[B-Greek] 2 Thess 2:13
Mark Lightman
lightmanmark at yahoo.com
Tue Jun 9 09:25:24 EDT 2009
Iver is exactly right. Lurking beneath your quesiton is the fact that in
Koine nouns in the oblique cases are over-represented. I cannot
think of a different term. Often you get a string of nouns with prepositions
or in the bare genitive or dative, and if you don't convert them into
verbs or adjectives, you wind up with under translated translationese.
Note that in Homeric Greek on the one hand
and Modern Greek on the other hand on you wind up with
more adjectives and verbs and adverbs that essentially replace these strings
of nouns.
Mark L. .
--- On Mon, 6/8/09, Iver Larsen <iver_larsen at sil.org> wrote:
From: Iver Larsen <iver_larsen at sil.org>
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] 2 Thess 2:13
To: "Jason Kenney" <please_come_soon at yahoo.com>, b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
Date: Monday, June 8, 2009, 11:12 PM
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jason Kenney" <please_come_soon at yahoo.com>
To: <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: 8. juni 2009 05:33
Subject: [B-Greek] 2 Thess 2:13
> Hi all,
> My question has to do with the phrase "εις σωτηριαν εν αγιασμω πνευματος και
> πιστει αληθειας" in 2 Thess 2:13.
> I am having a hard time figuring out the logic of the ESV which renders it "
> to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth."
> What grounds are there for making εις σωτηριαν so implicitly verbal? It looks
> like the translators there also see the second clause ( εν αγιασμω πνευματος
> και πιστει αληθειας) as modifying the "to be saved" as if it were the
> controlling verb.
> Can someone tell me what I am missing? I am not really interested in whether
> the ESV is correct in its rendering, I am just looking for guesses at their
> reasoning...
> Thanks so much!
> Jason Kenney
ὅτι εἵλατο ὑμᾶς ὁ θεὸς ἀπαρχὴν εἰς σωτηρίαν ἐν ἁγιασμῷ πνεύματος καὶ πίστει
ἀληθείας
hOTI hEILATO hUMAS hO QEOS APARCHN EIS SWTHRIAN EN hAGIASMWi PNEUMATOS KAI
PISTEI ALHQEIAS
SWTHRIA is a verbal noun, and it is often necessary to translate a verbal noun
by the corresponding verb in order not to lose the intended meaning, especially
if the Greek construction is complex with many prepositions.
The EN phrase you mention does semantically connect to SWTHRIA explaining the
means by which salvation is obtained, and this is easier to see in English when
a verb is used. An alternative if you want to keep the noun would be to
explicate the verbal idea implied in EIS: "to receive salvation".
Although the ESV belongs to the category of literal translations, they
apparently decided that keeping the Greek noun as a noun in English would not
communicate the intended meaning clearly enough.
Iver Larsen
Bible Translation Consultant
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