In light of my last post, I thought it might be helpful to move beyond theory to actual translation. How would you translate the Hebrew ish and the Greek anthropos in the following passages? Genesis 2:24 [Hebrew]: “Therefore an ish leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife.” Genesis 2;24 [LXX]: “Therefore…
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What do we learn about men, women, and Jesus in the Bible from the Greek word anthropos?
Translators frequently have information at their disposal that doesn’t come directly from the text they are translating. Though it’s often tempting, it is nonetheless almost always a mistake to add the additional information into the translation. For example, if a mystery novel starts, “a man was walking by the beach,” the translator should not change…
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Even gender-accurate translations retain “son” and “man” in the phrase “the Son of Man,” presumably because it has become a fixed phrase. They do this even though most people recognize that anthropos (“man”) means “humankind” in the phrase, and that uios (“son”) is at least potentially inclusive, even if it refers to a specific male.…
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At the end of my discussion of anthropos, I concluded that one meaning of anthropos is “man,” and that we see that meaning in Matthew 12:10. Here I want to suggest that, even so, “man” may not be the best English translation for anthropos. Here’s why. One of my points before was that Greek makes…
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Matthew 12:9-14 The parable in Matthew 12:9-14 demonstrates so many key translation points (many of which have already come up recently, in posts too numerous to mention) that I think it’s worth taking a systematic look at that text and the issues it raises. The Plot As I understand it, the general plot of the…
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Anthropos More: My follow-up to this post The value of men, women and sheep Of sheep and men: overlooking wordplay in translation Aner: either male or female TNIV translators on the English language Following up on the brouhaha I seem to have started, here are some more thoughts on anthropos. Everyone agrees that, in various…
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In a recent discussion here, Paula asks about where the line is drawn between “translation” and what I called “explanation.” It’s a really important question. I don’t think I have an answer in terms of definitions, but I have a few examples, starting with just English. (It’s helpful to look at English to English “translations”…
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