[B-Greek] MH EPI PORNEIA in Matthew 19:9
George F Somsel
gfsomsel at yahoo.com
Tue Feb 17 18:29:09 EST 2009
The goal of the translator is to make an understandable translation (though this forum is not really about translation). One may quibble regarding whether the translation represents the original with 100% accuracy sytactically (which is the disagreement regarding "formal equivalency" and more free "meaning based" translations), but in either case precise syntactic accuracy is not always the objective. The objective is comprehensibility.
george
gfsomsel
… search for truth, hear truth,
learn truth, love truth, speak the truth, hold the truth,
defend the truth till death.
- Jan Hus
_________
________________________________
From: Will Dilbeck <will.dilbeck at gmail.com>
To: Harold Holmyard <hholmyard3 at earthlink.net>
Cc: B-Greek <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Tuesday, February 17, 2009 5:25:00 PM
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] MH EPI PORNEIA in Matthew 19:9
Harold,
Thanks for your response. However, I did not say "I can't see anyway how
'not for fornication' could *imply *'except for fornication.'" I said, "I
cannot see in any way how MH EPI PORNEIA could be *translated* as 'except
for fornication'. It seems to me the translaters went above mere translation
when they introduced an implication into the clause. I recoginize that this
happens a lot in translation.
Thanks again,
Will
On Tue, Feb 17, 2009 at 4:14 PM, Harold Holmyard
<hholmyard3 at earthlink.net>wrote:
> Will,
> >
> > I realize that this is a highly controversial issue, thus I wish to
> preface
> > this email by saying that my question is of a strictly grammatical
> nature.
> >
> > My question is this, why do most (if not all) English versions translate
> the
> > "exception clause" of Matthew 19:9 as "except for fornication"?
> >
> > In other words, I cannot see in any way how MH EPI PORNEIA could be
> > translated as "except for fornication". In Matthew 5:32, the clause
> PAREKTOS
> > LOGOU PORNEIAS can certainly be translated as "except for the reason of
> > unchasity" (NASB). But as far as I can tell, this is not equivelant to
> the
> > clause in Matthew 19:9.
> >
> > I have done quite a bit of research as to this question and I have yet to
> > find ONE commentary that addresses this grammatical question. I have also
> > read a paper concerning Erasmus' addition to his 1st edition of his
> > Greek-Latin New Testament (he added EI to the above stated clause of
> Matthew
> > 19:9, thus making it read EI MH EPI PORNEIA or "except for fornication").
> > This seems possible, but I again, this seems to be getting away from our
> > text as we have it.
> >
>
> HH: You can't see "in any way" how "not for fornication" could imply
> "except for fornication." Just put the phrase in the context and try to
> get a meaning out of it. The thought that clearly comes to mind is
> "except.":
>
> And I tell you, whoever divorces his wife--not for sexual
> immorality--and marries another, commits adultery."
>
> "Not for sexual immorality" gives the one reason for divorce that would
> not lead to Jesus' conclusion. So it is an exception.
>
> Yours,
> Harold Holmyard
>
>
>
>
>
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