[B-Greek] Arthur Way and 1 Tim 2:15
Iver Larsen
iver_larsen at sil.org
Wed Nov 17 23:47:47 EST 2010
How many have heard of Arthur Sanders Way (1847-1930)?
Wikipedia has a good description of him as a Greek scholar, teacher and
translator. Let me quote a bit from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Way
Way's versions give accurate renderings of the meaning of the originals
expressed in vigorous verse. The list of his translations in Miller's Australian
Literature includes Odyssey, the Iliad, Euripides, Æschylus, Sophocles, the
Epodes of Horace, Vergil's Georgics, the Nibelungenlied, the Chanson de Roland,
Theocritus, Bion, Moschus, the New Testament Biblical letters of Paul and
Hebrews entitled, The Letters of St. Paul to Seven Churches and Three Friends
with The Letter to the Hebrews, Aristophanes, Hesiod, Virgil, Lucretius, The Lay
of the Nibelung Men, The Song of Roland and others. Way was also the author of
Homer (1913), Greek through English (1926), and Sons of the Violet-Crowned, a
Tale of Ancient Athens (1929).
End of quote.
What is of most interest to me is his excellent translation of Paul's Letters
from 1906. In the preface to his translation he says the following which may
ring a bell for those of you who teach Greek:
"Conceding all that is urged in praise of the dignity and beauty of the
Authorised Version, and the charm of its rhythm, it can hardly be denied that,
if the first requisite of a translation is that it shall convey with absolute
clearness the meaning of the original, that version is in many parts of the
Epistles far from adequate. If a student handed in such a rendering of a passage
of Thucydides or Plato, as the Authorised Version supplies (to give but one
instance) of 2 Corinthians, 10:13-16, he would be told by his tutor that he did
not understand his author."
One famous passage where all English versions that I know off (except Way and an
NLT and CEV footnote) have failed to understand the author is 1 Tim 2:15, and
they therefore present non-sensical translations. The reason for their failure
is the lack of awareness or recognition of metonymy (and synecdoche) which is
much more common in NT Greek than it is in English. Some commentators, like D.
Moo, have understood Paul, as quoted by the NET bible note: "“It is not through
active teaching and ruling activities that Christian women will be saved, but
through faithfulness to their proper role, exemplified in motherhood” (Moo, 71).
In this view τεκνογονία [TEKNOGONIA] is seen as a synecdoche in which
child-rearing and other activities of motherhood are involved."
Way translates: Yet through her motherhood shall woman be saved, if your women
swerve not from faith and love and self-consecration, coupled with virtuous
self-control.
Arthur Way's translation of Paul's letters may be found at:
http://www.archive.org/details/lettersofstpault00londuoft
Iver Larsen
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