Luke 11:8

Luke 11:1-13 was the Gospel reading on the Worship Anew program for the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost (27 July).  I was following along in the Latin Vulgate and noticed a chiasm in verse 8:

dico vobis et si non dabit illi surgens eo

quod amicus eius sit

propter inprobitatem tamen eius

surget et dabit illi quotquot habet necessarios

In the ESV, this is:

"I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything

because he is his friend,

yet because of his impudence

he will rise and give him whatever he needs."

This structure is also in the Greek:

λέγω ὑμῖν· εἰ καὶ οὐ δώσει αὐτῷ ἀναστὰς

διὰ τὸ εἶναι φίλον αὐτοῦ,

διά γε τὴν ἀναίδειαν αὐτοῦ

ἐγερθεὶς δώσει αὐτῷ ὅσων χρῄζει.

and my German New Testament:

Ich sage euch:  Und wenn er schon nicht aufsteht und ihm etwas gibt,

weil er sein Freund ist,

dann wird er doch wegen seines unverschämten Drängens

aufstehen und ihm geben, soviel er bedarf.

The inverted order of these elements emphasizes the contrast between getting up and not getting up and the different motivations.

Psalm 138:6

On the Worship Anew program for the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost (27 July), the Psalm was Psalm 138.  I noticed a chiasm in the second half of verse 6:

he [the LORD]

regards the lowly,

but the haughty

he knows from afar.

This structure highlights the contrast between "the lowly" and "the haughty."

Of the versions I referenced, this chiasm is unique to English translations.

Acts 2:39

Last summer, I found a note from two years previous that I'd forgotten to write about here.  I read Acts 2 and noticed a small instance of polysyndeton in verse 39:

"For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself." [ESV]

The repetition of "and" lends a slight sense of this multitude ("all" and "everyone").

Psalm 43:3

When I read Psalm 43 in German, I noticed that, in a way, verse 3 anticipates the first part of John 1.

Sende dein Licht und deine Wahrheit, daß sie mich leiten und bringen zu deinem heiligen Berg und zu deiner Wohnung

Send out your light and your truth; let them lead me; let them bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling! [ESV]

This request begins to be fulfilled in John 1, particularly in verse 9, where light and truth are mentioned together:  "The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world."

John 14:2

I noticed a small feature in John 14:2 while following along in the Daily Dose of Latin:

in domo Patris mei mansiones multae sunt si quo minus dixissem vobis quia vado parare vobis locum

In the NKJV, this is:

"In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you.  I go to prepare a place for you."

Both of these translations exhibit alliteration (in the phrases "mansiones multae" and "many mansions"), and the repetition involved in this effect lends a slight sense of this large amount.

1 Kings 12:10, 2 Chronicles 10:10

In reading the NIV, I found a significant pleonasm in 2 Chronicles 10:10:

The young men who had grown up with him [Rehoboam] replied, "Tell the people who have said to you, 'Your father put a heavy yoke on us, but make our yoke lighter' - tell them, 'My little finger is thicker than my father's waist.'"

"Tell" unnecessarily appears a second time, also in the Hebrew:

יְדַבְּרוּ אִתּוֹ הַיְלָדִים אֲשֶׁר גָּדְלוּ אִתּוֹ לֵאמֹר כֹּֽה־תֹאמַר לָעָם אֲשֶׁר־דִּבְּרוּ אֵלֶיךָ לֵאמֹר אָבִיךָ הִכְבִּיד אֶת־עֻלֵּנוּ וְאַתָּה הָקֵל מֵעָלֵינוּ כֹּה תֹּאמַר אֲלֵהֶם קָֽטָנִּי עָבָה מִמָּתְנֵי אָבִֽי׃

In the following verse, these young men advise Rehoboam to impose a heavier burden on the people, and later he follows their advice.  In a way, the pleonastic "tell" reflects this increase; even in the language that these young men use, there's an abundance.

The parallel passage in 1 Kings 12:10 also contains a pleonasm, although here the two words are distinct in Hebrew:

וַיְדַבְּרוּ אֵלָיו הַיְלָדִים אֲשֶׁר גָּדְלוּ אִתּוֹ לֵאמֹר כֹּֽה־תֹאמַר לָעָם הַזֶּה אֲשֶׁר דִּבְּרוּ אֵלֶיךָ לֵאמֹר אָבִיךָ הִכְבִּיד אֶת־עֻלֵּנוּ וְאַתָּה הָקֵל מֵעָלֵינוּ כֹּה תְּדַבֵּר אֲלֵיהֶם קָֽטָנִּי עָבָה מִמָּתְנֵי אָבִֽי׃

Proverbs 17:1

In July last year, I read Proverbs 17 after encountering a note in my edition of Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice that compares some of Gratiano's lines (I.i.88-92) to Proverbs 17:28:  "Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise."

I noticed a couple small features in the first verse:  "Better is a dry morsel with quiet than a house full of feasting with strife."

The phrase "full of feasting" alliterates, and the repetition involved provides a slight sense of this abundance.

That the word "morsel" is technically a diminutive (from the Latin morsus, which means bite) emphasizes more strongly the contrast between the two meals' sizes.  The Latin Vulgate also contains a diminutive here (buccella, from bucca, which means mouth):  "melior est buccella sicca cum gaudio quam domus plena victimis cum iurgio."

Psalm 37:16

When I read Psalm 37 in German, I also referenced the Hebrew, and I found a couple features in verse 16 that highlight the meaning:

טוֹב־מְעַט לַצַּדִּיק מֵהֲמוֹן רְשָׁעִים רַבִּֽים׃

In the ESV, this is:

Better is the little that the righteous has than the abundance of many wicked.

The phrase רְשָׁעִים רַבִּֽים ("many wicked") alliterates and rhymes, and the repetition of these initial and final sounds lends a slight sense of this multitude.

Galatians 5:17

On the Worship Anew program for the Third Sunday after Pentecost (29 June), the Epistle reading was from Galatians 5, and I noticed verse 17 in particular:

For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.

The first part of this features a chiasm:

For the desires of the flesh are

against the Spirit,

and the desires of the Spirit

are against the flesh

Such a structure illustrates this opposition.

This chiasm is also in the Greek:

ἡ γὰρ σὰρξ ἐπιθυμεῖ

κατὰ τοῦ πνεύματος

τὸ δὲ πνεῦμα

κατὰ τῆς σαρκός

It's maintained in all of the other translations I referenced, too.

German:

Denn das Fleisch begehrt auf

gegen den Geist

und der Geist

gegen das Fleisch

French:

Car la chair a des désirs

contraires à ceux de l'Esprit,

et l'Esprit en a

de contraires à ceux de la chair

The Latin Vulgate:

caro enim concupiscit

adversus spiritum

spiritus autem

adversus carnem

Italian:

Poichè la carne appetisce

contro allo Spirito,

e lo Spirito

contro alla carne

Psalm 35:18, 22

I found a couple minor features in Psalm 35 when I read it in German.

First in verse 18:

Ich will dir danken in großer Gemeinde; unter vielem Volk will ich dich rühmen.

In the ESV, this is:

I will thank you in the great congregation; in the mighty throng I will praise you.

The repetition involved in the alliteration of "großer Gemeinde" ("great congregation") and the consonance of "vielem Volk" ("mighty throng" or more prosaically "many people") provides a slight sense of abundance.

Second in verse 22:

HERR, du hast es gesehen, schweige nicht; HERR, sei nicht ferne von mir!

In the ESV, this is:

You have seen, O LORD; be not silent!  O Lord, be not far from me!

As if to demonstrate this distance, "HERR" ("LORD") and "mir" ("me") are at opposite ends of the clause.  This is also true of the Hebrew (אֲדֹנָי and the suffix on מִמֶּֽנִּי):

רָאִיתָה יְהוָה אַֽל־תֶּחֱרַשׁ אֲדֹנָי אֲל־תִּרְחַק מִמֶּֽנִּי׃

the Latin Vulgate ("Domine" and "me"):

vidisti Domine ne taceas Domine ne elongeris a me

and - excepting the vocative "O" - the Italian Bible I've been referencing ("Signore" and "me"):

O Signore, tu hai vedute queste cose; non tacere; O Signore, non allontanarti da me.

Mark 5:4, 19-20; Luke 8:29, 39

Luke 8:26-39 was the Gospel reading on the Worship Anew program for the Second Sunday of Pentecost last year (22 June).  I was following along in the Latin Vulgate and noticed a characteristic in verse 29 that (probably just coincidentally) matches the meaning.

praecipiebat enim spiritui inmundo ut exiret ab homine multis enim temporibus arripiebat illum et vinciebatur catenis et conpedibus custoditus et ruptis vinculis agebatur a daemonio in deserta

In the ESV, this is:

For he [Jesus] had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man.  (For many a time it had seized him.  He was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the desert.)

The phrase "catenis et conpedibus custoditus" ("with chains and with shackles held in custody") exhibits consonance in Latin.  That the successive words begin and end with the same sound lends a sense of stasis, illustrating the man's (temporary) immobility.

The account in Mark (5:1-20) exhibits the same feature (in verse 4), but the phrase is shorter (merely "conpedibus et catenis" - "with shackles and with chains"):

quoniam saepe conpedibus et catenis vinctus disrupisset catenas et conpedes comminuisset et nemo poterat eum domare

for he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart, and he broke the shackles in pieces.  No one had the strength to subdue him.  [ESV]

---&---

I also noticed a sort of syllogism in Luke 8:39:  "'Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.'  And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him."  The similarity between "'how much God has done for you'" and "how much Jesus had done for him" implies that Jesus is God.  By recounting the event in this way, the man's statement also becomes a testimony to his faith in Jesus' divinity.

This, too, is in the Mark 5 account:  "19 And he did not permit him [to go with Jesus] but said to him, 'Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.'  20 And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled."

Psalm 30:5

When I read Psalm 30 in German last year, I noticed some significance in the structure of the first half of verse 6:

Denn sein Zorn währet einen Augenblick und lebenslang seine Gnade.

In the ESV, this is the first half of verse 5:

For his anger is but for a moment, and his favor is for a lifetime.

The German version features a chiasm:

Denn sein Zorn

währet einen Augenblick

und lebenslang

seine Gnade.

This structure highlights the opposite natures of Zorn (anger) and Gnade (favor) and of "einen Augenblick" ("a moment," literally "a blink of an eye") and lebenslang (lifelong).

Of the translations I lookt at, this is unique to the German.