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Everything being equal: To biff a translation
1. Everything being equal: To biff a translation
In algebra, one learns that equals can always be substituted for equals. This often cannot be done in language translation.
The English word "
biff" is onomatopoeic and refers to a "
hit" or "
strike" on someone.
Puns and play on words are especially susceptible to this problem.
A "
biffed" translation, from "
Biff" in the movie "
Back to the future", is where substituting "
equals for equals" results in a loss of meaning . Biff says "
Make like a tree and get out of here".
After you eat something from a fallen tree, you might say automate (Autumn ate) it.
Fall for Jesus before he leaves.
Italian:
"Traduttore, traditore" ≈ "The translator is the traitor".
2. More than one way to see things
In reality, there are often many ways to see the same "
reality". Here is a Necker cube drawing.
Can you envision the surface of the enclosed space? Which side is facing to the front?
There are two possible orientations. Does it help you see more than one possibility? For some people, it may still be difficult to see one or the other of the possibilities.
3. Concealed and revealed
Saint Augustine (Early Christian father) :
The New Testament is in the Old Testament "concealed".
The Old Testament is in the New Testament "revealed".
One can find hints of this "
after the fact", but such truths are not plain or obvious "
before the fact".
Do you see it? Do you need to see to believe? Or can you believe and then see?
4. Substitute equals for equals
In algebra, a field of abstract mathematics, one learns that one can always substitute equals for equals. Gottfried Leibniz formalized the idea that two expressions are the same if one can be substituted for the other without changing the (logical) truth of any statement in which those expressions appear.
5. Example
Consider that you are given the following arithmetic expressions involving integer variables
x and
y.
x = 5
y = x + 2
From this, substituting equals for equals, one can determine the value of
y as follows.
y = x + 2 = 5 + 2 = 7
Thus, the value of
y is
7.
6. Logic and reality
Unfortunately, logical truth is different from reality truth.
In reality, there are times when equals cannot be substituted for equals.
7. Equals for equals
A historical example of not being able to substitute equals for equals is that of Ronald Reagan making comments on Denmark and Norway. From his ABC News "
Whose Counting" commentary entitled "
Math in Narratives" by mathematician John Paulos on May 3, 2007 (from May 1, 2005), we have the following.
Lois Lane knows that Superman can fly, but she doesn't know that Clark Kent can fly even though Superman equals Clark Kent. The substitution of one for the other can't be made. Similarly, former President Reagan may have believed, as the apocryphal story has it, that Copenhagen is in Norway, but even though Copenhagen equals the capital of Denmark, it can't be concluded by substitution that Reagan believed that the capital of Denmark is in Norway. https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/WhosCounting/story?id=711316&page=1 (as of 2021-08-12)
8. Back to the future: Biff Tannon
In the movie "
Back to the future" (1985), the main antagonist is the fictional character "
Biff Tannon". Many times, Biff uses the following line.
Make like a tree and get out of here.
Of course, the play on words requires the following line.
Make like a tree and leave. (where leaves are on a tree)
He is reminded of this by his older self returning from the future to give him the diary, in part 2 of the series.
9. Fall for Jesus
Along the same lines as what Biff said, consider the following.
Fall for Jesus before he leaves.
Pun: After you eat something from a fallen tree, you might say to automate (Autumn ate) it. (That is so stupid it is not funny.)
10. Biffed translations
Many Bible translations can be considered "biffed" in the sense that substituting equals for equals may lose some of the original intended meaning.
11. Equals for equals
In the abstract (non-reality) wold of mathematics, one can always substitute equals for equals. This is not true in reality as in the above pun.
This happens a lot in going, say, from Matthew to Luke. For example, in the parable of the houses built on rock and on sand, Matthew provides text that can be interpreted in many ways. All of these ways can be true.
In Luke (collected some 20 years later from people's memories), the parable is shorter and has added text that assumes one specific interpretation of the text in Matthew. Luke is not incorrect, but has narrowed the scope of the meaning of the original text.
12. Codes and ciphers: Steganography
13. Steganography
Steganography uses messages that are hidden in places you might not otherwise suspect messages to be.
The word "steganography" comes from the Greek word "stegos" for covered and "graphy" for written, as in a code.
Steganography often hides messages in other messages (or non-obvious places).
14. Censored letters
A story from World War II has a soldier, to avoid censors, let his girlfriend know where he was located by starting the first letter of a per-determined paragraph of each letter written so that his girlfriend could use the letters together to construct the word that let her know where he was at.
15. Microdots
Developed before World War II, microdots were used to hide messages in a dot the size of a period at the end of a sentence.
16. Images
There are steganography programs that can be used to hide/encrypt a message in an image (e.g., one bit of every pixel). Another area of research is detecting if secret messages might be hidden in an image.
17. Herodotus
Herodotus relates a case of
steganography whereby a servant's head was shaved, a message tattooed into the scalp, the hear regrown. Time was apparently not of the essence. The servant was sent to the destination where his hair was shaved to reveal the message.
This might be called a "
hair-brain" scheme.
18. Wax tablets
Another method was to write a message on a tablet. Cover it with bees wax (as was common) and then write another message on that surface. To decode, melt the bees wax off of the tablet and read the message underneath.
19. Roofs
20. Latin
21. Mark 2:4
Mark 2:4 And when they could not come nigh unto him for the press, they uncovered the roof where he was: and when they had broken it up, they let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay. [kjv]
και μη δυναμενοι προσενεγκαι αυτω δια τον οχλον απεστεγασαν την στεγην οπου ην και εξορυξαντες χαλωσιν τον κραβαττον οπου ο παραλυτικος κατεκειτο [gnt]
In ancient times, roofs had tiles that could be removed.
One pastor (2021-08) went on and on about how much effort this took and how it disturbed the house - using todays houses and roofs as the analogy.
22. Roofs
Mark 2:4 And when they could not come nigh unto him for the press, they uncovered the roof where he was: and when they had broken it up, they let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay. [kjv]
και μη δυναμενοι προσενεγκαι αυτω δια τον οχλον απεστεγασαν την στεγην οπου ην και εξορυξαντες χαλωσιν τον κραβαττον οπου ο παραλυτικος κατεκειτο [gnt]
… tectum … paralyticus … [v]
… rof … lame … [wes]
… rofe … palsie … [ty]
The Old English word "rof" ≈ "roof".
The Middle English word "rofe" ≈ "roof".
The Latin word "tectum" ≈ "roof, ceiling".
23. Mark 2:4
KJV: And when they could not come nigh unto him for the press, they uncovered the roof where he was: and when they had broken it up, they let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay.
Greek: και μη δυναμενοι προσεγγισαι προσενεγκαι αυτω δια τον οχλον απεστεγασαν την στεγην οπου ην και εξορυξαντες χαλωσιν τον κραββατον εφ ω κραβαττον οπου ο παραλυτικος κατεκειτο
Latin: et cum non possent offerre eum illi prae turba nudaverunt tectum ubi erat et patefacientes submiserunt grabattum in quo paralyticus iacebat
Wessex: & þa hyo ne mihten hine in-bringen for þare manige hyo openedon þane rof þaer se haelend waes & hyo þa in-asende þt bed þe se lame on laig.
Tyndale: And because they coulde not come nye vnto him for preace they vncovered ye rofe of the housse where he was. And when they had broken it ope they let doune ye beed where in ye sicke of the palsie laye.
Gothic: jah ni magandans nehva qiman imma faura manageim, andhulidedun hrot tharei was iesus jah usgrabandans insailidedun thata badi [jah fralailotun] ana thammei lag sa uslitha.
24. Cover the halls
25. Diagram
26. Strongs - roof
- *G4721 *3 στέγη (steg'-ay) : strengthened from a primary tegos (a "thatch" or "deck" of a building); a roof:--roof.
- στεγην *3
- Matthew 8:8 ... thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word ...
- Mark 2:4 ... for the press, they uncovered the roof where he was: and ...
- Luke 7:6 ... thou shouldest enter under my roof:
27. Strongs - roof
- *G4722 *4 στέγω (steg'-o) : from G4721; to roof over, i.e. (figuratively) to cover with silence (endure patiently):--(for-)bear, suffer.
- στεγομεν
- 1 Corinthians 9:12 ... this power; but suffer all things, lest we should ...
- στεγει
- 1 Corinthians 13:7 Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, ...
- στεγοντες
- 1 Thessalonians 3:1 Wherefore when we could no longer forbear, we thought it good to be left ...
- στεγων
- 1 Thessalonians 3:5 ... cause, when I could no longer forbear, I sent to ...
28. Usage - roof
*G4721 *3 στέγη (steg'-ay) : strengthened from a primary tegos (a "thatch" or "deck" of a building); a roof:--roof.
 |
Words: στεγην=3
|
*G4722 *4 στέγω (steg'-o) : from G4721; to roof over, i.e. (figuratively) to cover with silence (endure patiently):--(for-)bear, suffer.
 |
Words: στεγει στεγομεν στεγοντες στεγων
|
29. Stegosaurus
When dinosaur bones were discovered that, when flattened as a fossil, looked like roof tiles, the name "
stegosaurus" was coined.
A stegosaurus is a type of dinosaur whose plates on its spine, when flattened as a fossil, appear like roof tiles. The word for "
roof" in Greek was "
stegos" so the name become "
stegosaurus" where "
saurus" is "
lizard".
30. Homeless
31. 1 Corinthians 13:7 Bearing loads
1 Corinthians 13:7 Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. [kjv]
παντα στεγει παντα πιστευει παντα ελπιζει παντα υπομενει [gnt]
… suffert … [v]
A related meaning of the same Greek word for "
roof" is that of "
bearing" a load or that of "
covering" something.
A roof does not actually bear a load, other than, say, rain. A roof does, however, like a deck or thatch, cover what is under that roof. Does this distinction make a difference in the following verse?
32. 1 Corinthians 13:7
KJV: Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
Greek: παντα στεγει παντα πιστευει παντα ελπιζει παντα υπομενει
Latin: omnia suffert omnia credit omnia sperat omnia sustinet
Wycliffe: it suffrith alle thingis, it bileueth alle thingis, it hopith alle thingis, it susteyneth alle thingis.
Tyndale: suffreth all thynge beleveth all thynges hopeth all thynges endureth in all thynges.
Gothic: allata thulaith, allata galaubeith, all weneith, all gabeidith.
Luther: sie verträget alles, sie glaubet alles, sie hoffet alles, sie duldet alles.
Spanish: todo lo sufre, todo lo cree, todo lo espera, todo lo soporta.
33. Table
| 1 Corinthians 13:7 |
| # |
Greek |
Strongs |
KJV |
| 1. |
*260 |
παντα |
G3956 |
*1,225 |
|
| 2. |
*1 |
στεγει, |
G4722 |
*4 |
Beareth |
| 3. |
*260 |
παντα |
G3956 |
*1,225 |
all things, |
| 4. |
*3 |
πιστευει, |
G4100 |
*236 |
believeth |
| 5. |
*260 |
παντα |
G3956 |
*1,225 |
all things, |
| 6. |
*3 |
ελπιζει, |
G1679 |
*31 |
hopeth |
| 7. |
*260 |
παντα |
G3956 |
*1,225 |
all things, |
| 8. |
*2 |
υπομενει. |
G5278 |
*17 |
endureth |
| 9. |
|
|
G3956 |
|
all things. |
34. Hidden messages
In the Bible texts, there may be messages hidden in the original text. That is, in more than one meaning for the text that is not obvious. In such cases, one should be very careful to not deviate too far from the original text in translations.
35. End of page
Many words for "roof" or "covering" come from the PIE (Proto Indo-European) root "*STEG, *TEG" ≈ "cover" such as the English word "deck", the English word "thatch" and the English word "toga".
