A question
It's the first time that I have been here. I'm teaching myself Spanish through reading the Bible in Spanish. I have a problem: in the phrase "la plataforma empedrada", what's the English equivalent of empedrada? and what does the word empedrada come from, from empedrar or some other word'
10 Answers
Read this before posting a new discussion, please:
[url=http://my.spanishdict.com/forum/topic/show'id=1710195%3ATopic%3A4947]http://my.spanishdict.com/forum/topic/show'id=1710195%3ATopic%3A4947[/url]
Hi Luis, welcome to the forum!
You should have put the given sentence in your "title" of the discussion.
By the way: have you discovered our groups yet? there is a "bible" group you might be interested in. Just click on "groups".
Thank you.
Here is the verse from the Reina Valera version.
Entonces Pilato, oyendo este dicho, llevó fuera á Jesús, y se sentó en el tribunal en el lugar que se dice Lithóstrotos, y en hebreo Gabbatha.
As you can see, this is basically the name of something, so translations are going to vary.
You might see this discussion about the accents:
[url=http://my.spanishdict.com/forum/topic/show'id=1710195%3ATopic%3A109577]Los accentes - está una manera fácil insertarlos'[/url]
Here is an analysis of the passage:
"When Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus outside and sat on the judge's bench at a place called The Stone Pavement, or in Hebrew Gabbatha." I have put in italics the phrase "sat on the judge's bench," because this typical translation is very likely incorrect. It assumes that Pilate himself sat down to judge Jesus. But it is possible to read the verse slightly differently, so that Pilate sat Jesus down on the judge's bench. And, if Jesus is now seated on the judge's bench, we see yet again that Jesus is not the one on trial, but the King on his judgment seat. This tribunal is led not by Pilate, but by Jesus, while Pilate and the Lord's accusers are the ones facing a moment of judgment."
James, I'm reading La biblia al Dia Nueva TEstament, Nineteenth Printing: Octobor, 1990-500,000-USA. The phrase comes from the Juan: 13 Pilato al oir aquello, vovio a sacar a Jesus y fue a sentarse en el banco del tribunal sobre la plataforma empedrada. By the way, how can I typewrite the Spanish letters'
Which version of the Bible are you reading? I googled "la plataforma empedrada"+biblia and got exactly one hit, which happens to be your question on this forum. The Bible being as popular as it is, I would expect more of a Web presence. Even searching for "la plataforma empedrada" alone gets only 7 hits, none of which seems related to the Bible (although one is related to religion).
Are you sure you have the phrase correct? The Bible is all over the Web, in nearly every language, so a quotation should get plenty of hits.
Incidentally, keep in mind that St. Peter's name means rock (hence the name given to Saul), so it is possible that some word play might be involved (since Jesus said Peter would be the rock on which he built his church).
Natasha, thank you for your advice about how to read the bible. I also refer to the English or French or Chinese version when I meet with problems. But that's not enough for me to learn Spanish, though there's no problem understanding the bible.
Thank you, Lazarus. I'm very glad to find your reply to my question. I guess empedrada comes from empedrar. But I can't find it in my small Spanish-English dictionary.
I think this is Lazarus's long way of saying it means a stone pavement.
I have the New Testament, NIV version, (New International Version / Nueva Versión Internacional) in both English and Spanish. Having the English version open to the page I'm reading saves me a lot of trips to the dictionary, especially for theological terms that might not be common.
Empedrada is the past participle of the verb "empedrar", which comes from "piedra" (stone). This verbs means "to cover or pave the floor (or something else) with stones". The past participle can be used as an adjective with the same meaning, and also metaforically to refer to a lot of small clouds that together "pave" the sky.
