I've enjoyed the dialogue so far, including those who've commented. Let me distill the main issues yet to be resolved in translating Mark 1:1:
a. Heading or opening sentence?
b. Translation of euangelion
c. How to render the genitive: "of" or "about"?
d. Translation of Christou
a.
I opt for either a heading or for the rendering "This is the beginning". Someone mentioned that this would be an "addition", but in fact good translation (and perhaps this is something others may want to argue against) sometimes needs to use different
forms in order to get the same
meaning. In modern English, "The beginning of" etc is simply not a sentence. It
could be a heading, or it could be made plain with "This is".
b. I think "Good News" (capitalized) is the best rendering of
euangelion suggested so far. It resolves the ambiguity of "gospel" and the capitalization helps to retain something of the sense of specialness in the original Greek.
c. For the sake of clarity, I agree with Wayne that the genitive should be rendered "about": "The Good News about Jesus".
d. In the comments, Sarah asks whether "Messiah" is plain enough English. On the one hand, it is hard to avoid technical terms sometimes in translating biblical Greek words, since by its very nature the Bible contains technical words for which other cultures have no direct equivalent. On the other hand, I like Kenny Pearce's suggestion of "the Chosen One". Far better than "Anointed One", and its meaning is quite plain to the modern reader.
I'm proposing this translation of Mark 1:1:
This is the beginning of the Good News about Jesus the Chosen One.
What to do with
huios theou is another wrench in the works.
