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Why You Should Study Languages

3 Comments
 25 Mar 2015   Posted by E.J. Hutchinson


An addendum to my citation of Calvin on 1 Cor. 5:7 the other day:

There was a sentence in that selection that liked me not, as Bill S. might say. That sentence is the following:

“Now there is no reconciliation without a sacrifice; and, besides, the Apostle now expressly confirms it, for he makes use of the word θύεσθαι, which is applicable to sacrifices, and in other respects, too, the context would not correspond.”

I puzzled over the bolded part of the sentence in order to unravel how I was to interpret it. No dice.

So I went and had a look at the original, and, sure enough, the bolded words had been mistranslated.

Non est autem reconciliatio absque sacrificio. Deinde id palam nunc apostolus confirmat: nam verbo θύεσθαι utitur, quod sacrificiis aptum est: nec aliter staret eius contextus.

One might translate instead:

There is, however, no reconciliation apart from sacrifice. Next, the Apostle now openly confirms it: for he uses the word θύεσθαι, which is [a term] employed in reference to sacrifices; its connection [with the paschal lamb] would not hold good in a different way [from its normal usage]. 1

You may not have had time to learn Latin; you may have frittered away the time you did have. But don’t despair–you can fix it!

Notes:

  1. I.e., the term is a term of sacrifice; it would not be used of sacrifice as its regular frame of reference everywhere else, but used in an entirely different way in this passage. ↩
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Written by E.J. Hutchinson
E.J. Hutchinson is Assistant Professor of Classics at Hillsdale College.


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3 Comments

Jonathan Roberts
6 years ago



Best commercial ever. For a great product too!

Eric Parker
6 years ago



The older English translations are sometimes better than the more recent. I don’t know if that is the case here, but for comparison, Thomas Tymme’s translation of the same passage from 1573: “And there is no reconciliation without sacrifice. Furthermore the apostle confirmeth the same: for he useth the Greek word (Thuesthai) the which is proper to sacrifices: otherwise the text could not stand.”

E.J. Hutchinson
6 years ago



Eric–Yes, that is certainly the case here.






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