[B-Greek] Help With Translating Article Adverb

nebarry nebarry at verizon.net
Thu Feb 17 12:31:18 EST 2011


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Robert Campanaro" <rcampanaro at comcast.net>
To: <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Thursday, February 17, 2011 11:46 AM
Subject: [B-Greek] Help With Translating Article Adverb




> In the Greek text, Hebrews 3:13 reads, "ACHRIS HOU SEMERON  KALEITAI" 
> (αχρις ου το σημερον καλειται) I seem  to be having difficulty handling 
> "TO SEMERON" In Dan Wallace's work  "Greek Grammar Beyond The Basics" (pg. 
> 232-233) he has a discussion of  the article's use with adverbs, in which 
> he gives 16 examples, out of  which there are 4 where the article may 
> simply be dropped in the  translation, e.g. Acts 18:6:
>
> APO TOU NUN EIS TA ETHNE POREUSOMAI (From now on, I will go to the 
> Gentiles)
>
> Of course you could keep the article and render it as (from the  present 
> time) but to make better sense in English I think it's best to  drop it 
> and render it simply (from now on). I'm therefore inclined to  translate 
> Heb 3:13: "ACHRIS HOU" (while) "TO SEMERON" (today)  "KALEITAI" (it is 
> called) or "while it is called today." But I've  recently understood that 
> if  "ACHRIS HOU" is translated "until"  instead of "while" then the 
> article may not simply substantise the  adverb but could actually point to 
> some other temporal entity, and  thus be translated. "Until (that day) or 
> (time) which is called  today." If someone could clear up my confusion it 
> would be much  appreciated. Thanks.

Robert, your're doing the grammatical equivalent of hyper-ventilating... 
Take a deep breath...  :)

Your example is not quite parallel.  In Acts 18:6, the article substantizes 
the phrase, APO TOU NUN, "from the present time," i.e., "from now on."  In 
Hebrews 3:13, however, the article serves the purpose of showing that 
SHMERON is being concieved not as a word functioning in the context, but as 
a vocabulary item.  We would use quotation marks to create the same effect, 
"while it is called 'today.'"  This is standard use of the article in Greek 
when wants wants to talk about a word as a word rather than using it as an 
item functioning grammatically in a context.  As to the translation of ACRIS 
HOU, I would render it as "while" because of the present tense KALEITAI.

N.E. Barry Hofstetter
Classics and Bible @ TAA
http://www.theamericanacademy.net





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