Featured A Translation Conundrum

Acts 26 provides an interesting challenge for translators.

In the familiar v. 28 we have Agrippa saying, "Almost you persuade me...." The Greek there for "almost" is en oligo, literally "in (or by) a little (or few)".... Paul answers in v. 29 with kai en oligo kai en pollo, meaning literally "both in (or by) a little (or few) and by much (or many)."

This is a perfect example of how the original can be ambiguous. So how would you translate this passage? Grab a cuppa and think it over, hopefully without first looking to see how your favorite version rendered it. Coffee

(Apologies: my OP originally had "Festus" but it was actually Agrippa speaking.)

 

So, why would you choose "words" rather than, say, time or effort?

 

So, you would prefer to eliminate the ambiguity, correct? What about the possibility of leaving it ambiguous and letting the English reader decide? Is there a way to do that?

 

Naturally. This thread is designed primarily for those who have their own Greek NTs and can consult them. (Though of course others are not discouraged from posting.)

I find that the difficulty is not in determining sarcasm, etc., but rendering it. In this case, is there a way to make the king sound sarcastic in an English rendering?

 

I just looked the passage up in my trusty Alford's Greek NT, which is quite old (1854), but the man was a genius and should still stand as a resource. He renders v. 28, "Lightly (with small trouble) art thou persuading thyself that thou canst make me a Christian." He points out that the phrase en oligo comes before the verb and is therefore in an emphatic position. However, I'm not sure most modern grammarians would agree.

Alford renders the next verse, "I could wish to God that whether with ease or with difficulty (on my part), not only thou, but all who hear me today, might become such as I am, except only these bonds."

 

So the passage remains ambiguous if rendered literally. Was Agrippa being sarcastic? We don't know, unless there is an idiom, en oligo, which I haven't been able to track down yet. Does anyone have a book of Greek idioms?

 

Thanks. You are arguing from the context, but not necessarily the grammar, which is ambiguous. Is there a way to keep the ambiguity and let the reader decide for himself, or are you in favor of that?

 

There are textual differences between the Alexandrian and Byzantine that might make a difference. In v. 28 the UBS has ποιῆσαι, "to make," instead of the Byz. Textform, which has γενέσθαι, "to become."

Then in v. 29, the UBS4 Has μεγάλῳ (large, great) instead instead of πολλῷ. The UBS variant really doesn't make sense to me, though. The antonym of "few" is not "great" but "many." Of course if there is an idiom here that would not matter.

 

The context doesn't explain everything. Agrippa may have been under conviction, in which case his sentence would not have been sarcasm.

 

No, I am saying that if the original is an idiom, that would help us understand better how to translate it. One may then translate with or without an idiom in the target language, either way.

 

The loud voice could have come from nervousness rather than anger, nervousness at being put under conviction by the Gospel.

At any rate, a translator must use what is in the text. Speculation is foreign to good translation.