From: clayton stirling bartholomew (c.s.bartholomew@worldnet.att.net)
Date: Thu Dec 25 1997 - 06:23:49 EST
In reply to Mark Jospeph's question about Rolf Furuli's assertion:
>In any Bible translation the
>theology of the translators will and must play an important role
I would like to fabricate a story in response to illustrate the problems
raised by this question. This story is pure fiction.
*****
In 1982 James Barr and Bruce Waltke were sitting in a small cafe in Paris
where they were discussing in French the first two verses of Genesis. Both men
spoke French fluently. Waltke and Barr were able after two hours to agree on
the syntax of the first two verses of Genesis. After another hour they were
able to agree on several aspects of Hebrew cosmology that were reflected in
these verses. After drinking five Lattes Waltke was becoming agitated. Barr
after a quantity of good French brandy was becoming somewhat boisterous. They
broke off the discussion and Waltke paid for his tab and walked off into the
Paris night with a headache. James Barr ordered another brandy.
******
These two men came to the discussion with rather different metaphysical
precommittments about the nature of the cosmos, history, teleology, etc. They
spoke in French fluently about an ancient Hebrew document. Do you think their
use of French was colored by their metaphysical precommittments? Do you think
their understanding of the ancient Hebrew document was colored by their
metaphysical precommittments?*
-- Clayton Stirling Bartholomew Three Tree Point P.O. Box 255 Seahurst WA 98062*My answer to both questions is Yes. ------------------------------------------------
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