Matthew 27:59

A couple years ago, I noticed that in the recitative "Und Joseph nahm den Leib" in Bach's St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, there's internal rhyme in the first sentence:  "Und Joseph nahm den Leib und wickelte ihn in ein' rein Leinwand."  In May (the 7th, to be specific), I realized that there's significance to this.

First of all, translated, this is: "And Joseph took the body [of Jesus] and wrapt it in a clean linen."  My German Bible is only slightly different from the text in the Bach oratorio: "Und Josef nahm den Leib und wickelte ihn in ein reines Leinentuch" (Matthew 27:59).

The internal rhyming of "ein' rein Leinwand" or "ein reines Leinentuch" ("a clean linen cloth") illustrates the purity and cleanliness of the linen cloth.

Psalm 72:1

For Epiphany, the Psalm was Psalm 72:1-11.  In English, the first verse is: "Give the king your justice, O God, and your righteousness to the royal son!"  Like many parts of the Psalms, this exhibits parallel structure.  It could be rephrased as "give your justice to the king, and give your righteousness to the royal son."  Each clause is [imperative verb][direct object][indirect object].

In German, this parallel structure is highlighted by the initial letter of each word:  "Gott, gib dein Gericht dem König / und deine Gerechtigkeit dem Königssohn."

Introduction

In mid-November 2016, I started following along with the weekly lectionary readings in my German New Testament (along with Psalms and Proverbs).  It was an opportune time to start doing this because a few weeks later, the church year started over and series A began.  Although I think I missed a few weeks here and there, for the most part, I've been following along since then.  At first, I lookt up the appointed readings in my Lutheran Study Bible and my German New Testament, but then I found it was much easier simply to look over the German text while listening to the weekly readings on Worship Anew.

Even in just these past few years of reading the Bible in German (and studying the original Hebrew and Greek via The Daily Dose of Hebrew and The Daily Dose of Greek), I've noticed a number of interesting features, so I started this blog mostly as a personal record of these things.

The title (The Footlamp) is adapted from Psalm 119:105, which is my confirmation verse: "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path."