(October 13, 2021 at 2:59 am)Oldandeasilyconfused Wrote: Did that misunderstanding change the meaning?
It's led to a lot of confusion, that's for sure. We have to be careful not to change the meaning and argue as if he'd said something he didn't.
Quote:Translation from one language into another can be very problematic.
It's a fascinating and enlightening thing! When we come across a concept in a foreign language that doesn't have a one-to-one counterpart in our own language, it makes us realize how habitual and narrow our thinking can be.
Recently I've been reading about the history of Japanese aesthetics, and how when they started translating Western texts into Japanese they had to invent all kinds of new terms. Japanese didn't have a word for "art" for example. And English lacks good terms for Japanese concepts.
Quote:The commandment translated as "Thou shalt not kill" isn't quite right. In the original Hebrew it's lo tirtach, "thou shalt not murder".. All murder is killing , but not all killing is murder. Of course believers cherry pick their sacred books to fit their own world view. They ignore the really inconvenient bits, such as "love your neighbour"
It's true! Translation is interpretation, and no interpreter is impartial.