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moggy

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  1. moggy's post in "Grace" vs. "Undeserved Kindness" was marked as the answer   
    It is difficult to be simplistic when answering your question because the word, especially in the hands of Paul's epistolary injunctions, has been invested with a nobility that is not seen among other words that connect with biblical salvation. Indeed, were we to remove this word from the NT, there would be no Christianity. We need not indulge in a detailed word study of this term, since the Watchtower itself has seen no need to do so, but suffice it to say that:
    1The original Greek word is χαρις - charis - and it occurs 155 times in the New Testament
    2. Because of its recurrent usage in various contexts, there is no single way in which we can translate the term
    3. Indeed the RNWT translates it 15 different ways [among them: Favour- Lu 1:30, Gracious - Lu 4:22, Undeserved Favour - 1 Peter 3:7 etc]
    4. Every translation is compelled to do the same thing. My own Bible of choice - The NASV - translates the word twelve separate ways.
    The reason for this multiplicity of translations is because the original word - χαρις - meant, from the fifth century BC, anything that affords "joy, pleasure, delight" from whence various meanings developed, including grace [as in poise] favour, gratitude,  thankfulness, and kindness, among others.
    While it is true that many of these meanings in non-biblical literature are found in the NT, it is only when we are confronted with the way Paul wields this majestic word, that we enter into a world endowed with utterly indescribable  gravitas and splendour. He uses it no less that 107 times [69% of the time] very often to define in human terms that which is indefinable. When you confront this word as powered by the Holy Spirit, which was in Paul, you realize that you  are gazing into the very chasm of infinity, because Paul uses this word for our very God, and the Saviour, Himself.
    Now to answer your question:
    What did John mean when he used the word twice at Jo 1:16::
    "We all received from his fullness, even undeserved kindness upon undeserved kindness"
    Apart from an unfortunate woodenness of expression, is the RNWT, the best way to translate this verse? Although it it is certainly not wrong, I believe it is not.
    First of ll, it can give a misleading impression, that the word, in Christian terminology, has something  to do with being "undeserved". Reading Paul, we can't help but believe that it is not that we are undeserving of God's kindness, but that we simply do not merit it in the first place. We can never earn God's χαρις, because if we could, χαρις would no longer be χαρις.[Ro 11:6] Thus it is through this enduring quality of Divine favour that that which is unmerited is  conveyed to believers.
    I feel "unmerited favour", if one is to "open" the word "Grace", is better. I would prefer, however, to dignify "Grace" with a Christian immortality, as others have done. It is the single best way to have a word-for-word alternative for the Greek and English.
    Whether the RNWT translation is better than this,
    "From His abundance we have received more and more grace"    [Modern Language Bible]
    I leave to the reader.
     
       
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