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...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Sage
2019
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| In: |
The Bible translator
Year: 2019, Volume: 70, Issue: 3, Pages: 297-305 |
| Further subjects: | B
ouai
B Revelation 8.13 B Bible Translation |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | 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. |
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| ISSN: | 2051-6789 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: The Bible translator
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1177/2051677019888573 |