"As the visions during the night continued, I saw one like a Son of man coming, on the clouds of heaven; when he reached the Ancient One and was presented before him, the one like a Son of man received dominion, glory, and kingship; all peoples, nations, and languages serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not be taken away, his kingship shall not be destroyed." -NAB
"As the visions during the night continued, I saw coming with the clouds of
heaven One like a son of man. When he reached the Ancient of Days and was presented before him, He received dominion, splendor,
and kingship; all nations, peoples and tongues will serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not pass away, his kingship, one that shall not be
destroyed." -NABRE
I like the NABRE the best. I like its use of "pass away", it sort of reminds me of Jesus' words about heaven and earth passing away, but not His words.
ReplyDeleteThe Knox "obey him all must" is a little Yoda-like to me. I checked the D-R to see if it were a Vulgate thing, and the D-R reads like "and all peoples, tribes, and tongues shall serve him".
One difference is that in Knox there are no capital letters when referring to the son of man. For me, that gives me the idea of a son of man as a human being, or in the same level as humanity.
ReplyDeleteFor the past few readings I had chosen the NABRE, but I this week I like the Knox reading best. It flows well and the reading is exaulted, which is appropriate for this particular reading.
ReplyDeleteIs that not at the heart of the mystery of the Incarnation? Jesus, the second person of the Holy Trinity, is truly God and truly human. (CCC 464)
ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteThe Knox version says: that was yet a son of man. That sounds different of "like a son of man". That was yet, means to me to be submitted. Like a son of man, means to me like in the presence of a mystery.
I don´t want to challenge our believes, only to point out the differences in those texts.
best regards.
ReplyDeletePersonaly, I would give the NABRE a slight edge over the NAB, with Knox coming in last. IMO Knox's translation doesn't read well. It's disjointed and has no flow.
Pax,
John
Hi Leonardo,
ReplyDeleteI think I like the "yet a son of man" from the Knox. Especially after the dramatic encounter between the many horned beast and the Ancient of Days, I find it striking that this lone figure, a mere human, should then enter the heavenly court and approach the throne of the Ancient of Days. What fearsome power was given up by Jesus so that he might take the form of a man!
Hi,
ReplyDeleteThanks to losabio, great comment!
At first glance, I would say that I prefer the NABRE, but I wonder if that is only because it is the closest to the RSV, and therefore, for me, the most familiar.....
ReplyDeleteOne of the benefits of a radically different new translation is that it often challenges your perception, makes you wonder 'do I really understand this passage? does it really mean what I think it means?'
And that's precisely what the Knox rendering does to me....because this rendering is so different from the norm, it is making me think 'is it possible I've misunderstood this passage my entire life?' it really makes me ponder....and that's probably a good thing, and part of the reason why Knox wanted to break away from the overly familiar language of the KJV and Douay Rheims.....sometimes precisely because a passage is so familiar, you lose sight of what it really means.
NABRE wins this for me: in this passage, traditional phrasing ("One like a Son of Man coming...") is important, and is one of those passages that has undergone ages of exegesis and reflection by the Church.
ReplyDeleteKnox's alternates between high English and weird English. The NAB and NABRE both are essentially traditional in this passage.