The great and first commandment

I've been working with my Translator's Workplace software for 4 reasons:

• keep my Greek reading skills up
• pick up new Greek vocab
• get familiar with the software before needing to use it in country
• finally be able to read the Bible interactively

Interactively: there's a loaded word. What do I mean by that? Well, I want to be able to see in front of me at all times:

• the plain Greek text
• an interlinear Greek-English version with grammatical tags
• the Louw Nida lexicon for any word I click on
• the Biblical background on the passage I'm looking at
• exegetical tips for the passage
• an editable Bible in which I can replace the text with my own translation as I go

For this last part, I have selected an NIV translation. Many of you may know how much fun I must be having directly editing the NIV translation. I duplicated the base file, changed the title and am now going to replace, on a weekly basis, the Gospel reading for the week in my heart language. And what is Eshinee's heart language? I was trying to explain this to Rob yesterday, not sure how clearly I can do that yet. Will try, though.

The Bible in Eshinee's Heart Language (EHL) has the following features:

• English words in the same order as the Greek -May be more cumbersome but, hey, I like to stop and think about every sentence. Word order isn't arbitrary in any language so I'd like to retain that. The only reason I'm doing an English translation at all is it will make it faster for future reference, particularly if I'm trying to discuss a passage with someone in English.
• retaining all the kai, de, gar conjunctions - kai and de don't mean exactly the same thing so, if the writer used one word instead of the other, they must have had a reason. I may not know what it is yet but I hope to get a feel for that. So, I'll keep them as they are, just transliterated and put into CAPS, until I figure out what's up with that.
• verb tenses are the same in English as they are in Greek - I think this is an important peak-indicating device in Greek. I want to be able to see where tense is switched, particularly if it looks weird in English. This will trigger the "Aha!" response in me, in future readings.
• one English word or phrase for each Greek word or phrase - I'd get in trouble with most translators for this, I think. But, for my own reading, this will make it easier for me to recognize places where the same Greek concept crops up repeatedly, even if the meaning relationship between the Greek and English words aren't a neat and tidy one-to-one map. Like, I'm probably going to bring agape neatly into English as agapeh, or something. I don't exactly need a translation for that.

With these in mind, here's my first rough translation, of Matthew 22:34-40

DE the Pharisees, having heard that (he) silenced the Sadducees, gathered
together.

KAI (he) questioned, one out (of) them, [a lawyer], tempting him: “Teacher,
which commandment (is) great in the Law?”

DE (he) said to him: “ ‘(You) shall love Lord the God of you in whole
the heart of you KAI in whole the being of you KAI in whole the mind of
you.’ This is the great KAI first commandment.

DE a second (one) is like to it: ‘(You) shall love the neighbor of you as
yourself.’ In those the two commandments whole the Law is being hung KAI the
Prophets.”