Academic literature on the topic 'Brady's New version of the Psalms'

During the Middle Ages on the Eastern Orthodox Church territories there existed an encyclopedia book, entitled the Palaea Interpretata that was extremely popular and highly respected. The current paper studies one of the Biblical sources of The Palaea Interpretata – namely, the collection of selected psalms, entitled “David’s Prophesies” (давидъ же прорицаше). The discussion is focused on the compiler’s placing of the collection in The Palaea, in the part dedicated to David (i.e. after the excerpts from the First and Second Books of Samuel and before the First Book of Kings). David’s Prophesies belonged to the original content of The Palaea Interpretata. They had one major goal – to represent the Old Testament as a prototype of the New Testament and to prove the superiority of the Christian doctrine over the non-Christian ones. The Compiler of The Palaea Interpretata chose various psalms or parts of psalms, dividing them into twenty five orations with respective titles. To trace the editing performed over the Psalter text the current article draws a parallel with the text of seven psalters from the 11th–16th centuries. It establishes the greatest resemblance with the Bychkov Psalter of the 11th century, which reflects the Preslav version of the Psalter translation. At the same time, it becomes obvious that “David’ Prophesies” of The Palaea Interpretata have also retained many of the peculiarities of the primary translation of the Psalter as reflected in Sinai Glagolitic Psalter. The Glagolitic traces are to be found in the very text of “David’s Prophesies” of The Palaea Interpretata, which obviously derive from the psalter, serving as their source and protograph. The source was of relatively old origin; it contained traces of Glagolitic letters, and reflected the Psalter’s primary translation into Old Bulgarian by Cyril and Methodius, which had been edited in Preslav.

During the Middle Ages on the Eastern Orthodox Church territories there existed an encyclopedia book, entitled the Palaea Interpretata that was extremely popular and highly respected. The current paper studies one of the Biblical sources of The Palaea Interpretata – namely, the collection of selected psalms, entitled “David’s Prophesies” (давидъ же прорицаше). The discussion is focused on the compiler’s placing of the collection in The Palaea, in the part dedicated to David (i.e. after the excerpts from the First and Second Books of Samuel and before the First Book of Kings). David’s Prophesies belonged to the original content of The Palaea Interpretata. They had one major goal – to represent the Old Testament as a prototype of the New Testament and to prove the superiority of the Christian doctrine over the non-Christian ones. The Compiler of The Palaea Interpretata chose various psalms or parts of psalms, dividing them into twenty five orations with respective titles. To trace the editing performed over the Psalter text the current article draws a parallel with the text of seven psalters from the 11th–16th centuries. It establishes the greatest resemblance with the Bychkov Psalter of the 11th century, which reflects the Preslav version of the Psalter translation. At the same time, it becomes obvious that “David’ Prophesies” of The Palaea Interpretata have also retained many of the peculiarities of the primary translation of the Psalter as reflected in Sinai Glagolitic Psalter. The Glagolitic traces are to be found in the very text of “David’s Prophesies” of The Palaea Interpretata, which obviously derive from the psalter, serving as their source and protograph. The source was of relatively old origin; it contained traces of Glagolitic letters, and reflected the Psalter’s primary translation into Old Bulgarian by Cyril and Methodius, which had been edited in Preslav.

Dorothy L. Sayers' 1941–1942 radio play cycle on the life of Christ, The Man Born to be King, is often lauded for its use of the vernacular, though the scholarly discussion of this aspect of her work often creates the false impression that Sayers was working with a Greek New Testament in one hand and a blank piece of paper in the others. This study focuses on the subtle but clear evidence of Sayers' use of the Authorized Version of the Bible, particularly in the areas of narration and Old Testament quotation as well as additional evidence of the Coverdale Psalms from the Book of Common Prayer. Tables at the end of the article also offer the chance for readers to see the evidence upon which conclusions are made and perhaps build for their own research. These three areas—narration, Old Testament quotation and Psalm quotation—, while clearly exceptions to the general rule of original dramatization of biblical material, show Sayers working with all available tools in a dynamic, rather than iconoclastic process.

The first translations of the New Testament into the Russian language, which were carried out at the beginning of the 19th century, are usually regarded as a missionary project. But the language of these translations may prove that they were addressed to a rather narrow audience. As is known, the Russian Bible Society established in 1812 began its activities not with translations into Russian but with the mass edition of the Church Slavonic text of the Bible. In other words, it was the Church Slavonic Bible that was initially taken as the “Russian” Bible. Such a perception correlated with the sociolinguistic situation of that period, when, among the literate country and town dwellers, people learned grammar according to practices dating back to Medieval Rus’, which meant learning by heart the Church Slavonic alphabet, the Book of Hours, and the Book of Psalms; these readers were in the majority, and they could understand the Church Slavonic Bible much better than they could a Russian-language version. That is why the main audience for the “Russian” Bible was the educated classes who read the Bible in European languages, not in Russian. The numbers of targeted readers for the Russian-language translation of the Bible were significantly lower than those for the Church Slavonic version. The ideas of the “language innovators” (who favored using Russian as a basis for a new national language) thus appeared to be closer to the approach taken by the Bible translators than the ideas of “the upholders of the archaic tradition” (who favored using the vocabulary and forms of Church Slavonic as their basis). The language into which the New Testament was translated moved ahead of the literary standard of that period, and that was one of the reasons why the work on the translation of the Bible into the Russian language was halted.

Grundtvig 's version of Three Old Testament HymnsBy Else Kragelund HoltThe article seeks to demonstrate the significance of Grundtvig’s interpretative use of the old Testament in Sangværk /. The methodological inspiration for the study is not to be found in the ongoing Grundtvig research, but in Old Testament exegesis, especially in the shape of Tradition History and Wirkungsgeschickte.The questions raised are not primarily why Grundtvig did so and so with his Old Testament Vorlage, but rather what he did with it. The material of the investigation is three hymns from the Easter part of the Sangværk. According to Grundtvig, SV #206, / de gyldne Himmel-Sale (»In the Golden Halls of Heaven«), was written »after the 16th Psalm of David«. On the basis of its form, this psalm should be designated as a psalm of confidence, i.e. a psalm expressing trust in the Lord’s will to take care of those faithful to him, while life will be burdensome to the godless. The Psalmist presents himself as a man obedient to God (v.2), a man who knows that the Lord has given him counsel (v.7), and that He will not let him meet an untimely death (v. 10). One might expect Grundtvig to use Ps 16 as an expression of the Christian’s joy of life, but this is not what he does. Presumably inspired by Christian Vi’s Danish Bible, he reproduces Ps 16 as a heavenly dialogue between the Father and the Son. The Father consults the Son about how mankind can be delivered. Whereas Ps 16 depicts God as the support of man, Grundtvig uses the words of the psalm as a prediction of Christ supporting the Father’s plan of deliverance. In stanza six the speaker changes: Jesus praises the Father for the help that He will show him, when He is to fight Death. Ps 16, 9-10 becomes a prediction of Jesus’ victory over Death, and Ps 16, 11, correspondingly, a prediction of the Ascension. Grundtvig uses Ps 16 »prophetically«, reinterpreting the Old Testament motif of the guidance of the Lord in a different context. Where Ps 16 has an earthly orientation, the perspective of the reproduction becomes cosmic - and, one might add, part of the Easter service in church.SV #207 - O min Gud, min Gud og Fader! (»Oh, My God, My God and Father!«) is said to be »the 22nd Psalm of David, freely translated«. This is the psalm which opens with Jesus’ last words from the Cross: My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? The Old Testament psalm is a personal lament. Vv. 2-22a describe the despair of one, abandoned by God and community, vv. 22b-31 are the praise of a man whose cries have been heard.Grundtvig does not overtly take up the theme of the Passion. Rather he reproduces the psalm very closely, as if to make it usable as a hymn for the Danish church. Nevertheless, a personal adaptation is detectable. First, the hymn talks to God as a father - a divine metaphor, which is not used in the Book of Psalms at all. Here the words from the Cross are traceable. Another vestige of the Passion can be found in the beginning of the hymn, where the poet asks »my God and Father« to »stay with me now«. It seems as if the worshipper has not yet been abandoned, but that he knows that he will be, like Jesus in Gethsemane. Finally, Grundtvig identifies the enemy from whom the worshipper asks to be saved, as Death.In SV #209 - Stat op i Gry, min Gud! stat op! (.Arise at Dawn! My God, Arise.) Grundtvig again translates the Old Testament psalm very closely. PS 68 is a rather martial psalm of thanksgiving for a royal victory, and Grundtvig uses it to portray the victorious resurrection of Christ. Literally between the lines, Grundtvig puts christological interpretations, using allusions to Christmas for instance, and to the Word that bears a giant’s strength. In stanza four Grundtvig changes the reference of the Old Testament psalm to the Wanderings in the Wilderness as a metaphor of fertility and creation (vv. 8-9), using, instead, the stream rising in Eden (Gen 2,4) which he interprets as baptism.What can be concluded is that Grundtvig at the same time re-writes and reinterprets the Old Testament poetry more or less in the tradition of how the Old Testament was re-interpreted in the New.

About 20 years ago the HSRC (Human Sciences Research Council) conducted an empirical investigation on the singing of psalms in three Afrikaans reformed churches. Vos and M�ller (1990) dealt with different aspects of this investigation, especially the questions of which melodies are sung in the churches, what the frequency of the use of the different psalms is, the way in which new songs are introduced, the situation in the different churches and the influence of church attendance on the love of the psalms. In an investigation undertaken in 2008 (Van Rooy 2009) these matters were investigated in the Reformed Churches in South Africa, a denomiation that introduced a new hymnal in 2003. The comparison of the two investigations revealed that the number of favourite psalms and the same psalms remained fairly constant. The acceptance of new hymns is related to a number of factors, especially the melody and the liturgical usefulness of the new hymns. The new metrical version of the psalms is still not used very frequently in the Reformed Churches in South Africa. This can partly be ascribed to the lack of structured programmes to learn the new hymns.

The objective of this creative project was the exploration of the new genre of Design Cinema, specifically to use typography and motion graphics to tell a story. Design Cinema is best defined as a hybrid form of moving image that falls between motion graphics and filmmaking. The secondary objective was to design and create three significant pieces of work in Design Cinema, which focuses on utilizing typography and graphics in an abstracted story-based environment.The stories illustrated come from the book of Psalms in the New International Version translation of the Bible. These are some of the oldest texts in the world. This body of work, completed in high-definition video, required a process of pre-production (treatment, storyboarding, and planning), production (shooting, lighting, and directing), and post-production (capturing, editing, compositing, and design). Bill Viola, Jem Cohen, and Michel Gondry have impacted the style and structure of my video work.
Department of Art