tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Mar 07 01:38:07 1995
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Re: Strange New World Book
- From: Christine Atherton <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: Strange New World Book
- Date: Tue, 7 Mar 1995 09:36:50 +0000 (GMT)
- In-Reply-To: <[email protected]> from "Mark E. Shoulson" at Mar 6, 95 10:48:15 pm
> For an example of this, one that I found in the Bible between Hebrew and
> English. The Hebrew of the Ten Commandments says stuff like "You won't
> steal." It's expressed in first-person singular (so it's thou, I suppose),
> but not in imperative. Rather, it's in simple future (or imperfect) tense.
> The Bible very often uses simple future in place of commands, especially in
> the negative (also avoiding the negative-imperative word, using instead the
> normal negative). The standard English translation brings out the command
> aspect in some sense more clearly than the Hebrew. It does not go so far
> as to make it imperative, that might have been too far. But it says
> "Thou shalt not steal." It's a subtle point of English grammar that's not
> often recognized today, but in second and third person, the use of "shall"
> (rather than "will") indicates command or determination, rather than simple
> future (in first person, the meanings are reversed). I don't know, maybe
> it's nothing, and maybe someone else might disagree with me, but I thought
> it was a very nice touch on the part of the English translators.
>
> ~mark
>
Um... I don't really want to challenge centuries of translation/study/
etc, but what if the original version of the "ten commandments" really
*wasn't* given in quite such imperative tones, and it has been the more
forceful translation to other languages that has resulted in the
apparent rigidity of the "commandments", perhaps originally meant more
as guidelines or suggestions? Not that I would presume to interpret
matters from On High... :) But we all know how slight anomalies or
reinterpretations in the translation process can radically alter
attitudes, etc for centuries to come...
I really don't want to start another thread here, as we're kinda
wandering off-topic. Just MHO :)
vanya.