Page 14 The Battalion Thursday, Aprils
[fexas A&
Priest researches ancient Hebrew f or new Bible translation
COFFIELD (AP) — The Rev.
Henry Stransky believes that no
work of man is perfect. That in
cludes the King James Bible, the
most popular English translation of
the New Testament.
“The King James Bible, even be
ing Catholic myself, I must say is one
of the most honest translations com-
g ared to the Greek it came from,”
transky said.
The problem is that the Greek
version itself came from the ancient
Hebrew.
“These people who wrote it in
Greek were not Greek,” Stransky
said. “They were Jews. Therefore,
some of the phraseology is wrong.”
Stransky’s own translation of the
New Testament, based on his re
search of ancient Hebrew dictiona
ries, is under review by the Vatican.
He said initial reaction to his work
has been positive.
The 64-year-old priest, born in
Czechoslovakia, is chaplain at the
Texas Department of Corrections
Coffield prison in Tennessee Col
ony.
He said he has been puzzled for
more than 20 years by contradictions
he found in the King James Bible. In
2 Corinthians 5:21, the King James
Bible translates that God made Jesus
“to be.sin for us.”
Stransky translates the passage as
saying that God made Jesus to be a
sacrifice for our sins. In Hebrew, the
same word for “sin” also translates as
“sacrifice for sin.”
Another contradiction he notes is
between Romans 4:5, where Paul
says God justifies the wicked, and
Exodus 23:7, where God says that he
will not justify a wicked man.
The contradiction is clarified by
taking into account that the word for
“declare innocent” in old Hebrew
later acquired the meaning “to deal
with mercifully” in Talmudic He
brew, Stransky said.
“My translation will be like a
supplement to the King James Bible,
only my translation is (more) under
standable,” Stransky said.
He began research on his transla
tion in 1976 when he visited the
Holy Land.
He later found some of the same
Hebrew dictionaries available in Je
rusalem at the library of the South
ern Baptist Theological Seminary in
Fort Worth.
Stransky admits that of the many
languages he has said Mass in in
cluding Spanish, Italian, Czech,
Croatian and Arabic — English is his
weakest tongue. Assisting him in
proofreading copy were Franklin
Williams and Dr. Curtis Jordan of
Palestine.
Even some Coffield inmates lent a
hand in proofreading copy, Stransky
said.
“Most of my proofreaders were
Protestant,” Stransky said.
His interest in language stems
from his childhood in Czechoslova
kia. Despite an infection that dam
aged his hearing, Stransky devel
oped an “accoustic memory” that
aided him in learning other lan
guages.
“Czechoslovakia is a very small na
tion,” Stransky said. “ I he village 1
lived in had Germans, so I learned
German from them. Later as a child
I learned Latin and Greek.
His grandmother influenced
young Stransky to study for the
priesthood.
He had been raised in a home that
was tolerant of all religions, he said.
“My father always said that any re
ligion is good if you keep it,
Stransky said.
At the seminary in Prague, Strans
ky’s interest in foreign languages in
tensified. He briefly served as an in
terpreter to the Soviet troops that
occupied his country afer World
War II.
His opposition to Czechoslovakian
communists led to his being sent to
Rome to complete his training as a
priest.
He was ordained i n
1949. but the conmmnisui .
prevented his return to hk 1
land. ^
“On my way to Czechoslovakia,
spent a short time i n a,?
Stransky said. “My brother fUf
Czechoslovakia and sent rl/
warning me not to return ’’ n0tlCfl
From Austria, Stransky ,
grated to Chile in 1951. I n W
traveled to Germany and th P r,,, i
to the United States. After vJ?
in Chicago and Gary, Ind., Stratf
SSS torofStBef H
1 n 1he became part-time pa,
tor at Coffield prison. Eventual! J
became the prison’s full-ti me ■ 1
lain.
Composer Berlioz celebrated in ‘classic ’ biography
LONDON (AP) — He was the son
of a country doctor who rebelled
against his father, went to Paris with
no musical training and within eight
years had written one of the world’s
greatest symphonies.
Now the life of Hector Berlioz,
the grand 19th-century romantic,
the Frenchman of whom Paganini
once said, “You begin where the oth
ers leave off,” is celebrated in a new
biography that already is being
hailed as a classic.
The plaudits should please the
University of California. Author Da
vid Cairns, a London music critic,
drafted more than a third of “Ber
lioz 1803-1832: The Making of an
Artist” at the university in Davis
where he spent two terms as a visit
ing professor.
“Kern Holoman, chairman of the
music department there, arranged it
and it meant I was free from journa-
Hair & Tanning
Salon
846-8663
846-7993
European
Tanning Beds
00 Unlimited
Tanning
(1 month)
$35
$39 00 Perm & Cut
fit Shampoo
| & Cut
$25°o ^ C ' jiptured
1 00 Highlight
SSunglitz
Cut & Condi
tioner
Open Mon-Fri 8-9
Sat 8-5
700 University Dr.
College Station
Next to Univ. Bookstore
Walk-ins welcome
Thru 4/15/89
YES!
WE HAVE
STUDENT
AIRFARES!
London $309
Paris $325
Madrid $330
Oslo $375
Rome $375
Caracas $155
Panama City $155
San Jose $155
Rio $380
Tokyo $508
Council Travel/CIEE the largest and
oldest student travel network in Amer
ica has 100’s of student, youth and
budget airfares worldwide. Scheduled
carriers! Guaranteed Reservations!
Flexible returns! Fly in/out any city!
Some restrictions apply. Above airfares
ONE-WAY FROM HOUSTON. We also
offer EURAIL PASSES, HOSTEL
PASSES, International student ID
cards and more. We feature EURO
PE/USSR TOURS from USD 44 per
day, and LANGUAGE PROGRAMS in
8 European countries. Call us for a
FREE student travel catalog.
COUNCIL TRAVEL
THE EXECUTIVE TOWER
OFFICE CENTER
3300 WEST MOCKINGBIRD
LANE #101
DALLAS, TX 75235
214-350-6166 800-777-2874
lism,” Cairns said.
“He’s one of the world’s leading
Berlioz scholars and is writing a life-
and-works of the composer.”
About why he got such help on
what might be seen as a rival project,
Cairns said: “Holoman is a friend of
mine and it’s good for the prestige of
a university to be able to say a book
that might be well regarded was
written on its campus.”
Cairns, 62, spent nearly 20 years
on the book, which covers the first
half of the composer’s life.
He claims disarmingly to have dis
covered nothing really new about
Berlioz, but this hasn’t dampened
the critical acclaim.
“Elderly Berliozians will pray that
they live to read its successor,” wrote
Peter Heyworth in The Observer,
likening the project to Ernest New
man’s life of Richard Wagner.
That book is regarded as one of
the great 20th-century biographies.
Berlioz was famous for the “Sym
phonic fantastique,” which mirrors
his passion for the Irish actress Har
riet Smithson and which always can
fill a modern concert hall.
Cairns sees parallels between Ber
lioz and Daniel Barenboim, the Is
raeli pianist and conductor, who was
fired in January as musical and artis
tic director of the new Paris Bastille
Opera for allegedly demanding too
much money and not providing the
required repertory.
Berlioz often complained of
French bureaucratic interference in
musical life.
When he was commissioned in
1837 to write a requiem for the 1830
revolution, he said he had to camp
out in the government offices to get
paid.
Cairns, who also retranslated Ber
lioz’s own autobiography, “Mem
oirs,” is most pleased with his picture
of the composer’s early life, wnich he
unearthed from the family archive
of letters and papers and by spend
ing time in the composer’s home
town, La Cote St. Andre near Gre
noble.
“It’s an extraordinary story. Ber
lioz didn’t have a musical upbringing
so we don’t quite know where his
genius came from.
“He goes to Paris knowing almost
nothing about music and in seven or
eight years writes the ‘Symphonic
fantastique.’
“My book is about how this hap
pened,” the author said.
“He found it difficult to find a
woman to feel as passionately about
him as he was about her.
“Most people don’t live on that in
tense high plain. It was a disappoint
ment to him but it helped make him
what he was as a composer.”
Jack Daniel’s distillery began
with preacher’s whiskey still
LYNCHBURG, Tenn. (AP) — This remote corner of the Cumberland hi
is not a likely place for major industries to want to locate.
And the way Jack Daniel’s distillery happened to gel here is notaptiol*
repeated.
Jasper Newton “Jack” Daniel was born in 1846, the last of 10 children
When he was six his widowed father, hard pressed, sent himofftoiivt
with a neighbor, Dan Call.
Call ran a store on Louse Creek and needed an apprentice forhisblad
slave, Nearest Green, who was a superb maker of the store’s most prominen
product, whiskey.
Dan Call was also a preacher.
When Jack Daniel was 14 a traveling evangelist named LadyLovebor
rowed Dan Call’s pulpit and told Dan’s congregation that their pastor haj
better decide whether to preach or make whiskey because in the eyes oftht
Lord he couldn’t do both.
Jack bought Dan’s still, on credit, and went in business.
When the Civil War ended he moved his still a few miles to a loveli
spring outside Lynchburg, brought with him Nearest Green’s son, Georrt
and prospered.
A new federal law in 1866 required all distilleries to register with govern
merit tax collectors and Jack Daniel’s became the nation’s first.
% ?
> J
FOLDOVER WAISTS
COLOR-BLOCKINK
PLAID AND
STRIPE ACCENTS
Choose from a huge selection
of the latest denim shorts with
up-to-date detailing. Available in
a number of washes in 100% cot
ton for junior sizes 3-13. Special
purchase. One-pocket t-shirts
in bright or pastel colors are
slightly oversized with shoulder
pads. 100% cotton, S-M-L.
Reg. 9.99, sale 2 for 15.00.
Junior Sportswear.
!,;•< v-
FOLEY v S
0-12 34 5678 9
VALUED CUSTOMER
USE YOUR
FOLEY’S
CHARGE
FOLEY’S
/ol. 88 No. 12
washing ror
Lily defended
Thursday from t
icriminul trial, dec
[Marine following
[was not stepping i
Laid.
1 North was slop
spond to his lawye
Ipresident Reagan
Itherole. Asked dii
cretly help the N
named former N
Robert McFarlane
uty, John Poindex
rector William Cas
North’s testimoi
(lawyers read the ju
agreed to by pr
By Mia B. Moodv
Ireporter
Texas A&M’s
I chapter of the Te
Iciation will work I
len’sand minority r
I cation and faculty
|thestate Legislatur
Claudine Hunti
I A&M’s IT A chapl
■in the modern and
Idepartment said th
Iconcerns about in
leased on condition
Inorities.
“Right now equ
jpanics and blacks i
Isaid. “People are 1
lare having proble;
Idress this issue be
[not receiving the
Isearch support or
Ides for professiona
Hunting believ
Imight be linked to
ministration.
"From the star
[faculty members w
[ken to, the admit
[ceived as insensiti
[cause, especially w
By Anthony W
CITY EDITOR
Jay Kregt
Jim Simon
agents for tl
senior indue
day and Wee
Katy Br:
grams coon
ciation of F
1,633 senioi
but declinec
margin of
that “it was c
Class age
tween the
dass they re
They are
class newsle
three to five
keeping the
°n class
changes of
tal informal
Class ag
five-year te:
volunteer
Council, ah
promoting
class and p
°n associati
. Kregel, a
jor from H
Corps comi
unteers’ his
Public relat
He also I
dent Govei
•on, the ci
society.
Kregel <
class agents
sible for ‘
dents in t
their felloe
...OF COURSE