Thoughts on Ambiguities

From: Theodore H. Mann (thmann@juno.com)
Date: Tue Jan 13 1998 - 06:38:39 EST


   Isn't it possible that apparent ambiguities in the NT are due to
language limitations inherent (I assume) in any language, especially when
trying to express spiritual concepts? Efforts are made to accurately
translate "what the writer had in mind," but did the writer himself
always know exactly what he had in mind, and even if he usually did, was
he always able to express it exactly? I sometimes read John 1(and other
NT passages), and feel as though the author was straining to give meaning
to something essentially incapable of being fully described by any
language, and that perhaps even he, being under the influence of the Holy
Spirit, was not quite certain of the full message or its implications.
( Even the Holy Spirit had to transmit the NT in Greek. ) If this is
true, and such ambiguities exist in the NT, I suppose it's the
translator's task to deliberately translate these passages "ambiguously,"
if he wants to translate exactly what the writer had in mind.
   As absolutely vital as it is ( thank God for translators and textual
critics ) to debate the precise "turn of phrase" in a given NT passage,
maybe the difficulty sometimes existed at the source, and is not entirely
capable of being grasped at this end.

Ted

Dr. Theodore "Ted" H. Mann
Orchard Lake, Michigan
thmann@juno.com



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