Well AFAIK, the committee members involved in the better English translations all had PhDs
Not only do they have PhDs, but several of them specialize in koine greek, philology, etc, whereas my specialty is (or will be, I guess) orality within the Jesus tradition. They know more.
so I'm not going to privilege your exposition of the Greek over theirs. We all have axes to grind, and I'm not willing to pin my understanding of this parable on what appears to be an idiosyncratic rendering of the passage
I would submit that most translators would acknowledge my translation is closer to the actual greek. This happens a lot, for example in John when the evangalists states that "god so loved the world that he gave his only son..." Actually, what the passage says is that "god loved the world in this way, in that/so that/that he gave his only son." A good translation will invariably be unfaithful to the original text, especially when one is translating a long dead language. Translaters generally prefer to render the greek into "natural" english, but at the expense of accuracy. Also, The Complete Gospels, a wholly new translation of the various gospels (not just the canonical ones) translates the relevent passage like so: "Which of these three, in your opinion, acted like a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?" Kenneth E. Bailey (chairmen of the Biblical Department at the Near Eastern School of Theology and a priest, I believe), in his book on luke (Through Peasant Eyes) translates the phrase as "which of these three do you think became a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?"
In other words, I would say many scholars, even those involved in the translations you quoted, would acknowledge that I am closer to the greek, but they retain the "standard" translation because it is widespread and because, unless one is interested in exceedingly detailed understanding of the text, the traditional translation works. However, when scholars seeking to uncover a better understanding of Jesus' teachings in their historical and cultural setting translate that line, I think you will find that it differs from the versions you quoted.
But the point of the OP, I submit is the question whether there is anyone Christians ought not love. IF that's the question, what would you say the answer is?
I think here we finally have a point of agreement. I would say tht the answer is there is no one to whom Jesus would have said his followers ought not to love.
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