Re: Nitpicking(?) at translations - Romans 10:11

From: Carl William Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Wed Feb 11 1998 - 13:36:59 EST


On Wed, 11 Feb 1998, Eric Weiss wrote:
>
> Thanks for your response! While I concur that "No one who believes in him ..."
> is better English, the switching of the negation to the protasis still, to me,
> slightly changes the "feel" of Paul's statement. Throughout Romans, including
> this chapter, Paul writes about this salvation, etc., being available to
> "everyone" who believes, Jew and gentile, God being rich to "all" who call
> upon him, etc. So I guess since it's an English style issue and not a Greek
> syntax issue, I'd continue using "everyone," even when he's writing about what
> WON'T happen to these "everyones" - and even if the English suffers a bit. Is
> that okay?

Sure, it's a judgment call, all the more obvious since competent
translators have done it both ways. Personally I think that a universal
statement is as strong whether it is phrased positively or negatively. I
would suggest, however, that in terms of rhetorical improvement, one might
at least change Paul's phrasing to the plural:

        "All who trust in him will not be disappointed."
That is, I think, better than
        "Everyone who trusts in him will not be disappointed."

My old motto belongs here: DE GUSTIBUS NON DISPUTANDUM, ATTAMEN DISPUTANT
OMNES.

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University
One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO, USA 63130
(314) 935-4018
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cwc@oui.com
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/



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