Comments on: How do You Say Hosanna in English?

By: bibleshockers

bibleshockers — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 00:07:18 +0000

I like the JPS:

“We beseech Thee, O LORD, save now! / We beseech Thee, O LORD, make us now to prosper!”

By: Gary Simmons

Gary Simmons — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 20:17:19 +0000

Simile, rather. I use metaphor generically.

By: Gary Simmons

Gary Simmons — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 20:15:01 +0000

Ooh, thank you for the information, Kurk!

I would like the flavor of re-Semitizing, but breaking the tradition would be more confusing that following it, just as swimming against the tide is always more tiring. However, if following the tide is something that would lead to drowning, then by all means fight the tide.

So, my question: is this a drowning issue? Not with explanatory footnotes. Footnotes are floatie-pads.

I hope this is an amusing metaphor.

By: J. K. Gayle

J. K. Gayle — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 11:58:54 +0000

Fascinating post! Why the Greek transliteration by Mark (then Matthew and John)?1

The LXX translators actually do a good job with Psalm 118:25 -

ὦ κύριε σῶσον δή ὦ κύριε εὐόδωσον δή

ho kurie soson de / ho kurie eudoson de

compared with

אָנָּא יְהוָה הֹושִׁיעָה נָּא אָֽנָּא יְהוָה הַצְלִיחָה נָּֽא׃

ana —- hoshi’a na / ana —- tsalach’a na

JPS (with similarities to KJV) seems to do well with the following:

“We beseech Thee, O LORD, save now! / We beseech Thee, O LORD, make us now to prosper!”

I like your questions here too, Gary. Willis Barnstone, who has retransliterated some of the English transliterations of Greek transliterations of the Hebrew, actually addresses the problems of “Judas.” (He also addresses the problems of “Jesus”). Barnstone “re-Semiticizes,” as you say, Gary. Interestingly, he keeps “hosanna” without a footnote to explain anything but the reference back to Psalms. See his Restored New Testament.

By: Gary Simmons

Gary Simmons — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 04:29:48 +0000

Perhaps of relevance is the difficulty people have in pronouncing Semitic expressions. Really and truly, something like “Beer LaHai Roi” or “Lo Rachumah” are just too foreign. As to the few occurrences of Hosanna, this is a difficult question. It seems to me that following the traditional rendering results in 1. keeping the traditional flavor, and 2. causing a moderate amount of confusion. If were were to translate it as “Save!” or paraphrase it as “Praise God,” we would kill the tradition and introduce a small amount of confusion (alleviating more confusion than we sow). If we amend it to Hoshianna, then we introduce more confusion than was there in the first place. I’m undecided as to how re-Semitizing this would affect the tradition, but it would definitely introduce further confusion (for most Gentiles, at least).

On a related note, what are your thoughts on marana tha (“Our Lord, come!”) or maran atha (“our Lord has come”)? Do English translations ever simply transliterate this Aramaic expression?

… and what to do about Iscariot? Would he be Judah “the dyer,” or Judah “from Kerioth?” I would prefer either of those two renderings to simply “Iscariot.” That is so Septuagint to just transliterate an awkward phrasing. [And we could leave "Judah" and "Jacob" out of this, I suppose]