1 Chronicles 29:25, Philippians 2:9

While reading 1 Chronicles 29 in the NIV last year, I noticed a resemblance to an-other passage, albeit in a different translation.

In the NIV, 1 Chronicles 29:25 is:

The LORD highly exalted Solomon in the sight of all Israel and bestowed on him royal splendor such as no king over Israel ever had before.

In the ESV, Philippians 2:9 is:

Therefore God has highly exalted him [Jesus] and bestowed on him the name that is above every name

For what it's worth, in the ESV, 1 Chronicles 29:25 is:

And the LORD made Solomon very great in the sight of all Israel and bestowed on him such royal majesty as had not been on any king before him in Israel.

And in the NIV, Philippians 2:9 is:

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name

The passages within each translation resemble each other to a degree, but those across translations contain two identical phrases.  Of course, referencing the original languages would be irrelevant here because 1 Chronicles 29 is in Hebrew while Philippians 2:9 is in Greek.

Although this similarity may be just coincidental, it does match with how Solomon foreshadows Christ in a way.  For instance, take 1 Chronicles 17:11-14, where God says to David (via Nathan):  "11 'When your days are fulfilled to walk with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, one of your own sons, and I will establish his kingdom.  12 He shall build a house for me, and I will establish his throne forever.  13 I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son.  I will not take my steadfast love from him, as I took it from him who was before you, 14 but I will confirm him in my house and in my kingdom forever, and his throne shall be established forever.'"  In its immediate context, this describes Solomon, but in a broader sense, it also pertains to Christ.  It may also be worth pointing out that in Matthew 12:42, Jesus says of Himself, "Something greater than Solomon is here."

1 Kings 3:12, 2 Chronicles 1:12

I've been following Aleph with Beth since it started in 2020, although I'm not up to date because I've been watching the videos at a slower rate than they're posted.  In June last year, I watched lesson 98 where (at ~13:53) 1 Kings 3:12 is shown:

הִנֵּה עָשִׂיתִי כִּדְבָרֶיךָ הִנֵּה ׀ נָתַתִּי לְךָ לֵב חָכָם וְנָבוֹן אֲשֶׁר כָּמוֹךָ לֹא־הָיָה לְפָנֶיךָ וְאַחֲרֶיךָ לֹא־יָקוּם כָּמֽוֹךָ׃

"Behold, I now do according to your word.  Behold, I give you a wise and discerning mind, so that none like you has been before you and none like you shall arise after you."  [ESV]

In Hebrew, the last portion of the verse features a chiasm:

כָּמוֹךָ (like you)

לֹא־הָיָה (one has not existed)

לְפָנֶיךָ (before you)

וְאַחֲרֶיךָ (and after you)

לֹא־יָקוּם (one will not arise)

כָּמֽוֹךָ (like you)

This structure illustrates the two-fold view:  one word order for looking to the past, and the opposite order for looking to the future.

Shortly after I noticed this, I happened to read 2 Chronicles 1 in the NIV, where Solomon's request is recounted again.  God's response exhibits a chiastic structure here, too, albeit in a condensed form (in verse 12):

הַֽחָכְמָה וְהַמַּדָּע נָתוּן לָךְ וְעֹשֶׁר וּנְכָסִים וְכָבוֹד אֶתֶּן־לָךְ אֲשֶׁר ׀ לֹא־הָיָה כֵן לַמְּלָכִים אֲשֶׁר לְפָנֶיךָ וְאַחֲרֶיךָ לֹא יִֽהְיֶה־כֵּֽן׃

"therefore wisdom and knowledge will be given you.  And I will also give you wealth, riches, and honor, such as no king who was before you ever had and none after you will have."  [NIV]

Specifically:

לֹא־הָיָה כֵן (such as was not)

לַמְּלָכִים אֲשֶׁר לְפָנֶיךָ (to the kings who [were] before you)

וְאַחֲרֶיךָ (and after you)

לֹא יִֽהְיֶה־כֵּֽן (will not be thus)

Matthew 20:20-34, Mark 10:35-52

For the last five years or so, I've been studying Gothic via Joseph Wright's A Primer of the Gothic Language.  Part of the book contains fragments of the Gospels in Gothic, and as I was stumbling through Mark last year, I noticed a significant contrast in chapter 10.  In the second half of the chapter (verses 35-52), Jesus twice asks the question "What do you want me to do for you?" - first to James and John (in verse 36) and then to Bartimaeus (in verse 51).  The identical* form of this question highlights the different contexts in which it appears, specifically the opposite ways in which these two parties approach Jesus.  James and John come to Him as if they have authority over Him, expecting their demands to be met ("We want you to do for us whatever we ask of you"), but Bartimaeus begins with humility ("Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!").

About a week after I noticed this similarity, I ran across the parallel in Matthew 20:20-34.  In this account, it's James and John's mother who asks on behalf of her sons, and Jesus' questions aren't identical ("What do you want?" in verse 21, but "What do you want me to do for you?" in verse 32).  Because there are two blind men here, however, the account draws a sharper contrast between the two parties.  The two brothers who aspire to high positions are more evenly balanced against the two blind men who demonstrate humbleness.

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*It's identical in English, but it differs slightly in other languages, principally depending on whether you is singular or plural.

Psalm 25:1, 3

When I read Psalm 25 in my German Psalter, I noticed some significance in the word order in the first verse:  "Nach dir, HERR, verlanget mich."  The pronoun ("dir" "You") and vocative ("HERR" "LORD") come first in the clause, illustrating the importance that the Lord holds for the Psalmist.  The German here means something like "For You, Lord, I long," but all of the English translations I referenced have "To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul."

I also noticed a chiasm in verse 3, although a relative clause complicates it a bit:

Denn keiner

wird zuschanden, der auf dich harret;

aber zuschanden werden

die leichtfertigen Verächter.

It's clearer in the Hebrew:

גַּם כָּל־קֹוֶיךָ

לֹא יֵבֹשׁוּ

יֵבֹשׁוּ

הַבּוֹגְדִים רֵיקָֽם׃

and even in the Latin Vulgate (where the versification is different, so this bridges verses 3 and 4):

sed et universi qui sperant in te

non confundantur

confundantur

qui iniqua gerunt frustra

In English, this is something like:

But all who hope in you

will not be put to shame;

will be put to shame

those who act treacherously in vain

The chiastic structure highlights the difference between "those who hope in you" and "those who act treacherously" and - obviously - between "will not be put to shame" and "will be put to shame."

1 Chronicles 22:11, 16

When I read 1 Chronicles 22 in the NIV last year, I noticed two instances of "the LORD be with you" (in verses 11 and 16) and correctly guessed that these are rendered with tecum in the Latin Vulgate:

sit Dominus tecum ("may the LORD be with you")

erit Dominus tecum ("the LORD will be with you")

As I've noted before, tecum is the prepositional phrase "cum te" ("with you") with its words inverted and combined, and in this context, it provides a slightly greater sense of accompaniment since "te" ("you") and "Dominus" ("the LORD") are directly next to each other.

Psalm 18:4, 27

While reading Psalm 18 in my German Psalter last year, I found a couple points to note.

Verse 5 is:

Es umfingen mich des Todes Bande, und die Fluten des Verderbens erschreckten mich.

In the ESV (where this is verse 4), it's:

The cords of death encompassed me; the torrents of destruction assailed me

The German is a bit redundant (literally:  "it encompass me of the death [the] cords"), but this does result in a somewhat literal picture of what the verse is describing:  "me" really is "encompass[ed]," between "the cords of death" and the pleonastic "it."

In the Hebrew, this clause is:

אֲפָפוּנִי חֶבְלֵי־מָוֶת

The verb has a pronominal suffix and is followed by an explicit subject ("encompass-me the cords of death"), but if a less specific subject (a generic "they") is understood as inflected into the verb, the structure is the same as the German:  "they encompass me, the cords of death."

The Latin Vulgate is comparable:  "[ei] circumdederunt me funes mortis."

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Verse 28 has a chiastic structure, although some of the elements are equated a bit loosely:

Denn du

hilfst

dem elenden Volk,

aber stolze Augen

erniedrigst

du.

For You

help

the miserable people,

but proud eyes [accusative]

lower

You [nominative].

This structure highlights the difference between "dem elenden Volk" (miserable people) and "stolze Augen" (proud eyes) and between "hilfst" (help) and "erniedrigst" (lower).

This structure isn't in the Hebrew, but in the ESV (in which this is verse 27), the order is as similar as English syntax will allow:  "For you save a humble people, but the haughty eyes you bring down."

John 16:32

John 16:23-33 was the reading on a Worship Anew program in May last year (The Sixth Sunday of Easter, 25 May), and in verse 32 in the Vulgate, I found an-other instance of a minor feature I've noted a few times before.

ecce venit hora et iam venit ut dispergamini unusquisque in propria et me solum relinquatis et non sum solus quia Pater mecum est

In the ESV, this is:

"Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone.  Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me."

In Latin, the words in the prepositional phrase "cum me" ("with me") are inverted and combined into mecum.  Consequently, me is directly next to Pater ("the Father"), lending a slightly greater sense of this accompaniment, especially in this instance since these are two figures of the Trinity.