Sawyer's improved rendering is almost meaningless.
One more example of these strictly literal renderings must suffice, John
iii. 4. common version,--"Nicodemus saith unto him, 'How can a man be
born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb
and be born?'" Sawyer's version,--"Nicodemus said to him, 'How can a man
be born when he is old? can he become an unborn infant of his mother a
second time, and be born?'" The absurdity of the form of language put
into the mouth of Nicodemus by Mr. Sawyer is obvious at a glance; no
such thought was ever so expressed by any speaker in any language; it is
wholly forced and unnatural; and upon comparing Mr. Sawyer's translation
with the original, we find that he has paraphrased the passage with a
vengeance, altogether omitting to translate the clause [Greek: _eis
thaen koilian ... eiselthein kai gennaethaenai_], and interpolating an
expression, instead, which is neither in the original text nor in the
thought. Probably Mr. Sawyer's motive for taking this extraordinary
liberty was a false delicacy, amounting to prudery; but it ill assorts
with his assertion, that his work is not a paraphrase, nor one of
compromises, or of conjectural interpretations.
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