I need help from a greek bible expert. I have a question about "emphasized" writing.

I would appreciate help on how the original writers of the new testament wrote with an "emphasized" mind set. I am not explaining this well but will try to explain better. I have become very interested in the pre-pub Emphasized Bible. I saw a link here at the forums where I could go and view this Bible. I fell in love with this translation. But when I went to the Introduction page to see why this Bible was called an "Emphasized Bible", I became very confused with the explanations. The writing back in 1897 was definitely above my present vocabulary level, or even the way simple words were used to construct a very complex sentence . The author is trying to explain the meaning of "emphasis" by saying this, and I quote

" No one that has noticed how much every writer of point and fire discovers these qualities by the mere way in which he puts his words together, will be absolutely incredulous when told that the Apostles and Evangelists have, to a large extent, emphasised their own writings simply by the style in which they composed them. He that would ask doubtfully, whether such men as writers of the New Testament could write Greek emphatically, might very well go a step further and get rid of his doubt by asking, whether they could write Greek at all. Once admit that those Authors could express themselves with general discrimination and propriety, and it would be unreasonable to deny them the ability to give edge and force to their compositions. If the question were one of antecedent probability, then it might be worth while to remember, in general, that language is an instrument made ready to the hand of him who employs it, and, in particular, that the writers of the New Testament had, in their own venerable Hebrew, a tongue in which a simple, yet ready and forcible emphasis, was a marked characteristic. "

(if you need to read more to understand this, it is at the site shared by the administrator in another forum about the Prepublication Emphasized Bible at http://www.archive.org/stream/newtestamentnewl00roth#page/n7/mode/2up exact quote I just typed and more ison page 8 of this book , page is titled " INTRODUCTION of Emphasis.)

I sure hope someone can understand my post as well as understand this quoted text.

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Vincent Setterholm

You might check out Steve Runge's work in this area:

http://www.logos.com/products/details/3887

There's a fair bit of info on the product page, including an introductory video and a list of the types of textual features being tagged. That bundle includes tools for the English and Greek Bible student. If you search Logos.com for 'discourse' you'll see a number of blog posts on the topic as well. Dr. Runge's discourse grammar can be ordered here: http://www.logos.com/products/prepub/details/4599.

Jim

I'm not familiar with the book you are interested in, but after reading your quote I might have an idea of what the author is getting at. I may still be off base but I'll throw in my thoughts.

We are used to a very visual style of written presentations. We have punctuation, spaces between words, visual spacing of paragraphs as well as font variations that didn't exist in ancient writing. For example modern word processors and presentation editor allow us to emphasize text with bold, italics, underline, colors, font types and sizes, however prior to the printing press, most communication was spoken. When you speak, you can emphasize things with volume, intonation and pauses.

In any language you can also use various literary device such as parables, poetry, proverbs, narrative, logical argument etc. to make your communication to put emphasis where you want it. Since people in different cultures are used to different devices and structures in their communication, people in one culture might have a hard time accurately understanding what someone from another culture is trying to emphasize.

Greek is a language that allows words and thoughts to be emphasized in ways not available in English (just using words and grammar). For example the role a Greek word plays in a sentence (subject, object etc.) is identified less on word order, as in English, than on word spelling. So Greek authors have the freedom to emphasize words or phrases by changing their order (putting a certain word first in the sentence).

Sometimes if you are trying to stay close to the original as is done in "formal equivalence" (sometimes called word-for-word) translation, the English would end up too odd sounding and may not make sense unless you rewrite the whole sentence or turn it into several sentences to pick up the proper emphasis. Something similar is true for organization on a larger scale. Sometimes there is a really interesting play on words, or turn of thought that is clearer in Greek than comes out in "proper" English translations. The result is that the Greek text has a bit more depth, like another "layer" that either doesn't come across in English translations, or forces the translator to actually interpret the text before translating it. In the latter case you end up with the translator being influenced by his/her theological bias. Once in a while this fact is quite significant, though I don't know of a case that affects the core issues of how a person is reconciled to God.

There have been various efforts to try to convey this extra level of information. I think part of the gift to the church that teachers and preachers bring is to help us all find and appreciate these things so we can more accurately understand and teach God's words.