t 'n t luoma

I no longer remember from whence that advice came to me; it may have been advice I gave myself (“Thank you” “No, thank you” “You first,” “No, I insist”). Regardless of its origin, I am violating the rule today. I’m sitting here with my Greek/English Interlinear [Tyndale], Sakae Kubo's Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, and Bauer/Gingrich (A Greek English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature) I sit here a) wishing I was a better Greek student and b) thoroughly annoyed at the NRSV.

Why annoyed? Well let me lead you through it. One of the lectionary readings for this coming Sunday is 1 Corinthians 15:1-11. Here is how the NRSV translates the first two verses:

(1) Now I would remind you, brothers and sisters, of the good news that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received, in which also you stand, (2) through which also you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message that I proclaimed to you-unless you have come to believe in vain. [NRSV Translation of 1 Corinthians 15:1-2]

I had this whole thing working in my head about the “being saved.” Verb tense is important here, right? It is an -ing verb, indicating ongoing action, present tense. Salvation was achieved through the cross and resurrection, but the effects of that salvation are still taking shape in us and in our lives today. It sounded like the beginning of a sermon to me.

Except that the NRSV translation is wrong.

Last night before bed, I picked up my copy of Eugene Peterson’s The Message and read the same verses:

(1) Friends, let me go over the Message with you one final time - this Message that I proclaimed and that you made your own; this Message on which you took your stand (2) and by which your life has been saved. (I'm assuming, now, that your belief was the real thing and not a passing fancy, that you're in this for good and holding fast.) [The Message Translation of 1 Corinthians 15:1-2]

Hrm. Has been saved. I asked Tracey to read the passage out of the NIV she was reading:

(1) Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. (2) By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. [NIV Translation of 1 Corinthians 15:1-2]

Hrm. Are saved. (Tim sees his sermon idea circling the bowl....)

So it seemed that the mighty NRSV might have gotten this one wrong. I’d have to find out for myself. (Whether this is why I could not sleep or not, I can’t say... but my Greek books were in my study at the church, and as much as I wanted to, I was not driving downtown at 11 p.m. to find out. These are the days I wish we lived in a manse.)

My Greek Interlinear has the NASB under the Greek text, (Actually, I always thought it was the NASB but I realize now that I was wrong, it is close to the NASB but not the same.) and the NRSV along the side. This really ought to be my main Bible, but since it lacks the Old Testament, it is rather impractical.

I saw a much more compact version of the Interlinear at Cokesbury if anyone is looking to get me a birthday present. Actually what I would really like is a good software program that has the NRSV, the Greek and Hebrew [with study aids for those of us who were never very good with the original languages], the NIV, NASB, and NIV. However, there is no single package that sells all of that together, so you end up working in several different packages at once, which loses much of the point. Even better would be something that would tie to my Palm, and you do not have the luxury of unlimited space there, so it would require a single, efficient package.

The not-NASB-but-close “literal translation” renders the word as “you are saved”

I came across a very helpful site with a searchable New Testament in Greek which highlighted the word in context and gave me this information:

Ok, so it’s present tense (you are saved) not past tense (you were saved) or perfect tense (you are being saved). So why does the NRSV render it as “being saved” which is the completely wrong tense? In the introductory comments to the NRSV by Bruce M. Metzger, he said that the translating committee sought to follow the maxim, “As literal as possible, as free as necessary.” Now these folks are all smarter than I am, and certainly several orders of magnitude beyond me when it comes to matters related to the translating of the Greek text into English. I am aware that “doing” is difficult and “criticizing” is easy, but this seems to be just a mistake in translation as far as I can see.

There are those who caution against this kind of work that I am doing, this work of pastors delving too deeply and too precisely into the original languages. Why? Because it undercuts the credibility of English translations, which is what most church-folk rely on. If you keep cutting out pieces, they are left with a hole-y Bible (instead of the other kind ;-) I am also reminded of a professor who warned a group of seminarians against preaching Greek from the pulpit. Makes sense, as it can easily be used to make oneself appear superior to the congregation. (No worries about that with my Greek skills, however... in fact some would probably caution against letting amatuers like myself at the original text at all... a little knowledge being a dangerous thing, and all that...)

In some ways this makes it easier, because we don’t have to worry about someone arguing that salvation wasn’t complete on Easter and pointing to this reference to defend their case. (Well, we might have to worry about that if they are just using the NRSV in a group of people who are just using the NRSV but I doubt many such groups exist.)

Well, back to The Book.