From: Joe A. Friberg (JoeFriberg@email.msn.com)
Date: Wed Dec 01 1999 - 15:30:35 EST
----- Original Message -----
From: "David A Bielby" <dbielby@juno.com>
Sent: Wednesday, December 01, 1999 8:49 AM
> I'm curious about the construction of XAIRETE KAI AGALLIASQE in Matthew
> 5:12. To my American English ear this sounds funny in translated
> as....rejoice and be exceedingly glad...
>
> Is it necessary to translate KAI here as and? Is this akin to
> parallelism?
Yes, this is (arguably) a case of hendiadys (one [referent] by two [words]).
There was some discussion of hendiadys in a couple of threads back in
6/20/99-7/27/99, but most of that focused on nominal constructions.
In this verbal construction, it is hard to imagine trying to separate out
these two verbs as referring to two separate actions. They are simply
synonymous verbs, and the hendiadys construction is simply a rhetorical
device used for emphasis. One thing to notice in the device is that there
is progression via intensification in the two verbs, but this is simply for
rhetorical effect.
> What are the best choices for translating this phrase?
For translation, it could be permissible to use independent non-conjoined
clauses:
- Rejoice! Be glad!
- Be glad! Exhilerate!
- Be glad! Be overjoyed!
- Be glad! Get excited!
If a language lacked adequate synonyms, simple repetition could be used:
- Be glad! Be very glad!
(I think of Paul in Phil 4.4: Rejoice...! I will say it again: Rejoice!)
It is even possible to coallesce the two verbs into a single expression
(this might be necessar in some languages, if repetition caused problems
because repetition necessarily implied two separate actions):
- Be extremely happy!
I kind of like the independent synonymous commands in the first group above.
You are right in looking to English usage to make this decision!
God Bless!
Joe Friberg
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