you are absolutely right about translating the english to hebrew. but the question was"can you, yourself translate that into Hebrew? and he said NO!. now tell me this old hippie, if you can translate hebrew into english, why couldnt you do it vice versa? I mean HELLO?, OH I MEAN HOLA?
Jehovahs witnesses so called translation of the Greek Scriptures
by youngdemar 21 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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Narkissos
if you can translate hebrew into english, why couldnt you do it vice versa?
Because classical Hebrew is an ancient language with only a limited corpus and vocabulary available. As a result, translating a modern text into it would involve a lot of lexical creativity -- unless what is asked is the mere retroversion of a Bible text, which would rather test the memory of the "candidate" rather than his philological knowledge. I doubt many Bible translators with adequate college education would take the risk either, especially in a judicial context where the very request betrays a basic ignorance of the linguistical problems involved.
What is required for Bible translation is a basic understanding of Hebrew (and Aramaic, and Greek) syntax and grammar, as well as access to the ongoing scholarly debate over the exact meaning of specific words and phrases, much of which is still subject to discussion.
I don't mean to defend F.W. Franz in that particular case, but I have no doubt that even if he was basically "self-taught" in Hebrew he may have quickly gained the expertise of the average Bible translator (that's no big thing when you actually do the work). The questionable character of his translation results from his general religious bias and his own deliberate choices, not ignorance imo.