[B-Greek] Acts 7,26A
Polycarp66 at aol.com
Polycarp66 at aol.com
Mon Mar 22 11:04:06 EST 2004
In a message dated 3/22/2004 10:51:05 AM Eastern Standard Time,
iver_larsen at sil.org writes:
George, which is your standard "normal" translation? Is it the NASB or RSV?
Both of them give a rendering that is very poor and unnatural English: "he
appeared to them". KJV is even worse. NIV and REB are much better when they
say "he came upon". NLT says "he visited them again" referring to Moses as
an Egyptian prince walking around among his own people or the common people
and suddenly coming upon two Israelites who were fighting. It is not wrong
to translate a passive verb with an active verb, and I would not say that
the NET is wrong, because one of its goals is to use ordinary English. The
idea that every passive verb in the original must be translated by a passive
verb in English is at variance with normal translation principles as used by
professional translators.
_________
I fail to understand why you would consider "he appeared to them" as being
unnatural. It's perfectly comprehensible. It might be improved upon in the way
of conforming it more to every-day speech though I haven't made any
particular attempt to do so. Carl seems to indicate that "he appeared to them" would
be his understanding as well which is in agreement with my "he was seen by them
(being an attempt to indicate the form of WFQH)." IF I USE A TRANSLATION,
it's generally the RSV. The NRSV is generally good, but I can't stomache the
gender neutral approach.
gfsomsel
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