From: Eric Weiss (eweiss@gte.net)
Date: Wed Feb 11 1998 - 15:11:37 EST
Carl William Conrad wrote:
> On Wed, 11 Feb 1998 01:05:49, Eric Weiss posed the following question:
> I don't think there's anything more than rhetoric involved in this
> "nitpicking at translations"-- (snip) And I think that it is
> the rhetoric of such a universal that has occasioned those who have
> shifted the negation from the result clause to the protasis to do so: it's
> simply better English. Compare:
>
> "Whoever believes in him will not be disappointed."
> "No one who believes in him will be disappointed."
>
> I think that once the change to an explicit universal condition has been
> made, the second formulation is clearly the better English.
Thanks for your response! While I concur that "No one who believes in him ..."
is better English, the switching of the negation to the protasis still, to me,
slightly changes the "feel" of Paul's statement. Throughout Romans, including
this chapter, Paul writes about this salvation, etc., being available to
"everyone" who believes, Jew and gentile, God being rich to "all" who call
upon him, etc. So I guess since it's an English style issue and not a Greek
syntax issue, I'd continue using "everyone," even when he's writing about what
WON'T happen to these "everyones" - and even if the English suffers a bit. Is
that okay?
-- "Eric S. Weiss" eweiss@gte.net http://home1.gte.net/eweiss/index.htm
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