Mark 5:4, 19-20; Luke 8:29, 39

Luke 8:26-39 was the Gospel reading on the Worship Anew program for the Second Sunday of Pentecost last year (22 June).  I was following along in the Latin Vulgate and noticed a characteristic in verse 29 that (probably just coincidentally) matches the meaning.

praecipiebat enim spiritui inmundo ut exiret ab homine multis enim temporibus arripiebat illum et vinciebatur catenis et conpedibus custoditus et ruptis vinculis agebatur a daemonio in deserta

In the ESV, this is:

For he [Jesus] had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man.  (For many a time it had seized him.  He was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the desert.)

The phrase "catenis et conpedibus custoditus" ("with chains and with shackles held in custody") exhibits consonance in Latin.  That the successive words begin and end with the same sound lends a sense of stasis, illustrating the man's (temporary) immobility.

The account in Mark (5:1-20) exhibits the same feature (in verse 4), but the phrase is shorter (merely "conpedibus et catenis" - "with shackles and with chains"):

quoniam saepe conpedibus et catenis vinctus disrupisset catenas et conpedes comminuisset et nemo poterat eum domare

for he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart, and he broke the shackles in pieces.  No one had the strength to subdue him.  [ESV]

---&---

I also noticed a sort of syllogism in Luke 8:39:  "'Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.'  And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him."  The similarity between "'how much God has done for you'" and "how much Jesus had done for him" implies that Jesus is God.  By recounting the event in this way, the man's statement also becomes a testimony to his faith in Jesus' divinity.

This, too, is in the Mark 5 account:  "19 And he did not permit him [to go with Jesus] but said to him, 'Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.'  20 And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled."

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."

---&---

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.

John 14:6

Years ago, I noticed that part of John 14:6 exhibits alliteration in the Vulgate:

dicit ei Iesus ego sum via et veritas et vita nemo venit ad Patrem nisi per me

In the ESV, this is:

Jesus said to him [Thomas], "I am the way, and the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me."

Earlier this year, I encountered this verse again and realized that coincidentally, the alliteration matches the meaning in a way.  There's an exclusivity common to both:  Jesus is the only means of reaching the Father, and the words that describe Him here all start with the same letter.

Psalm 9:4, 18

When I read Psalm 9 in my German Psalter, I found the same sort of feature that I noticed in Psalm 7:11.  In German, it's in verse 5:

Denn du führst mein Recht und meine Sache, du sitzest auf dem Thron, ein rechter Richter.

But in the ESV, this is verse 4:

For you have maintained my just cause; you have sat on the throne, giving righteous judgement.

To a degree, the repetition of the consonance in "rechter Richter" ("just judge," comparable to the ESV's "giving righteous judgement") lends a sense of orderliness.

As with Psalm 7:11, the corresponding Latin and Italian phrases exhibit alliteration, providing a similar effect (in the Latin Vulgate, it's also verse 5):

fecisti enim iudicium meum et causam meam sedisti super solium iudex iustitiae

Conciossiachè tu mi abbi fatta ragione e diritto; tu ti sei posto a sedere sopra il trono, come giusto giudice.

---&---

A number of qualities highlight the parallelism in verse 19 of the German:

Denn er wird den Armen nicht für immer vergessen; die Hoffnung der Elenden wird nicht ewig verloren sein.

In the ESV, this is verse 18:

For the needy shall not always be forgotten, and the hope of the poor shall not perish forever.

Vergessen (forgotten) and verloren (lost, comparable to the ESV's perish) alliterate and have the same number of syllables, and the emphasis falls on the same syllable in each (the second).  The similar sounds of the words match the parallel structure in which they appear.

Psalm 7:11

As I've been going through my German Psalter, I've found many instances of the same minuscule features.  I'm going to keep them divided by Psalm as I write about them, however, even though this arrangement will result in multiple short posts that may be repetitive and perhaps even insignificant.

In the German Psalter, Psalm 7:12 is "Gott ist ein gerechter Richter und ein Gott, der täglich strafen kann."  In the ESV, this is verse 11:  "God is a righteous judge, and a God who feels indignation every day."

The phrase "gerechter Richter" ("righteous judge") exhibits consonance, and to a degree, the repetition of these sounds provides a sense of the orderliness involved.  A similar effect is achieved with alliteration ("just judge") in the NKJV:  "God is a just judge, and God is angry with the wicked every day."

Last month, the Daily Dose of Hebrew went over this verse (it's verse 12 in the Hebrew):

Before I watched the video, I read the verse in Latin and Italian (I've been referencing this Italian Bible from 1894) and noticed that the corresponding phrases alliterate in these languages, too:

Deus iudex iustus et fortis comminans tota die

Iddio è giusto giudice, e un Dio che si adira ogni giorno.

Daniel 11:12

Months ago, the Daily Dose of Hebrew went over Daniel 11:12:

וְנִשָּׂא הֶהָמוֹן וְרָם לְבָבוֹ וְהִפִּיל רִבֹּאוֹת וְלֹא יָעֽוֹז׃

And when the multitude is taken away, his heart shall be exalted, and he shall cast down tens of thousands, but he shall not prevail.  [ESV]

In the Hebrew, it's a bit easier to see the relationship between "be exalted" and "cast down."  Both have meanings that could also refer more literally to directions.  Their combination in this context, with opposing forces going different ways (the king's heart is exalted while his enemies are cast down), provides an added degree of emphasis.

I also noticed a small feature in the Vulgate:

et capiet multitudinem et exaltabitur cor eius et deiciet multa milia sed non praevalebit

The phrase "multa milia" (many thousands) alliterates, and the repetition involved lends a small sense of this abundance.

2 Corinthians 11:26

While flipping through the Vulgate months ago, I happened upon 2 Corinthians 11:26.  The formatting (in my edition, anyway) made it very obvious that this verse exhibits anaphora:

in itineribus saepe

periculis fluminum

periculis latronum

periculis ex genere

periculis ex gentibus

periculis in civitate

periculis in solitudine

periculis in mari

periculis in falsis fratribus

This structure is also in the Greek:

ὁδοιπορίαις πολλάκις, κινδύνοις ποταμῶν, κινδύνοις ληστῶν, κινδύνοις ἐκ γένους, κινδύνοις ἐξ ἐθνῶν, κινδύνοις ἐν πόλει, κινδύνοις ἐν ἐρημίᾳ, κινδύνοις ἐν θαλάσσῃ, κινδύνοις ἐν ψευδαδέλφοις,

My German New Testament:

Ich bin oft gereist, ich bin in Gefahr gewesen durch Flüsse, in Gefahr unter Räubern, in Gefahr unter Juden, in Gefahr unter Heiden, in Gefahr in Städten, in Gefahr in Wüsten, in Gefahr auf dem Meer, in Gefahr unter falschen Brüdern

And my French New Testament:

Fréquemment en voyage, j'ai été en péril sur les fleuves, en péril de la part des brigands, en péril de la part de ceux de ma nation, en péril de la part des païens, en péril dans les villes, en péril dans les déserts, en péril sur la mer, en péril parmi les faux frères.

Here's the ESV translation:

on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers

There's a parity between the frequency indicated by πολλάκις (often) and the inherent repetition of anaphora, and the combination of these two (the temporal adverb and repetitive structure) may even create a greater sense of the constancy of this peril.

Proverbs 3:10

Months ago, the weekend edition of The Daily Dose of Hebrew went over Proverbs 3:10:

וְיִמָּלְאוּ אֲסָמֶיךָ שָׂבָע וְתִירוֹשׁ יְקָבֶיךָ יִפְרֹֽצוּ׃

As Dr. Howell notes in the video, the word שָׂבָע can mean something like plenty or satiety.  If it's understood as plenty, these barns are redundantly described ("filled with plenty"), but this redundancy does illustrate that abundance.

The ESV and NKJV both have "filled with plenty," and the Vulgate ("et implebuntur horrea tua saturitate") is comparable.  The NIV seems to go a bit further with "filled to overflowing."

My German translation of Proverbs goes the other way and takes שָׂבָע to mean simply satiety:  "so werden deine Scheunen voll werden" ("so your barns will become full").

Proverbs 10:6

When I was flipping to Proverbs 14 in order to reference verse 35 and write this post about it, I ran across an-other significant chiastic structure, this time in Proverbs 10:6.  In the ESV, it's:

Blessings

are on the head of the righteous,

but the mouth of the wicked conceals

violence.

As with the last few chiasms in Proverbs that I've written about, the elements here are a bit more loosely equated, but the structure does highlight the contrasts between "blessings" and "violence" and between "the head of the righteous" and "the mouth of the wicked."

This chiasm is also in the Hebrew:

בְּרָכוֹת

לְרֹאשׁ צַדִּיק

וּפִי רְשָׁעִים יְכַסֶּה

חָמָֽס׃

and the Latin Vulgate:

benedictio

super caput iusti

os autem impiorum operit

iniquitatem

It's also in my German translation of Proverbs, but the meaning is a bit different:

Segen ruht

auf dem Haupt des Gerechten;

aber auf die Gottlosen

wird ihr Frevel fallen.

Something like:

Blessing rests

on the head of the righteous,

but on the wicked

will their iniquity fall.

The second half of this echoes Psalm 7:16:  "His mischief returns upon his own head, and on his own skull his violence descends."

Matthew 13:30

When the Daily Dose of Greek went over Matthew 13:30 a few months ago, I noticed some significance in the structure.

The text I referenced from the STEP Bible (the Tyndale House Greek New Testament) is slightly different (μέχρι instead of ἕως):

ἄφετε συναυξάνεσθαι ἀμφότερα μέχρι τοῦ θερισμοῦ· καὶ ἐν καιρῷ τοῦ θερισμοῦ ἐρῶ τοῖς θερισταῖς· συλλέξατε πρῶτον τὰ ζιζάνια καὶ δήσατε αὐτὰ εἰς δεσμὰς πρὸς τὸ κατακαῦσαι αὐτά· τὸν δὲ σῖτον συναγάγετε εἰς τὴν ἀποθήκην μου.

This is Jesus giving the dialogue of the master of the house in the Parable of the Weeds.  In the ESV, it's:

"'Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.'"

The direct object follows the verb in the phrase συλλέξατε πρῶτον τὰ ζιζάνια, but it precedes the verb in the phrase τὸν δὲ σῖτον συναγάγετε, forming a sort of chiasm:

συλλέξατε ("gather")

τὰ ζιζάνια ("the weeds")

τὸν δὲ σῖτον ("but the wheat")

συναγάγετε ("gather")

Such a structure highlights the different values that the weeds and the wheat have for the master of the house.

This structure is also present in the Latin Vulgate:

sinite utraque crescere usque ad messem et in tempore messis dicam messoribus colligite primum zizania et alligate ea fasciculos ad conburendum triticum autem congregate in horreum meum

My German New Testament has this structure, too, but it translates the two verbs (συλλέξατε and συναγάγετε) as the same word ("sammelt"), like the ESV does with "gather."  That this element in the chiasm is exactly the same lends even more emphasis to the contrasting nature of the inner elements (the weeds and the wheat):

Laßt beides miteinander wachsen bis zur Ernte; und um die Erntezeit will ich zu den Schnittern sagen:  Sammelt zuerst das Unkraut und bindet es in Bündel, damit man es verbrenne; aber den Weizen sammelt mir in meine Scheune.

John 15:5

Months ago, I lookt up John 15 in order to confirm a similarity to verses 4-5 in a hymn text I was translating ("Du Lebensbrod, Herr Jesu" by Johann Rist).  Specifically, I referenced the NKJV, in which verse 5 appears as:

"I am the vine, you are the branches.  He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing."

The italics indicate a word that's supplied in the NKJV translation that's not in the Greek:

ἐγώ εἰμι ἡ ἄμπελος, ὑμεῖς τὰ κλήματα. ὁ μένων ἐν ἐμοὶ κἀγὼ ἐν αὐτῷ, οὗτος φέρει καρπὸν πολύν· ὅτι χωρὶς ἐμοῦ οὐ δύνασθε ποιεῖν οὐδέν.

The verb is explicit in the first clause ("'I am the vine'"), but it's merely implied in the second ("'you [are] the branches'").  The same is true of the Latin Vulgate:

ego sum vitis vos palmites qui manet in me et ego in eo hic fert fructum multum quia sine me nihil potestis facere

By itself, "you the branches" is just a phrase.  Semantically, it can't stand by itself (formally speaking, at least).  The preceding "I am the vine" sets up an instance of ellipsis, indicating that the copulative verb is implied and that this is, in fact, a complete clause.  Grammatically, then, the second clause has a sort of dependence on the first to make its meaning clear, and this matches the broader idea behind the metaphor here ("'without Me you can do nothing'").

According to my Greek textbook (New Testament Greek for Laymen: An Introductory Grammar by Michael A. Merritt, which I got as a .pdf for free from the Daily Dose of Greek website), "Greek differs from English in that the verb εἰμί (to be) may be omitted from a sentence if it is understood from the context" (p. 54), so I'm not sure how applicable my comments are to the Greek (or to the Latin, which I think is comparable in this regard).

Ruth 2:4

Months ago, the Daily Dose of Aramaic went over Targum Ruth 2:4:

As I follow along in the series, I've been referencing the Vulgate, in which this verse is:

et ecce ipse veniebat de Bethleem dixitque messoribus Dominus vobiscum qui responderunt ei benedicat tibi Dominus

In the ESV, it's:

And behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem.  And he said to the reapers, "The LORD be with you!"  And they answered, "The LORD bless you."

In the Vulgate, I found an-other instance of a feature I've noted a few other times.  As usual, the prepositional phrase "cum vobis" ("with you") is inverted and condensed into one word (vobiscum).  Because this immediately follows "Dominus," the words for "the LORD" and "you" are directly next to each other, lending a slightly greater sense of this accompaniment.

Psalm 1:2

Months ago, I watched the Worship Anew program for 16 February (Sixth Sunday after Epiphany).  The Psalm was Psalm 1, and in verse 2, I found the same sort of feature that I'd previously noticed in Psalm 145:5:  the object of the man's meditation comes first in the clause, and to some degree, this placement illustrates its importance for him:

But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.  [ESV]

This structure is also in the Hebrew:

כִּי אִם בְּתוֹרַת יְהוָה חֶפְצוֹ וּֽבְתוֹרָתוֹ יֶהְגֶּה יוֹמָם וָלָֽיְלָה׃

and the Latin Vulgate:

sed in lege Domini voluntas eius et in lege eius meditabitur die ac nocte

I'd previously noticed (but didn't think it significant enough to note on its own) that "day and night" is a temporal merism.

Luke 6:17

When I watched the Concordia University Wisconsin chapel service from 18 February, I found the same feature that I'd noticed in the reading from Luke 5 the previous week.

The reading for this service was Luke 6:17-26.  I was following along in the Vulgate, where verse 17 is:

Et descendens cum illis stetit in loco campestri et turba discipulorum eius et multitudo copiosa plebis ab omni Iudaea et Hierusalem et maritimae Tyri et Sidonis

In the ESV, this is:

And he [Jesus] came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon

In the Latin, the phrase "multitudo copiosa" (translated as "a great multitude" in the ESV) is redundant (something like "an abundant multitude"), but this redundancy lends a greater sense of the large number of people.

Again like Luke 5:6, the phrase alliterates in Greek (πλῆθος πολὺ), and the repetition involved also suggests a great quantity.  Here's the full verse:

καὶ καταβὰς μετ᾽ αὐτῶν ἔστη ἐπὶ τόπου πεδινοῦ. καὶ ὄχλος πολὺς μαθητῶν αὐτοῦ καὶ πλῆθος πολὺ τοῦ λαοῦ ἀπὸ πάσης τῆς Ἰουδαίας καὶ Ἱερουσαλὴμ καὶ τῆς παραλίου Τύρου καὶ Σειδῶνος

John 12:6

Months ago, I watched the Daily Dose of Latin video on John 12:6:

dixit autem hoc non quia de egenis pertinebat ad eum sed quia fur erat et loculos habens ea quae mittebantur portabat

In the ESV, this is:

He [Judas Iscariot] said this, not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief, and having charge of the moneybag he used to help himself to what was put into it.

Where the ESV has "not because he cared about the poor," the Latin has "non quia de egenis pertinebat ad eum."  This is something like:  "not because about the destitute, it pertained to him."  The Greek text is comparable:

εἶπεν δὲ τοῦτο οὐχ ὅτι περὶ τῶν πτωχῶν ἔμελεν αὐτῷ, ἀλλ᾽ ὅτι κλέπτης ἦν καὶ τὸ γλωσσόκομον ἔχων τὰ βαλλόμενα ἐβάσταζεν.

Like the Latin pertinēre, the Greek verb μέλω is impersonal.  I'm not sure if a native speaker of either of these languages would take it this way, but it seems to me that this sort of construction (where Judas isn't the subject of the verb) lends a greater sense of the distance between him and the poor.  Even grammatically, there's less of a relationship between them.

Ruth 1:21

A few months ago, I watched the two Daily Dose of Aramaic videos on Targum Ruth 1:21:

I was following in the Latin Vulgate and noticed a feature specific to that translation:

Egressa sum plena et vacuam reduxit me Dominus cur igitur vocatis me Noemi quam humiliavit Dominus et adflixit Omnipotens

In the ESV, this is:

"I went away full, and the LORD has brought me back empty.  Why call me Naomi, when the LORD has testified against me and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me?"

In the Vulgate, there's a chiasm that highlights the opposites "went away" and "brought back" ("egressa sum" and "reduxit") and "full" and "empty" ("plena" and "vacuam"):

Egressa sum

plena et

vacuam

reduxit me Dominus

Following this word order, an English translation of this section of the verse would be something like:  "I went away full, and empty brought me back the LORD."

Luke 5:6

A few months ago, I watched the Concordia University Wisconsin chapel service from 11 February:

The reading was Luke 5:1-11, and while following along in the Vulgate, I noticed a small feature in verse 6:

et cum hoc fecissent concluserunt piscium multitudinem copiosam rumpebatur autem rete eorum

In the ESV, this is:

And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking.

The phrase "multitudinem copiosam" is redundant (something like "an abundant multitude"), but this redundancy does heighten the sense of this large amount.

This feature is also present in the Greek:

καὶ τοῦτο ποιήσαντες συνέκλεισαν πλῆθος ἰχθύων πολύ· διερρήσσετο δὲ τὰ δίκτυα αὐτῶν.

Additionally, the words πλῆθος (multitude) and πολύ (much) alliterate.  To a small degree, the repetition in this alliteration contributes to this sense of abundance even further.