Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Jonathan Robie <jonathan.robie AT sagus.com>]

At 03:00 PM 4/8/99 -0600, Williams, Wes wrote:
 
>I wondered the same thing myself in a previous post, although the thread
>crosses between Hebrew and Greek. I am following the lead of the B-Hebrew
>staff member, Jonathan, on this call, who is participating in the Greek
>threads.
 
I have been participating; I have also tried to avoid focusing on the Greek
itself, and to focus on questions directly related to the practice of
translation; eg, are the glosses in a lexicon authoritative or merely a key
to understanding a particular use, is a concordant translation a more
accurate translation, etc. 

I have gone so far as to discuss whether the major Greek lexica support a
particular reading of PRWTOTOKOS. I have tried to avoid issues that involve
going quite generally into theology, patristics, etc., but I haven't
reviewed my posts to see if I have crossed the line, and there are times
I've been unsure about where the line is.

I do wonder if we haven't exhausted the relevant aspects of this thread,
which has largely become a thread about the interpretation of PRWTOTOKOS in
a New Testament passage. This is not an official pronouncement, just a
personal feeling.

>Likely for the same reasons that Catholics, Methodists, Baptists, Jews,
>Presbyterians, Lutherans, and Mystical Mennonites explain their scriptural
>reasons when asked about scriptures in the versions and translations they
>use. We surely should reflect tolerance to another list member's theology
>while all focus on the merits of a language issue itself.

I agree: we should reflect tolerance to another list member's theology
while all focus on the merits of a language issue itself. Sometimes it may
be helpful to try to avoid theologically sensitive examples when
illustrating language issues. Perhaps the use of PRWTOTOKOS in Colossians
is not the best example to use when discussing translation and bias with
respect to the Hebrew Scriptures.

Jonathan
___________________________________________________________________________

Jonathan Robie          jwrobie AT mindspring.com

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