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NASB | Matthew 1:18 ¶ Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Matthew 1:18 ¶ Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by [the power of] the Holy Spirit. |
Bible Question:
Greetings Forum Friends! In light of the recent discussion about the new TNIV, I thought it would be interesting to get everyone's feedback on this question. Is it best to be woodenly literal when traslating or is it best to attempt to put the original language into it's English equivalent? There are many passage where even very literal translations will disagree, simply because the original language leaves out words, implies words, or uses constructions which are extremely difficult to understand. These are not the issue of my question. I am simply curious as to where we draw the line. For example: Example 1: Matt. 1:18 literally says of Mary, "...she was found in belly having of the Holy Spirit". Most translations say that "she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit". Would it be better or worse to simply say: "...It was discovered that she was pregnant." Example 2: John 6:47 literally says, "Amen Amen, I say to you, 'He who believes has life eternal'". The "he who" is the literal translation of the masculine pronoun associated with the participle "believing". Clearly this is a universal passage, which does not refer to only those of a masculine gender. So, would it be better to translate this passage as: "Everyone who believes" or "All who believe" rather than "He who"? My reason for questioning is simply to get your thoughts on how far we should go in our attempts to make a translation understandable. I am not defending or condemning the TNIV at this point, since I haven't read any of it yet - and may not! :-) Your Brother in Christ, Tim Moran |
Bible Answer: Greetings, Tim! I'm in favor of a more "literal" approach rather than an approach that attempts to better translate "meaning." When the Greek or Hebrew word is clearly masculine or feminine or neither, then I feel that that tendency should be reflected within the English text. As far as translation goes, this is where I would draw the line: to render as best as possible word for word, and to make the smallest exception for the text where a word for word translation would be misleading. For instance, I believe that Matt. 1:18 should be "she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit". My reasoning behind this is because we still keep the words "she was found" and "Holy Spirit", and using 'with child' best embodies the meaning of 'having the Holy Spirit in the belly' in this verse. To simply say that "it was discovered that she was pregnant" is to take way too much liberty with the text! I would expect this from a commentary, and not from a translation. First of all, the second rendering takes away the presence of the Holy Spirit, which is very important. Secondly, I believe that there is absolutely nothing wrong with the more literal rendering; that is, that it is already very understandable just the way that it is. There is no need to "further simplify" things. In John 6:47, the Greek word used for 'he' is a word that carries a masculine affinity. Therefore, I believe that if the Greek word is clearly masculine, than that should reflect itself in English as well. Granted, this passage does have a "universal" meaning. However, if we follow the masculine Greek pronoun by using a masculine English pronoun to match it, and if we see the results: "He who believes..", then we retain that "universal" meaning as well, since 'he' clearly refers to whoever believes. So I feel that by substituting "they" or "whomever" or "whoever" or "them" in places where there is a definite Greek masculine/feminine word being used, that we are taking too much liberty in translation, and we should stay as much as possible with the original intended reference that is displayed in the Greek. Just my thoughts! Your Brother in Christ, Makarios |