[b-greek] Acts 2:38

From: Wayne Leman (Wayne_Leman@SIL.ORG)
Date: Sat May 26 2001 - 23:51:21 EDT



----- Original Message -----
From: "Glenn Blank" <glennblank@earthlink.net>

>
> Wayne,
>
> Paul Schmel wrote,
>
> > How about, "Repent and be baptized.....which will result in your sins
> being

> > forgiven"?
>
> The problem I have with that translation is that it "overtranslates":
there
> is nothing in the construction EIS AFESIN TWN hAMARITAN, and IMO nothing
in
> the context, to disambiguate between result and purpose, which are both
> possible senses of EIS. This is the advantage of using "for" to translate
> EIS -- it contains the same ambiguity.
>
> (Of course, Wayne, I'm not sure if having purpose in the translation helps
> your theological position any better than an explicitly stated result)

I thought further about what I said after pushing the Send button (sound
familiar?!) and realized that if the conjoined phrase "repent and be
baptized" is taken together as the grounds for the result, then I'm OK with
it theologically.

>
> Ted Mann wrote
>
> >> Is it entirely unreasonable to translate this as: "Repent... and be
> >> baptized... into [i.e., into the condition of] the forgiveness of
> sins..."?
>
> Wayne wrote
> >Wouldn't that require an EN, Ted?
>
> Don't dismiss Ted's suggestion out of hand.

Thanks for that caution, your explanation, and I extend my apologies to Ted.
I wasn't really dismissing his suggestion, but needing clarification, but I
didn't state that nicely enuf.

> EN would be "in," not "into."
> In fact, EIS carries the sense of "into" at least as often as the sense of
> "toward" (e.g. EIS THN POLIN "into the city" - Matthew 26:18; EIS TON
OIKON
> "into the house" Matthew 9:7). This very easily suggests a metaphorical
use
> of "entering a condition of" e.g., John 5:24 EIS KRISIN "into
> condemnation," or Matthew 18:8 EIS ZWHN "into life."
>
> Of course, the problem of the naturalness of the translation remains.
Does
> "be baptized *for* the remission of sins" sound unnatural to your ears?

No, sorry.

I'm OK with the following, and probably some other possibilities. I just

need to have something that sounds grammatical to my ears. A lot of what I
call Gringlish doesn't sound grammatical to my English ears. I like my Greek
to be Greek and my English to be English. These are OK in my dialect of
English:

"Repent and be baptized so that your sins will be forgiven." (purpose)
"If you repent and be baptized your sins will be forgiven." (result)

>
> With Kind Regards,
> glenn blank

Are all your posts "blank" messages? <g>

Wayne
---
Wayne Leman
Bible translation site: http://www.geocities.com/bible_translation/



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