Translation Notes

Translation Notes

To accompany

The Pioneers' New Testament

2014 corrections Copyright ? 2014, Ruth P. Martin

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Table of Contents TRANSLATION NOTES..........................................................................................................................2 INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................................................................3 THE TASK OF A TRANSLATOR............................................................................................................6 MATTHEW................................................................................................................................................8 MARK......................................................................................................................................................29 LUKE.......................................................................................................................................................37 JOHN.......................................................................................................................................................54 ACTS: "THE APOSTLES' ACTIVITIES".............................................................................................72 ROMANS.................................................................................................................................................87 I CORINTHIANS...................................................................................................................................96 II CORINTHIANS.................................................................................................................................104 GALATIANS.........................................................................................................................................109 EPHESIANS..........................................................................................................................................112 PHILIPPIANS........................................................................................................................................117 COLOSSIANS.......................................................................................................................................120 THESSALONIANS...............................................................................................................................123 TIMOTHY.............................................................................................................................................126 TITUS....................................................................................................................................................131 PHILEMON...........................................................................................................................................133 HEBREWS.............................................................................................................................................134 JAMES...................................................................................................................................................141 PETER...................................................................................................................................................143 JOHN'S LETTERS................................................................................................................................148 JUDE......................................................................................................................................................152 THE REVELATION..............................................................................................................................153 Appendix................................................................................................................................................163 Bibliography..........................................................................................................................................169

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TRANSLATION NOTES

For more than fifty years now, I have searched for people with whom to explore the Lord's intentions for his people. Except for a scattered few brief interludes, that search has failed. I had hoped that the dissemination of my New Testament translation might provoke the discussion and contacts needed for greater faithfulness. But without any endorsement or any distributor, that also failed to produce the needed critical evaluation and interchange. These observations, too, should have been refined by the challenge and counsel of a mutually seeking community of brethren. They have not: and consequently they are fragmentary and mostly untested. But fifty years is a long time. Only the Lord knows how many years may be left. Certainly not fifty more! So I am beginning to record some thoughts that perhaps someone, someday, will correct, add to, and find a way to offer this message to the Body of Christ. With sadness, I no longer expect to live to see "ordinary folks" like myself privileged to contribute to that Body. Someday, though, the Lord will again make his voice heard and his people will again recognize the glorious message of Pentecost ? that he intends to speak to all of us through all of us. What a beautiful time that will be! Meanwhile, this is intended to be sort of an explanatory supplement to my New Testament translation. In the introduction to that work, I noted that I had deliberately chosen to avoid standard "Christian vocabulary" in favor of an attempt to use words in ways that would have been familiar to the first readers of the texts. This is an attempt to explain some of those vocabulary choices; to explain grammatical structures that are unfamiliar to the reader of English; and to include miscellaneous other observations that I have found helpful over the years. Please do not interpret this as any kind of a "doctrinal statement", or anything but the efforts of one follower of the Lord Jesus Christ to share with other followers (or potential followers) some of the treasures of his Kingdom.

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INTRODUCTION

There are probably as many ways to approach the study of the New Testament as there are people who choose to do so. Some aim to discredit, or at least cast doubt upon its precepts and its integrity. Others attempt to "prove" some particular quirk of doctrine or conviction, in order to force their perspective upon others. Some glean from its pages a list of specific ideas and/or behaviors, which they then use as a screen to sift out who is or is not a "faithful believer". Is this collection of writings a detailed and coherent history, a scientific text, a philosophical or theological treatise, a wordfor-word transcription meticulously dictated by God? Is it a document created by a medieval hierarchy to solidify its power over its ignorant subjects? The assumptions with which one undertakes this study have an enormous impact on its outcome. Therefore, it is only fair that a reader be made aware of the perspective from which the present document is written.

Academically, I respect the work of those who are continually sifting through any available manuscripts to assemble the most complete text possible. I feel strongly that anyone who chooses to take the New Testament seriously, should certainly welcome any work that allows us to discern with greater accuracy the original message. I view folks who devote themselves to textual work, when they do so with academic integrity, as helpful brethren.

Being a confessed "language junkie," however, trained in linguistics and the cultural challenges of translation, I have chosen rather to devote my energies to working toward an accurate transmission of the message, rather than its "DNA." This choice is colored by my own history.

Although I had been exposed to "Sunday school stories" as a child, I was a college student when I first encountered the idea that the New Testament described a way of life, not just stories. Always having been a lonely person, I was enthralled, as I began to read it, with the wonderful ways Jesus and his followers interacted with each other and with other folks. I saw a concern, a degree of caring, a purposefulness, belonging, yes, even "love", that I had never seen. There were ? and are -"churches" all over the landscape. Why had I never seen that kind of living? I needed to know more.

As I delved into a study of the Greek language, and the diverse cultures from which these documents arose, the conviction grew that the major reason for misunderstanding of the message was failure to explore those extremely important resources. Self-styled "scholars", some highly respected, scoffed at many New Testament directives as "artifacts of contemporary culture", without ever closely examining that culture. Even a cursory perusal of contemporaneous history and literature makes it obvious that the attitudes and relationships called for in the New Testament challenge far more aspects of its ambient culture than they endorse. We denizens of late 20th/early 21st century western culture inhabit a universe that, except for some technological advances, would fit very well into the Greco-Roman world of the first century. Sociological, economic, religious, ethical, linguistic and intellectual pluralism, enhanced (or aggravated, depending on one's perspective) by the relative ease of travel along eastern and Mediterranean trade routes, created a mix not at all unlike the scrambled cultural milieu in which we still obsess over Thales' (6th c. BC) admonition to "Know thyself." Jesus' contrasting instruction that true life is to be found in "losing oneself" grated as harshly upon their ears as it does upon ours.

From various sources, I have accumulated this list of characteristics of first century BC/AD culture in the Greco-Roman world. Have we changed very much? There was:

? unprecedented ease of travel and communication. ? world-wide trade, bringing previously unheard-of luxury to the wealthy classes ? huge racial and ethnic diversity ? cheapening of life, leading to abandonment of babies, aged, and infirm ? a universally spoken and understood language ? religious plurality, fed by trade routes ? a single, dominant military power, brutally suppressing local uprisings ? executions, political and criminal, were shockingly common ? all manner of sexual deviations acceptable in society, even as a part of worship ? thousands assembling to watch increasingly brutal sports events, in stadiums holding

tens of thousands ? large cities, encompassing extreme wealth and abject poverty, strain resources. ? political figures claiming to represent deities, and demanding ritual worship ? women holding more political and social power than ever before in recorded history

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