07-09-2008, 03:29 AM
Akhi Dawid,
I get the gist of what you are saying now. Technically, I am not a translator. I offer no English translation of the Peshitta on this website. There are aspects of exegesis that are impossible with an interlinear text. It is a very raw type of literal "translation"...to use the term very loosely.
The very reason I chose to do an interlinear format, and only an interlinear, is because I did not want to translate what I consider to be an untranslatable text. The reasons are many, and I've stated them in the past. The task is an impossible one. You can never translate accurately, keeping the full meaning, from two different languages. Not even with two languages as close as Hebrew and Aramaic are. Hence, the imperfection of the Targums (and Peshitta Tanakh).
I make no effort to hide the Aramaic, either. I simply offer the closest English equivalent that conveys a somewhat similar meaning. In the vast majority of cases, the words are cognates. A "house" is a "house", a "fish" is a "fish." In other cases, it's not quite that simple.
Again, no translation is perfect. None are even close.
Why I chose an interlinear format is to show you the Aramaic - pay as little attention to the English as is possible within your capability. But, by all means, the original is right there in front of you. There's no reason to be suspect.
In that sense, you can be suspect with Etheridge and Murdoch, because they did not show you what they are translating.
I also agree with Dave - how would an Aramaic Primacist translating the Greek New Testament have any less bias in his translating, just because he doesn't feel the text in front of him is the original? In order to go through the trouble of translating, no easy task mind you, anyone with a bias (all of us) will not prevent it from showing.
BTW - Are you aware of any example where MRYA is used to translate anything other than YHWH, or is used in any context other than referring to God?
If so, I would be very interested in seeing it since many a professor and many a priest has failed to find a single example at my request.
+Shamasha
I get the gist of what you are saying now. Technically, I am not a translator. I offer no English translation of the Peshitta on this website. There are aspects of exegesis that are impossible with an interlinear text. It is a very raw type of literal "translation"...to use the term very loosely.
The very reason I chose to do an interlinear format, and only an interlinear, is because I did not want to translate what I consider to be an untranslatable text. The reasons are many, and I've stated them in the past. The task is an impossible one. You can never translate accurately, keeping the full meaning, from two different languages. Not even with two languages as close as Hebrew and Aramaic are. Hence, the imperfection of the Targums (and Peshitta Tanakh).
I make no effort to hide the Aramaic, either. I simply offer the closest English equivalent that conveys a somewhat similar meaning. In the vast majority of cases, the words are cognates. A "house" is a "house", a "fish" is a "fish." In other cases, it's not quite that simple.
Again, no translation is perfect. None are even close.
Why I chose an interlinear format is to show you the Aramaic - pay as little attention to the English as is possible within your capability. But, by all means, the original is right there in front of you. There's no reason to be suspect.
In that sense, you can be suspect with Etheridge and Murdoch, because they did not show you what they are translating.
I also agree with Dave - how would an Aramaic Primacist translating the Greek New Testament have any less bias in his translating, just because he doesn't feel the text in front of him is the original? In order to go through the trouble of translating, no easy task mind you, anyone with a bias (all of us) will not prevent it from showing.
Dawid Wrote:(snip)....especially since the origin of MRYA has not gone undisputed. It is not half so straightforward as you make it sound.
BTW - Are you aware of any example where MRYA is used to translate anything other than YHWH, or is used in any context other than referring to God?
If so, I would be very interested in seeing it since many a professor and many a priest has failed to find a single example at my request.
+Shamasha