WSC in Koine Greek

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CharlieJ

Puritan Board Junior
I'm working on a Koine translation of the Westminster Confession for some composition practice. This is still pretty rough, but should serve as a good beginning. Questions, comments, corrections welcome.

Fonts came out a bit rough on the PB.

1. Επερώτημα: τί εστιν τὸ αρχιτέλος ανθρωπου;
Απόκρισις: τὸ αρχιτέλος ανθρώπου ἐστὶν θεὸν δοξάζειν καὶ αὐτοῦ ἐμπίμπλασθαι εις τὸν αιῶνα.

2. Ε: τίνα κανόνα τοῦ αὐτὸν δοξάζειν καὶ αὐτοῦ ἐμπίμπλασθαι ἡμίν Θεός δέδωκεν;
Α: Θεοῦ ὁ λόγος ὁ εν ταῖς τῆς παλαιᾶς καὶ καινῆς διαθήκης γραφαῖς κατεχόμενος ἐστιν ὁ μόνος κανών τοῦ αὐτὸν δοξάζειν καὶ αὐτοῦ ἐμπίμπλασθαι

3. Ε: τίνα μάλιστα διδασκεῖ αἱ γραφαί;
Α: αἱ γραφαὶ μάλιστα διδασκεῖ τε τὰ ανθρώπους δεῖ πιστεύειν περὶ θεοῦ καὶ τὰ θεός εκζητεῖ τῶν ανθρῶπων.

4. Ε: τί εστιν θεός;
Α: Θεός εστιν πνεῦμα ἄπειρον αί̈διον καὶ ἀμετάθετον ἐν τῇ οὐσίᾳ αὐτοῦ σοφίᾳ δύναμει ἁγιάσμῳ δικαιοσύνῃ αγαθωσύνῃ καὶ ἀληθείᾳ.
 
You meant the Westminster Shorter Catechism, rather than the Confession, right?
 
Looks like a very good start! Please keep posting as you make progress.
 
I see you're sticking to the strict word-for-word, English word order of the Shorter Catechism. If you want simple translation practice, that's fine.

If you want to be more ambitious, you could try to get a better reflection of Greek word order and word use. Some discourse analysis study might help.
 
The more of the literal phraseology and cadences of the GNT (in addition to the words/terms) you can incorporate, the more evidently biblical the whole will appear by the end. Perhaps cross-checking with the proof-texts (after you've accomplished your self-development purposes in translation), will aid you at the editorial level.

Best wishes.
 
Composition is the best way to really know a language. Period. I think what you are doing is probably more fun than using a Greek Composition book, but if you wanted one, you can find one on textkit.com.

As an aside, a friend and I did Latin composition years ago by translating (parts of) the Silmarillion.
 
Thanks, all. Composition is crucial for proficiency in any language. But what to compose? This way, I get to study Greek and the catechism at the same time. I've done other compositions at a great site called ΣΧΟΛΗ, devoted to developing proficiency in Greek through communication and practice.

Yes, the thread should say WSC in Greek. Perhaps a mod could fix that?
 
Perhaps a mod could fix that?

Done.

By the way, in checking Worldcat.org, I only find a single copy of the Catechism in Koine Greek and that copy preserved in a library in Edinburgh.

Bruce is right about incorporating as much of the GNT as is feasible. And if you get the whole thing done, please announce it back here. Many will want a copy.
 
While I can agree with incorporating the phrasing of the GNT, it should be remembered also that the WSC is designed to be memorable, and that the answers reflect the wording of the questions very precisely: that seems like the primary thing, after the question of making it an intelligible translation: to keep it easy to memorize.
 
Some collaboration might be nice. If anyone wants to take a crack at a favorite question, go for it and let me know how it turns out.

In any case, I doubt I'll complete the whole thing. So far, it's been useful practice, but in the Fall, I'll probably be consumed with schoolwork.
 
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