Translator's Preface
Translator's Preface
It has been a great privilege to translate Professor Herman N. Ridderbos's monumental work on the theology of the Apostle Paul, and I am thankful for the opportunity of making it accessible to readers in the English-speaking world. It will be understood that there are certain difficulties involved in executing a task of this kind. Many technical terms are employed which it is not at all easy to reproduce exactly in another language. Then, too, the author has not confined himself to a given translation of the Bible in his quotations from the Pauline epistles; and had he done so it would have been of course in the Dutch version. I can only say that I have done my best to utilize standard English terminology so as to make the text itself and the footnotes self-explanatory. In only two or three instances did I add a word of elucidation, where it seemed particularly necessary to do so. In the matter of Bible versions, I have sometimes used one, then another of the existing English translations, and sometimes followed none of them, giving instead an English rendering of Professor Ridderbos's own translation, when it appeared imperative to seek to preserve the precise nuance he was attempting to bring out.
I must here express my gratitude to three persons who have been particularly helpful to me in the course of the work. Dr. Richard B. Gaffin, Jr., of Westminster Theological Seminary, has been unwearying in his assistance, and even went to the length of reading through the whole typescript before the final revision, offering innumerable suggestions for improvement. I am likewise indebted to the Rev. Marvin D. Hoff, of Ridgewood, New Jersey, who generously offered his own comments and suggestions. My warm thanks also to Miss Ann Mims, of Kingstree, South Carolina, who typed the final draft of the translation.
— John Richard de Witt