Woe, Horror, Disaster, or Lament?: Revisiting Translations of ouai in Revelation 8.13

The difficulty of translating the Greek word ouai in three numbered “woes” of Revelation and in the exclamations of Babylon’s merchants and rulers poses a challenge for ecological hermeneutics. The most common English translation, “woe,” can imply God’s curse against the earth. “Alas” is the transla...

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Bibliographische Detailangaben
1. VerfasserIn: Rossing, Barbara R. (Verfasst von)
Medienart: Elektronisch Aufsatz
Sprache:Englisch
Verfügbarkeit prüfen: HBZ Gateway
Fernleihe:Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste
Veröffentlicht: 2019
In: The Bible translator
Jahr: 2019, Band: 70, Heft: 3, Seiten: 297-305
weitere Schlagwörter:B ouai
B Revelation 8.13
B Bible Translation
Online-Zugang: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Beschreibung
Zusammenfassung:The difficulty of translating the Greek word ouai in three numbered “woes” of Revelation and in the exclamations of Babylon’s merchants and rulers poses a challenge for ecological hermeneutics. The most common English translation, “woe,” can imply God’s curse against the earth. “Alas” is the translation used in RSV and NRSV for the threefold laments in Rev 18, but not for the earlier references to ouai in regard to Earth or the inhabitants of Earth. The Common English Bible translates “Horror, horror, oh!” (Rev 8.13). The New Jerusalem Bible uses “disaster” in Rev 8.13 and 12.12, but “mourn, mourn” in ch. 18. Micah Kiel notes a thirteenth-century Latin manuscript, the Trinity Apocalypse, that portrays the eagle’s announcement in 8.13 as “Alas, alas, alas.” I will argue that it is important to find a consistent translation such as “alas” for all references to ouai that can convey God’s lament over the earth as well as God’s horror at ecological catastrophe.
ISSN:2051-6789
Enthält:Enthalten in: The Bible translator
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1177/2051677019888573