Theos-Talk Archives (October 1999 Message tl00015)

In a message dated 10/3/99 5:57:59 PM Central Daylight Time,
Alan@ambain.softnet.co.uk writes:

> "He that has ears to hear, let him hear."  The Greek text (and finally the
> New Revised Standard Version) has him say, "Whoever has ears to hear -
listen!
> "
The second isn't any more accurate than the first.  The first has a male
pronoun.  Greek has a gender-neutral pronoun just as German does but English
doesn't.  "Whoever" is more a paraphrasal gloss than a translation.  Closer,
but still gloss, would be "The one that...., let that one hear!"  Also, the
passive conative form (to wish, to allow, to permit, etc.) "let hear" has
been changed into the imperative, "hear!."  So, that is not literal either.
And, even though not literal semantically, given the context, some have
argued that ideomatically a closer equivalent would be "The one who can
listen, let that one hear."  Not "the one who can hear, let that one listen."
 "Hear" contextually meant an awakening while the ability to listen was the
prepared ability to hear or to harken (an older English usage closer to
Greek).

Just a few technicalities...

Grigor Ananikian