[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]
Re: Translation versus commentary
Thank you, Vincent for the sample of your "four-square wooden bible";
but to my mind it does illustrate the point *I* was trying to make.
It is no less *interpretative* than the NIV now. You say that "one can
see that Jesus had a strange, archaic way of saying "I tell you the truth""
-- but would Amen amen have seemed that way to the original listeners?
(or to the original readers of the Gospel, but that's another story :-)
"from above" has already been commented on by others; but the suggested
"from the top" again won't do because (apart from *failing* to capture
the pun) it again suggests that Jesus' statements were obscure to the
original hearers. That, it seems to me, is more grossly distorting
than anything in the _Good News Bible_.
Someone pointed out that in an earlier posting I said "alliteration"
when I meant "assonance". So even an oringinal text in the original
language may need translation!!
Regards, Dougls de Lacey, Cambridge, UK.