Theological and Exegetical Foundations of some Translation Solutions in BTD (Based on the Gospel of Matthew)

Abstract

In 2018 a new German translation of the Greek text of the Four Gospels in the Byzantine tradition (BTD) was published. The translator is Schiarchimandrite Justin (Rauer) of the Serbian Orthodox Church. The present article deals with a number of passages in the Gospel of Matthew (BTD).  Himself a member of the redactional team, the author gives philological and theological grounds for translation solutions of BTD in these passages and explains what are the strong points (and in one case – the weak point) of BTD compared with other Gospel translations. Special attention is paid to the passages, where the German translation differs from the existing Russian renderings. The author treats the following philological and theological topics: the difficulty to render the Greek word exactly so that the possibilities of interpretation and allusions to other Biblical passages present in the source text are retained in the translation (examples 1 and 8); a reinterpretation of a traditional theological notion based on etymology (example 2), theological possibilities and limits of literal renderings (examples 4 and 5), the difficulty to convey the polysemy of the Greek word in the translation (example 6), the translation of elliptic constructions (examples 10, 12 and 13), Hebrew background of the Gospel text (example 9 and 11). Examples 3 and 7 offer a more precise translation of the Greek text.