From: Steven Lo Vullo (doulos@merr.com)
Date: Sun Dec 02 2001 - 15:45:22 EST
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On Sunday, December 2, 2001, at 10:14 AM, Clwinbery@aol.com wrote:
> The net Bible translates:
> 18:13 The tax collector, however, stood38 far off and would not even
> look up39
> to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, be merciful40 to me,
> sinner
> that I am!’41
>
> Note 41 refers to Wallace and makes the point that the prayer
> emphasizes his
> status as a sinner.
I had a chance to look at this text and note in the NET Bible last
night. Frankly I was puzzled. I don't think I am nit-picking when I
point out a contradiction between the NET translation itself and the
reference in note 41 to Wallace's category of "par excellence." What
Wallace says about par excellence is that it is used to point out a
substantive that is in a sense "in a class by itself" in virtue of being
the best or worst of a class (p. 222). Whether or not "sinner that I am"
is a good translation is not my point here. My only point is that, while
it brings out the emotion-packed nature of the tax collector's words
(which seems appropriate in the context), it certainly doesn't give the
impression that the tax collector necessarily thinks he is the WORST of
all sinners. It only indicates that he has a sense that he is a very bad
sinner. But other people may be very bad sinners as well. Again, I'm not
commenting on the appropriateness of the translation, just on the
apparent contradiction between the text and supportive note. Wallace
himself translates Luke 18.13 as "O God, be merciful to me, the sinner."
And I frankly fail to see how one could express par excellence as
defined by Wallace without using the article in translation.
=============
Steven Lo Vullo
Madison, WI
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