07-01-2008, 04:39 AM
June 30, 2008
George Lamsa was an native Assyrian born near the end if the 19th Century whose native language was Aramaic and whose family was Christian. He did not need a lexicon to ???translate??? the Peshitta, since it was the Bible of his youth and culture, it was written in his native language, and he was certainly a brilliant and precocious scholar. Well before the age of computers or efficient world-wide communication, he single-handedly translated the whole Peshitta including all of Old Testament, into English, and wrote extensive commentaries explaining major issues associated with translating from an ancient Aramaic culture to modern English. Lamsa???s knowledge of his native language is far more likely to be correct than literal word-for-word ???translations??? by people who do not have a native knowledge of Aramaic or Lamsa???s understanding of the ancient cultures of Aramaic-speaking peoples including the followers of Jesus.
To describe any of his brilliant translation as ???perverted??? is absurd. Lamsa points out repeatedly that words in Aramaic often have several meanings and there are idiomatic usages as well. Word for word literal ???translations??? did not work well for the Greeks and may not work well for English translators either. Context is important, and in Aramaic Lamsa instinctively understood the context of sentences written in his native language. A word may mean one thing in one context and mean something quite different in another. Lamsa has gone to some length to clearly explain this in his commentaries.
Dave, you seems to be quite inflexible in your handling of word traslation in different contexts. You claim that ???The Master referred to is God The Messiah, as made clear in verses 8-10.??? Well the ???master??? and ???God??? are separately referred to two times in Verse 6 by Lamsa and also in your translation where you have ???eats (or doesn???t eat) for his Lord and he gives thanks to God???, so that doesn???t make much sense.
What does make sense is Lamsa???s translation of the Book of Romans, as any reader can plainly see, especially in Chapter 14, which is about being helpful and not judging others.
Otto
George Lamsa was an native Assyrian born near the end if the 19th Century whose native language was Aramaic and whose family was Christian. He did not need a lexicon to ???translate??? the Peshitta, since it was the Bible of his youth and culture, it was written in his native language, and he was certainly a brilliant and precocious scholar. Well before the age of computers or efficient world-wide communication, he single-handedly translated the whole Peshitta including all of Old Testament, into English, and wrote extensive commentaries explaining major issues associated with translating from an ancient Aramaic culture to modern English. Lamsa???s knowledge of his native language is far more likely to be correct than literal word-for-word ???translations??? by people who do not have a native knowledge of Aramaic or Lamsa???s understanding of the ancient cultures of Aramaic-speaking peoples including the followers of Jesus.
To describe any of his brilliant translation as ???perverted??? is absurd. Lamsa points out repeatedly that words in Aramaic often have several meanings and there are idiomatic usages as well. Word for word literal ???translations??? did not work well for the Greeks and may not work well for English translators either. Context is important, and in Aramaic Lamsa instinctively understood the context of sentences written in his native language. A word may mean one thing in one context and mean something quite different in another. Lamsa has gone to some length to clearly explain this in his commentaries.
Dave, you seems to be quite inflexible in your handling of word traslation in different contexts. You claim that ???The Master referred to is God The Messiah, as made clear in verses 8-10.??? Well the ???master??? and ???God??? are separately referred to two times in Verse 6 by Lamsa and also in your translation where you have ???eats (or doesn???t eat) for his Lord and he gives thanks to God???, so that doesn???t make much sense.
What does make sense is Lamsa???s translation of the Book of Romans, as any reader can plainly see, especially in Chapter 14, which is about being helpful and not judging others.
Otto