Psalm 5:7, 10

Recently, I started over in my daily reading of Psalms and Proverbs.  I had been alternating between the ESV and the NIV, but this time, I'm reading the NKJV, which I'm not very familiar with.  Last week, I read Psalm 5 and noticed a contrast I'd never seen before.  In verse 7, the Psalmist writes, "I will come into Your house in the multitude of Your mercy," and in verse 10, he says, "cast them [his enemies] out in the multitude of their transgressions."  The word multitude (בְּרֹב in Hebrew) is used in both verses, which highlights the contrast between "come into" and "cast... out" and between "Your mercy" and "their transgressions."

Matthew 4:24-25

Last month, I watched the Daily Dose of Greek videos on Matthew 4:24-25:

24 Καὶ ἀπῆλθεν ἡ ἀκοὴ αὐτοῦ εἰς ὅλην τὴν Συρίαν· καὶ προσήνεγκαν αὐτῷ πάντας τοὺς κακῶς ἔχοντας, ποικίλαις νόσοις καὶ βασάνοις συνεχομένους, [καὶ] δαιμονιζομένους καὶ σεληνιαζομένους καὶ παραλυτικούς· καὶ ἐθεράπευσεν αὐτούς.

25 καὶ ἠκολούθησαν αὐτῷ ὄχλοι πολλοὶ ἀπὸ τῆς Γαλιλαίας καὶ Δεκαπόλεως καὶ Ἱεροσολύμων καὶ Ἰουδαίας καὶ πέραν τοῦ Ἰορδάνου.

24 So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, [and] those oppressed by demons, [and] epileptics, and paralytics, and he healed them.

25 And great crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis, and from Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan.

I noticed that both verses exhibit polysyndeton (the repeated καὶ), although one conjunction is in brackets in Dr. Plummer's Greek text and some are omitted in the ESV translation.  In these contexts, the polysyndeton provides a sense of abundance and variety.

This feature is also present in the Latin Vulgate:

24 et abiit opinio eius in totam Syriam et obtulerunt ei omnes male habentes variis languoribus et tormentis conprehensos et qui daemonia habebant et lunaticos et paralyticos et curavit eos

25 et secutae sunt eum turbae multae de Galilaea et Decapoli et Hierosolymis et Iudaea et de trans Iordanen

In my French translation, there's a repeated "de" ("from") instead of "and" in verse 25:

Une grande foule le suivit, de la Galilée, de la Décapole, de Jérusalem, de la Judée, et d'au delà du Jourdain.

This is anaphora rather than polysyndeton, but the resulting effect (a sense of abundance and variety) is the same.

Proverbs 11:6

Earlier this month, I read Proverbs 11, and I noticed a contrast in verse 6:  "The righteousness of the upright delivers them, but the treacherous are taken captive by their lust" [ESV].  Obviously, there's a difference between "the upright" and "the treacherous," but to some degree, this contrast is also shown by the voices of the verbs:  "delivers" is in the active voice while "are taken captive" is in the passive voice.

I don't know enough about Hebrew to comment on the original forms, but this distinction is also present in my German translation:

Die Gerechtigkeit der Frommen wird sie erretten*; aber die Verächter werden gefangen durch ihre Gier.

And in the Latin Vulgate:

iustitia rectorum liberabit* eos et in insidiis suis capientur iniqui

I also noticed how appropriate the passive voice is for being "taken captive."  In the same way that the subject in a passive voice construction is acted upon, those who are captive lack agency.

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*The German and Latin verbs are both in the future tense:  righteousness "will save" or "will free" the upright.

Psalm 135:16-17

Last month, I read Psalm 135.  I think I'd been dimly aware of something in verses 16-17, but while wondering about the original Hebrew text, I realized what it was and then confirmed this by looking at the text via the Step Bible:

פֶּֽה־לָ֭הֶם וְלֹ֣א יְדַבֵּ֑רוּ עֵינַ֥יִם לָ֝הֶ֗ם וְלֹ֣א יִרְאֽוּ׃

אָזְנַ֣יִם לָ֭הֶם וְלֹ֣א יַאֲזִ֑ינוּ אַ֝֗ף אֵין־יֶשׁ־ר֥וּחַ בְּפִיהֶֽם׃

In the ESV, these verses are translated as:

16 They have mouths, but do not speak; they have eyes, but do not see;

17 they have ears, but do not hear, nor is there any breath in their mouths.

What's translated as "they have..." in the ESV doesn't actually contain a verb in the Hebrew.  The phrases are "mouth to them," "eyes to them," and "ears to them."  The only verbs in these clauses are negated, so just like the lifeless idols, there's only inactivity in these verses.

Jeremiah 10:14

A couple months ago, I went over Jeremiah 10:14 in the weekend edition of the Daily Dose of Hebrew:

In the ESV, this is "Every man is stupid and without knowledge; every goldsmith is put to shame by his idols, for his images are false, and there is no breath in them."

I think it may be significant that the word אָדָם is used rather than אִישׁ.  Both mean man, but אָדָם is related to אֲדָמָה, which means ground or soil, so there may be a slightly disparaging tone here, as if to say that the man who makes idols is like dirt.

Luke 14:8, 11

A couple months ago, I read Luke 14 and noticed two features.

I think it may be significant that the passive voice is used in verse 8:  "When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast..." [ESV].  It's also a passive in the Greek (ὅταν κληθῇς ὑπό τινος εἰς γάμους), the Latin Vulgate ("cum invitatus fueris ad nuptias..."), and my German and French New Testaments ("Wenn du von jemandem zur Hochzeit geladen bist..." "Lorsque tu seras invité par quelqu'un à des noces...").  To some degree, this matches the mindset that Jesus advocates:  the man in the parable shouldn't take a seat of honor for himself, but he may accept a higher seat if one is given to him.  There's a connection between the passive voice, where the subject is acted upon, and this humble acceptance.

The other thing I noticed is that, like Matthew 23:12, verse 11 contains a chiasm illustrating an inversion:  "'For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.'"  This is also in the Greek (ὅτι πᾶς ὁ ὑψῶν ἑαυτὸν ταπεινωθήσεται, καὶ ὁ ταπεινῶν ἑαυτὸν ὑψωθήσεται), the Latin Vulgate ("Quia omnis qui se exaltat humiliabitur et qui se humiliat exaltabitur"), and my German and French New Testaments ("Denn wer sich selbst erhöht, der soll erniedrigt werden; und wer sich selbst erniedrigt, der soll erhöht werden" "Car quiconque s'élève sera abaissé, et quiconque s'abaisse sera élevé").

Ephesians 6:18

A couple months ago, I watched the Concordia University Wisconsin chapel service from 7 September 2018:

The reading was Ephesians 6:10-20, and as I was following along in the Latin Vulgate, I noticed assonance in verse 18:

per omnem orationem et obsecrationem orantes omni tempore in Spiritu et in ipso vigilantes in omni instantia et obsecratione pro omnibus sanctis

Here's the ESV translation, with the initial letters of the corresponding words underlined:

praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.  To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints

When I lookt up the Greek text, I found that it similarly exhibits alliteration:

διὰ πάσης προσευχῆς καὶ δεήσεως προσευχόμενοι ἐν παντὶ καιρῷ ἐν πνεύματι καὶ εἰς αὐτὸ ἀγρυπνοῦντες ἐν πάσῃ προσκαρτερήσει καὶ δεήσει περὶ πάντων τῶν ἁγίων

The Greek emphasizes different words, however:

praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.  To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints

In both texts, though, the repetition of a particular sound (whether through assonance or alliteration) provides a sense of entirety or constancy that the text itself mentions:  "at all times... with all prayer and supplication... for all the saints."

Isaiah 29:13, Matthew 15:8, Mark 7:6

A few months ago, I watched the Concordia University Wisconsin chapel service from 28 August 2018:

The text was Isaiah 29:11-19.  I was following along in the Latin Vulgate and noticed part of verse 13:  "cor autem eius longe est a me."  In the ESV, this is "while their hearts are far from me."  In both of these, as it is in the Hebrew (although with far fewer words:  וְלִבּ֖וֹ רִחַ֣ק מִמֶּ֑נִּי), "heart" ("cor") is about as distant as possible from "me" ("me"), so the meaning of the clause is illustrated in its structure.  The conjunction in Latin ("autem") is post-positive, so "cor" and "me" are at completely opposite ends of the clause.

The next day, I watched the CUW chapel service from 29 August.  The reading then was Mark 7:1-8, in which Jesus quotes this passage from Isaiah.  Part of verse 6 exhibits the same feature:  "cor autem eorum longe est a me."  It's also present in the ESV ("but their heart is far from me") and in the Greek (ἡ δὲ καρδία αὐτῶν πόρρω ἀπέχει ἀπ᾽ ἐμοῦ).  This clause is identical in Matthew 15:8.

I also referenced my German and French New Testaments.  This feature is present in both Matthew 15:8 and Mark 7:18, where the clauses are identical:  "aber ihr Herz ist fern von mir" and "mais son cœur est éloigné de moi." 

Psalm 62:4

A few months ago, I read Psalm 62 and noticed yet an-other chiastic structure that illustrates opposites.  In the ESV, the second half of verse 4 is "They bless with their mouths, but inwardly they curse."  This feature isn't in any of the other translations I referenced, however, nor is it in the original Hebrew.

Isaiah 40:24

Months ago, I watched the Concordia University Wisconsin chapel service from 9 February 2018:

The reading was Isaiah 40:21-31, and as I was following along in the Latin Vulgate, I noticed a particular word in verse 24:

et quidem neque plantatos neque satos neque radicato in terra trunco eorum repente flavit in eos et aruerunt et turbo quasi stipulam auferet eos

In the ESV, this is:

Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth, when he blows on them, and they wither, and the tempest carries them off like stubble.

The word "stipulam" ("stubble") stood out to me because I wrote about it in Malachi 4:1 last year.  Similar comments apply here:  the Latin word is a diminutive (with the "-ula(m)" suffix), and there may be a slightly disparaging sense in its use in this context, although this isn't present in the Hebrew, where the word is קַשׁ, just as in Malachi 4:1.

Jeremiah 7:20

A few months ago, I watched the Daily Dose of Hebrew video on Jeremiah 7:20:

I was sort of disappointed to find that in the ESV, this verse is translated as:

Therefore thus says the Lord GOD:  behold, my anger and my wrath will be poured out on this place, upon man and beast, upon the trees of the field and the fruit of the ground; it will burn and not be quenched.

In the Hebrew text, the preposition עַל ("upon") is repeated a number of times, but some of these are dropped out of the ESV, resulting in the above instead of "upon man and upon beast, upon the trees of the field and upon the fruit of the ground."  This anaphora (reiterating the preposition) provides a greater effect, and the ESV seems a bit lacking in comparison.

For what it's worth, all these prepositions are retained in the Latin Vulgate, and the "אֶל" of "on this place" (אֶל־הַמָּק֣וֹם הַזֶּ֔ה) is translated as the same preposition ("super"), so there are five total:  "ideo haec dicit Dominus Deus ecce furor meus et indignatio mea conflatur super locum istum super viros et super iumenta et super lignum regionis et super fruges terrae et succendetur et non extinguetur."

I also noticed the construction "it will burn and not be quenched."  A verb is paired with its negated opposite, and this combination also provides emphasis.  I've noted similar constructions elsewhere, and I feel that there must be a term for this device, but I've been unable to find it.

Isaiah 64:11

A few months ago, a footnote in The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume II directed me to Isaiah 64, and in verse 11, I noticed the phrase "pleasant places."

Our holy and beautiful house, where our fathers praised you, has been burned by fire, and all our pleasant places have become ruins. [ESV]

I've noted this sort of thing before, but because the phrase has alliteration and syllabic balance, there's a euphony that matches the meaning.

In the Hebrew, however, the phrase is just a single word:  מַחֲמַדֵּ֖ינוּ.

Psalm 44:2

A few months ago, I read Psalm 44 in the ESV and noticed some interesting structures in verse 2:

You [God] with your own hand drove out the nations, but them [our fathers] you planted; you afflicted the peoples, but them you set free.

There's normal subject-verb-object word order in the clauses "You with your own hand drove out the nations" and "You afflicted the peoples," but there's object-subject-verb word order in the clauses "them you planted" and "them you set free."  This shift in the word order mirrors the change in the type of action.

If I understand the Hebrew correctly, the "them"s are suffixes on the verbs, so this inverted structure isn't present:

אַתָּ֤ה ׀ יָדְךָ֡ גּוֹיִ֣ם ה֭וֹרַשְׁתָּ וַתִּטָּעֵ֑ם תָּרַ֥ע לְ֝אֻמִּ֗ים וַֽתְּשַׁלְּחֵֽם׃

Nor is it in the NIV, which clarifies the "them"s and supplies "our fathers" instead:

With your hand you drove out the nations and planted our fathers; you crushed the peoples and made our fathers flourish.

It is in my German Psalter, though, where this is verse 3:

Du hast mit deiner Hand die Heiden vertrieben, sie aber hast du eingesetzt; du hast die Völker zerschlagen, sie aber hast du ausgebreitet.

Psalm 38:11

A few months ago, I read Psalm 38 and noticed a small feature in verse 11:  "My friends and companions stand aloof from my plague, and my nearest kin stand far off" [ESV].  In the first clause, the words "friends and companions" are as far from "my plague" as they can be, illustrating the distance of "stand[ing] aloof."

This feature is also present in my German Psalter (where this is verse 12):  "Meine Lieben und Freunde scheuen zurück vor meiner Plage, und meine Nächsten halten sich ferne."

This isn't present in the Hebrew, though.  The word order there is something like "My friends and companions aloof from my plague stand."  אֹֽהֲבַ֨י ׀ וְרֵעַ֗י מִנֶּ֣גֶד נִגְעִ֣י יַעֲמֹ֑דוּ  This word order is also what the Vulgate has:  "cari mei et amici mei quasi contra lepram meam steterunt."

Matthew 9:9

On Worship Anew a couple months ago (11 June, the Second Sunday after Pentecost), the Gospel reading was Matthew 9:9-13.  I was following along in the Latin Vulgate and noticed in verse 9 that what the ESV translates as a finite verb ("rose") is a participle in Latin ("surgens").  Here are the verses in full:

As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, "Follow me."  And he rose and followed him.

Et cum transiret inde Iesus vidit hominem sedentem in teloneo Mattheum nomine et ait illi sequere me et surgens secutus est eum

It's also a participle (ἀναστὰς) in the Greek:

Καὶ παράγων ὁ Ἰησοῦς ἐκεῖθεν εἶδεν ἄνθρωπον καθήμενον ἐπὶ τὸ τελώνιον, Μαθθαῖον λεγόμενον, καὶ λέγει αὐτῷ· ἀκολούθει μοι. καὶ ἀναστὰς ἠκολούθησεν αὐτῷ.

I have the same comment about this as I had for similar constructions in the calling of the other disciples in Mark 1:18, 20, Matthew 4:20, 22, and Luke 5:11:  I think the participle should remain a participle in the English translation because this results in a greater emphasis on the finite verb ("followed" "secutus est," ἠκολούθησεν), which describes a more significant action.

John 18, 21

In the Daily Dose of Greek video for John 21:9, Dr. Plummer mentions almost as a side note that ἀνθρακιά ("charcoal fire," in the accusative form in the verse) occurs only twice in the Bible:  in this verse and in John 18:18.

At first, I didn't give much thought to this, but the day after I watched the video, I realized that the contexts in which this word appears are related.

In John 18:18, Peter is standing by a charcoal fire while the soldiers take Jesus to Annas.  In the surrounding verses (17, 25-27), Peter three times denies knowing Jesus.

In John 21, after the charcoal fire is mentioned, Jesus three times asks Peter if he loves Him (verses 15-17).  The three instances (three denials and three questions) link these two passages, as John 21:17 makes clear ("Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, 'Do you love me?'"), and while the charcoal fire isn't nearly as significant, it's a sensory detail that also connects these two accounts.

Matthew 28:20

A couple months ago, the Gospel reading on Worship Anew was Matthew 28:16-20.  I was following along in the Latin Vulgate and noticed the same feature that I saw in Psalm 23 shortly before this.  In verse 20, Jesus says, "ecce ego vobiscum sum omnibus diebus" ("Behold, I am with you in all days").  Because the Latin prepositional phrase "cum vobis" ("with you") is often inverted and combined into a single word ("vobiscum"), the two pronouns are directly next to each other:  "ego vobiscum" ("I you-with").  This proximity provides a greater sense of accompaniment.

Matthew 23:6-7, 12

A few months ago, I watched the CUW chapel service from 8 November 2017 (if I'm not mistaken, this was Pastor Bender's first sermon as associate campus pastor):

The reading was Matthew 23:1-12, and I noticed a couple rhetorical features in it.

"6 And they [the Pharisees] love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues 7 and greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by others."  These verses exhibit polysyndeton (the repeated "and"), and it emphasizes the abundance that the Pharisees desire.

"12 Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted."  There's a chiastic structure here, and it illustrates this inversion.  (I wrote about this earlier this year, too, with "first" and "last.")

These features are also present in the Greek text:

6 φιλοῦσι δὲ τὴν πρωτοκλισίαν ἐν τοῖς δείπνοις καὶ τὰς πρωτοκαθεδρίας ἐν ταῖς συναγωγαῖς 7 καὶ τοὺς ἀσπασμοὺς ἐν ταῖς ἀγοραῖς καὶ καλεῖσθαι ὑπὸ τῶν ἀνθρώπων ῥαββεί.

12 ὅστις δὲ ὑψώσει ἑαυτὸν ταπεινωθήσεται, καὶ ὅστις ταπεινώσει ἑαυτὸν ὑψωθήσεται.

 and in the Latin Vulgate:

6 amant autem primos recubitus in cenis et primas cathedras in synagogis 7 et salutationes in foro et vocari ab hominibus rabbi

12 qui autem se exaltaverit humiliabitur et qui se humiliaverit exaltabitur

Jeremiah 9:23

A couple months ago, I watched the Daily Dose of Hebrew video on Jeremiah 9:23, which is 9:22 in the Hebrew versification:

כֹּה ׀ אָמַר יְהוָה אַל־יִתְהַלֵּל חָכָם בְּחָכְמָתוֹ וְאַל־יִתְהַלֵּל הַגִּבּוֹר בִּגְבֽוּרָתוֹ אַל־יִתְהַלֵּל עָשִׁיר בְּעָשְׁרֽוֹ

Thus says the Lord:  "Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches" [ESV]

The sentiment is completed in the next verse:  "'but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth.  For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.'"

Tom Blanchard, the host of these weekend editions, notes the relationship between חָכָם (a "wise man") and חָכְמָתוֹ ("his wisdom"), between הַגִּבּוֹר ("the mighty man") and גְבֽוּרָתוֹ ("his might"), and between עָשִׁיר (a "rich man") and עָשְׁרֽוֹ ("his riches"), which the ESV retains.

Because these words are so closely related, there's almost a reflexive sense.  Although the wise man is boasting in his wisdom, the mighty man is boasting in his might, and the rich man is boasting in his riches, common to all is a man boasting in himself (what he possesses or what he's done).  These closely related words indicate the inward-looking nature that must be eschewed in favor of looking to God.  This contrast is also present in Psalm 146:  "3 Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation.  4 When his breath departs, he returns to the earth; on that very day his plans perish.  5 Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD his God, 6 who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, who keeps faith forever."

John 7:24

A couple months ago, I watched the Daily Dose of Latin video on John 7:24:

Dr. Flatt comes close to mentioning that, of course, the words "iustum iudicium iudicate" alliterate, and I realized that because of this alliteration, there's a sense in the Latin of the orderliness of a just judgement.  

In my German New Testament, this verse is:  "Richtet nicht nach dem, was vor Augen ist, sondern richtet gerecht."  To a lesser degree, the same feature is present here, although with consonance rather than alliteration:  "richtet gerecht."

John 20:26

A couple months ago, I watched the Daily Dose of Greek video on John 20:26:

Καὶ μεθ᾽ ἡμέρας ὀκτὼ πάλιν ἦσαν ἔσω οἱ μαθηταὶ αὐτοῦ καὶ Θωμᾶς μετ᾽ αὐτῶν. ἔρχεται ὁ Ἰησοῦς τῶν θυρῶν κεκλεισμένων καὶ ἔστη εἰς τὸ μέσον καὶ εἶπεν· εἰρήνη ὑμῖν.

Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them.  Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." [ESV]

I was surprised to discovered that the "was" in the clause "Thomas was with them" isn't present in the Greek; it's just "Θωμᾶς μετ᾽ αὐτῶν."  I had a couple thoughts about this, although I'll admit they may be a bit far-fetched.

Most of the translations I lookt at render it like the ESV above and supply an implied verb:

Thomas war bei ihnen

Thomas se trouvait avec eux

Thomas was with them [NIV]

The Latin Vulgate and the NKJV are the exceptions:

Thomas cum eis

Thomas with them

I think it's possible to see Thomas as part of the plural subject of the verb "were."  Put an-other way, it would be "his disciples and Thomas with them were inside...."  Granted, the "with them" is a bit redundant then, but if Thomas is included with the other disciples as the subject of the sentence, it provides something of a foreshadowing of his return to faith after seeing Jesus' wounds.  In grammatical structure and in faith, he's part of the group again.

Alternatively, the lack of an explicit verb for Thomas' being there mirrors his lack of faith.

Matthew 27:20

For about a year and a half now, I've been slowly working through New Testament Greek for Laymen by Michael Merritt, which I downloaded from the resources page of the Daily Dose of Greek website.  Two months ago, I lookt up Matthew 27:20, since it's one of the "verses for application" at the end of Chapter 13 "Aorist Active and Middle Indicative."

Οἱ δὲ ἀρχιερεῖς καὶ οἱ πρεσβύτεροι ἔπεισαν τοὺς ὄχλους ἵνα αἰτήσωνται τὸν Βαραββᾶν, τὸν δὲ Ἰησοῦν ἀπολέσωσιν.

Now the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and destroy Jesus.  [ESV]

At first, I noticed only that - as I'd been noting with many other verses at the time - there's a chiastic structure that indicates opposites:  αἰτήσωνται τὸν Βαραββᾶν, τὸν δὲ Ἰησοῦν ἀπολέσωσιν  "to ask for Barabbas, Jesus to destroy."  By themselves, these two verbs don't mean opposite things, but they do in this context.

(For what it's worth, the same structure is also in the Latin Vulgate:  "Princeps autem sacerdotum et seniores persuaserunt populis ut peterent Barabban Iesum vero perderent")

In thinking about the verse some more, I realized that this chiastic structure may also indicate the thoughts of the chief priests and elders, namely that they want to crucify Jesus (the structure of the chiasm resembles the shape of the cross).  Right after this, in verses 22-23, the crowd, incited by the chief priests and elders, calls for Jesus' crucifixion.  The chiastic structure here may act as a sort of foreshadowing of this.

Genesis 12:3

This is becoming a somewhat regular occurrence, but a couple months ago, I found yet an-other chiastic structure that illustrates opposites.  In Genesis 12:3, God says to Abram, "I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you" (NIV).  The direct object follows the verb in the clause "I will bless those who bless you," but it precedes the verb in the clause "whoever curses you I will curse."  The inversion in the structure matches the opposites of blessing and cursing.

This is also present in the Hebrew ("וַאֲבָֽרֲכָה מְבָרְכֶיךָ וּמְקַלֶּלְךָ אָאֹר"), but it's not in the Vulgate.

Matthew 6:24

Last month, I read a few chapters in Matthew, and I found an-other instance where a chiastic structure illustrates opposites.  In Matthew 6:24, Jesus says, "No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.  You cannot serve God and money."  There's an inversion between "he will hate the one and love the other" and "he will be devoted to the one and despise the other," demonstrating these opposites.

This feature is also present in the Greek ("ἢ γὰρ τὸν ἕνα μισήσει καὶ τὸν ἕτερον ἀγαπήσει ἢ ἑνὸς ἀνθέξεται καὶ τοῦ ἑτέρου καταφρονήσει"), the Latin Vulgate ("aut enim unum odio habebit et alterum diliget aut unum sustinebit et alterum contemnet"), my German New Testament ("entweder er wird den einen hassen und den andern lieben, oder er wird an dem einen hängen und den andern verachten"), and my French New Testament ("Car, ou il haïra l'un, et aimera l'autre; ou il s'attachera à l'un, et méprisera l'autre").

Psalm 1:3-4

A little more than a month ago, I finished reading Proverbs in the NIV and started over again with the Psalms (in the ESV this time).  Previously, I'd noticed the contrast between the tree and the chaff in Psalm 1:3-4, but in reading it again last month, I realized that I'd been considering only one facet of this contrast.

3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields it fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither.  In all that he does, he prospers.  4 The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

I'd been focusing only on the agricultural nature of these similes and the contrast between the prosperity of the living tree and the inactivity of the worthless and dead chaff, but the two also differ in their positions:  the tree is firmly "planted," but the chaff is "drive[n] away" by the wind.  The man who delights in and meditates on the law of the Lord has an arboreal steadfastness that the wicked man does not.

Psalm 23:4

For Good Shepherd Sunday (the Fourth Sunday of Easter) at the end of April, the Psalm on Worship Anew was Psalm 23 (although the text below the video lists Psalm 43).  I was following along in the Latin Vulgate and noticed a feature specific to this translation.  Verse 4 is:  "sed et si ambulavero in valle mortis non timebo malum quoniam tu mecum es virga tua et baculus tuus ipsa consolabunter me."  In the ESV, this is:  "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me."  Often in Latin, the words in the prepositional phrase "with me" are combined (and inverted), so instead of "cum me," there's the single word "mecum."  Because of this idiosyncracy, there's a closer sense of God's accompaniment in this verse; "tu" and "me" are side-by-side.

Genesis 4:4-5

In mid-April, I finished reading The Lutheran Study Bible, the first time (hopefully of many) that I read the Bible straight through.  The same day I finished, I also started reading the NIV (my current plan is to alternate between the two, but I'll see what happens).

When I read Genesis 4, I noticed something interesting in these verses:  "3 In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the LORD.  4 But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock.  The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering, 5 but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor.  So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast."

Bridging verses 4 and 5, there's a chiastic structure in the description of how the Lord receives Abel and Cain and their respective offerings:  "The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor."  The structure highlights that the Lord's responses are opposite.

This feature is also present in Hebrew (I can't get the formatting to work correctly, so here's a link to the  passage in the STEP Bible) and in Latin ("et respexit Dominus ad Abel et ad munera eius ad Cain vero et ad munera illius non respexit").

Isaiah 45:18

A few years ago, I wrote a couple posts about grammar errors in the ESV (specifically word order problems with the "not... but..." correlative when combined with causal clauses).  Since then, I've found numerous similar errors (in the ESV, there are three word order errors with "not... but..." just in John 17), but I haven't written about them.  Last month, I ran across one that's a bit more interesting, so I'm noting it here.

In the NIV, part of Isaiah 45:18 is "He [the LORD] did not create it [the earth] to be empty, but formed it to be inhabited."  The ESV translation is similar:  "He did not create it empty, he formed it to be inhabited!"  The "not" should negate "(to be) empty" not "create," and this is obvious in the Hebrew (לֹא־תֹהוּ בְרָאָהּ).  The King James Version correctly translates this as "he created it not in vain."

What I thought interesting about this particular instance is that the parallel structure makes it clear that this is an error.  "Create" parallels "formed" in the same way that "not empty" should parallel "inhabited" (in an inverted sort of way).

John 7:18

Last month, when I watched the Daily Dose of Latin video on John 7:18, I noticed something that I hadn't noticed when I went over the same verse with the corresponding Daily Dose of Greek video about two years ago.

ὁ ἀφ᾽ ἑαυτοῦ λαλῶν τὴν δόξαν τὴν ἰδίαν ζητεῖ· ὁ δὲ ζητῶν τὴν δόξαν τοῦ πέμψαντος αὐτόν, οὗτος ἀληθής ἐστιν, καὶ ἀδικία ἐν αὐτῷ οὐκ ἔστιν.

qui a semet ipso loquitur gloriam propriam quaerit qui autem quaerit gloriam eius qui misit illum hic verax est et iniustitia in illo non est

In the ESV, this is translated as:

The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood.

In both the Greek and the Latin, the direct object in the first clause (τὴν δόξαν τὴν ἰδίαν, gloriam propriam, "his own glory") comes before the verb (ζητεῖ, quaerit, "seeks").  The word order in Greek and Latin is more flexible than in English, so I wouldn't argue for this too strongly, but placing "his own glory" earlier in the clause could provide a sense of this person's vanity.  In terms of his priorities and even in the clause that describes him, his glory comes first.

The word order in the second clause is different (the direct object comes after the verb [or the participle, as it is in the Greek]), and this mirrors the contrast in these two men, signalled more explicitly with δὲ, autem, and "but."

Proverbs 15:29

Last month, I read Proverbs 15, and I found an-other instance where two nouns are placed at opposite ends of a clause, which results in a sense of the distance that's mentioned in the verse.  In both the NIV and the ESV, Proverbs 15:29 is translated as:  "The LORD is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayer of the righteous."  The structure highlights the distance between "the LORD" and "the wicked."

This feature isn't in the Hebrew or the Latin Vulgate, but it is in my German translation of Proverbs:  "Der HERR ist ferne von den Gottlosen; aber der Gerechten Gebet erhört er."

John 20:19, 21

John 20:19-31 was the Gospel reading on Worship Anew last month (16 April).  In his sermon, Pastor Jonker briefly comments on how Jesus says, "Peace be with you" twice in the reading:

Again Jesus says, "Peace be with you."  Wasn't once enough?  Why receive forgiveness when you've already been forgiven?  Why speak peace a second time when you've already said it?  That's not what faith says.  Faith simply delights in receiving whatever the Lord has to give, and if He's giving out double peace on Easter Sunday, that's where I want to be.

I hadn't given much thought to this "double peace" that Jesus gives, but that particular phrase that Pastor Jonker uses brought to mind Isaiah 40:2:  "Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the LORD's hand double for all her sins."  The study notes in my Bible comment that Jerusalem "received from the Lord's hand good things in double proportion to the punishment she deserved for her sins" and also cites Isaiah 61:7:  "Instead of your shame there shall be a double portion; instead of dishonor they shall rejoice in their lot; therefore in their land they shall possess a double portion; they shall have everlasting joy."  The double peace that Jesus speaks in John 20 is an instance of this.

I think the context here is significant, too.  This giving of double peace comes right after Jesus' resurrection and His victory over sin, death, and the devil, and this is also what Isaiah 40:2 describes:  "her warfare is ended... her iniquity is pardoned."

Proverbs 14:25

After I finished reading the Psalms in the NIV, I continued on into Proverbs.  A couple weeks ago, I read chapter 14, and I noticed a contrast in verse 25:  "A truthful witness saves lives, but a false witness is deceitful."  (The ESV is similar:  "A truthful witness saves lives, but one who breathes out lies is deceitful.")  Obviously, "truthful" and "false" are opposites, and to some degree, these are mirrored by the different types of verbs:  "saves" is an active verb, but "is" is merely a stative verb.

John 20:1

A couple weeks ago, I watched the Daily Dose of Greek video on John 20:1:

In the ESV, this verse is:  "Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb."

I realized that the description "while it was still dark," while providing a veritable detail of the account, could also be understood metaphorically.  Its being "still dark" could also refer either to the gloom of Mary's sadness after Jesus' death or to her ignorance of His resurrection.

Isaiah 55:8

Last month, I watched the Concordia University Wisconsin chapel service from 28 September 2017:

The text was Isaiah 55:8-11, and I noticed a small feature in verse 8:  "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD."  The possessive adjectives have a chiastic structure ("my" "your" "your" "my"), and this provides some indication of the disparity between the two "thoughts" and the two "ways."  Arranging the clauses so that these possessive adjectives are parallel ("My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my ways your ways") doesn't have the same effect.

This same structure is also present in Hebrew (כִּי לֹא מַחְשְׁבוֹתַי מַחְשְׁבוֹתֵיכֶם וְלֹא דַרְכֵיכֶם דְּרָכָי נְאֻם יְהוָֽה) and Latin ("non enim cogitationes meae cogitationes vestrae neque viae vestrae viae meae dicit Dominus").

Last First/First Last

Last month, I tried to watch the Concordia University Wisconsin chapel service from 25 September 2017 (the audio cuts out about two thirds of the way through).  The reading, which was Matthew 20:1-16, is intact, though, and I had a small realization about verse 16:  "'So the last will be first, and the first last.'"  There's a chiastic structure here, and it illustrates that inversion.

The same feature is present elsewhere:  Matthew 19:30 ("'But many who are first will be last, and the last first.'"), Mark 10:31 ("'But many who are first will be last, and the last first.'"), and Luke 13:30 ("'And behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.'").

Psalm 119:150, 155

In continuing on in reading Psalm 119 in the NIV, I found two more instances where two nouns are placed at opposite ends of a clause, giving a sense of distance.

Psalm 119:150:

Those who devise wicked schemes are near, but they are far from your law.

and Psalm 119:155:

Salvation is far from the wicked, for they do not seek out your degrees.

The same feature is present in the ESV, the NKJV, and even my German Psalter ("sie sind fern von deinem Gesetz" and "das Heil ist fern von den Gottlosen"), but it's not in either verse in the original Hebrew text.

Jeremiah 4:22

While continuing through Jeremiah 4 in the archives of the Daily Dose of Hebrew last month, I noticed an interesting feature in verse 22:

When I read the ESV translation before watching the video, I noticed the chiastic structure near the end of the verse:  "'They are 'wise' - in doing evil!  But how to do good they know not.'"  This is also true of the Hebrew:

חֲכָמִים הֵמָּה לְהָרַע וּלְהֵיטִיב לֹא יָדָֽעוּ

The inversion between the two clauses illustrates the opposites:  חֲכָמִים ("wise," used ironically) with לֹא יָדָֽעוּ ("they know not") and לְהָרַע (to do evil) with לְהֵיטִיב (to do good).

This structure is also maintained in the Vulgate:  "sapientes sunt ut faciant mala bene autem facere nescierunt."

On Barabbas

Even before the Daily Dose of Greek got to John 18:40 last month, I started thinking about Barabbas.  Back in August last year, I had a small realization about this particular verse (which I never got around to writing about), and I had an-other realization after watching the Daily Dose of Greek video.

Previously, I'd thought of this exchange between Barabbas and Jesus only as a representation of the exchange between guilt and innocence (aside, of course, from the recounting of an actual event).  In the same way that innocent Jesus takes the place of guilty Barabbas, He also takes the punishment that should be ours.

Considering the passage more closely, I realized that there's a bit more depth than that; there are also specific contrasts between the characters of these two figures.  In John 18:40, the Evangelist comments "Now Barabbas was a robber," and this contrasts with Jesus, Who gives freely (the feeding of the five thousand, for example).  In Mark 15:7, Barabbas is described as one of "the rebels in prison, who had committed murder in the insurrection."  Jesus is the exact opposite of these attributes, too.  Instead of rebelling, He kept the law perfectly (Hebrews 9:14), and rather than murdering, He creates life (in Acts 3:15, He is called the Author of life).

My other realization, looking at the accounts from a different perspective, is that the crowd is representative of our sinful human nature.  In the same way that the crowd calls for Barabbas and rejects Jesus, we would cling to the darkness of sin and shun the Light of righteousness.

Jeremiah 4:9

In October, I started going through the Daily Dose of Hebrew's weekend series on Jeremiah from the beginning.  I'd watched most of these videos when they were originally posted, but this time, I'm copying out the verses, and eventually, I'll catch up to where the series is currently (in chapter 9 as of this writing).

After I watched the video on Jeremiah 4:9, I noticed an interesting feature of the ESV translation.

וְהָיָה בַיּוֹם־הַהוּא נְאֻם־יְהוָה יֹאבַד לֵב־הַמֶּלֶךְ וְלֵב הַשָּׂרִים וְנָשַׁמּוּ הַכֹּהֲנִים וְהַנְּבִיאִים יִתְמָֽהוּ׃

"In that day, declares the LORD, courage shall fail both king and officials.  The priests shall be appalled and the prophets astounded."

The phrase "יֹאבַד לֵב" is literally something like "the heart will perish," but in the ESV, it's translated as "courage shall fail."  This has a slightly different sense, but the etymology of courage actually points back to "the heart will perish," although this may be just coincidental.  The word courage comes ultimately from cor, the Latin word for heart.  In the Vulgate, this section of the verse is "peribit cor regis et cor principum."

Psalm 113:1-2

A little over a month ago, my daily psalm was Psalm 113.  In the NIV, the first two verses are:

1 Praise the LORD.

Praise, O servants of the LORD, praise the name of the LORD.

2 Let the name of the LORD be praised, both now and forevermore.

The same sentiment is in both verses, but in verse 1, it's in active voice ("praise the name of the LORD") and in verse 2, it's in passive voice ("let the name of the LORD be praised").  In a way, this is a merism of verb voices, and it emphasizes this command.  Additionally, it mirrors the temporal merism at the end of the second verse ("now and forevermore") and the spatial/temporal merism in verse 3, which I wrote about a few years ago.

This feature is also present in my German Psalter ("lobet den Namen des HERRN!  Gelobt sei der Name des HERRN"), but it's not in any of the other translations I referenced nor in Hebrew, where these are two different verbs.  Most of the other translations have some version of "Blessed be the name of the LORD" in the second verse.

Galatians 6:14

Last month, a footnote in The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume II led me to Galatians 6, where I found an interesting feature in verse 14:  "But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world."

The clauses "the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world" exhibit a chiastic structure, so it's almost as if Paul's boasting in the cross suffuses even how he talks about it.

When I lookt up the Greek text, however, I found that this structure isn't present there:

ἐμοὶ κόσμος ἐσταύρωται κἀγὼ κόσμῳ

nor it is present in the Latin Vulgate or my German translation, but it is in the NIV and the NKJV, both of which also render this as "the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world."

It's also in my French New Testament:

le monde est crucifié pour moi, comme je le suis pour le monde

Psalm 101:4

Last month, in my daily Psalm reading (in the NIV), I read Psalm 101, and I noticed the same sort of feature that I'd found in Psalm 119:29 a few days before.  The first half of verse 4 is "Men of perverse heart shall be far from me."  As if to reflect this distance, the "men of perverse heart" and "me" are at opposite ends of the clause.

This is also true in the Hebrew:

לֵבָב עִקֵּשׁ יָסוּר מִמֶּנִּי

In the ESV:

A perverse heart shall be far from me

In the NKJV:

A perverse heart shall depart from me

And in the Latin Vulgate

cor pravum recedet a me [according to the Hebrew]

cor pravum declinante a me [according to the Septuagint]

The only translation I lookt at that doesn't have this feature is my German Psalter, where this part of the verse is:

Ein falsches Herz muß von mir weichen

Psalm 119:29

About a month ago, as I was reading the Daleth part of Psalm 119, I noticed something about verse 29 that may be pretty obvious.  In the Hebrew, it's:

דֶּֽרֶךְ־שֶׁקֶר הָסֵר מִמֶּנִּי וְֽתוֹרָתְךָ חָנֵּֽנִי׃

In the ESV, this is:

Put false ways far from me and graciously teach me your law!

In the NIV:

Keep me from deceitful ways; be gracious to me through your law.

In all of these, "me" (the נִּי suffix) is about as far from "false ways"/"deceitful ways" (it's singular in Hebrew:  דֶּֽרֶךְ־שֶׁקֶר) as it can be in the clause, illustrating the separation that the Psalmist wishes for.

The Latin Vulgate is similar, whether according to the Hebrew:

viam mendacii aufer a me et legem tuam dona mihi

Or according to the Septuagint:

viam iniquitatis amove a me et lege tua miserere mei

Both of these actually follow the Hebrew word order more closely than the English translations do, with דֶּֽרֶךְ־שֶׁקֶר ("viam mendacii" or "viam iniquitatis") preceding מִמֶּנִּי ("a me").

This distance isn't present in all of the translations I lookt at, though.  In the New King James Version, this verse is:

Remove from me the way of lying, and grant me Your law graciously.

And in my German Psalter:

Halte fern von mir den Weg der Lüge und gib mir in Gnaden dein Gesetz.

In both of these, "me" ("mir") and "the way of lying" ("den Weg der Lüge") are side by side.

Psalm 95:4-5

A couple weeks ago, in my daily Psalm reading, I read Psalm 95.  I'd noted this before, but I realized again that verses 4 and 5 contain merisms and chiasms.  In the NIV, the verses are:

4 In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him.

5 The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land.

The ESV is very similar:

4 In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also.

5 The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land.

I had two realizations about these features.

Obviously, there's quite a difference between the two elements in the merisms.  There's a great distance between "depths" and "mountain peaks," and the wetness of "the sea" is the direct opposite of "the dry land."  Because there's a variety in the structure of these verses (the chiasms) and these elements are placed in opposite positions in their clauses, these differences of space and wetness are further emphasized.

This is true only of verse 4 in the Hebrew, though:

4אֲשֶׁר בְּיָדוֹ מֶחְקְרֵי־אָרֶץ וְתוֹעֲפוֹת הָרִים לֽוֹ׃

5אֲשֶׁר־לוֹ הַיָּם וְהוּא עָשָׂהוּ וְיַבֶּשֶׁת יָדָיו יָצָֽרוּ׃

My other realization was that because of the chiastic structure of verse 4, with references to God at the beginning and end ("in his hand" [בְּיָדוֹ] and "to him"/"his" [לֽוֹ]) and the entirety of the earth (from "the depths" to "the mountain peaks") in the middle, there's a picture of God's complete control.  As the old song puts it, "He's got the whole world in His hands."

Psalm 140:10

A few weeks ago, a footnote in the Norton Critical Edition of The Canterbury Tales led me to Psalm 140 (although since the citations were keyed to the Vulgate, the reference was actually to Psalm 141).  In any case, I realized a minor point about Psalm 140:10:  "Let burning coals fall upon them!  Let them be cast into fire, into miry pits, no more to rise!"

This verse contains something of a merism.  In the first sentence, the burning coals fall from above, and while the second sentence describes "them be[ing] cast into fire," if the "them" is understood as stationary, it would be as if that fire is coming up to meet them.  Basically, the burning is coming from both above (as coals) and beneath (as fire), and the opposite directions in these descriptions provide a sense of totality.

Psalm 119:105

Since the church year started over, I've been following along with the readings in the Latin Vulgate, moving on from my French New Testament, which I'd followed along in for the last three years.

The title of this blog is adapted from Psalm 119:105, which is my confirmation verse and which I put in the blog description.  Earlier this month, I finally got around to replacing the French translation with the Latin, and when I did this, I noticed something about the structure of the verse.  The Latin closely follows the Hebrew:

נֵר־לְרַגְלִי דְבָרֶךָ וְאוֹר לִנְתִיבָתִֽי׃

Lucerna pedi meo verbum tuum et lux semitae meae

In English, this is "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path," but the word order in the Hebrew and Latin is such that "Your word" (דְבָרֶךָ and "verbum tuum") is in the middle of the verse.  A literal translation would be something like "A lamp to my feet [is] Your word and a light to my path."  In English, this is rearranged so that the two parts of the compound predicate nominative are on the same side of the copulative verb (which is merely implied in Hebrew and Latin).

Because "Your word" is placed in the middle in the Hebrew and Latin versions, though, there's a sense of its centrality and importance.

Matthew 2:10

The Gospel reading on Worship Anew a couple weeks ago was Matthew 2:1-12.  After I watched the program, I was thinking about verse 10:  "When they [the wise men] saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy."  (ἰδόντες δὲ τὸν ἀστέρα ἐχάρησαν χαρὰν μεγάλην σφόδρα)

It doesn't come across in English this way, but "they rejoiced with joy" is a cognate accusative in Greek (ἐχάρησαν χαρὰν), literally something like "they rejoiced a joy."  This pleonastic construction and the redundancy of both "exceedingly" and "great" (in the opposite order in the Greek:  μεγάλην σφόδρα) illustrate the high degree of the wise men's emotion.  Even just one of these pairs would indicate this, but using both compounds the effect.

Psalm 85:10-11

For almost three months now, I've been reading a Psalm a day, in the NIV translation for a change.  Last week, I read Psalm 85, and I noticed all of the directions in verses 10-11:  "10 Love and faithfulness meet together; righteousness and peace kiss each other.  11 Faithfulness springs forth from the earth, and righteousness looks down from heaven."

"Meet[ing] together" and "kiss[ing] each other" seem to imply horizontal movement, and "spring[ing] forth from the earth" and "look[ing] down from heaven" describe vertical directions, so within these two verses, there are left and right and up and down.  Referring to all of these various directions provides a sense of the abundance of these qualities, which the next verse also seems to describe:  "The LORD will indeed give what is good, and our land will yield its harvest."

John 6:60

Last week, I watched the Daily Dose of Latin video on John 6:60 and noticed a grammatical ambiguity that I'd missed when I watched the corresponding Daily Dose of Greek video about two years ago.

Multi ergo audientes ex discipulis eius dixerunt durus est hic sermo quis potest eum audire

πολλοὶ οὖν ἀκούσαντες ἐκ τῶν μαθητῶν αὐτοῦ εἶπον· σκληρός ἐστιν ὁ λόγος οὗτος· τίς δύναται αὐτοῦ ἀκούειν;

Of the English translations I have, I like the NIV the best:  "On hearing it, many of his disciples said, 'This is a hard teaching.  Who can accept it?'"

Almost all of the translations I lookt at understand this in the same way and take "sermo" (λόγος in the Greek) as the antecedent of "eum" (αὐτοῦ), but the antecedent could also be Jesus since, grammatically, Jesus is also a masculine singular.  Consequently, "eum" (αὐτοῦ) could be translated as "Him" instead of "it," resulting in:  "Who can hear Him?" or "Who can accept Him?"

In the immediate context, "sermo" (or λόγος) does seem to be a more likely antecedent, but taking Jesus as the antecedent results in a reading that's similar to verse 41, where the Jews grumble about Jesus because of what He said.  Verse 60 could express something similar and show the crowd dismissing Jesus because it is unable to accept this particular point of His teaching.

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In my French translation, the antecedent is ambiguous:  "Plusieurs de ses disciples, après l'avoir entendu, dirent:  Cette parole est dure; qui peut l'écouter?"  The pronoun is elided into "écouter," and it could be either the feminine la, referring to "cette parole" or the masculine le, referring to Jesus.