I would be willing to transcribe it.
If you can find someone that can translate it...I would be more than happy to do it and send it to them for translation.
NWT Foreword in other languages
by InterestedOne 14 Replies latest watchtower bible
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InterestedOne
dgp - It looks like they originally published a Greek version of the just the "Christian Bible" or New Testament in 1993. Then the next sentence is referring to "this edition" which is probably the entire Bible - Old Testament and New Testament. The Old Testament is referred to by the JW's as the "Hebrew Scriptures," but the original writings involved Hebrew and Aramaic. I think they are saying this new updated edition contains a modern Greek version of the Old Testament (called the Hebrew-Aramaic Scriptures by JW's) as well as a revised version of the 1993 New Testament they had previously published in modern Greek. Ultimately, from the next sentence, it looks like it is all based on the 1984 English NWT.
Sorry if you already understood all that. I agree with you that it seems ridiculous that they would translate from the original languages to English and then from English to the modern target language. You'd think a translator would work from the original to the target without English as an intermediate. Granted, I don't know anything about translation, but at first glance it seems ridiculous.
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dgp
BrotherDan, you have a PM. I could do the transcription and translation, but that would take longer, of course. From what I heard, the second link is the one that contains Mr. Sánchez's comments about the translation into Spanish. Right now I can say that he says that they never consulted the Greek texts for their translation into Spanish.
Interested One, I think I didn't make my point. Maybe I was dizzy last night.
1. The languages of the Bible are Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek.
2. One could speculate that there is no need to translate from old Greek to modern Greek. Unless I am wrong, this is the same language. And they have the advantage that the New Testament/Greek Scriptures were written in their alphabet. I can see that they are using
3. I would have no trouble if the Watchtower told me that old Greek is very different from modern Greek, and that things need clarification. Much as, for example, the Canterbury Tales or Beowulf are not like modern English. No problem here.
4. Google translations are not very good, but I noticed that they say their version of the Bible is that of "Gouestkot and grass". I didn't find those terms on my websearch. I did notice that this version is supposed to have been published in 1881, which is the year when "Westcott and Hort" published their version of the New Testament/Greek Scriptures. My guess is, they used the same Greek version for every Bible.
OK.
If the original text is in Greek, and you're putting those words into Greek, Why do you need a "New World TRANSLATION" of the Greek stuff? They should simply use the text by Westcott and Hort (or "Gouestkot and grass") and give them the credit. The rest of the Bible, the texts in "Hebrew/Aramaic" they could translate, yes.
Now. If you're writing a foreword for Greek readers about a Greek text, why does your foreword have to include any references to the translation into English? There should be no need.
The Google translation states that
This edition contains the Greek translation of the Hebrew-Aramaic Scriptures, and a revision of the Greek version of the Christian Scriptures in 1993. Based on the revised English edition of 1984 mentioned above.
If they claim they used their translation into English to "truthfully" check their translation into Spanish, are we wrong to believe that maybe they used the English version to check their version from "Hebrew/Aramaic" into Greek as well?
Are we sure that they didn't use the English version to "check" the Greek version, from old Greek into modern Greek? That seems to be what they are saying.
It would be interesting to be able to compare the Greek text they used as a basis and the Greek text they produced for the New World Translation. They should be the same.
Interested, you have that Bible in Greek, and it seems you can read the language. Can you help with that question?
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InterestedOne
3. I would have no trouble if the Watchtower told me that old Greek is very different from modern Greek, and that things need clarification. Much as, for example, the Canterbury Tales or Beowulf are not like modern English. No problem here.
That is definitely the case. Biblical Greek is different from modern Greek. The Westcott and Hort is known as a "master text." There is another one called Nestle. As I understand it, a "master text" is a compilation of all the various fragments and manuscripts that have been discovered, and the compiler does the best he/she can to resolve conflicts and come up with a general working text to translate from.
I only speak English. However, as soon as anyone gets into reading the Bible, they run into this problem of the fact that it was written in ancient languages. It makes you more aware of different languages and cautious about what translators do. The NWT looks like a perfect example of something fishy going on. Going from original language to English and then from English to other modern target languages seems bad to me, and I was wondering how they explain this to the target language speakers. If I were a native Spanish speaker, I would ask why they went to English first. If they want to provide me with a Spanish translation, why not put together a team of scholars to work from the original to Spanish?
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dgp
Exactly. They do have very competent translators for the magazines.