Tuesday, May 08, 2007
Psalm 18 - security and deliverance
Psalm 18 as I noted yesterday, is large. I have split it in 6 columns and identified sections (the theophany, and a short section which may turn out to be the central meditation) and a few words that repeat at least 3 times: הִצִּיל, ntsl, deliver, מְפַלְטִי palat, secure, צוּרִי, tsur, rock,תָּמִים, tamim, complete.
Monday, May 07, 2007
Psalm 18 and 25 first drafts
Two more psalms take their stand in a preliminary form. Psalm 25 is well analysed by Magonet and I have used some of his pointers to sketch a few colours. Psalm 18 is large and complex. It seems to have a theme of completeness in it.
The Spirit speaking through this writer speaks to me of the cost of loving enemies - not just battle-lines drawn up for destructive vengeance. The enemies were too strong for David - the reference to the Nations feigning obedience then quaking out of their fortresses is perplexing but almost reminds me of the astonishment of Isaiah 52 - who will believe our report? There is also a full-scale theophany in vs 8-16. What role does this play? What is the extraordinary space (20) into which the Psalmist is drawn? No colours yet - they will take time and I am looking for new ways of using them - full colour is a bit much to see.
Let the stew boil. I am not in a hurry to repeat the detailed logies of past ages - but the personal aspects of the poem especially as a certain first century Jews might have read it are intriguing.
The Spirit speaking through this writer speaks to me of the cost of loving enemies - not just battle-lines drawn up for destructive vengeance. The enemies were too strong for David - the reference to the Nations feigning obedience then quaking out of their fortresses is perplexing but almost reminds me of the astonishment of Isaiah 52 - who will believe our report? There is also a full-scale theophany in vs 8-16. What role does this play? What is the extraordinary space (20) into which the Psalmist is drawn? No colours yet - they will take time and I am looking for new ways of using them - full colour is a bit much to see.
Let the stew boil. I am not in a hurry to repeat the detailed logies of past ages - but the personal aspects of the poem especially as a certain first century Jews might have read it are intriguing.
Translating
I wonder whether it is time to put my cards on the table. What is my agenda? What is my motive after 60 years of bodily existence, for this exercise of learning an ancient tongue and putting the words of the Psalms into various pictures and forms of words.
I am over my head, but the Spirit gives me oxygen. There are those whose mother tongue is also English and who have spent a lifetime (some shorter some longer) with Hebrew and its cognate languages. I have spent a year to date after a long slow start of 30+ years perhaps knowing from a distance a word or two. I am very happy to have web-encountered a few of these scholars. I have had a few words with some scholars in the flesh: notably Peter Craigie (long before I was ready to tackle Hebrew) and John Sandys-Wynch and good advice from Bruce Gardner who suggested I ask God for help! So, God, having been engaged to my fleshly engine, and God, knowing well how to teach, God and I continue.
As if Hebrew were a tongue that I was not in a hurry to learn, as if I were a child with the brain of a child, I absorb in visual and aural terms in an almost unconscious manner, using both my own automated transcription (very primitive) and the Hebrew characters themselves. I am taking classes with the local Synagogue, Congregation Emmanu-El in Victoria. I use both online and offline tools generally every day, mostly BlueLetter Bible, Scripture4all, and Mechon-Mamre. The hardest thing to do is to see, hear, and read. Word recognition - I can read my own writing (!) but I cannot instantly recognize Hebrew words. I suspect this is due to the time required to grow brain connections between eye and mouth.
I use a new web-based tool which has been developed over the past 5 years by my own company. I could have used more standard tools but not with such power, flexibility, or beneficial effects to the testing process. But that is not my motivation - I am not in sales.
My 'Why' is highlighted by a post on John Hobbin's site in praise of the translations of David Curzon. I think I want to answer the questions begged by his article on translation.
I did a little search for this unknown person and found more fun and games - perhaps we will meet unknowingly on the streets of NY this summer. DC, where are you? Or should I say, where are you coming from? Physicist, diplomat, poet, theologian - a combination worth meeting. I am glad he is not 'of the cloth'. Better we should learn from everyone.
What questions does he beg:
He writes: Like all other literary classics, the Psalms are always in need of re-translation in order to have them in language, and with an interpretive emphasis, that is both accurate and contemporary. ... My aim is to produce translations usable by contemporary believers and non-believers as structures of meditation.
...
Bravo for the attempt to have poetry that unbelievers will buy and read! I must find more of these examples. My agenda is to undermine the commonplace piety of the 16th century and sentimental 20th century translations we have been subjected to in the Church. I don't know anywhere else that the Psalms are used (except of course the Synagogue - but they read without translation and there I see the LORD inhabiting the praises of his people.) So I am writing for those who are called or call themselves believers. I had better be careful in my criticism - some of these believers, even those one might mistakenly class as simple, mask a considerable Reality. What joy to discover such.
I have no quarrel with them. It is good, isn't it that I have a quarrel with some? (There must be divisions among you). I have a quarrel with some ancient assumptions of Christendom that no longer hold: hierarchy, trust in human forms, piety without engagement, false perfections including inerrancy in any form, and of course my own impatience and potential belligerence. There is a true perfection and exaltation - constantly in the hope of the Psalmist - is it here that Jesus found some of his aphorisms about being lifted up or the nature of the complete or the reality of loving enemies?
And again Curzon writes: The feelings expressed at the beginning of Psalm 13 are infantile. The demands which follow are adolescent. The pivotal recognition is that of a realistic experienced adult. The conclusion is natural wisdom.
...
What! infantile! and recovery to 'Natural' wisdom! What happened to me when I translated Psalm 13? Interesting - I never explicitly wrote about it. It fell in with all those that were in the 'relations with my enemies' genre for me. I certainly understand this - waiting. But the cry - how long - is very specific. The Psalmist cannot live without the presence of God and in some bodily sense of that presence. His hope is in the loving-kindness which has been experienced not just as if by some abstraction called 'belief' (but do see the dialogue between hashem and Elohim in Psalms 14 and 53). To an unbeliever, the Psalmist is deceived by subjectivity. To the Psalmist, the poem is covenant dialogue and God is 'on the hook' to the experience of the loveliness of the knowledge of God. The Psalmist is complaining to the right party! It is not infantile - any more than is Moses when he defends Israel from God's anger asking - what would the Egyptians say? (If we have no enemies, how can we learn how to love them?)
And Curzon writes (twice): God does not answer, and the answer does not depend on belief even though the poem could not have been formed without a culture based on belief in a God who does respond. ... God does not answer supplications in any psalm; the answer to all questions and demands is in the form of a revelation within the psalmist.
Subjectively we are trapped. But God answers. The Psalter has a multiplicity of meanings for me. Utimately God answers with the resurrection. You will not leave your holy one to see corruption. In the meanwhile, we have our full humanity to deal with in our response to the covenant. So I agree in part. God's answer cannot be so 'earth-shattering' as to violate the implied laws of Psalm 148:6 (hurrah for Physics - supported by the Psalms!) Also in the meanwhile, we have the book in which the writers of the NT learned how the Son communicated with the Father and how the life of Jesus recapitulated or was informed by the life of the Psalmist(s) in covenant. I am stretching to express something here - help me out.
And finally Curzon writes and may well achieve: I have in my translations used a strong-stress metric, with as much alliteration and assonance and as little Latinate vocabulary as seemed compatible with contemporary diction and accuracy.
I will admire this when I have time. What a great idea. Here I think he will share with me the desire that we should enter with good intent into this fundamental human endeavour - communicating through the ether across time and space with each other and with --- something more than a Grecian Urn, or the distant maker of a Big Bang without atmosphere. Perhaps string theory with all its unknown dimensions supports the ether after all.
I am over my head, but the Spirit gives me oxygen. There are those whose mother tongue is also English and who have spent a lifetime (some shorter some longer) with Hebrew and its cognate languages. I have spent a year to date after a long slow start of 30+ years perhaps knowing from a distance a word or two. I am very happy to have web-encountered a few of these scholars. I have had a few words with some scholars in the flesh: notably Peter Craigie (long before I was ready to tackle Hebrew) and John Sandys-Wynch and good advice from Bruce Gardner who suggested I ask God for help! So, God, having been engaged to my fleshly engine, and God, knowing well how to teach, God and I continue.
As if Hebrew were a tongue that I was not in a hurry to learn, as if I were a child with the brain of a child, I absorb in visual and aural terms in an almost unconscious manner, using both my own automated transcription (very primitive) and the Hebrew characters themselves. I am taking classes with the local Synagogue, Congregation Emmanu-El in Victoria. I use both online and offline tools generally every day, mostly BlueLetter Bible, Scripture4all, and Mechon-Mamre. The hardest thing to do is to see, hear, and read. Word recognition - I can read my own writing (!) but I cannot instantly recognize Hebrew words. I suspect this is due to the time required to grow brain connections between eye and mouth.
I use a new web-based tool which has been developed over the past 5 years by my own company. I could have used more standard tools but not with such power, flexibility, or beneficial effects to the testing process. But that is not my motivation - I am not in sales.
My 'Why' is highlighted by a post on John Hobbin's site in praise of the translations of David Curzon. I think I want to answer the questions begged by his article on translation.
I did a little search for this unknown person and found more fun and games - perhaps we will meet unknowingly on the streets of NY this summer. DC, where are you? Or should I say, where are you coming from? Physicist, diplomat, poet, theologian - a combination worth meeting. I am glad he is not 'of the cloth'. Better we should learn from everyone.
What questions does he beg:
He writes: Like all other literary classics, the Psalms are always in need of re-translation in order to have them in language, and with an interpretive emphasis, that is both accurate and contemporary. ... My aim is to produce translations usable by contemporary believers and non-believers as structures of meditation.
...
Bravo for the attempt to have poetry that unbelievers will buy and read! I must find more of these examples. My agenda is to undermine the commonplace piety of the 16th century and sentimental 20th century translations we have been subjected to in the Church. I don't know anywhere else that the Psalms are used (except of course the Synagogue - but they read without translation and there I see the LORD inhabiting the praises of his people.) So I am writing for those who are called or call themselves believers. I had better be careful in my criticism - some of these believers, even those one might mistakenly class as simple, mask a considerable Reality. What joy to discover such.
I have no quarrel with them. It is good, isn't it that I have a quarrel with some? (There must be divisions among you). I have a quarrel with some ancient assumptions of Christendom that no longer hold: hierarchy, trust in human forms, piety without engagement, false perfections including inerrancy in any form, and of course my own impatience and potential belligerence. There is a true perfection and exaltation - constantly in the hope of the Psalmist - is it here that Jesus found some of his aphorisms about being lifted up or the nature of the complete or the reality of loving enemies?
And again Curzon writes: The feelings expressed at the beginning of Psalm 13 are infantile. The demands which follow are adolescent. The pivotal recognition is that of a realistic experienced adult. The conclusion is natural wisdom.
...
What! infantile! and recovery to 'Natural' wisdom! What happened to me when I translated Psalm 13? Interesting - I never explicitly wrote about it. It fell in with all those that were in the 'relations with my enemies' genre for me. I certainly understand this - waiting. But the cry - how long - is very specific. The Psalmist cannot live without the presence of God and in some bodily sense of that presence. His hope is in the loving-kindness which has been experienced not just as if by some abstraction called 'belief' (but do see the dialogue between hashem and Elohim in Psalms 14 and 53). To an unbeliever, the Psalmist is deceived by subjectivity. To the Psalmist, the poem is covenant dialogue and God is 'on the hook' to the experience of the loveliness of the knowledge of God. The Psalmist is complaining to the right party! It is not infantile - any more than is Moses when he defends Israel from God's anger asking - what would the Egyptians say? (If we have no enemies, how can we learn how to love them?)
And Curzon writes (twice): God does not answer, and the answer does not depend on belief even though the poem could not have been formed without a culture based on belief in a God who does respond. ... God does not answer supplications in any psalm; the answer to all questions and demands is in the form of a revelation within the psalmist.
Subjectively we are trapped. But God answers. The Psalter has a multiplicity of meanings for me. Utimately God answers with the resurrection. You will not leave your holy one to see corruption. In the meanwhile, we have our full humanity to deal with in our response to the covenant. So I agree in part. God's answer cannot be so 'earth-shattering' as to violate the implied laws of Psalm 148:6 (hurrah for Physics - supported by the Psalms!) Also in the meanwhile, we have the book in which the writers of the NT learned how the Son communicated with the Father and how the life of Jesus recapitulated or was informed by the life of the Psalmist(s) in covenant. I am stretching to express something here - help me out.
And finally Curzon writes and may well achieve: I have in my translations used a strong-stress metric, with as much alliteration and assonance and as little Latinate vocabulary as seemed compatible with contemporary diction and accuracy.
I will admire this when I have time. What a great idea. Here I think he will share with me the desire that we should enter with good intent into this fundamental human endeavour - communicating through the ether across time and space with each other and with --- something more than a Grecian Urn, or the distant maker of a Big Bang without atmosphere. Perhaps string theory with all its unknown dimensions supports the ether after all.
Wednesday, May 02, 2007
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
The brutish and the dull
There seems to be a pair of words used in parallel: the brutish man: אִישׁ בַּעַר and the dullard: וּכְסִיל (Psalm 92, 94, 49, and the latter frequently in Proverbs).
Today I begin Psalm 92 - knowing my own limitations but foolishly venturing into the unknown territory of some sites. I hope I can see the difference between 'publishing in the morning the loving kindness of the LORD' and forcing a cultural opinion about belief on others. I forgot for a moment how each Psalm opens up a new reality to me as I translate. On we go!
Today I begin Psalm 92 - knowing my own limitations but foolishly venturing into the unknown territory of some sites. I hope I can see the difference between 'publishing in the morning the loving kindness of the LORD' and forcing a cultural opinion about belief on others. I forgot for a moment how each Psalm opens up a new reality to me as I translate. On we go!
Psalm 145 Revisited
Still not at the poetic stage, but I had occasion these past two weeks to reread Magonet on the Psalms (A Rabbi Reads the Psalms, Jonathan Magonet SCM Press 2004). So I am beginning to diagram his structures for the Psalms he covers: 145, 92, 23, 25, 19, 22, 51, 118, 115, 121, 124, 134, 146, 90, 73, all of which are in depth. He has fun with Psalm 145, showing a considerable tension between the theology of the chosen and the theology of universality. The Psalmist's universality is shown in the frequency with which he uses the word all. (Blue foreground colour in the diagram.)
Note also I have managed the acrostic with a bit of shifting (clearly seen in the mismatched colours) and a few xtreme spellings and slang: such as xtreme for Het and teous ... righteous for Tsade and killer Glory (not so far from the mark!). Note also the red coloring for the works and deeds referred to. As someone said (must find the quote - Calvin I think) the whole gospel is in the psalter.
If we include the missing Nun from Amos 5:2, the centre of the Psalm is slightly shifted. Where is the centre? Is it the revealing to the children of dust the might and glory, honour of his reign, for all ages, your rule for all; Age to Age? I think the two verse centre is better than the KLM-MLK pun that Magonet suggests (though this works as the stimulus for the acrostic). King/Age are both keywords spanning beginning middle and end of the Psalm.
Other features to note are pronoun usage (I, they, you) and the eventual universality of blessing - if Adonai is blessed by all flesh, there is no two-tiered salvation structure.
Note also I have managed the acrostic with a bit of shifting (clearly seen in the mismatched colours) and a few xtreme spellings and slang: such as xtreme for Het and teous ... righteous for Tsade and killer Glory (not so far from the mark!). Note also the red coloring for the works and deeds referred to. As someone said (must find the quote - Calvin I think) the whole gospel is in the psalter.
If we include the missing Nun from Amos 5:2, the centre of the Psalm is slightly shifted. Where is the centre? Is it the revealing to the children of dust the might and glory, honour of his reign, for all ages, your rule for all; Age to Age? I think the two verse centre is better than the KLM-MLK pun that Magonet suggests (though this works as the stimulus for the acrostic). King/Age are both keywords spanning beginning middle and end of the Psalm.
Other features to note are pronoun usage (I, they, you) and the eventual universality of blessing - if Adonai is blessed by all flesh, there is no two-tiered salvation structure.
Shortlisted but not a winner
In the competition for space in the art forms for Synod, my Portrait of the Psalter was shortlisted, but unfortunately is not a winner.
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Additional Blog
I find there are sometimes when I want to write on an issue that is not directly related to the psalms. To do this I have created another blog - entitled Sufficiency - under the rubric, who is sufficient for these things?
Monday, April 09, 2007
Out of order reading
I just corrected some early links that had changed since my first publication - I was putting together the Psalms that are translated by date and I noticed that I had a few broken links. Google reader thinks these are new publications, but they are old.
These are the psalms I have translated to date in this project: roughly 4 psalms per month average - of course they all bear rereading and rethinking.
Psalm --1 August 2006
Psalm --2 August 2006
Psalm --3 September 2006
Psalm --4 October 2006
Psalm --5 October 2006
Psalm --6 November 2006
Psalm --7 November 2006
Psalm --8 September 2006
Psalm --9 November 2006
Psalm -10 November 2006
Psalm -11 November 2006
Psalm -12 November 2006
Psalm -13 January 2007
Psalm -14 / -53 January 2007
Psalm -15 January 2007
Psalm -16 January 2007
Psalm -17 February 2007
Psalm -19 January 2007
Psalm -22 April 2007
Psalm -23 September 2006
Psalm -46 September 2006
Psalm -51 December 2006
Psalm -53 January 2007
Psalm -67 December 2006
Psalm -73 December 2006
Psalm -89 December 2006
Psalm 100 December 2006
Psalm 107 January 2007
Psalm 119-A-H March 2007
Psalm 134 April 2007
Psalm 138 September 2006
Psalm 145 September 2006
Psalm 150 December 2006
These are the psalms I have translated to date in this project: roughly 4 psalms per month average - of course they all bear rereading and rethinking.
Psalm --1 August 2006
Psalm --2 August 2006
Psalm --3 September 2006
Psalm --4 October 2006
Psalm --5 October 2006
Psalm --6 November 2006
Psalm --7 November 2006
Psalm --8 September 2006
Psalm --9 November 2006
Psalm -10 November 2006
Psalm -11 November 2006
Psalm -12 November 2006
Psalm -13 January 2007
Psalm -14 / -53 January 2007
Psalm -15 January 2007
Psalm -16 January 2007
Psalm -17 February 2007
Psalm -19 January 2007
Psalm -22 April 2007
Psalm -23 September 2006
Psalm -46 September 2006
Psalm -51 December 2006
Psalm -53 January 2007
Psalm -67 December 2006
Psalm -73 December 2006
Psalm -89 December 2006
Psalm 100 December 2006
Psalm 107 January 2007
Psalm 119-A-H March 2007
Psalm 134 April 2007
Psalm 138 September 2006
Psalm 145 September 2006
Psalm 150 December 2006
Sunday, April 08, 2007
Sufficiency and Judgment
It is curious that the words דָי satis, sufficiency and דִּין iudicare (damnare, punire, tueri)... sentence are so closely related - also seen in the name Dan, the judge. In Psalm 76:9 the earth fears and is quiet at the sentence from heaven. Does this relate in the thinking of Aramaic and Hebrew speakers of the first century? Do they necessarily extend the thought to the sufficiency and the means of atonement accomplished by the death of Jesus?
Sufficiency
Rachel Barenblat has a lovely set of eight thoughts that remind me of several things:
אָשִׁירָה נָּא לִידִידִי שִׁירַת דּוֹדִי לְכַרְמוֹ cantabo dilecto meo canticum patruelis mei vineae suae
Let me sing of my beloved; a song of my beloved about his vineyard.
There are many love songs from the ancient Near East. Perhaps the best preserved is the Canticum Canticorum or the Song of Songs, which is Solomon's. And it is not alone in the canonical text. God sings a song for his beloved (Isaiah 5:1 above). There is a certain irony in Isaiah's use of a love song to begin a serious critique of Israel, but the prophecy does not end with chapter 5. His later namesake writes: For your maker is your husband, the LORD of hosts is his name; (54:5).
The traditional 8 chapters of the Song of Songs can be seen as a structure of five parts divided by variations on what is almost a refrain: I have charged You, daughters of Jerusalem, by the hosts of roe or by the hearted dear hart of the field, not to awaken or disturb this my love till it please. This first charge (2:7) betrays plays on words that are untranslatable. The gazelle or roe (tsiba'ot) sounds like Sabaoth (hosts); the deer of the fields (aylot hasadeh) sounds like El Shadday - the Most High. God is not mentioned in the Song, but there is an undercurrent of play that implies presence rather than absence. The play is not without cost. At the end of part 3 (5:8), the girl, searching for her beloved in the streets, is apprehended by the keepers of the walls of the city: They struck me; they wounded me; they took away My veil from me; those keepers of the walls.
The Song has been a favorite text for composers. Palestrina wrote 29 motets of which the choir will sing 4 tonight. But compose or sing, there is a warning from Rabbi Akiva (c100 CE) not to see the Song simply as entertainment. Whoever warbles the Song of Songs at banqueting houses, treating it like an ordinary song, has no portion in the world to come. (Tos. San. 12:10)
We see from his record in the Talmud that he had a very high regard for this text. The entire world is unworthy of the day that the Song of Songs was given to Israel, for all of Scripture is holy, but the Song of Songs is the Holy of Holies. (M. Yad 3:5)
Christendom agrees with the rabbinic joy in the Song. Palestrina's mass based on the Sicut Lilium cantus firmus recognizes the identity and the costly role of the Bridegroom.
- Rabbi Akiva's comment on the sufficiency of the Song (see below),
- T. S. Eliot's Journey of the Magi - it was, we may say, satisfactory,
- and of course John the Evangelist's development of the work that the Son came to do: the witness of his acts - part of the chiasm in John chapter 5 but more explicitly made in John 19:30 - It is finished - also translatable as satisfactory, or complete (tetelestai).
אָשִׁירָה נָּא לִידִידִי שִׁירַת דּוֹדִי לְכַרְמוֹ cantabo dilecto meo canticum patruelis mei vineae suae
Let me sing of my beloved; a song of my beloved about his vineyard.
There are many love songs from the ancient Near East. Perhaps the best preserved is the Canticum Canticorum or the Song of Songs, which is Solomon's. And it is not alone in the canonical text. God sings a song for his beloved (Isaiah 5:1 above). There is a certain irony in Isaiah's use of a love song to begin a serious critique of Israel, but the prophecy does not end with chapter 5. His later namesake writes: For your maker is your husband, the LORD of hosts is his name; (54:5).
The traditional 8 chapters of the Song of Songs can be seen as a structure of five parts divided by variations on what is almost a refrain: I have charged You, daughters of Jerusalem, by the hosts of roe or by the hearted dear hart of the field, not to awaken or disturb this my love till it please. This first charge (2:7) betrays plays on words that are untranslatable. The gazelle or roe (tsiba'ot) sounds like Sabaoth (hosts); the deer of the fields (aylot hasadeh) sounds like El Shadday - the Most High. God is not mentioned in the Song, but there is an undercurrent of play that implies presence rather than absence. The play is not without cost. At the end of part 3 (5:8), the girl, searching for her beloved in the streets, is apprehended by the keepers of the walls of the city: They struck me; they wounded me; they took away My veil from me; those keepers of the walls.
The Song has been a favorite text for composers. Palestrina wrote 29 motets of which the choir will sing 4 tonight. But compose or sing, there is a warning from Rabbi Akiva (c100 CE) not to see the Song simply as entertainment. Whoever warbles the Song of Songs at banqueting houses, treating it like an ordinary song, has no portion in the world to come. (Tos. San. 12:10)
We see from his record in the Talmud that he had a very high regard for this text. The entire world is unworthy of the day that the Song of Songs was given to Israel, for all of Scripture is holy, but the Song of Songs is the Holy of Holies. (M. Yad 3:5)
Christendom agrees with the rabbinic joy in the Song. Palestrina's mass based on the Sicut Lilium cantus firmus recognizes the identity and the costly role of the Bridegroom.
Sunday, April 01, 2007
The psalter as a sandwich
The Psalter is a sandwich: The filling consists of psalms where the words related to Elohim predominate over the words related to the holy name. There are two pieces of bread - psalms 1-41 and psalms 87-150.
I read (Craigie, Word commentary) about the dominance of certain divine names in parts of the Psalter, so I formatted a query to the database and up popped the graph in the new table of contents. (The bars for Elohim include variations like El, Eli, and Elohay; the bars for the tetragrammeton include short forms like Yah.) I could do all sorts of measurements. Any suggestions?
The framework for translation is fully loaded but I have only published in the JPG form about 33 - so if you get a page not found when browsing, that's why. 33 rough translations starting about June last year - so maybe the project won't take 6 years as I originally thought.
BTW, I don't think that the different divine names are support for a 'documentary' hypothesis. It's just that pronouns etc are never used with the tetragrammeton - I am sure there are some good questions here...
I read (Craigie, Word commentary) about the dominance of certain divine names in parts of the Psalter, so I formatted a query to the database and up popped the graph in the new table of contents. (The bars for Elohim include variations like El, Eli, and Elohay; the bars for the tetragrammeton include short forms like Yah.) I could do all sorts of measurements. Any suggestions?
The framework for translation is fully loaded but I have only published in the JPG form about 33 - so if you get a page not found when browsing, that's why. 33 rough translations starting about June last year - so maybe the project won't take 6 years as I originally thought.
BTW, I don't think that the different divine names are support for a 'documentary' hypothesis. It's just that pronouns etc are never used with the tetragrammeton - I am sure there are some good questions here...
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Structure and Readings
Somehow when I began this translation project, I knew there was something missing from the traditional English psalter. On at least two fronts, I have now seen what is missing.
1. Translations that fill in the blanks for you prevent you from seeing the gap that the poet left for you to fill in. Sometimes the gap is impossible - it asks for you or your enemy or even God to be filled in - can we live with such ambiguity? (See Psalm 7:13-17 for one example) Some translators just say the Hebrew is difficult and pick one way and leave it at that. Others don't tell you there is a problem, and fill the gap anyway. The reader of the translation may never know that there were other possibilities.
2. Translations that change word order unnecessarily. There was a reason for the Hebrew word order. It reveals a thought process; it contains the equivalent of parentheses - key words bracketing the thought process. These may be a simple or complex parallel, or a chiasm, a parallel deliberately reversed, or they may be tips to a much wider structure. It's a poem - if we are going to sing it in a strange tongue - let's not break it.
I feel vindicated by a recent reissue of A Rabbi Reads the Psalms by Jonathan Magonet. What a lovely book. I love it because he is doing exactly what I have been looking for: revealing the structure and the convenantal dialogue in these poems. He outlines his discovery of the structure of Psalm 25 (and since I haven't translated this yet, it will be easier for having read Magonet) and then laments briefly that his work was rediscovery (Möller 1932 ZAW) of structures confirmed by others - but doubted by Ridderbos. Having looked at this passage in Craigie, it is clear that for once, I am following a set of scholarly links. Craigie is read in London too. So Magonet goes to some lengths to show his structure in detail. He reads it in the context of Exodus 33 and 34. It is convincing in my opinion and will appear soon in these notes.
(My wife likes his book too! It may be the first Biblical Studies book I have read in our 39 years of marriage that she might read too.)
When I was last at the library, I at first only got two commentaries out (Dahood on Psalms 101-150 and Pope on the Song). I got down the three flights of stairs from the BS stacks and heard an inner voice saying: you didn't check out BS-1430 - go up and see what you find. I found these two and several other books that I added to my checkout pile. These two were both good calls.
1. Translations that fill in the blanks for you prevent you from seeing the gap that the poet left for you to fill in. Sometimes the gap is impossible - it asks for you or your enemy or even God to be filled in - can we live with such ambiguity? (See Psalm 7:13-17 for one example) Some translators just say the Hebrew is difficult and pick one way and leave it at that. Others don't tell you there is a problem, and fill the gap anyway. The reader of the translation may never know that there were other possibilities.
2. Translations that change word order unnecessarily. There was a reason for the Hebrew word order. It reveals a thought process; it contains the equivalent of parentheses - key words bracketing the thought process. These may be a simple or complex parallel, or a chiasm, a parallel deliberately reversed, or they may be tips to a much wider structure. It's a poem - if we are going to sing it in a strange tongue - let's not break it.
I feel vindicated by a recent reissue of A Rabbi Reads the Psalms by Jonathan Magonet. What a lovely book. I love it because he is doing exactly what I have been looking for: revealing the structure and the convenantal dialogue in these poems. He outlines his discovery of the structure of Psalm 25 (and since I haven't translated this yet, it will be easier for having read Magonet) and then laments briefly that his work was rediscovery (Möller 1932 ZAW) of structures confirmed by others - but doubted by Ridderbos. Having looked at this passage in Craigie, it is clear that for once, I am following a set of scholarly links. Craigie is read in London too. So Magonet goes to some lengths to show his structure in detail. He reads it in the context of Exodus 33 and 34. It is convincing in my opinion and will appear soon in these notes.
(My wife likes his book too! It may be the first Biblical Studies book I have read in our 39 years of marriage that she might read too.)
When I was last at the library, I at first only got two commentaries out (Dahood on Psalms 101-150 and Pope on the Song). I got down the three flights of stairs from the BS stacks and heard an inner voice saying: you didn't check out BS-1430 - go up and see what you find. I found these two and several other books that I added to my checkout pile. These two were both good calls.
Sunday, March 18, 2007
Psalms - by P. C. Craigie
What a joy it was to stumble over the Word Commentary on Psalms by my too briefly known teacher and friend, Peter Craigie. Reading his introduction to the series and his overview of the first 50 Psalms has put my psalmic house in a new order. I even know a bit about Ugarit and the first music (recorded here) - a find just discovered a few years before Peter's untimely death in 1985. I think I will review all my translations to date for he writes often and clearly about structure - the very thing I have sought. I was pleased to note in the introduction that I had discovered many of the things he was pointing out - and all by myself! So it shows that a careful reading can yield its own fruit. We can be helped by scholars but it is not a scribal necessity.
What a shock it was to me, today, only a day later, to attend a nearby parish (familiarizing myself with the local Anglican landscape) and to see the omission of the Psalm. There was not even one Psalm in the liturgy, though there was mention by the guest speaker of a native dance based on Psalm 91. How will the Lord inhabit the praises of the people if they omit Psalms? I was led to believe, in brief conversation during the peace with the director of music whom I happen to know, that this is their habit. Well, this needs pondering. I have to admit also that I did not stay after the peace when I discovered this. I was too much in shock.
What a shock it was to me, today, only a day later, to attend a nearby parish (familiarizing myself with the local Anglican landscape) and to see the omission of the Psalm. There was not even one Psalm in the liturgy, though there was mention by the guest speaker of a native dance based on Psalm 91. How will the Lord inhabit the praises of the people if they omit Psalms? I was led to believe, in brief conversation during the peace with the director of music whom I happen to know, that this is their habit. Well, this needs pondering. I have to admit also that I did not stay after the peace when I discovered this. I was too much in shock.
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Psalm 119 - parts 1-3 rough hewn
It is a challenge to use one letter to begin every verse - and I fail somewhat. It has also been over 3 months since I first drafted the panels for Psalm 119 - and finally I am starting to translate. The first thing I notice is that these halachic psalms (1,19,119) are not pious as I thought when I grew up with them - again and again the Psalmist knows personal weakness - Ah that my ways were so accurately drawn... And so it is - at least for me. Also the Psalmist's confidence is never lacking - even in weakness, rejoicing in the testimonies more than anything else that satisfies: I am working with a Hebrew-Latin concordance - what a riot! So הוֹן is translated as facultates, opes, large, satis. Translating into Latin gives a different perspective from online literal translations like BLB and scripture4all and my copy of BDB. So what word can I use that begins with G for גַּם ?
Thursday, March 08, 2007
Dialogue with the Song
I have put together a brief dialogue in English.
The Song is not either / or but both / and. It is an erotic love song - and they are not 'married'! And it is also a song about the desire of God for us and our desire for God, both at great cost. The Beloved is both present and silent, real flesh and real presence. The seeker is both female and male. There are some double entendres in the poem that invite full participation in holiness.
The Song is not either / or but both / and. It is an erotic love song - and they are not 'married'! And it is also a song about the desire of God for us and our desire for God, both at great cost. The Beloved is both present and silent, real flesh and real presence. The seeker is both female and male. There are some double entendres in the poem that invite full participation in holiness.
Friday, March 02, 2007
The Song - a second try at seeing the structure
The Song will not yield easily to a structural analysis though it is 'obviously' a tightly structured piece of writing. Two more images are available for view. I combined the English and Hebrew into common nodes so as to reduce the complexity and I have done a little colour coding of keywords - but not many of them. Each verse has so many resonances that it is impossible to use colour effectively at this level. See if you can help: Full size;
Pint size; text in html format - suitable for correcting my errors
Pint size; text in html format - suitable for correcting my errors
Friday, February 23, 2007
Song of Solomon
The Song has occupied me for the past 2 weeks and Deuteronomy 6 calls in preparation for my next Hebrew class. The Psalms will be there when I return to them. I have been shortlisted for showcase at the Anglican Synod of Canada - the images are at Portrait of the Psalter - Limited Edition. As always there are changes I have made since sending this in via CD - but there we are. Life goes on - complete with mistakes and joy.
Saturday, February 10, 2007
Psalm 17
Psalm 17 lies between 15-16 and 18-19. The same issues re enemies as in the first 10 psalms are part of this dialogue. The entrenchment of this prayer for enemies between two Torah-like Psalms may be deliberate. Many will say that this is a prayer for protection against enemies or a prayer against enemies - and there probably are some of these in the Psalter but I have not found them yet. Even Psalm 7 is ambiguous as to who the subject of the disaster is - it might be the LORD, not the enemies. I don't think I am condoning making enemies by this statement. That seems to happen all by itself sometimes - there are a few names in my black book, [and since writing this I have removed them lest I not escape till I have paid the last penny] and I am sure I am in the books of some. I wonder though if the prayer for enemies to find death has a positive spin in redemptive death. You may notice much red coloring in some verses - this usually points to the cost of redemption or the covenant of blood in some way.
I have it in mind to completely recolor some psalms - with some new ideas, shapes, and frames. That way too I will have to reread them in Hebrew since the transcription is not so obvious once they are translated.
I have it in mind to completely recolor some psalms - with some new ideas, shapes, and frames. That way too I will have to reread them in Hebrew since the transcription is not so obvious once they are translated.
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