Against thee, thee only

I want to drop a note about the importance of emotional engagement with the text. I am not going to claim that a Christian will make a more faithful translation, but only remark that the affective domain contributes to one's performance of a task.

Do we love the words we are translating? Do we love whoever wrote these words? Do we love those we are translating for? And those we are translating with? Is there a bond of affection and a fellowship of mutual regard?

One of the things that some of us love about the King James Bible is the use of terms like "loving-kindness" and Carl has echoed this in his translation of 1 Cor. 13.

I received an email today asking about the Pagnini Bible so it has inspired me to remark on the affective domain in Pagnini's translation, and how it has influenced the KJV and contributed to certain emotionally charged passages.

Here is Jerome's translation from the Hebrew and Pagnini's for Ps. 22:1a,

Deus, Deas meus qaure dereliquisti me, Jerome

O God my God, look upon me: why hast thou forsaken me? D-R.

Deus mi, Deus mi, utquid dereliquisti me, Pagnini

My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? KJV

And Psalm 51:4,

tibi soli peccavi et malum coram te feci Jerome

To thee only have I sinned, and have done evil before thee: D-R.

tibi tibi soli peccavi et malum in oculis tuis feci Pagnini

Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: KJV

I don't want to squabble about which is more literal, closer to the Hebrew. I think Pagnini's is somewhat closer, but that is beside the point. The details that he has added to the text change the emotional loading of these passages. I am not able to say whether these subtle changes can be attributed to an earlier commentator or not. However, they have influenced our English textual tradition ever since.

Look at Luther's translation of Psalm 51:4,

An dir allein habe ich gesündigt

Against you alone have I sinned

And Alter's,

You alone have I offended

Well maybe these guys thought that Pagnini's repetition was an unnecessary affectation. We really don't know. But we do know that translators as individuals leave their mark on the text. We translate out of our love of words and language and expression and God. We can never, as translators, completely prevent our own personality from affecting how we translate. If we are emotionally engaged with the text then that will come across in ways that are peculiar to us.

Pagnini: Psalm 2

Recent posts on Psalm 2 reminded me that I wanted to write one more time about the Pagnini Psalter. My copy is a diglot of the Hebrew and Pagnini Latin text. It is rebound and now begins with the third page of the preface which is signed Johannes Leusden, 1666 (in roman numerals). Since it is a Hebrew text this book opens towards the right. The frontispiece appears on the left. It was bought by my great grandfather in Saint Laurent du Pape, south of Valence, France.

The Pagnini Bible, originally printed in Lyon, 1528, was the first Latin version since Jerome's based on the original Hebrew and Greek text.

This most unusual work puts the Hebrew Bible in Latin, but in such a way as to make the syntax of the Hebrew transparent in the Latin rendition. An aesthetic shock to a Latin stylist, Pagnini’s Bible was nonetheless of profound usefulness as a crib to the Renaissance scholar with excellent Latin and little Hebrew. D. Price ¹

Jewish scholars considered the Pagnini Bible to be the only adequate Latin version. In 1542, Michael Servetus, knowledgeable in the Hebrew language and commentaries, annotated a version of this Bible.

Servetus added a preface and notes to the Pagnini Bible recommending in the prologue the study of the history of the Hebrews for a better under­stand­ing of the Bible. He accused biblical studies of not reaching for the literal and historical sense but searching in vain for the mystical meaning.

Servetus's reputation grew and he was contracted next by the Compagn­ie des Libraires at Lyon to correct and edit the Pagnini Bible in seven volumes which was published in 1545. ²

About the Christian interpretation of Psalm 2:7 Servetus wrote,

I can not refrain here from sighing when I see the replies that Rabbi Kimchi made against the Christians on this point. I find the reasons with which they sought to convince him so obscure that I cannot but weep. They argue against him that the literal meaning did not refer to David. Friedman. 1994. page 44 ³

The Pagnini version of Psalm 2:12 has "kiss the Son" - in Latin, of course - so there is nothing particular to note on this account. With regard to the capitalisation of "Son", I cannot tell from my version to what extent this was significant. However, one innovation of the Pagnini Bible has made a pivotal contribution to theology. It is here that מְשִׁיחַ - "anointed" first appears as unctus rather than christus in a translation of the Hebrew scriptures.

The Clementine Vulgate⁴, in which מְשִׁיחַ is typically translated as christus, represents the Latin version which was authoritative in the western church from the 8th century on.

Here is the Clementine Vulgate version of Psalm 2:1-2.

1 Quare fremuerunt gentes, et populi meditati sunt inania ?
2 Astiterunt reges terræ,et principes convenerunt in unum adversus Dominum, et adversus christum ejus.

Wycliffe 1395 is an English translation based on the Latin Vulgate.

Whi gnastiden with teeth hethene men; and puplis thouyten veyn thingis?
The kyngis of erthe stoden togidere; and princes camen togidere ayens the Lord, and ayens his Crist?

With Pagnini, 1528, christus gives way to unctus for the first time.

1 Ut quid congregant se turmatim Gentes & populi meditantur inane ?
2 Astant Reges terrae & Principes consilium capiunt pariter adversus DOMINUM, & adversus Unctum ejus.

These two translations show the influence of the Pagnini translation.

Why do the Heithe grudge? why do the people ymagyn vayne thinges?
The kynges of the earth stode vp, and the rulers are come together, agaynst the LORDE ad agaynst his anoynted. Coverdale

Why do the Heathen so furiously rage together? and why do the people imagine a vayne thing? The kynges of the earth stande vp: and the rulers take counsell together against god, and against his annointed. Bishop's Bible. ⁵

With the use of unctus for מְשִׁיחַ, the Pagnini version became a Bible translation which was suitable for reading the Hebrew Bible with the historical sense in mind, not the christological sense, and marks a turning point in the history of biblical interpretation. The burning of Michael Servetus⁶ for heresy was also a landmark event in the history of the church.

Notes:

1. D. Price in Formatting the Word of God

2. Servetus International Society

3. Friedman, Jerome. The Myth of Jewish Antiquity: New Christians and Christian Hebraica in Early Modern Europe. In Jewish Christians and Christian Jews: From the Renaissance to the Enlightenment ed. Popkin, R. H. and Weiner, G.M. . 1994. Springer.

4. The Clementine Vulgate is the official edition of the Latin Vulgate, corrected and standardized following the Council of Trent and promulgated in 1592 by Pope Clement VIII. While most of this is Jerome's translation of the Bible, the psalms are an exception - they are from the Old Latin version. Jerome's psalter is called Psalterium Juxta Hebraeos and was not encorporated into the Vulgate.

This quote suggests the nature of Jerome's approach to the Psalms.

Herbert also wrote a Commentary on Jerome's Hebrew Psalter, basically about how to interpret the Bible. In 385 A.D. Jerome had gone to Israel and translated the Psalms from Hebrew into Latin. Jerome's interpretation was largely allegorical, for example when Jerusalem is mentioned, it was identified as goodness and and Babylon as evil. This way of understanding the Bible was widespread in the Middle Ages, and continues today in some Christian traditions (some consider it to be anti-Semitic). Herbert argued for a more literal and historical understanding and suggested that Christian should ask the Jews for guidance in order to obtain a better understanding of the Psalms. Church Historians of England

5. In the Pagnini translation, the second verb in verse 2 is broken into two words - consilium capiunt. This unique grammatical construction is mirrored in the Bishop's Bible with "take counsell". Perhaps I am speculating but it appears to me that we can trace the influence of the Pagnini Bible through some of these grammatical patterns.

6. Servetus was burned as heretic after John Calvin gave permission for his arrest and trial. Time. I had difficulty finding a reference for this that was relatively unbiased.

My God, my God

As I continue to read through the Psalms in the Pagnini Psalter, I cannot not help but recognize again the powerful words of the King James Version in the Pagnini version of Psalm 22. Never again in the English language is this psalm translated with such powerful imagery.

My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
why art thou so far from helping me,
and from the words of my roaring?
O my God, I cry in the day time, but thou hearest not;
and in the night season, and am not silent. KJV

Here are the same verses in the Wycliffe version which is a translation from Jerome's Vulgate.

God, my God, biholde thou on me,
whi hast thou forsake me?
the wordis of my trespassis ben fer fro myn helthe.
Mi God, Y schal crye bi dai, and thou schalt not here;
and bi nyyt, and not to vnwisdom to me. Wycliffe

And the Douay Rheims,

O God my God, look upon me: why hast thou forsaken me?
Far from my salvation are the words of my sins.
O my God, I shall cry by day, and thou wilt not hear:
and by night, and it shall not be reputed as folly in me.

I rather think at this point that there is a bit of a problem with the Vulgate version of these verses. I believe that there are two different Psalter's attributed to Jerome so I am not entirely sure where the difficulty occurred. However, it is clear that the Wycliffe and D-R. versions are dependent on the Vulgate version which I see here in the official Clementine text.

Deus, Deus meus, respice in me : quare me dereliquisti ?
longe a salute mea verba delictorum meorum.
Deus meus, clamabo per diem, et non exaudies;
et nocte, et non ad insipientiam mihi.

But here is the Pagnini version once again eerily close to the KJV,

Deues mi deus mi utquid dereliquisti me,
elongates es a salute mea
A verbis rugitus mei
Dues mi, clamo per diem, et non exaudis,
et nocte et non es silentium nihi

Distinctive in this version is the "roaring" in the third line. This is important because the lion does roar later in this psalm and the word is the same in Hebrew. There is also the abrupt shift from the roar of pain to the sharp lack of "silence" in "am not silent". And here for the first time is the translation which has "my God, my God".

While this psalm is often the object of meditation in a Messianic context, it also reflects the extreme emotions of abandonment and misery which we all may experience at some time in our lives. It speaks to me of one of the ways that Christ is our high priest, because he is like us, his brothers and sisters, in that he also experienced abandonment and pain and death.

Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham's descendants. For this reason he had to be made like his brothers and sisters in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. Hebrews 2:14-18 TNIV