wturri78
Puritan Board Freshman
I've been digging around some lately, trying to discern a few discrepancies among translations of Daniel. I was reading through a treatise by Cyprian of Carthage (ANF05. Fathers of the Third Century: Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix | Christian Classics Ethereal Library) called "On Works and Alms." He quotes Daniel (Schaff's footnote identifies it as 4:27) as saying "Wherefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable to thee; and redeem thy sins by almsgivings, and thine unrighteousness by mercies to the poor, and God will be patient to thy sins." The gist of the treatise appears to support a view that good works and almsgiving can propitiate God after we've committed sin. I looked up 4:27 in numerous translations, and every one of them translates it as "break off your sins by practicing righteousness" or something similar. The Catholic New American Bible however translates it as "Therefore, O king, take my advice; atone for your sins by good deeds, and for your misdeeds by kindness to the poor; then your prosperity will be long" (emphasis mine of course). What's more, the NAB footnote to the verse states "A classic Scriptural text for the efficacy of good works."
So I'm confused. I looked up the verse in an online interlinear Bible and the Aramaic word there is defined in the lexicon as "break off." However, I'm wondering if this might be a textual issue since in the NAB this verse is listed as verse 4:24 rather than 4:27...the first three verses in Ch. 4 are included at the end of Ch. 3, which in the NAB has 100 rather than 30 verses because it includes a long psalm sung by the men in the furnace that apparently only exist in Greek and not the Hebrew or Aramaic.
Anyway, my question is, does the translation "atone" or "redeem" come from some text other than the Aramaic, or is it translated that way out of a theological predisposition to the efficacy of good works? And for that matter, does Cyprian's translation of "almsgiving" in place of "practicing righteousness" have any merit? Is it an acceptable translation or is it too specific (i.e. almsgiving is only one of many good deeds), or could it be a problem in translating Cyprian into English?
Man, this stuff is confusing. Why couldn't everyone just have written in 21st Century Americanized English?
So I'm confused. I looked up the verse in an online interlinear Bible and the Aramaic word there is defined in the lexicon as "break off." However, I'm wondering if this might be a textual issue since in the NAB this verse is listed as verse 4:24 rather than 4:27...the first three verses in Ch. 4 are included at the end of Ch. 3, which in the NAB has 100 rather than 30 verses because it includes a long psalm sung by the men in the furnace that apparently only exist in Greek and not the Hebrew or Aramaic.
Anyway, my question is, does the translation "atone" or "redeem" come from some text other than the Aramaic, or is it translated that way out of a theological predisposition to the efficacy of good works? And for that matter, does Cyprian's translation of "almsgiving" in place of "practicing righteousness" have any merit? Is it an acceptable translation or is it too specific (i.e. almsgiving is only one of many good deeds), or could it be a problem in translating Cyprian into English?
Man, this stuff is confusing. Why couldn't everyone just have written in 21st Century Americanized English?