August Konkel Responds to Readers' Comments
03/28/2007 10:52 Filed in: Faith & Reason
In the discussion of Job 16:18-22, comparing the NLT and CEV, I quoted from August Konkel's commentary on Job. Konkel, president and professor of Old Testament at Providence College and Seminary in Canada, is the primary translator of Job in the New Living Translation, and he also wrote the Job commentary in Tyndale's Cornerstone Biblical Commentary, also based on the NLT.
After some questions were asked about the excerpt from the CBC commentary that I included in my post, I emailed Dr. Konkel to see if he would like to respond. Here are his comments that he sent me this morning:
Regarding the corrected translation in the commentary to Job 16:20:
Why would I give a translation I disagree with? Your reader needs to be
a little more familiar with the process of the NLT and its commentaries.
Editing teams reviewed and made stylistically consistent the entire
translation. The NEB would be an example of a similar process when it
was produced. Further, the editing teams worked with two or three
original translations, as is evident if one looks at the introduction of
the NLT. The commentary did not need to agree with the editor's final
decisions. Perhaps I should have done more to explain the reasons for
their decisions.
Regarding concern over Konkel's translation of vv. 20-21:
A more literal rendering of verse 21: "So that He might judge a man in
controversy with God as fairly as he would judge between one man in a
suit with his fellow" (following the BHS footnote in the second half of
the line).
The vav on the hiphil introduces the conclusion of the plea implicit in
v. 20 b.
I did not discuss all the possible interpretations of v. 20, of which
there are many. But a reference to mockers is most disruptive (see
Clines and Gordis). In Job God is both adversary and redeemer. That is
the nature of faith as portrayed by the author. We do not understand
God; we just trust him. In v.20 Job's advocate is God, whom he knows to
be his friend, though he cannot understand how this friend is dealing
with him.
My thanks to Dr. Konkel for responding to these questions. He also stated in his email that he welcomes further discussion.
After some questions were asked about the excerpt from the CBC commentary that I included in my post, I emailed Dr. Konkel to see if he would like to respond. Here are his comments that he sent me this morning:
Regarding the corrected translation in the commentary to Job 16:20:
Why would I give a translation I disagree with? Your reader needs to be
a little more familiar with the process of the NLT and its commentaries.
Editing teams reviewed and made stylistically consistent the entire
translation. The NEB would be an example of a similar process when it
was produced. Further, the editing teams worked with two or three
original translations, as is evident if one looks at the introduction of
the NLT. The commentary did not need to agree with the editor's final
decisions. Perhaps I should have done more to explain the reasons for
their decisions.
Regarding concern over Konkel's translation of vv. 20-21:
A more literal rendering of verse 21: "So that He might judge a man in
controversy with God as fairly as he would judge between one man in a
suit with his fellow" (following the BHS footnote in the second half of
the line).
The vav on the hiphil introduces the conclusion of the plea implicit in
v. 20 b.
I did not discuss all the possible interpretations of v. 20, of which
there are many. But a reference to mockers is most disruptive (see
Clines and Gordis). In Job God is both adversary and redeemer. That is
the nature of faith as portrayed by the author. We do not understand
God; we just trust him. In v.20 Job's advocate is God, whom he knows to
be his friend, though he cannot understand how this friend is dealing
with him.
My thanks to Dr. Konkel for responding to these questions. He also stated in his email that he welcomes further discussion.