Re: Translation: Glossing, Domains, Arguments

From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Fri May 26 2000 - 07:26:37 EDT


It's good to see George Athas back in our midst; how long has it been? At
least two years since we last heard from you on B-Greek?

I think that you and Clay are both looking askance at pedantic or
demonstrative displays of Greek erudition in sermons. On the other hand, it
doesn't seem to me that a sermon is the occasion ordinarily for doing
exegesis before a congregation; I think rather that the sermon is the place
to make use of one's exegesis to proclaim the Word. But in saying that, I
may be giving voice more to my own Presbyterian traditional sense of the
function of preaching. I think rather that the occasion for reference to
the original language Biblical text and discussion of the rightness or
wrongness of versions is the Bible Study class where there's room for the
give-and-take of alternative perspectives on the question.

At 6:24 PM +1000 5/26/00, George Athas wrote:
>> Molotov-Clay wrote:
>> We have a number of quite adequate English translations of the bible
>> available. We don't need to have it translated again by everyone who took
>> three years of Greek in Seminary. A pastor who gets up in the pulpit on
>> Sunday and says "this ought to be translated so and so" is putting his NT
>> Greek study to poor use. That in my humble opinion is not the reason we read
>> the NT in Greek.
>
>I don't see how going back to the original and conveying the sense of the
>original with
>fresh vocabulary and idiom is a bad thing. Any translation is always a
>limitation -- an
>exegete is there to bring the text to life.
>
>There are, however, occasions when the English translations have been
>plainly wrong. In a
>church context, if the congregation is using one particular translation
>and the
>translators have not quite understood what is being said, or they have
>just simply got it
>wrong, then I believe it is a preacher's duty to highlight what the
>original says. How
>could this ever be a bad thing -- unless it is done in a pretentious way
>which sees the
>preacher/exegete trying to put themself on a pedestal rather than bring
>the listener into
>a better understanding of the text?
>
>Best regards,
>GEORGE ATHAS
>- University of Sydney
>- Southern Cross College
>- Anglican Chaplaincy, UNSW
>:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
>Tel Dan Inscription Website
>http://members.xoom.com/gathas/teldan.htm
>:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
>
>
>---
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--

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University
Summer: 1647 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cwconrad@ioa.com
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/

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