I’ve been reading the book of Esther in the NEB, comparing the OT Hebrew version with the LXX Greek text. The LXX version has 107 additional verses in several narrative blocks, sprinkled throughout the story. Like the NRSV, the NEB and REB provide a complete translation of the LXX version, rather than inserting the additional Greek fragments into the translated Hebrew (like the NAB and NJB do).
In reading Esther 16 - a Greek-only passage containing the second letter from Artaxerxes to his kingdoms, canceling his earlier edict to exterminate the Jews and allowing them “to observe their own laws and to defend themselves, and to deal as they wished with their opponents and enemies” (Esther 8.11) - I ran across this colorful nugget in 16.15-16 regarding Artaxerxes’ denouncment of Haman and endorsement of the Jews:
| NRSV |
NEB |
REB |
| But we find that the Jews, who were consigned to annihilation by this thrice-accursed man, are not evildoers, but are governed by most righteous laws and are children of the living God, most high, most mighty, who has directed the kingdom both for us and for our ancestors in the most excellent order. | But we find that the Jews, whom this triple-dyed villain had consigned to extinction, are no evil-doers; they order their lives by the most just of laws, and are children of the living God, most high, most mighty, who maintains the empire in most wonderful order, for us as for our ancestors. | We find, however, that the Jews whom this double-dyed villain had consigned to extinction are no evildoers; on the contrary, they order their lives by the most just of laws and are children of the living God, the Most High and Most Mighty, who for us as for our ancestors has maintained the kingdom in excellent order. |
The NRSV is relatively clear in meaning with “thrice-accursed”, but what about the NEB and REB? A few Google searches on “triple-dyed” reveals a number of hits about fabric and boots, as you might have guessed, but also a few New York Times articles published over 50 years ago with similar usage to the context of Esther:
Maybe, of course, every truckman doesn’t run up against the sort of thing that hard-boiled, two-fisted Nick Garcos encounters in the market of this film. And maybe there aren’t too many merchants in the produce business anywhere who are as vicious and cruel in their dealings as is Figlia, the villain herein. Certainly, we’d hate to think so, for Figlia is a scoundrel triple-dyed, and the treatment he gives to Nick Garcos could not be generally endured. (Sep 24, 1949)
In this embattled novel, the enemy is the gentile world, and its hostile camp is made up of all the hotels, clubs, schools and residential areas that Jews find “restricted.” To Jewish George Hurst, raised on the lower East Side by pathologically fearful Aunt Tessie, the goyim are a barbarous yet crafty race who corrupt whatever they touch. His best friend, Danny Schorr, begins palling around with gentiles and soon he has got into trouble with the police, changed his name to Shaw and become the most triple-dyed villain since East Lynne. And one of his schoolmates, pretty Dora Dienst. listens to the. siren song with the seemingly inevitable result: she becomes a boozy prostitute and a monument of perfidy. (June 16, 1958)
In addition, a listing from a 1913 Webster’s dictionary confirms the REB’s form of the idiom:
Dou´ble-dyed`
a.1. Dyed twice; thoroughly or intensely colored; hence; firmly fixed in opinions or habits; as, a double-dyed villain.
Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, published 1913 by C. & G. Merriam Co.
And finally, we have a 1920 silent movie titled “A Double-Dyed Deceiver“, presumably based on the short story by O. Henry of the same name (1909), which features this memorable line:
“I’ll expose you to-day, you–you double-dyed traitor,” stammered Thacker.
So clearly both “double-dyed” and “triple-dyed” were in common circulation during the time that the NEB team was working on their translation. I’m guessing that there was an escalation in villainous descriptions, just as kids will move from a “dare” to a “dog dare” to a “double dog dare” to the superlative “triple dog dare!”
Working with the assumption that the NRSV (and NETS) translations are literally conveying a phrase or idiom of being cursed three times over, the NEB’s choice is relatively easy to understand. The superlative “triple-dyed” fits nicely into the NEB’s idiomatic translation philosophy, rendering the text with a touch of contemporary relevance.
However, when the REB revision team came to this text, I’m at a bit of a loss to explain Haman’s “downgrade” to a “double-dyed villain”. With a “triple dog dare”, there was no turning back - but perhaps someone on the team was more familiar with O. Henry and chose to use that phrase instead?!
5 Comments
I can’t believe that the phrase double-dyed was too obvious for you? If not that, then I’m equally baffled as well.
Ha, good one! Well, yes, there is that too… perhaps it *is* as simple as the REB team going for basic alliterative effect, while the NEB retained more literalism - that would buck the trend of the REB being the more “literal” of the two.
Very interesting how the translators expressed double-dyed and triple-dyed instead of archcriminal (NAB), archscoundrel (NJB), or just wicked criminal (GNT). I love it.
My instinct would be that “double-dyed” is a regular idiom, one which is in the back of my mind although old-fashioned now; whereas “triple-dyed” sounds to me like a new coinage (although in fact it isn’t) as a hyperbolic extension of “double-dyed”.
Thanks, Peter. Certainly the examples of “double-dyed” I found were earlier than those of “triple-dyed”, so a “hyperbolic extension” certainly could be likely.
@Kevin - good catch on the NAB and NJB!
I’ll be curious to see if the new ESV w/Apocrypha contains a full translation of the Greek Esther. I assume so given that the translators are likely working from the RSV Apocrypha as a starting point, but that’s never been confirmed. Anyone have a KJV Apocrypha to check the rendering there?