search

openenglishbible / Open-English-Bible

A CC0 licenced modern English translation of the Bible
http://openenglishbible.org
121 stars 34 forks source link

Matt 4:5 Old Fashioned Word "the parapet" #194

Closed Tchambrers closed 13 years ago

Tchambrers commented 13 years ago

Consider translating "the parapet" as "the highest point" as the NIV and NET has. http://strongsnumbers.com/greek/4419.htm

openenglishbible commented 13 years ago

BDAG says (or would say if I could copy and paste Greek):

pteru/gion, ou, to/ (pte÷rux; Aristot. et al.; Aeneas Tact. 1440; ins, LXX; TestSol 22:8) dim. of pte÷rux ‘wing’; it serves to denote the tip or extremity of anything, end, edge to\ pteru/gion touv i˚erouv someth. like the pinnacle or summit of the temple Mt 4:5; Lk 4:9 (also in Hegesippus: Eus., HE 2, 23, 11. Rufinus has for this ‘excelsus locus pinnae templi’.—See Theod. Da 9:27 [reading of a doublet; s. ed. JZiegler ’54 p. 191] and M-JLagrange, RB 39, 1930, 190). JJeremias, ZDPV 59, ’36, 195–208 proposes: ‘the lintel or super-structure of a gate of the temple.’ But for Greeks the word for this that was most easily understood would be uJpe÷rquron (Parmenides [VI/V BC], fgm. 1, 12 [28 B Diels]; Hdt. 1, 179 et al.; also Herodas 2, 65; Artem. 2, 10 p. 97, 26; 4, 42 p. 226, 8.—Jos., Bell. 5, 201 in a description of the Jerus. temple).—DELG s.v. ptero/n. M-M. TW.

REB, NJB have 'parapet' as well, so we're not too much out on a limb here (so to speak :)

It's irrational maybe but I like parapet. Its colourful. I don't think it is old fashioned so much as unusual...

Tchambrers commented 13 years ago

A totally fair point... it may not be so much out of use as just a colorful unusual word...