From: Iver Larsen (alice-iver_larsen@wycliffe.org)
Date: Wed Dec 06 2000 - 01:40:13 EST
> At 10:17 AM +0100 12/5/00, Iver Larsen wrote:
> >I would encourage those who have an interest in new ideas to look
up the
> >references
> >and look at the Greek text afresh, rather than from the standpoint
of English
> >traditional translations. Maybe one should start with Luke 16:8,
which NIV
> >translates
> >as follows: "For the people of this world are more shrewd in
dealing with
> >their own
> >kind than are the people of the light." The Greek word GENEA is
translated
> >by NIV as
> >"kind (of people)".
>
> While I do appreciate hearing more about what the article here
referenced
> actually says, the above statement does appear to me somewhat
curiously
> phrased. I personally would encourage anyone who CAN read Greek "to
look at
> the Greek text of any passage under consideration afresh, rather
than from
> the standpoint of English traditional translations." I would
earnestly hope
> that a major preoccupation of B-Greek is "looking at the Greek text
afresh,
> rather than from the standpoint of English traditional
translations"--and
> yet the statement above is followed immediately with a reference to
what I
> would call "traditional" translations.
Yes, Carl, I am glad to hear we have the same hopes. My intention was
not to draw any conclusions from an English translation, but to use
the NIV as an illustration for a conclusion already drawn. I could
have taken illustrations from non-English translations, too. For
instance, in the various Danish translations of the NT, the word for
"generation" is never used to translate GENEA, although it could have
been used for sense 3. (I mention these because I am from Denmark). It
is a peculiar English tradition.
>
> Moreover, just as a matter of taking the context seriously as well
as the
> range of meanings a phrase like hAUTH hH GENEA (not just the lone
word
> GENEA) has in different contexts throughout the Greek Bible and
Hebrew or
> Aramaic words that it may represent, it still strikes me as odd that
one is
> concerned to look for a non-eschatological sense to a word like
GENEA where
> it appears in what is so obviously an eschatological context.
> --
I think I agree here, too. What I intended to say is that the time
component which is an integral part of the English word "generation"
is not necessarily a component of meaning of GENEA, and is never a
component of GENEA hAUTH. Nor is there ever a contrast between "this
GENEA" and any other GENEA. This is indicated by the word order. The
demonstrative always follows as in GENEA hAUTH. The phrase hAUTH hH
GENEA does not occur in the NT, and this is significant. Other
modifiers may precede GENEA in which case there is a contrast or
emphasis on the modifier. This happens in 4 of the 37 occurrences of
GENEA in the NT and in all 4 is the time component present: Luke 1:48
PASAI HAI GENEAI, Acts 13:36 IDIAi GENEAi, Eph 3:5 hETERAIS GENEAIS,
Eph 3:21 EIS PASAS TAS GENEAS TOU AIWNOS TWN AIWNWN. AMHN. (I should
perhaps add that PAS by default precedes the noun it modifies. Only if
there is a marked emphasis on the noun rather than PAS, will the noun
be mentioned first. I also noticed that two of my references in the
earlier e-mail got truncated when I pasted them in from the article.
They should be Luke 1:50, not 1:5, and Acts 14:16, not 14:1. Sorry.)
Iver Larsen
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