02-02-2010, 09:03 PM
Hi all, my first post here.
My main interest is in translation of the Peshitta, and have been doing some work with it over the past couple of years. Not that there aren't already other translations of high quality out there, but my main interest is in comparing translation to original text. So I invite anyone to post feedback on anything I post here, and I will try to apply some feedback to others' posts as well.
This is a rendition of the first verse of Matay (Matthew). The first line is simply the transliteration, somewhat stylized to my liking, and then a word-for-word rendition of it.
k'thobo` d'iy:liy:duw:theh d'yeshuw' m
hiy:cho` b'reh d'dawiyd b'reh d'a`b:rohom
A-writing of-his-genealogy, of-Yeshua the-Anointed; son-his of-Dawid, son-his of-Abrohom:
Not much controversy to this verse, except that other translations of the Aramaic tend to use "book" or "scroll" instead of "a-writing", and I know of no translations that render the 3sm (his) suffix for the word "son", instead opting for "the son". Understandable perhaps, since "son-his" is not conventional English syntax.
A reason for using "a-writing" for the first word, in my opinion, is that it is from the same root as "to-write" (KTB), except being inflected to a noun form. So the logical noun form of "to-write" would be "a-writing" or "the-writing"; with "book" or "scroll" likely being overly specific to the root word. I did glance at the Greek text and noticed that they use the word "biblos", which is likely different from their root word for "to-write", so maybe "book" or "scroll" is accurate for the Greek, but not as accurate for the Aramaic.
Best wishes to all, and my thanks to those on this board who have made so much information available, for all to see and use.
My main interest is in translation of the Peshitta, and have been doing some work with it over the past couple of years. Not that there aren't already other translations of high quality out there, but my main interest is in comparing translation to original text. So I invite anyone to post feedback on anything I post here, and I will try to apply some feedback to others' posts as well.
This is a rendition of the first verse of Matay (Matthew). The first line is simply the transliteration, somewhat stylized to my liking, and then a word-for-word rendition of it.
k'thobo` d'iy:liy:duw:theh d'yeshuw' m
hiy:cho` b'reh d'dawiyd b'reh d'a`b:rohomA-writing of-his-genealogy, of-Yeshua the-Anointed; son-his of-Dawid, son-his of-Abrohom:
Not much controversy to this verse, except that other translations of the Aramaic tend to use "book" or "scroll" instead of "a-writing", and I know of no translations that render the 3sm (his) suffix for the word "son", instead opting for "the son". Understandable perhaps, since "son-his" is not conventional English syntax.
A reason for using "a-writing" for the first word, in my opinion, is that it is from the same root as "to-write" (KTB), except being inflected to a noun form. So the logical noun form of "to-write" would be "a-writing" or "the-writing"; with "book" or "scroll" likely being overly specific to the root word. I did glance at the Greek text and noticed that they use the word "biblos", which is likely different from their root word for "to-write", so maybe "book" or "scroll" is accurate for the Greek, but not as accurate for the Aramaic.
Best wishes to all, and my thanks to those on this board who have made so much information available, for all to see and use.