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openenglishbible / Open-English-Bible

A CC0 licenced modern English translation of the Bible
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Matt 5:11 - Better Wording #128

Closed Tchambrers closed 13 years ago

Tchambrers commented 13 years ago

In Matt 5:11 it reads now: "and say everything evil about you — untruly, and for my sake." This feels awkwrardly structured and some old fashioned words.

"everthing" is from the greek word "pas" http://strongsnumbers.com/greek/3956.htm and "evil" is from the greek word "ponéros" http://strongsnumbers.com/greek/4190.htm which seems to mean not just bad or evil but also involving misery.

So maybe it would be better choices to say "all types" for pas, and of "painfully wrong" or "painfully evil" or just "evil" for poneros? or something even better?

Secondly the sentence structure seems odd. Other translations structure this sentence:

NIV: "Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me."

ESV: ""Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me."

NRSV: ‘Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.

openenglishbible commented 13 years ago

Lets go with

Blessed are you when people taunt you, and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil lies about you because of me.

Tchambrers commented 13 years ago

Sounds good for now, I wish I knew more about Greek to say if "evil lies" captures the tone of the word "porneos" versus some better more natural phrase for "painful evil things." But good for now.

openenglishbible commented 13 years ago

I know, it's difficult. My procedure has been to try to stay within the bounds of translation choices made by professionals and not move too far away.

In this case, 'evil lies' seems to be covering the idea of saying evil things falsely, and is found in the CEV/TEV, with other combinations of 'lie' and 'evil' in NCV, GWT, NLT and (for what its worth) the Message.

So if we're wrong, at least we're not alone... :)

Btw, I just found out that if you don't have access to Accordance or something like it, you can get a great list of translations of a verse from youversion.com by building a url like:

http://www.youversion.com/bible/verse/all-versions/Matt/5/11

Tchambrers commented 13 years ago

I think that is a very smart strategy. And agree with it on this particular verse.... I will try to offer in my notes examples of some of the other translations choices (i've done that so far but will be sure to continue it) And thanks for the link to Youversion.com's stuff will check it out....