The first translations I turn to when I have a question are Rotherham's
Emphasized translation and the Concordant Literal New Testament. They seem
to be as literal if not more than the rest of my translations (and I have
quite an extensive collection). Do you have any preferences about these and
other English Bibles? I heard the Worrell translation was done pretty close
to the actual Greek. What are your thoughts on this?
Until I become more knowledgable in the future about the Greek, I would like
to have some idea what english translation Greek scholars read most.
Thank you for help.
Sincerely,
James Slayton
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Forwarded message:
From: mwpalmer@earthlink.net (Micheal Palmer)
To: ILKVM@aol.com, b-greek@virginia.edu
CC: cpylant@tiger.lsuiss.ocs.lsu.edu, cshort1@tiger.lsuiss.ocs.lsu.edu
Date: 97-02-20 16:50:59 EST
At 4:38 AM -0500 2/20/97, ILKVM@aol.com wrote:
>Mark 11:22 has the phrase, "Have faith in God" -- K21. Other translations
>read,"Have the faith of God. Those are the two most common renderings.
> However, I have heard that the Greek should really read, "Have the God kind
>of faith" or "Have the faith of God".
>
>Not being a Greek scholar, what do you have to say about this (putting your
>own theology aside, please)?
>
>Below, I listed four translations that read that way or similiar...
>
> Have God's faith -- The Bible in Basic English
>
> Have the kind of trust that comes from God -- The Jewish New Testament
>
> Have God's faith -- Numeric English New Testament
>
> Take hold on God's faithfulness -- Montgomery New Testament
The issue of genitives (QEOU) with PISTIS has been address on this forum
before, so I will not go into detail here. The archives should have the
earlier discussions (right Jonathan?).
I DO think, however, that a reading which takes QEOU as an objective
genitive is on dubious footing. That does not mean that it is impossible,
but that it is much more natural to read this construction as expressing a
subjective genitive since the verb which lies behind PISTIS (PISTEUW) does
not take an accusative case object. When a verb DOES take an accusative
case object, the equivalent deverbal noun can almost always take an
objective genitive modifier, but if the verb does not take an accusative
case object, the related deverbal noun (in this case PISTIS) does not tend
to take objective genitive modifiers.
I'm sure that this statement will generate some heat because many people
attach a great deal of emotional energy to some passages involving the
expression PISTIS IHSOU in Paul, and think that IHSOU must be read as
objective. I do not agree. When Paul wanted to be clear in making IHSOUS an
object of PISTIS he had a clear way to do so and availed himself of it
without needing an objective genitive:
Gal 3:26 DIA THS PIESTEWS EN CRISTWi IHSOU
(Yes. I know there is more than one way to read EN CRISTWi IHSOU here.)
Eph 1:15 PISTIN EN TWi KURIWi IHSOU
Col 2:5 THS EIS CRISTON PISTEWS UMWN
2 Tim 3:15 DIA PISTEWS THS EN CRISTWi IHSOU
See also Acts 20:21 PISTIN EIS TON KURION HMWN IHSOUN and 24:24 THS EIS
CRISTON IHSOUN PISTEWS.
Well. . . I guess I've said more than I intended to.
Anyway, James, you've raised an interesting question which has been the
source of much debate. I would side with those who see the most natural
reading of the grammar to be "the faith/faithfulness of God". That is, the
kind of confidence/trust/faithfulness which God exhibits. But I would not
go so far as to say that the other reading is impossible. I just see it as
more awkward (from a grammatical point of view).
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Micheal W. Palmer
Religion & Philosophy
Meredith College
mwpalmer@earthlink.net
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