Sunday, April 26, 2009

Matthew Chapter 1


Here's my translation of the first chapter of the Gospel According to St. Matthew. Please critique.

The book of the origin of Jesus: Christ, Son of David, Son of Abraham.

2 Abraham begot Isaac, and Isaac begot Jacob, and Jacob begot Judah and his brothers, 3 and Judah begot Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez begot Hezron, and Hezron begot Ram, 4 and Ram begot Amminadab, and Amminadab begot Nahshon, and Nahshon begot Salmon, 5 and Salmon begot Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz begot Obed by Ruth, and Obed begot Jesse, 6 and Jesse begot David the king. And David the king begot Solomon by the wife of Uriah, 7 and Solomon begot Rehoboam, Rehoboam begot Abijah, and Abijah begot Asa, 8 and Asa begot Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat begot Joram, and Joram begot Uzziah, 9 and Uzziah begot Jotham, and Jotham begot Ahaz, and Ahaz begot Hezekiah, 10 and Hezekiah begot Manasseh, and Manasseh begot Amon, and Amon begot Josiah, 11 and Josiah begot Jeconiah and his brothers, in the time of the deportation to Babylon. 12 And after the deportation to Babylon, Jeconiah begot Shealtiel, and Shealtiel begot Zerubbabel, 13 and Zerubbabel begot Abiud, and Abiud begot Eliakim, and Eliakim begot Azor, 14 and Azor begot Zadok, and Zadok begot Achim, and Achim begot Eliud, 15 and Eliud begot Eleazar, and Eleazar begot Matthan, and Matthan begot Jacob, 16 and Jacob begot Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus Who is called the Christ.

17 Therefore, all the generations from Abraham until David are fourteen generations, and from David until the deportation to Babylon are fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon until the Christ are fourteen generations.

18 Now Jesus Christ's birth was of this sort. For after His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be pregnant (from the Holy Spirit). 19 But Joseph her husband, being a righteous man, and not wishing to disgrace her publicly, wanted to divorce her secretly. 20 But after he had reflected on these things, look, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take into your home Mary, your wife, for that which has been begotten in her is from the Holy Spirit; 21 and she will give birth to a Son and you will call His name Jesus; for He Himself will save His people from their sins." 22 And this whole thing has happened in order to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: 23 "Look, the virgin will give birth to a son, and they will call His name Immanuel," which is translated, "God with us." 24 And Joseph, having been awakened from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took his wife into his home, 25 but he continued not knowing her until she gave birth to her firstborn Son, and he called His name Jesus. 

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

That was really done well, son!
Dad and I compared it to the King James Version and kept finding different names. Then we compared it to the New King James Version and they were the same as yours. Why is that different? Love Mom and Dad

Chuck Wiese said...

In some cases there may have been a textual variant. In most cases they are different ways of transliterating the same name. It is a list of Greek transliterations of Hebrew names and so the translator has to decide whether to use the Greek transliteration or a transliteration that is closer to the Hebrew so that the reader will understand who is being referred to in the Old Testament. I think in most of these cases the KJV decided to go with the Greek transliteration and I and the NKJV decided to go with what was closer to the Hebrew so that it is obvious who is being referred to in the OT. The KJV is not consistent with this, nor is any version that I have seen. For instance, the book of Jude should really be the book of Judas if you were going to stick with a strict transliteration of the Greek.