03-03-2008, 03:29 PM
Well, to be honest, I have no high opinion of Biblical translators; in Dutch, there is a clear distinction between camels and dromedaries, and still they manage to translate gamal with camel - an animal that did not live in the Near East at all! What the loanword speculator means in an early first-century context, can better be deduced from parallels in contemporary inscriptions etc, than from more recent translations. What do English dictionaries say? Guardsman? Secret agent? Executioner? Do they give an indication if it's classical or post-classical?
