From: George Athas (gathas@mail.usyd.edu.au)
Date: Fri May 26 2000 - 04:24:26 EDT
> Molotov-Clay wrote:
> We have a number of quite adequate English translations of the bible
> available. We don't need to have it translated again by everyone who took
> three years of Greek in Seminary. A pastor who gets up in the pulpit on
> Sunday and says "this ought to be translated so and so" is putting his NT
> Greek study to poor use. That in my humble opinion is not the reason we read
> the NT in Greek.
I don't see how going back to the original and conveying the sense of the original with
fresh vocabulary and idiom is a bad thing. Any translation is always a limitation -- an
exegete is there to bring the text to life.
There are, however, occassions when the English translations have been plainly wrong. In a
church context, if the congregation is using one particular translation and the
translators have not quite understood what is being said, or they have just simply got it
wrong, then I believe it is a preacher's duty to highlight what the original says. How
could this ever be a bad thing -- unless it is done in a pretentious way which sees the
preacher/exegete trying to put themself on a pedestal rather than bring the listener into
a better understanding of the text?
Best regards,
GEORGE ATHAS
- University of Sydney
- Southern Cross College
- Anglican Chaplaincy, UNSW
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