Proper Understanding of the Greek Present Perfect Tense: Focusing on 1 John in the New Korean Translation: The New Testament and Psalms

One of the major problems encountered when attempting to translate from the Greek New Testament is the proper understanding and translation of Greek verb tenses. Problems arise due to conflicting views on the tenses of Greek verbs, and sometimes due to the translator's own lack of understanding of the subject. This confusion is accelerated by the challenge of capturing the meaning of verb tenses in the context of the target language.BR Considering these elements, the translation of Greek verb tenses in the New Korean Translation: The New Testament and Psalms recently distributed by the Korean Bible Society draws our attention. First and foremost, the task of translating the meaning of Greek verb tenses into Korean, the Greek present perfect tense in particular, would have caused many problems for the translators as they carried out the translation work on the basis of the Greek text of the New Testament.BR In this study, we examine the translation of the Greek verb present perfect tense in the New Korean Translation: The New Testament and Psalms to grasp the developments made in comparison to the Korean Revised Standard Version and other Korean Bibles, and to see whether the translation has been done in a desirable direction to reflect recent academic trends in Greek tense studies. The scope of this study is narrowed down to 1 John; this approach is justified by the frequent usage of the present perfect tense in 1 John. A brief overview of the Greek present perfect tense is provided in order before examining the New Korean Translation's interpretation of the Greek present perfect tense.BR This study demonstrates that the New Korean Translation has taken great pains to properly deliver the meaning of the present perfect tense into Korean, at least in 1 John, and has produced some positive results. Above all, the translator for 1 John worked hard to find a new way of expressing the meaning of the Greek present perfect tense. However, as there are still some aspects that could be improved, these should be taken into account and reflected in future translations.