Johnny Skeptic

Hi Jeffrey,

You have aptly scolded Praxeus for refusing to discuss the original Greek. At http://www.tektonics.org/gk/inerrancy.html, there is an article by James Holding that is titled ‘Why We Could Not and Can Not Have Inerrant Copies and Translations of the Bible.’ If I am correct, Holding is on your side with “Have you ever read Chaucer or Shakespeare in the original? Most of you would look at that Olde English and understand a few words of it, but unless you were a scholar of that time period, or had Cliff's Notes, you would miss most or all of the puns, political references, etc. peculiar to that time. Now if we have such trouble with 400 year-old English, imagine what trouble the Septuagint translators had with even older Hebrew! They read it - but you can bet they didn't always UNDERSTAND it!”

Chris Weimer

Am I the only one who has read both Shakespeare (which was actually very easy) and Chaucer (took a little more work) in the original? Fun stuff, that is. Chaucer especially, it's the sound I love.

jgibson000

The assumptions you are working with here are (1) that the Hebrew that the LXX translators were working with was, vis a vis their own, an archaic Hebrew rather than something still very similar to what they knew and used, (2) that that the changes over time within Hebrew -- if any there were -- were as drastic as we were the changes that took place in English between Chaucer's and Shakespeare's time and between Shakespeare's and our own time, and (3) that the LXX translators were not experts in their nations history and language.

Now all of these assumptions may well be true. But they simply cannot be assumed as true.

In any case, thanks for your kind words.

Jeffrey

jgibson000

I don't know. But what seems clear is that you are one of the few of all who only post here on matters Greek and Latin (not to mention those who claim that we should regard what they say on matters Greek and Latin as authoritative), who actually reads Greek and Latin.


Now what do you say as regards Steve's "responsibility" claim?

Jeffrey

Chris Weimer

I couldn't have it any other way. I'm firm on that stance.

I find it hilarious. Why do you ask?

andrewcriddle

I've read most (by no means all) of Shakespeare and Chaucer in the original.

Chaucer is easier than typical Middle English because it is the sort of Middle English that developed into Modern English.

Gawain and the Green Knight is much more difficult.

Andrew Criddle