[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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