Re: Using English ponies

From: Edgar M. Krentz (emkrentz@mcs.com)
Date: Thu Jan 25 1996 - 10:14:22 EST


Ken Litwak wrote as follows:

> WHile Edward Hobbs has made a valid point about using English ponies, the
>question does arise when translating, "if what I'm coming up with makes little
>sense, who's at fault, the LXX/Jerome/whomever, or me?" ... So how do I
>know >when to go with what the grammar and words seem to say and when to
>say "this is >obviously not right. Where's my NASB?".

>P.S.,
>
> This isn't a problem unique to the LXX certainly. I'll admit it, I've never
>read Plato. So if I'm translating Plato, how do I know if I'm right, unless
>I use an English pony to check my work?

How do you know the *pons asinorum,* the pony, is correct? The answer to
the two questions at the end of your first paragraph are (1) You always go
with what the words and grammar say, checking out all the possibilities
that semantics and syntax offer. You may, of course, suspect the text has
been corrupted in the process of transmission through the ages. Then
classical scholars resort to conjectural emendation. In the NT that is
almost never necessary, given the number of MSS we have.

In a first year seminary class today I used the term EPERWTHMA in 1 Pet
3:21 to show how translators and lexicographers differ widely on what a
single term can, may, should, or must mean in a pasage.

And as for the Plato comment, "how do I know I'm right, unless I use an
English pony to check my work?" If that is how you use tran,slations, then
you do not need to go to the trouble of studying Greek or translating. One
uses Greek to discover what the translations ought to mean, whether in
Plato or the NT. You use them to see how others have tried to solve
difficulties, then go back to the philological tools (lexicon, grammar,
concordance, parallel passages) to evaluate their solutions and in the
process deepen your own understanding of the text.

Translations can be an aid, especially if you use many of them. But the
moment you use one to decide if your own work is correct, you have reversed
the procedure you should follow. Luther's father confessor told him _pecca
fortiter_ when he confessed minor sins. That is how a graduate student or a
scholar goes at translation and intepretation. Let the text lead you, _ora
et labora_ (pray and work), and then sin boldly.

Pardon the homiletical tone of this response. And the length that went
beyond what I usually aim at.

Peace and -30-

Edgar Krentz, New Testament
Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago
1100 East 55th Street
Chicago, IL 60615
Tel.: 312-256-0752; (H) 312-947-8105



This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Sat Apr 20 2002 - 15:37:36 EDT