From: Wayne Leman (wleman@mcn.net)
Date: Wed Dec 06 2000 - 11:28:52 EST
Rafael, we have been discussing this question on the Bible translation
discussion list for a couple of weeks. You are welcome to read the messages
there, all of which deal with whether or not it is Abraham or Sarah who is
the subject of the main verb ELABEN. Here is the URL for the first message
in that topic thread:
http://www.egroups.com/messages/bible-translation/2199?viscount=-30
The subject header is "NIV Heb. 11:11". Some later messages (which you can
read also in those message archives) have the shorter subject header of
"Heb. 11:11". Carl Conrad, from this list, posted a comment, stating that he
felt strongly that Sarah was the subject of the main verb.
> This is my first post, so I humbly ask for patience.
>
> In Hebrews 11.11, UBS 4 Rev. reads: PISTEI KAI AUTH SARRA STEIRA DUNAMIN
EIS
> KATABOLHN SPERMATOS ELABEN KAI PARA KAIRON hHLIKIAS, EPEI PISTON hHGHSATO
> TON EPAGGEILAMENON. The first phrase (PISTEI KAI AUTH SARRA STEIRA
DUNAMIN)
> is listed as a 'C' reading, but the variants do not seem to affect the
> identification of the subject of this sentence.
>
> My question is: does anyone know why both the NIV (1984) and the NRSV
(1989)
> make Abraham the subject? The NIV blatantly supplies the so-far missing
> Abraham, while NRSV understands the subject of ELABEN simply as "he." Is
> there any reason not to understand Sara as the one described as faithful
> (Genesis accounts notwithstanding ;o} )?
Yes, one major semantic reason is that the Greek phrase KATABALHN SPERMATOS
literally means "to thrown down sperm" and is much more likely to refer to
the action of a man during procreation, although some commentaries feel it
is possible that the Greek (perhaps actually Hebraic) idiom could have been
semantically extended to include a woman's part in procreation. A couple of
messages in the Bible translation message archives deal with this issues.
Wayne
---
Wayne Leman
Bible translation site: http://www.geocities.com/bible_translation/
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