Is it important that a Bible translation maintain this type of phrasing?
Hebrew Dualism
Discussion in 'Bible Versions & Translations' started by UnchartedSpirit, Nov 5, 2006.
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Is the OP missing something? What type of phrasing? Does the poster of the OP have body/soul language in mind? If so, I would recommend John Cooper's, "Body, Soul, and Life Everlasting" and N. T. Wright's "The Resurrection of the Son of God" for starters. I'll also give you a hint that Cullman was a dualist despite his works being co-opted by the monists in this debate. If you're looking for more lexical stuff then HALOT and BDB should suffice for that.
If the poster of the OP has something else in mind then my apologies for my response. -
Since the poster spoke of "phrasing" I would suppose by "Hebrew dualism" he means parallelism in Hebrew poetry, such as we read throughout the Psalms. Example:
"But his delight is in the law of the Lord"
reinforced immediately by the same thought said another way:
"And in his law doth he meditate day and night".
Or
"The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever"
Repeated as
"The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."
There are scores of examples, of various types.
If that is what the question was about, then I would say surely a translator ought to maintain that structure. It is indigenous to Hebrew poetry, and to abandon it in translation would be to misrepresent the flavor of the original. -
does OP mean the Hebrew grammatical Dual (rather than "dualism")? as opposed to the Singular n Plural?
if so, it's a question that can be addressed fr either a Form-Equivalent or Function/Dynamic-Equivalent POV.
Dualism, OTOH, places God on par w Satan, light on par w darkness, righteousness on par w evil, as eternal antagonists. that, frankly, is foreign to all of scriptures, both Heb n Greek. -
ummmm, let me try to remember the example:
I think it was God hates sin or rebellion, but loves Repentant Sinners,/etc
ok I found my journal and my father defines it:
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Aha, the first thing you mentioned is a "hendiadys" which literally means "one through two." We only have a few in modern English like the phrases "good and mad" or "sick and tired." The Old Testament has a lot of them.
The second thing you mentioned is a merism, like "as the East is from the West."
The meanings of merisms are rather self-evident with the same terminology in English. However, the meaning of a hendiadys can often be lost in formal-equivalent renderings. I'm not sure if there is a simple answer to your question. The NET Bible (which I like) translates a hendiadys in a dynamic-equivalent manner but usually explains in a footnote the literal Hebrew rendering. That's probably the best way to handle it. Perhaps this issue highlights how one English translation does not fit all the desiderata-most of them have their respective strengths and weaknesses.
PS-N. T. Wright's "Resurrection of the Son of God" is still a great read, but you won't find much about hendiadys or merisms there :). -