids available for study of the GNT, and  
(c) doesn't need a grammar, because it is assumed that the single-word  
glosses and parsing of words is sufficient to yield the literal  
meaning of the Greek text. I suppose there's something satisfying  
about the lack of any critical apparatus too: it relieves the reader  
from the uncomfortable notion that the Greek text he or she is looking  
at is something other than an editorial composite of manuscript  
evidence. I'd have to say that I think an interlinear would be more  
immediately useful for the person who can't really read NT Greek or  
cope with a real lexicon.

(1) Far better for the person whose skills in Greek are not fully  
developed, in my opinion, is the NET Diglot (Google search results at:
http://tinyurl.com/ysyg8f). The NA27 text is there with the full  
apparatus, so that, even if one is not fully informed about textual  
criticism, one has some notion of the real nature of the text of the  
GNT as an eclectic text settled upon -- for better or worse -- by  
agreement of a committee of scholars. On the facing page is one of the  
better English versions, the NET: it's not perfect, as no translation  
is perfect; but there is more assistance in the translator's notes  
than one will find anywhere in an interlinear or "Reader's Edition"  
regarding how the difficulties in the Greek text may be variously  
understood, and where there are alternative ways of interpreting an  
ambiguous Greek text, there's some guidance regarding the alternative  
possibilities. The more competent in Greek a person really is, the  
more obvious it is that the NET is not a literal translation of the  
GNT but a serious effort to represent the sense of the Greek in  
idiomatic English. In sum, I think that the NET Diglot offers a  
clearer perspective on just exactly what the GNT is and how its  
meaning can be expressed in English.

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)





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