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Talk:John 1-7 (Translated) (view source)
Revision as of 15:56, March 29, 2011
, 15:56, March 29, 2011→Issue with translation of John 4:53
:::::::::::I hope we'll engage in a salutary discussion
:::::::::::I hope we'll engage in a salutary discussion
:::::::::::[[User:AugustO|AugustO]] 13:08, 26 March 2011 (EDT)
:::::::::::[[User:AugustO|AugustO]] 13:08, 26 March 2011 (EDT)
=== ... in the same moment... ===
My objections to the translations:
1. A time specification like ''seventh hour'' described a period of time, not a point of time. Or - as Jérome Carcôpino put it in his book ''Daily Life in Ancient Rome'' (La vie Quotidienne à Rome à l’Apogée de l’Empire):
::''While our hours each comprise a uniform sixty minutes of sixty seconds each, and each hour is definitely separated from the succeeding by the fugitive moment at which it strikes, the lack of division inside the Roman hour meant that each of them stretched over the whole interval of time between the preceding hour and the hour which followed; and this hour interval instead of being of fixed duration was perpetually elastic, now longer, now shorter, from one end of the year to the other, and on any given day the duration of the day hours was opposed to the length of the night hours. ''
2. Even the measurement up to an hour was often controversial. Again Jérome Carcôpino:
::''If anyone asked the time, he was certain to receive several different answers at once for, as Seneca asserts, it was impossible at Rome to be sure of the exact hour; and it was easier to get the philosophers to agree among themselves than the clocks: "horam non possum certam tibi dicere: facilius inter philosophos guam inter horologia convenit" Time at Rome was never more than approximate. Time was perpetually fluid or, if the expression is preferred, contradictory. '' ([[Seneca]] was a coeval of Jesus Christ, so his observations are quite relevant!
So, saying that the two events happened ''at the same moment'' rather than ''within the same hour'' introduces a precision into the translation which isn't there in the original - it's more than just ''subtly changing the meaning of the verse''.
For the record: I do not doubt that the healing could have happened at the same time as Jesus said ''your son lives''. But the verse doesn't show that Jesus Christ ''chose'' to do it this way. Perhaps He humored us by observing the speed of light, perhaps not.
We find here a gap - but we aren't allowed to fill such gaps with ideas of our own.
And which answer would you (Karajou, Aschlafly) give to a kid in Sunday School who asks: ''How do the servants knew that it was 1 o'clock?''
[[User:AugustO|AugustO]] 11:56, 29 March 2011 (EDT)