Psalm 119:121

Before watching the Daily Dose of Hebrew video on Psalm 119:121 last month, I read the translation in the Latin Vulgate.

Feci iudicium et iustitiam non tradas me calumniantibus me

In the ESV, this is rendered as:  "I have done what is just and right; do not leave me to my oppressors."

"Iudicium" and "iustitiam" alliterate, and they have the same number of syllables, so even in the language, there's a sense of the orderliness and balance of "what is just and right."

A couple weeks after noting this, I happened to look at this Psalm in the front of The Lutheran Hymnal and discovered that this alliteration and syllabic balance is present in that translation too:  "I have done judgement and justice:  leave me not to mine oppressors."

Luke 16:22

Last month, after finding a citation to Luke 14:23 in a book of C.S. Lewis' letters, I read some chapters of Luke.  When I got to the account of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16, I noticed a detail in verse 22:  "The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side.  The rich man also died and was buried."

This may be obvious, but I hadn't realized before that this verse is the very point where the situations of these two men change.  Lazarus' situation improves, but the rich man's worsens.  Throughout the account, there's a contrast between the two men, and the parallel structure in this verse highlights it:  after death, Lazarus goes up ("carried by the angels to Abraham's side"), but the rich man goes down ("buried").

Simul iustus et peccator

This is a bit tangential to the focus of this blog, but I thought I'd put it here anyway.

In the Worship Anew service for All Saints' Day, Rev. Dr. Ahlersmeyer mentioned the Latin phrase "simul iustus et peccator" (simultaneously righteous and sinner).  I'd heard this phrase before, but after I heard it during the All Saints' Day service, I realized that the specific parts of speech of iustus and peccator may have significance.

Iustus is a simple adjective, but peccator is a noun derived from the fourth principle part of the verb peccare (to sin).  (In the same way, factor is derived from facere, monitor from monēre, et cetera.)  To my mind, then, peccator has a greater sense of action than an adjective like iustus, and this fits with how our righteousness (or justification, to use a word that's more closely related etymologically) comes not from us, but as a gift from God.  We play no active role in it.

Mark 10:30

I'll have started Luke by the time this post is published, but at the time of writing, I've been reading Mark.  I found an instance of polysyndeton in Mark 10:30 (quoted with verse 29 for context):  "29 Jesus said, 'Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, 30 who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.'"

The function of the polysyndeton here seems to be simply to illustrate the abundance of this "hundredfold."

Matthew 9:12, Mark 2:17

Near the beginning of the month, I watched the Concordia University Wisconsin chapel service from 21 September:

This was the Feast Day of St. Matthew, and the reading was Matthew 9:9-13.  Not too long before this, I'd read the parallel account in Mark 2:13-17.  I felt that something was off about the structure of "'Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick'" (in verse 17), but it wasn't until hearing the same construction in Matthew (in verse 12) that I had some insight into it.

What had puzzled me is that there are some implied words in the second clause:  "Those who are sick [have need of a physician]."  I'd understood the meaning, of course; I simply hadn't understood what was going on in the grammar.

Consequently, I realized that such an ellipsis is significant.  In the same way that the phrase "those who are sick" requires the implied words in order to form a complete clause, the sick people need the treatment of a doctor in order to become healthy.

De toute

A number of times this year, I've found instances where my French New Testament adds "de toute" before every item in a list where there's only one modifier in the original Greek.

The first instance I found is in Ephesians 1:21:

au-dessus de toute domination, de toute autorité, de toute puissance, de toute dignité, et de tout nom qui se peut nommer, non seulement dans le siècles présent, mais encore dans le siècles à venir.

ὑπεράνω πάσης ἀρχῆς καὶ ἐξουσίας καὶ δυνάμεως καὶ κυριότητος καὶ παντὸς ὀνόματος ὀνομαζομένου οὐ μόνον ἐν τῷ αἰῶνι τούτῳ ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐν τῷ μέλλοντι

Far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.

The French repeats the πάσης ("all") for each noun.  I'm not sure this is the best translation, but it does result in a stronger rhetorical effect that gives a sense of breadth or of number.

I found two other instances of this, both in Revelation.

Revelation 7:9:

Après cela, je regardai, et voici, il y avait une grand foule, que personne ne pouvait compter, de toute nation, de toute tribu, de tout peuple, et de toute langue.  Ils se tenaient devant le trône et devant l'agneau, revêtus de robes blanches, et des palmes dans leurs mains.

Μετὰ ταῦτα εἶδον καὶ ἰδοὺ ὄχλος πολὺς ὃν ἀριθμῆσαι αὐτὸν οὐδεὶς ἐδύνατο ἐκ παντὸς ἔθνους καὶ φυλῶν καὶ λαῶν καὶ γλωσσῶν ἑστῶτες ἐνώπιον τοῦ θρόνου καὶ ἐνώπιον τοῦ ἀρνίου, περιβεβλημένους στολὰς λευκὰς καὶ φοίνικες ἐν ταῖς χερσὶν αὐτῶν.

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands

Here, παντὸς ("every") is repeated.

Revelation 14:6

Je vis une autre ange qui volait par le milieu du ciel, ayant un Évangile éternal, pour l'annoncer aux habitants de la terre, à toute nation, à toute tribu, à toute langue, et à tout peuple.

Καὶ εἶδον ἄλλον ἄγγελον πετόμενον ἐν μεσουρανήματι ἔχοντα εὐαγγέλιον αἰώνιον εὐαγγελίσαι ἐπὶ τοὺς καθημένους ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς καὶ ἐπὶ πᾶν ἔθνος καὶ φυλὴν καὶ γλῶσσαν καὶ λαὸν

Then I saw another angel flying directly overhead, with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth, to every nation and tribe and language and people.

Here, πᾶν ("every") is repeated.

On Every High Hill and under Every Green Tree

I read some chapters of 1 Kings a couple weeks ago (after seeing a citation of 1 Kings 11:3 in my edition of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales), and I came across the phrase "on every high hill and under every green tree" in 1 Kings 14:23.  A couple years ago, I'd run across a somewhat expanded version of this phrase in Ezekiel 6:13 ("on every high hill, on all the mountain-tops, under every green tree, and under every leafy oak, wherever they offered pleasing aroma to all their idols").  At the time, I knew this sounded familiar, and I eventually found what I was thinking of, in Jeremiah 2:20:  "on every high hill and under every green tree."

These constructions may not fit a strict definition of a merism, but the nearly opposite senses of "high" and "under" do provide a sense of breadth.  This is also indicated more clearly by "wherever" in the verse in Ezekiel.

At the time, I didn't consider this significant enough to write about, but since I found a third occurrence of this phrase, I thought I would note it.

Amos 4:6-11

I followed along in the Daily Dose of Hebrew's series on Amos in its original run (from September 2017 to August 2018), but in August this year, I started going through it again.  This time, I'm copying out the verses.

A couple weeks ago, I watched the videos for Amos 4:7, and I noticed a small feature in the middle part of the verse, covered in the second video:

וְהִמְטַרְתִּי עַל־עִיר אֶחָת וְעַל־עִיר אַחַת לֹא אַמְטִיר

In the ESV, this is translated as "I would send rain on one city, and send no rain on another city."  The word order between the Hebrew clauses, however, is inverted so that it's more like:  "I would send rain on one city, and on another city I would send no rain."  That the structure is flipt from one clause to the other illustrates these opposites.

As I continued on in transcribing verses, I noticed that this section of Amos exhibits epistrophe.

6 "I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and lack of bread in all your places, yet you did not return to me," declares the LORD.

7 "I also withheld the rain from you when there were yet three months to the harvest; I would send rain on one city, and send no rain on another city; one field would have rain, and the field on which it did not rain would wither; 8 so two or three cities would wander to another city to drink water, and would not be satisfied; yet you did not return to me," declares the LORD.

9 "I struck you with blight and mildew; your many gardens and your vineyards, your fig trees and your olive trees the locust devoured; yet you did not return to me," declares the LORD.

10 "I sent among you a pestilence after the manner of Egypt; I killed your young men with the sword, and carried away your horses, and I made the stench of your camp go up into your nostrils; yet you did not return to me," declares the LORD.

11 "I overthrew some of you, as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were as a brand plucked out of the burning; yet you did not return to me," declares the LORD.

Each of these sections ends with "'yet you did not return to me,' declares the LORD."  I thought of three functions that the epistrophe has here.  In its most basic function, it illustrates simply the people's persistence in not returning.

It also illustrates an escalation.  After God's various actions, the response of not returning is the same, so in a way, this refrain of "'yet you did not return to me,' declares the LORD" acts as a measuring stick of all that God has done to get His people to return.

This epistrophe could even function as an example for the people.  In the same way that God keeps coming back to this same phrase, the people ought to return to Him.  It's as if He's demonstrating what to do even in the manner in which He describes how the people haven't done it.

Mark 6:8

I've been reading Mark lately, and a couple weeks ago, I noticed a small feature in 6:8:  "He [Jesus] charged them [the disciples] to take nothing for their journey except a staff - no bread, no bag, no money in their belts."

This list of items that the disciples are not to take exhibits asyndeton, and this lack of conjunctions mirrors their lack of provisions.

1 Peter 2:1

Originally, I wasn't going to write about this because I didn't think it was significant enough, but then I thought I would note it all the same.  A couple months ago, I read some chapters in 1 Peter.  The first verse of chapter 2 is "So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander."  The repeated "all" and repeated "and" lend a sense of entirety.

Matthew 25:31-46

Near the end of September, I read Matthew 25.  I noticed something about the verbs in verses 35-36 and 42-43, but it took me a few days before I fully realized what it was and could express it.

Jesus gives examples of the good works done by the righteous:  "35 '"For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me."'"  Verses 42-43 are similar but simply negated ("'"For I was hungry and you gave me no food..."'").

There are two general types of verbs here.  In each example, there's a stative verb ("was") and a dynamic verb ("gave," "welcomed," "clothed," "visited," and "came").  These dynamic verbs attract more attention, so even in just the types of verbs, the focus is on the works that the righteous do.

Psalm 135:6

A couple weeks ago, I was reading some Psalms and noticed a small feature in Psalm 135:6:  "Whatever the LORD pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps."  There's a vast geographic span in "in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps," and this great range mirrors the breadth of that "whatever."

John 10:11

I've been following along in the Daily Dose of Greek's series on John.  Last week, I noticed an interesting feature specific to the Latin Vulgate translation of John 10:11:  "Ego sum pastor bonus bonus pastor animam suam dat pro ovibus."  In the Greek and in all of the other translations I'm following along in, the phrase "the good shepherd" is repeated in the same order:

ἐγώ εἰμι ὁ ποιμὴν ὁ καλός· ὁ ποιμὴν ὁ καλὸς τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ τίθησιν ὑπὲρ τῶν προβάτων.

I am the good shepherd.  The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

Ich bin der gute Hirte.  Der gute Hirte läßt sein Leben für die Schafe.

Je suis le bon berger.  Le bon berger donne sa vie pour ses brebis.

In the Latin, however, the first instance of "the good shepherd" is inverted so that "good" is a post-positive adjective:  "pastor bonus."  Such an inversion results in a chiasm:  "pastor bonus bonus pastor."  The word chiasm comes from Greek letter chi (χ), which resembles a cross.  Between this resemblance to a cross and the context here of the good shepherd's "lay[ing] down his life for the sheep," the Latin Vulgate translation seems to be hinting at the crucifixion.

Matthew 15:19

I've been reading Matthew lately, and I recently remembered something I'd previously noticed about Matthew 15:19 and figured I might as well write about it here.

Jesus says, "For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander."

The list of "murder, adultery, sexual immortality, theft, false witness, slander" specifies the "evil thoughts."  This may not be very significant, but this list follows the order of the Ten Commandments:  "You shall not murder.  You shall not commit adultery.  You shall not steal.  You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor."

Mark 13:6

Last week, I watched the Daily Dose of Greek video on Mark 13:6:

I'd always understood this verse and specifically the "'I am he!'" more prosaically, but looking at the original Greek made me realize that this "ἐγώ εἰμι" is a reference to Exodus 3:14 where God says to Moses, "'I AM WHO I AM.'"  Jesus takes up this title multiple times in John's Gospel ("I am the bread of life," "I am the Good Shepherd," "I am the way, and the truth, and the life," "I am the vine," et cetera), but the "many" described here claim it falsely.

Psalm 119:29-30

The Daily Dose of Hebrew has been going through Psalm 119 lately.  While following along in the Latin Vulgate, I noticed a feature in verses 29 and 30 that's obscured in the English translation and that I didn't catch either in watching the videos or while copying out the verses (because I turned pages in my notebook, these verses weren't next to each other).

In the ESV, these verses are translated as:  "29 Put false ways far from me and graciously teach me your law!  30 I have chosen the way of faithfulness; I set your rules before me."

In the Vulgate, however, these verses appear as:

29 viam iniquitatis amove a me et lege tua miserere mei

30 viam veritatis elegi iudicia tua non sum oblitus

The formatting and word order here help to emphasize the contrast between the "false ways" (as in the Hebrew, it's singular in the Latin:  viam iniquitatis) in verse 29 and "the way of faithfulness" (viam veritatis) in verse 30.

Mark 12:30

When I watched the Daily Dose of Greek video for Mark 12:30 last week, I noticed a couple rhetorical features.

"'And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.'"

The repetition of "and" is polysyndeton.  I'm not sure if the repeated "all" is technically anaphora (it is near the beginning of each prepositional phrase, but I'm not sure if that's enough to fulfill the definition).  In any case, these repetitions give a sense of the totality of the self that one should devote to God.

John 8:34

I read John 8:34 in German last week before watching the corresponding Daily Dose of Greek video, and I noticed a small feature about it.  In English, it's "Jesus answered them, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits a sin is a slave to sin.'"  The word order is a bit different in German, however:  "Jesus antwortete ihnen und sprach:  Wahrlich, wahrlich, ich sage euch:  Wer Sünde tut, der ist der Sünde Knecht."  Instead of "a slave to sin," the German has "of sin a slave" ("der Sünde Knecht").  The genitive precedes the predicate nominative it modifies, and this word order illustrates the subordinate position of the slave.

Isaiah 1:4

A couple weeks ago, I read Isaiah 1.  Part of verse four stuck out to me:  "Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly!  They have forsaken the LORD, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are utterly estranged."

Almost the entirety of the chapter exhibits either pairs of related items or parallel clauses.  In this verse, "sinful nation" parallels with "a people laden with iniquity," "offspring of evildoers" with "children who deal corruptly," and "they have forsaken the LORD" with "they have despised the Holy One of Israel."  The clause "they are utterly estranged," however, isn't paired or paralleled with anything, and this lack of a complement emphasizes the meaning.

1 Corinthians 13:7

I read 1 Corinthians 13 recently and noticed epistrophe (the repetition of a word or phrase at the end of successive clauses or sentences) in verse 7:  "Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things."  That "all things" is repeated gives a sense of the entirety of that "all."

Matthew 7:24-27

Near the beginning of the month, I read a few chapters from Matthew.  Matthew 7:24-27 contains Jesus' explanation that those who hear and follow His words are like a man who built his house on a rock, "and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock" (verse 25).  After I read this, I realized that the house is assaulted from all sides:  the rain descends from above; flood waters rise up from beneath; and the winds come from lateral directions.  While the house built on a rock is contrasted with the house built on sand, which "fell, and great was the fall of it" (verse 27), the fortitude of the house built on a rock is also illustrated simply in the elements it withstands and the various directions from which they come.

Psalm 63:8-9

Near the end of last month, I was reading through some Psalms, and I noticed something in Psalm 63 that may be obvious but that I hadn't realized before.

8 My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.  9 But those who seek to destroy my life shall go down into the depths of the earth.

There's a contrast between these two verses, plainly indicated by the "but" at the beginning of verse 9.  Additionally, though, this contrast is illustrated by the opposite directions.  God's "right hand upholds" the Psalmist in verse 8, but verse 9 says that those opposed to the Psalmist "shall go down into the depths."

Romans 11:33

Last month, I read a few verses from Romans 11 and noticed a small feature in verse 33:  "Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!  How unsearchable are his judgements and how inscrutable his ways!"  There's polysyndeton (the repeated "and") in "the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God," and this indicates that abundance.

John 10:12

I wrote about a small feature in John 10 after Good Shepherd Sunday last year, but when I was following along in my French translation during Worship Anew last week, I noticed something else, in verse 12 this time:  

Mais le mercenaire, qui n'est pas le berger, et à qui n'appartiennent pas les brebis, voit venir le loup, abandonne les brebis, et prend la fuite; et le loup les ravit et les disperse.

He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.

Where the English and the Greek each have a single word ("flees" "φεύγει"), the French has the phrase "prend la fuite" ("takes flight").  Because the verbs here are opposites ("leave" and "take"), there's a stronger sense of the hired hand's abandoning the sheep.  To some degree, the structural parallelism (verb + direct object) between "abandonne les brebis" and "prend la fuite" also highlights this.

Mark 10:44

I'm still working my way through Mark.  A little over a week ago, I watched the Daily Dose of Greek video for Mark 10:44 and noticed a small feature in the word order.

καὶ ὃς ἂν θέλῃ ἐν ὑμῖν εἶναι πρῶτος, ἔσται πάντων δοῦλος.

"and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all."

As if to reflect this idea of being "slave of all" and in the lowest position, the word for "slave" (δοῦλος) is placed last in the sentence.

James 3:10-11

For the last six months, I've been watching Concordia University Wisconsin chapel services on YouTube.  Recent services are uploaded sporadically (if at all), so I went back to the oldest ones available and have been working my way forward.  Last week, I watched the service from 19 September 2012*, where Pastor Smith reads one of his fictional letters from Jane:

The reading is James 3:1-12.  I was following along in my French New Testament and noticed that the word choice emphasizes the distinctions in verses 10 and 11:  "10 De la même bouche sortent la bénédiction et la malédiction.  Il ne faut pas, mes frères, qu'il en soit ainsi.  11 La source fait-elle jaillir par la même ouverture l'eau douce et l'eau amère?"

The ESV:  "10 From the same mouth come blessing and cursing.  My brothers, these things ought not to be so.  11 Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water?"

Blessing and cursing are exact opposites in French (bénédiction and malédiction) because they're built on the same root.  It's no surprise then that this feature is also present in the Latin Vulgate:  "ex ipso ore procedit benedictio et maledictio."

Where the ESV implies a "water" in verse 11 ("fresh [water] and salt water"), it's explicit in the French:  "l'eau douce et l'eau amère."  "Fresh water and salt water" or even "sweet water and bitter water."  (In Greek, these are substantive adjectives:  "τὸ γλυκὺ καὶ τὸ πικρόν.")  Repeating the "water" emphasizes the difference.

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*There are actually two services dated 19 September 2012; one is probably from the 18th and simply mislabeled.

Jonah 1:3

I recently started reading Jonah, and I noticed a small feature in the third verse of the first chapter, specifically in the sentence "But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD" (ESV).  As if to reflect the distance that Jonah wants to put between himself and God, "Jonah" and "the LORD" are at opposite ends of the sentence.

From what I can tell, this feature is also present in the original Hebrew text, although it's not quite as extreme.  The Latin Vulgate has a comparable structure:  "et surrexit Iona ut fugeret in Tharsis a facie Domini."  "וַיָּקָם" in Hebrew and "et surrexit" in Latin ("and/but rose") are all that prevent "Jonah" from being at the beginning of the sentence and "the LORD" at the end.

This sort of structure isn't present in the NIV, however, where this sentence is rendered as "But Jonah ran away from the LORD and headed for Tarshish."

Mark 9:14-29 (Jesus Heals a Boy with an Unclean Spirit)

I've been working through Mark 9 in the archives of the Daily Dose of Greek, and a couple weeks ago, I realized that the account in verses 14-29 (where Jesus heals a boy with an unclean spirit) provides something of a foreshadowing of the resurrection of the dead.

This is clearest in verses 26 and 27:  "26 And after crying out and convulsing him terribly, it [the unclean spirit] came out, and the boy was like a corpse, so that most of them [the people in the crowd] said, 'He is dead.'  27 But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose."  After a deathlike state, the boy arises.  The verb here is ἀνίστημι, and this is the same verb that's used to refer to the resurrection of the dead in John 11 (where Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead).

Psalm 121:5

Of course, after I already published a post about Psalm 121, I find something else to write about it.

When the Daily Dose of Hebrew went over verse 5 about two weeks ago, I learned that the word that my Bible translates as "keeper" is actually a participle from the verb שָׁמַר:

A participle is a verbal adjective, and some of the other translations I follow along in side more with the verbal part and simply translate it as a verb.  Latin:  "Dominus custodiet te."  German:  "Der HERR behütet dich."  My French translation, on the other hand, renders it as a noun:  "Le Seigneur, ton gardien," which is the same as the ESV:  "The LORD is your keeper."

I prefer translating this participle as a verb, however, because it more clearly illustrates God's active protection.

Psalm 139:5

The Psalm reading on Worship Anew last week was part of Psalm 139.  I was following along in my French translation and found an interesting feature in verse 5:  "Tu me devances et me poursuis, tu m'enserres, tu as mis la main sur moi."  The ESV translation, which doesn't correspond exactly to this French translation, is "You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me."

I've written about this sort of feature before, but because of French word order, "me" (in bold) is somewhat literally "hem[med]... in" by the subject and verb in this clause:  "Tu m'enserres."

Psalm 121:2

The Daily Dose of Hebrew has been going through some Psalms lately.  While following along in the Latin Vulgate, I noticed an interesting feature in Psalm 121:2:

"My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth."

"Auxilium meum [venit] a Domino qui fecit caelum et terram."

I don't think "heaven and earth" is technically a merism, but there is a sense of opposites here.  Because caelum (second declension neuter) and terram (first declension feminine) are in different declensions and have different grammatical genders, these opposites are highlighted.

John 6:41

Last week, I watched the Daily Dose of Greek video on John 6:41:

Dr. Plummer mentions that "Ἐγόγγυζον" (which can mean "grumbled" or "murmured," among other things) is "an onomatopoetic word."

I don't have any particularly significant comment about this; I just found it interesting that in the three foreign language translations that I follow along in, this onomatopoetic quality is retained.

German:  "Da murrten die Juden über ihn, weil er sagte:  Ich bin das Brot, das vom Himmel gekommen ist,"

French:  "Les Juifs murmuraient à son sujet, parce qu'il avait dit:  Je suis le pain qui est descendu du ciel."

Latin:  "Murmurabant ergo Iudaei de illo quia dixisset ego sum panis qui de caelo descendi"

The French murmure and the Latin murmurare both mean "to murmur," but the German murren means "to complain about."