Here’s another question from the About page: Should English translations seek to retain subtle distinctions, such as the difference between dying and perishing? Much to my surprise, the (T)NIV chose to say “those who live by the sword will die by the sword” (Matthew 26:52). Since I grew up reading NIV, but have since become…
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From the About comes this great question: I have a question about the gender of nations. It seems like nations can be referred with both masculine and feminine pronouns. Is there any significance with this change? For example, Moab is “he” in Isa 16:12, Israel is “he” in Jer 2:14; 50:17 but “herself” in Jer…
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From the About page comes this question: The NET Bible does not render imperatives in Psalm 97:7, while others do. Their footnote is helpful, but not enough for me to opine on which is right. What light can you shed on this? The phrase here is hishtachavu lo kol elohim. The last three words mean,…
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T. C. Robinson reminds us how important footnotes are. Footnotes are generally used for three purposes: 1. To offer additional information, such as a source the text might be quoting, or a similar passage. 2. To let the reader know that the translator is not sure what the original means. 3. To let the reader…
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John Hobbins writes in favor of “retaining the standard ‘x and y’ collocation ‘God and men’” in I Samuel 2:26 and Luke 2:52, because it is an example of “standard literary English.” I think “peace on earth and good will toward men,” — another example that John mentions — is now a perfect example of…
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It seems that the default explanation for an unknown grammatical feature is to assume, often wrongly, that it is “emphatic.” Here are four examples, three from Hebrew (skip to them: one, two, three) and one from Greek (skip to it here). The Examples The Infix Nun From time to time, a nun will appear between…
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A well-known example in linguistics describes a group of people sitting a living room that has become chilly because a window has been left open. “It’s cold in here,” one person says, by which he means, “please close the window.” The second meaning is the pragmatic meaning in this case. The issue is important for…
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Rick Warren tweeted: To see consumerism on steroids, come here to Tokyo. “Life is not measured by how much one owns.” Luke 12:15 But neither Luke nor Jesus said that. Rick Warren did. (To be fair, so did the New Century Version translation.) The original Greek reads, “life is not estin…,” and estin just means…
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