From: Paul Zellmer (zellmer@digitelone.com)
Date: Tue Aug 24 1999 - 18:52:28 EDT
Carl W. Conrad wrote
> At 12:55 PM -0500 8/24/99, Joseph Brian Tucker wrote:
> >Greetings
> >
> >OUAI SOI BHQSAIDA
> >
> >In an effort to capture the color and force of OUAI, the Scholars
Version
> >of the Jesus Seminar translates OUAI SOI BHQSAIDA "Damn you,
Bethsaida!" At
> >the expense of trying to be current, the use of "damn" loses, not the
sense
> >of anger, but certainly the sense of the gravity and pain conveyed by
the
> >original OUAI. As O. Betz notes such, "vulgarizing" destroys the
orginal
> >thrust of Jesus' words. (_Theologische Literaturzeitung_ 119 (1994),
no.
> >11, p. 989).
> >
> >What is the best understanding of OUAI and can someone provide
another way
> >to capture the original color and force of the OUAI?
>
> Well, of course one can go back to "Woe to you!" or you might use
"Curse you!"
> But my own feeling about this is that just how strong "Damn you!" is
> thought to be may depend upon the sensitivity of the reader or
listener to
> the word rather than to any implicit meaning in the word. This IS an
> onomatopoetic word isn't it that is expressive by virtue of its very
sound;
> it is the exact equivalent of the Latin VAE and it isn't far removed
from
> the older Hebrew, the later Yiddish OY, Oyveh, the Greek OI or OIMOI
or
> AIAI.
>
Carl, in this light, is it then basically the same as the German ACH?
If that is the case, then the equivalent in my sub-dialect of
Mid-Western American Conservative Christian (as best as I can describe
the influences) would be AAARGH! "Damn you" doesn't show nearly the
frustration with the deficiencies of language to describe the feeling.
Paul Zellmer
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