[B-Greek] EI in Heb 3:11 & Psa 94:11 LXX
vunzndi at vfemail.net
vunzndi at vfemail.net
Tue Mar 25 05:32:51 EDT 2008
Quoting Elizabeth Kline <kline_dekooning at earthlink.net>:
>
> On Mar 24, 2008, at 2:30 PM, Albert Pietersma wrote:
>
>> On Mar 24, 2008, at 4:38 PM, Elizabeth Kline wrote:
>>> HEB. 3:11 hWS WMOSA EN THi ORGHi MOU: EI EISELEUSONTAI EIS THN
>>> KATAPAUSIN MOU.
>>>
>>> Here we see an example of translation according to habit rather than
>>> according to meaning. EI is often used to translate the hebrew 'im
>>> when it functions as a conditional particle. However, in the cases
>>> where 'im is used as a negative particle EI is used not because it
>>> renders the meaning of 'im in that context. Apparently the translator
>>> of the PSA 94 LXX used EI because it was the "stereotypical"
>>> translation equivalent for 'im. This sort of translation technique
>>> explains a lot of the semantic idiosyncrasies of the LXX.
>> To complicate matters further, EI also appears very often for
>> Hebrew interrogative "H", which some regard as evidence for EI
>> introducing a direct question.
>> Al
>
> Thank you Al. All of this supports the notion that 'semitisims' is
> too broad a category for any useful discussion of LXX idioms. What is
> required is an understanding how the translators the particular LXX
> book in question went about doing their work. I think Tov has
> addressed this in several of his works. It is also interesting to
> look at the translation process of Greek to Syriac in the gospels. I
> seem to recall a professor from St Andrews, Peter Williams (??) did a
> dissertation on this but I don't have the title handy.
>
Interestingly such observations support traditions suggesting that the
LXX was translated by a group of translators over a short period of
time who had a high degree of agreement on how things should be
translated. A simple one word in the source language maps to one word
the target language, though not to be encouraged is what often happen,
and furthermore it is easy to back translate. This process sometimes
results in an enrichment of a language, as for example in the cases of
the word "talent". It should be noted that such an approache tends to
be the norm for semi-bilingual communities, and it is only the brave,
or foolhardy, who break the mould.
John Knightley
> Elizabeth Kline
>
>
>
>
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