I have recently been made aware of an interesting translation of Paul’s Letters (plus Hebrews), done by Arthur S. Way and published in 1906. He was a Greek scholar who translated several of the Classical Greek works. His translation of Paul’s Letters can be found through this link.
His preface is well worth reading. I’m going to cite three small sections from it:
Conceding all that is urged in praise of the dignity and beauty of the Authorised Version, and the charm of its rhythm, it can hardly be denied that, if the first requisite of a translation is that it shall convey with absolute clearness the meaning of the original, that version is in many parts of the Epistles far from adequate. If a student handed in such a rendering of a passage of Thucydides or Plato, as the Authorised Version supplies (to give but one instance) of 2 Corinthians 10:13-16, he would be told by his tutor that he did not understand his author.
We often hear the clergy complain that to the mass of their hearers the doctrines and claims of their religion seem to be something unreal, outside their lives. May not this be in some measure due to the literary form in which those doctrines, which are elaborated by St. Paul, and by him only, are presented to them in his writings?
Still, I would deprecate the name of ‘paraphrase’ for my version, since my aim has been to follow the original closely, trying to bring out the full meaning, and even suggestion, of each word, deviating only when, to convey the significance of a passage, some expansion seemed advisable.
© 2010, Matt. All rights reserved.
