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."