Comments on: Advent Reading http://www.christopherlayton.org/2006/12/22/advent-reading/ Thu, 08 Jan 2009 22:09:05 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5 By: chris_layton http://www.christopherlayton.org/2006/12/22/advent-reading/#comment-72 chris_layton Sun, 24 Dec 2006 00:26:30 +0000 http://www.christopherlayton.org/2006/12/22/advent-reading/#comment-72 don't know, this is a new site for me <strong>bold text </strong> (edit) yes some html is allowed don’t know, this is a new site for me

bold text

(edit) yes some html is allowed

]]> By: Grant http://www.christopherlayton.org/2006/12/22/advent-reading/#comment-71 Grant Sun, 24 Dec 2006 00:22:01 +0000 http://www.christopherlayton.org/2006/12/22/advent-reading/#comment-71 Wow, I thought I'd paragraphed that by adding newlines. Do your comments allow/require markup? Wow, I thought I’d paragraphed that by adding newlines. Do your comments allow/require markup?

]]> By: Grant http://www.christopherlayton.org/2006/12/22/advent-reading/#comment-70 Grant Sat, 23 Dec 2006 22:25:10 +0000 http://www.christopherlayton.org/2006/12/22/advent-reading/#comment-70 Okay, this I do not understand at all. Perhaps a gender-neutral personal pronoun would be useful, but is the NIV text at all unclear? Would any half-educated speaker of English actually misunderstand it? Certainly, a translation consists of trade-offs. I, as someone who knows no Greek, would usually prefer the ambiguity of gender that comes with a generic masculine pronoun to the ambiguity of number that comes with making /everything/ plural regardless of the text being translated. I am used to reading and understanding the former. New compositions are another issue entirely, and I don't blame anyone for usual plurals, generic masculine, generic feminine, whatever. (I do find it incredibly distracting when the author switches between generic masculine and feminine every couple paragraphs, and I prefer plural or generic masculine myself, but those are aesthetic preferences only.) Even then, though, I prefer to be allowed use of the full range of English. (Random aside, but Mary likely didn't go to her own town to register-- she went to Joseph's, right? So isn't the NRSV version subtly inaccurate?) Okay, this I do not understand at all. Perhaps a gender-neutral personal pronoun would be useful, but is the NIV text at all unclear? Would any half-educated speaker of English actually misunderstand it?

Certainly, a translation consists of trade-offs. I, as someone who knows no Greek, would usually prefer the ambiguity of gender that comes with a generic masculine pronoun to the ambiguity of number that comes with making /everything/ plural regardless of the text being translated. I am used to reading and understanding the former.

New compositions are another issue entirely, and I don’t blame anyone for usual plurals, generic masculine, generic feminine, whatever. (I do find it incredibly distracting when the author switches between generic masculine and feminine every couple paragraphs, and I prefer plural or generic masculine myself, but those are aesthetic preferences only.) Even then, though, I prefer to be allowed use of the full range of English.

(Random aside, but Mary likely didn’t go to her own town to register– she went to Joseph’s, right? So isn’t the NRSV version subtly inaccurate?)

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