Hungarian Church Press, 1951 (3. évfolyam, 10. szám)

1951-06-01 / 10. szám

meantime, become ready for the press, have been very fruitful also to the Old Testament Commission,,

What are the novel features of this new revision as compared with the 1908 revision and the old Károli Translation? Abiding by the above named principle of concordance, the Commission has not confined its work to a simple modernizing, but has tried to produce, on the narrow way that we already pointed out, something realüy new* The Commission has not barred expressions of to-day's language, but has avoided the use of synomynts in rendering the same Hebrew term, in order to create a more colorful,Hungarian text than the original / The Commission has availed itself of the widest and most up-to-date exegotical learning* It has been a real test of the Commission's work to put the results' of this learning in simple and well-known words. The principle of concordance has been particularly stressed in the case of the theologically important conceptions!, On the other hanő., the Commission has made use of a considerable freedom as far as the conjunctions and intersections as well-as the particles are concerned ; Poi instance, the old rendering of the Hebrew word hinny with !,loi! - ime in Hungarian - was left standing only in cases when Cod speaks it, since this word sounds antiquated, or, if frequently repeated, even archaic. So the Commission made'propea substitutions for it from the rich vocabulary of the Hungarian language* All those familiar with the wide range of choices offered to the translator by the Hebrew wG /"and'1 etc,/ will appreciate the improvement which tiie new revisiorfhas undo on the old translations* The new insights into the intricacies of Hebrew syntax have also helped the Commission t • correct the mistranslations and errors in the |Older texts and to produce a smooth and fluent Hungarian text. So the well-known Hebrew construction infinitivus absolutus cum verbo finito eiusdem radicis has been dealt with in* a new way inasmuch as in’each case the most '/at Hungarian word was chosen to strenghten the meaning of the verb, /So, e„gs, instead of "halálnak halálával halsz meg", which is literally, with the death of death wilt thou die, the new translation is "bizonnyal meghalsz", "you will surely die".

In the case of the expression - well known to the experts - "wajjomaer ♦« , le 1 mor11, the lejmor was of toil imitted, or substituted with a colon, or rendered with ntliis" or "thus" etc.- The Yahweh name was rendered with UR /Lord/, in capital letters*

The footnotes are a. very important innovations, This means, at least, in part-, a return to the usage of the old VizSolyi Bible which also had many references nnd explanatory notes* Since the churches sponsoring this revision, in view of very weighty theological reasons, broke with the old system of setting each verse apart, the references had to be moved down to the bottom of the page. The whole system of references has been renewed. The main principles guiding the choice of the references have been these; first, to show, in the case of every,important verse, the continuity of revelation and "saving histor both backward and forward; secondly, verses that are difficult to understand and likely to cause people stumble are t.> be explained by other verses; thirdly, puns, explanations of names, are to be explained in a few words. Both the printing of the text in continuous sequence and the explanatory notes,serve the aim of helping the reader to have a healthier living and organic conception of the Bible and of its use, as against a "believing rationalism" -and an atomic conception of the Scripture that .takes the single verges as self-contained units* The Hebrew names, with the exception of those most firmly entrenched in usage, are printed in a phonetic transcription, This also aa.rks a departure from the pre-Reformation tradition of rendering Biblical names

Hungarian Church Press-10-