『새한글성경 신약과 시편』의 ‘역사적 현재’ 번역에 대한 평가와 제언 — 마가복음을 중심으로 —

Abstract

When translating the so-called historical/historic present (hereinafter, HP) in the Greek New Testament, it has been commonly practiced to translate it into the past tense regardless of the type of target language. However, the New Korean Translation The New Testament and Psalms (hereinafter, NKT NT&Ps) translates the HP in the Greek New Testament into Korean present tense for the first time in the history of Korean Bible translation. It is not an exaggeration to say that this is a new and unfamiliar attempt, and that it has opened a new era in the tradition of translating the Greek Bible into Korean. Being unfamiliar, it is highly likely to be the subject of the most active discussion in future evaluation and revision process. Therefore, this paper evaluates how the HP is currently translated in the NKT NT&Ps, focusing on the Gospel of Mark. For this, this paper first examines and evaluates the cases where the HP has not been translated into the Korean present tense even though it is so in the Greek text by comparing it with other passages in which the HP has been translated into the present tense. Then this paper scrutinizes closely the translation status of the HP in NKT NT&Ps by dividing it into five major cases where:BR 1) the HP in the Greek text was simply not translated into Korean present tense;BR 2) same phrases in the original Greek text are translated differently or unidentical phrases are translated into the same phrase;BR 3) the HP in the complex sentence of the Greek text cannot be identified because the complex sentence in Greek has been translated into one sentence in Korean;BR 4) misunderstanding is caused; andBR 5) the translation reflects special usage of the HP in the ancient Greek rather than a simple translation into Korean present tense.BR Next, this paper explains how Mark utilizes the HP, and proposes a couple of suggestions to consider in the future revision process.BR 1) Considering that Mark uses the HP to introduce new paragraphs or to distinguish scenes, it would be better to divide paragraphs based on the HP used for that purpose.BR 2) When the present tense of λέγω acts as a high-order word and is used with a low-order word with a similar meaning in the same sentence, it does not represent a separate utterance that is distinct from the low-order word, but rather plays a cataphoric discourse-pragmatic function. It would therefore be better to translate it appropriately.