Atranslator must understand and interpret all the linguistic signals in his source, and use those signals in a way that is both natural in the target language and congruent to the original text. Every language has particular ways of putting a story together, and the more a translator knows about each language’s construction system, the better translation he will provide.
In Hebrew events are joined together by -ְו (ve-, “and”), while in English we generally prefer not to have a conjunction. Hebrew also carefully distinguishes word order to signal the structure of the story. This can be very significant for a translator, and for Gospel research.
Premium Members
If you are not a Premium Member, please consider becoming one starting at $10/month (paid monthly) or only $5/month (paid annually):
One Time Purchase Rather Than Membership
Rather than a membership, you may also purchase access to this entire page for $1.99 USD. (If you do not have an account select "Register & Purchase.")
Comments 2
Pingback: Sending the Twelve: “The Harvest Is Plentiful” and “A Flock Among Wolves” | JerusalemPerspective.com Online
It appears to me that ‘tote’ – ‘az’ is functioning very much like the waw consecutive used in narrative. I have translated the waw as ‘then’ many times, e.g. ‘then there is setting, then there is daybreak: one day”, to show sequence. I couldn’t say my use of ‘then’ means I was translating Aramaic, since I was working with Hebrew. I noticed that Delitszch used waw consecutive for tote quite a number of times. In the LXX, is does appear that the Hebrew usage of waw consecutive has rubbed onto the use of KAI, and perhaps in non-Jewish Greek this usage is not so clear, and therefore, TOTE is used to bring out the Hebraic sense more clearly in Greek. So I am wondering if ‘tote’ can really be a marker to tell Aramaic over Hebrew influence?