Genesis 7:17-19

After running across a reference to Genesis 1 in Les Misérables recently, I've been reading chapters of Genesis.  I noticed that in the ESV, successive verses in Genesis 7:17-19 have more adverbs:

17 The flood continued forty days on the earth.  The waters increased and bore up the ark, and it rose high above the earth.  18 The waters prevailed and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the face of the waters.  19 And the waters prevailed so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered.

First, there's just a subject and a verb ("the waters increased"); then there's one adverb ("the waters prevailed and increased greatly"); then there are two adverbs ("the waters prevailed so mightily").  The increasing number of adverbs reflects the rising level of the waters.

I lookt up this passage in the STEP Bible and found that this feature is also present in the Hebrew.  מְאֹד is used once in verse 18 and twice in succession (for a greater degree) in verse 19.

Luke 6:20-26

On Worship Anew last week, the Gospel reading was Luke 6:17-26.  In verses 20-26, Jesus presents some contrasts:  "Blessed are you who are poor" (verse 20) but "woe to you who are rich" (verse 24), "blessed are you who are hungry now" (21) but "woe to you who are full now" (25), "blessed are you who weep now" (21) but "woe to you who laugh now" (25), and "blessed are you when people hate you" (22) but "woe to you when all people speak well of you" (26).

I was following along in my French New Testament, and I noticed that in that particular translation, these opposites have a sharper contrast because the French words for "blessed" ("heureux") and "woe" ("malheur") come from the same root.

Ecclesiastes 1:5

Earlier this month, I read a few chapters of Ecclesiastes, and I realized something about the structure of Ecclesiastes 1:5:  "The sun rises, and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it rises."  The verse starts and ends with the sun's rising, so even the structure of just this one verse illustrates the vanity that the preacher talks about.

Genesis 22:17

One of the readings from the Christmas Eve service I attended last month was from Genesis 22.  I noticed a small feature in verse 17 where God says to Abraham, "'I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore.'"

Taken together, the images in these comparisons encompass a wide sweep (the stars above and the sand below), and this breadth mirrors the abundance of Abraham's offspring.

Matthew 16:23

About a month ago, I watched the CUW chapel service from 3 September 2014:

The reading was Matthew 16:21-25, and while I was following along in my French translation, I noticed a small feature in verse 23:  "Mais Jésus, se retournant, dit à Pierre:  Arrière de moi, Satan!  tu m'es en scandale; car tes pensées ne sont pas les pensées de Dieu, mais celles des hommes."  In the ESV, this is rendered as:  "But he turned and said to Peter, 'Get behind me, Satan!  You are a hindrance to me.  For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.'"

In the French translation, "you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man" (οὐ φρονεῖς τὰ τοῦ θεοῦ ἀλλὰ τὰ τῶν ἀνθρώπων) is rendered as "tes pensées ne sont pas les pensées de Dieu, mais celles des hommes."  Literally, this is "your thoughts are not the thoughts of God but those of men," and this echoes Isaiah 55:8:  "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD."

Psalm 16:6

A couple months ago, the Psalm in church was Psalm 16.  I noticed a small feature in verse 6:  "The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance."

The phrase "pleasant places" has both alliteration and syllabic balance, and the euphony of these features matches the meaning of the words.

Luke 18:9-14

When I read a few chapters of Luke a couple months ago, I noticed some contrasts in Luke 18:9-14, the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector.  There's an obvious contrast in what these two men are saying as they pray, but I noticed that this contrast is also shown in how they speak.

The Pharisee's prayer:

God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.  I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.

The tax collector's prayer:

God, be merciful to me, a sinner.

In each clause of the Pharisee's prayer, the subject is "I."  He uses it five times.  In the tax collector's prayer, the personal pronoun is used only once and then in the dative case ("to me").  Even in the language, then, it's illustrated that the Pharisee thinks primarily of himself while the tax collector has humility.

There's also a contrast in the length of these prayers.  The tax collector's prayer is short and to the point, while the Pharisee (to borrow a description from Matthew 6:7) seems to "think that [he] will be heard for [his] many words."

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.