Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Jim West <jwest AT highland.net>]

At 01:45 PM 12/22/2004, you wrote:

> Yes, this is precisely as I said.
>
> george
> gfsomsel
> ___________

Now make up your mind.  Are you using paraphrase as Peter is or as the 
dictionary is- because you seem to be changing your mind.  A paraphrase is 
taking words and simplifying them for a wider audience- which is what the 
NWT does.  It is not a translation- as I have already said.  It is a 
paraphrase.  A translation renders, as closely as possible, words from one 
language into another.  The American Standard Version is a translation; the 
NIV is a paraphrase, as are most modern renderings.  Why?  because their 
interest is not in translating words- but "ideas" and hence they 
paraphrase. The KJV is a paraphrase as well, seeing as how it simply 
paraphrased Wycliffe and other english versions (while of course pretending 
to consult the originals).  If you want to translate hebrew into english 
that's one thing.  Something totally separate is taking what you think the 
words mean and rendering them in another way in order to simplify for the 
unwashed masses.

There is, in sum, a great difference between translating, 
translations;  paraphrasing, and paraphrases.

Jim


++++++++++++++++++++
Jim West, ThD
Adjunct Professor of Biblical Studies
Quartz Hill School of Theology

http://web.infoave.net/~jwest Biblical Studies Resources
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