Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!wuarchive!psuvax1!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: geoff@pmafire.UUCP (Geoff Allen) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Seventeenth Century Language Message-ID: Date: 23 Sep 89 08:22:39 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: WINCO Computer Engineering, INEL, Idaho Lines: 35 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article bnr-fos!bmerh490!hwt@watmath.waterloo.edu (Henry Troup) writes: > >Personally, I think the Jews have the right of it - rather than >translate the Scripture, teach everyone the to read the original. I remember reading a translation of the Koran (or Quran, or however you want to spell it) once that apologized for being a translation. The translators commented that they realized that no translation could do justice to the original. They also said that a Muslim who really wants to read the Koran will learn Arabic and read it as originally written. I found this to be a very convicting statement. How many Christians do you know who can even read one word of Greek? Let alone Hebrew. I must confess that my Greek is pretty bad, but at least I'm working on it. -- Geoff Allen \ Since we live by the Spirit, {uunet,bigtex}!pmafire!geoff \ let us keep in step with the Spirit. ucdavis!egg-id!pmafire!geoff \ -- Gal. 5:25 (NIV) [There is at least some argument in the other direction. From all accounts, the Koran is a work of poetry, and really does not translate well. The NT is written in very straightforward language. Tbe problem with trying to read it in the original Greek is that the places where translation is a problem are places where those with only a cursory knowledge of Greek are likely to jump to the wrong conclusion. I do believe that it is useful to study Greek. But I suggest that unless you go fairly far with it, you should use it primarily to help you understand commentators whose notes are based on the Greek. In my experience, when people start referring to the Greek, there's a good chance it's because they're trying to sell a theory that isn't accepted by most scholars. It's a sure way to end a discussion: "It says here in the Bible ..." "But according to Pastor X, the word translated as day really means night". What can you say? --clh]