"in Christ" in the latest issue of JBS
The latest issue of the JBS (the Journal of Biblical Studies) is now online. One of the articles is on "in Christ," one of the most difficult biblical terms to translate to any language, including English. English lacks a parallel syntactic form with the same meaning as that of the Greek dative en xristw, which is usually literally translated as "in Christ" in English Bible versions. If you are uncertain what the translation issue here is, ask yourself: What does "in Christ" mean? Also ask: Do we have parallel forms in English that have a meaning parallel to that of en xristw?
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HT: Michael Pahl
Please note that linking to an article or blog post does not indicate endorsement of any linked content by BBB contributors. It is the intent of BBB contributors to link to items which we consider newsworthy for Bible translation discussions.
HT: Michael Pahl
posted by Wayne Leman at 2:41 PM
2 Comments:
Straylight wondered:
All that being said, I'm not sure what this has to do with translation.
Probably very little! It was just a fresh link that arrived on my RSS Feeder and I needed something to blog on. :-)
It is true that en xristw is difficult to translate to other languages including English, but that is not the thrust of the JBS article as you well noted.
As for just syntactically transliterating it as "in Christ," that is the traditional solution, as you know. As someone who wants to translate the original meaning, however, I long for a better solution. I assume that en xristw meant something to Paul's readers, even if could have been something of a neologism--I don't know if the Greek syntactic form of en plus the name of a person was extant in Greek literature before it was used in the NT. In any case, I believe that Paul intended some meaning for that Greek prepositional phrase. If we could express that meaning clearly enough we should be able to say it with natural English syntax. Such is my belief, as a translator, anyway.
Interesting thread. en xristw strikes me as a bit like a piece of music. You change it ... you actually have different music! The only way to appreciate it, then, is to learn to understand its idiom, to bring my experience into the realm of experience, connection, and expectation that it inhabits.
That's why I don't think this yearning (which I share, at least in part!) is realistic:
If we could express that meaning clearly enough we should be able to say it with natural English syntax. [Wayne]
It isn't, in the end, about syntax! Or even semantics! It's about the world of meaning that lies behind the form of words used. Rendering the syntax and semantics of the source into the target is only one step on the way to understanding.
I'm guessing you know that! :)
(p.s. are we sure that en xristw is best represented as "en plus the name of a person"?)
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