Semantic Voids, New Testament Translation, and Anachronism
This essay addresses the problem of theologically-inflected English translation choices of the New Testament, and how those translations come to bear in theologically disinterested scholarship on Christian beginnings. As a case study I examine the ubiquitous rendering of ekklesia as “church” in Paul...
| Published in: | Method & theory in the study of religion |
|---|---|
| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
|
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Brill
2014
|
| In: |
Method & theory in the study of religion
Year: 2014, Volume: 26, Issue: 4/5, Pages: 315-339 |
| Further subjects: | B
Translation
theory
Paul
ekklesia
church
New Testament
anachronism
ideology
|
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) |
| Summary: | This essay addresses the problem of theologically-inflected English translation choices of the New Testament, and how those translations come to bear in theologically disinterested scholarship on Christian beginnings. As a case study I examine the ubiquitous rendering of ekklesia as “church” in Paul’s letters. I argue that Paul was not referring to Christian churches, but to the “day of the ekklesia” in the Septuagint, when God’s people gathered at Sinai/Horeb. Paul is not making Christians out of pagans; he is making quasi-Judeans out of gentiles. Rendering ekklesia as “church” inscribes Christian essentialism into Paul’s letters, and masks what Paul is actually doing with this word. The bridging of Greek-to-English semantic voids on the part of translators and New Testament scholars is a consistent problem that frustrates advancements in Pauline studies, and in studies of the religions of the Roman Empire more generally. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 1570-0682 |
| Contains: | In: Method & theory in the study of religion
|
| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1163/15700682-12341289 |