Translating Literally

2000-12-24 21:11:00

Chris wrote:

"The practice of handing out brightly wrapped gifts from underneath the Christmas Tree on December 25 designed to spread 'Good Cheer' originated from the Northern European practice of the sharing of fluorescent red and white hallucinogenic mushrooms of the variety Amanita muscaria...."

JJ:

Very interesting addition, Chris. I'll have to add that to the list for next year.

As far as words from ancient languages being translated into modern vernacular goes -- many are correctly not translated literally. For instance, as you examine the passages in which TSAPHON was translated 'North' you can see that they are indeed referring to the direction of North as opposed to South or an ancient city. But you can also see why they used the word TSAPHON for that particular direction. It means "dark" or "hidden" and the further north you go the darker it gets. Thus the ancients associated TSAPHON with North.

Many words in ancient languages are like this and it is much better to translate them with the best current word than the source word. Using source words only will give a misleading translation.

I like the method of translation of the Concordant version of the Bible which I deem to be the most accurate for giving us the original meaning or intent of the writer. Keep in mind that many of the Biblical Hebrew words differ in meaning from Modern Hebrew so finding the original intent of the writer is not an exact science.

What Concordant people do is first examine the source word. Then they examine the context of the word in all ancient passages they can find and attempt to find the word that fits the best in all the writings. When they decide upon the word, they will use that word consistently unless some type of exception occurs. By using this method I have found their translation is far superior than any other I have examined.

You can find a link to the Concordant Bible on the Enlightened Links page at FreeRead.Com.