Journal articles 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 messianic interpretation of the psalms in a number of Antiochene and East Syriac psalm commentariesThe Antiochene exegetes interpreted the psalms against the backdrop of the history of Israel. They reconstructed a historical setting for each psalm. They reacted against the allegorical interpretation of the Alexandrian School that frequently interpreted the psalms from the context of the New Testament. This article investigates the messianic interpretation of Psalms 2 and 110, as well as the interpretation of Psalm 22, frequently regarded as messianic in non-Antiochene circles. The interpretation of these psalms in the commentaries of Diodore of Tarsus, Theodore of Mopsuestia and Išô`dâdh of Merv will be discussed, as well as the commentary of Denha-Gregorius, an abbreviated Syriac version of the commentary of Theodore. The commentaries of Diodore and Theodore on Psalm 110 are not available. The interpretation of this psalm in the Syriac commentary discussed by Vandenhoff and the commentary of Išô`dâdh of Merv, both following Antiochene exegesis, will be used for this psalm. The historical setting of the psalms is used as hermeneutical key for the interpretation of all these psalms. All the detail in a psalm is interpreted against this background, whether messianic or not. Theodore followed Diodore and expanded on him. Denha-Gregorius is an abbreviated version of Theodore, supplemented with data from the Syriac. Išô`dâdh of Merv used Theodore as his primary source, but with the same kind of supplementary data from the Syriac.

This article was an attempt to (re-)read Psalms in the context of fractured cities, marked by socio-economic inequalities, woundedness, migration and exclusion. It explored urban motifs in selected psalms and considered their possible meanings in relation to both the socio-cultural contexts in which they were written but also how they could be read and understood today. It proposed the Psalms as urban poetry, and considered poems of praise, lament and resistance. It brought the Psalms into conversation both with �remixed� psalms and also with other urban poems. A �remix� is a technical term usually associated with altering, adding or changing songs or music into a new version more appropriate or suitable for a new context. It is essentially a genre that emerged from within urban popular culture. Finally, I suggested that an understanding of the Psalms as urban poetry of praise, lament and resistance, in conversation with other urban poems, can serve as a resource to unshackle our faith from the temple, from one city, or from human institutions, evoking a daring new imagination for a new people, new city and new creation.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The article explores contextual readings of the Psalms as urban poetry, and retrieves other urban poems from different genres, both in order to inform urban theological discourse and contextual theological reflections on the fractured city.

The socio-historical and socio-linguistic aspects of changes in the lexicon of the 1936 and 2001 rhyming of psalms The singing of the psalms is historically associated with the accuracy of meaning transmitted by Scripture by means of user- friendly language usage. The renewing of an aging language is important for subsequent generations to facilitate meaningful interpretative singing of the psalms. By elimination of the large amount of archaic lexical expressions of the 1936 rhyme from the 2001 version, a clear movement in the reformative religious register of Afrikaans was achieved. The 2001 rhyme accelerates the process of elimination of such archaic and inaccessible words from the register. The movement of inaccessible words and the availability of Afrikaans synonyms to facilitate an effective transfer of meaning in such a new rhyme, were tested according to three social variables. Simplification is the most prominent linguistic force that manifests itself in the 2001 rhyming of the psalms. The psalmographer has used a totally new approach by using a selection of techniques in the 2001 rhyme. Observing the presence of intense change in the most conservative register of a language, that of religion, emphasises the intensity of the social and linguistic powers at work in Afrikaans.

In Isaiah 62:5, there are three major translations of who will marry ‘you’ or ‘Zion’ based on the immediate context (Is 62:1). Firstly, the most common reading is ‘your sons’ (Amplified Bible [AB], American Standard Version [ASV], Berean Study Bible [BSB], Catholic Public Domain Version [CPDV], Douay-Rheims Bible [DRB], English Standard Version [ESV], King James Version [KJV], New International Version [NIV], New American Standard Bible [NASB], Smith’s Literal Translation [SLT], World English Bible [WEB]). Secondly, the scholars reading preference is ‘your builder’, which refers to ‘God’ based on Psalms 147:2. This reading is adopted by Coverdale Bible of 1535, New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) and Good New Bible (GNT). Lastly, although the translation ‘builders’ is the least favourable reading, LSV and YLT use this reading. This research, therefore, attempts to argue for ‘your sons’ translation as the original reading through textual criticism as the methodology.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This article is a combination of textual criticism studies with translations.

Messianic expectation and preaching from the Old Testament In the recent past the issue of the Messiah in the Old Testament received a considerable amount of attention in South Africa, especially in the circles of the Gereformeerde Kerke van Suid-Afrika (the Reformed Churches of South Africa). The debate focused on the question regarding the Messiah in the Psalms, due to the new version of the Psalter in Afrikaans, published in 2001. Similar questions were asked concerning the New Afrikaans translation of the Bible (1983). This matter is related to the whole issue regarding the relationship between the Old and the New Testament. This article deals with a related matter, viz. the matter of Christological preaching from the Old Testament. Once it has described the background of the problem, it formulates some important principles and illustrates the application of the principles through the discussion of four examples from the book of Haggai.

The Psalterium Sinaiticum, a Glagolitic manuscript containing an Old Church Slavonic version of the Book of Psalms, has usually been treated, since its discovery in the later nineteenth century, as representative of the translation made by SS Cyril and Methodius before 869. Yet its textual status is in two ways problematic: it exhibits a number of idiosyncratic features (verse divisions, headings, variant readings, lexical peculiarities) which set it apart from other Church Slavonic psalter manuscripts, even those which are generally referred to the same early redaction and Cyrillo-Methodian tradition; it displays marked internal inconsistencies for which there is no simple explanation, such as correlation with the various changes of scribal hand in the manuscript. Von Arnim used the distribution of these inconsistencies as evidence to support an internal reconstruction of several distinct stages in the manuscript tradition underlying the Psalterium Sinaiticum. His argumentation implies that in fact the text of this manuscript stands at some distance from the original translation of SS Cyril and Methodius. On the basis of new comparative evidence from the second Glagolitic psalter manuscript discovered on Sinai in 1975, this paper reviews von Arnim’s analysis and its effectiveness as a text-critical method, and draws conclusions about the place of the Psalterium Sinaiticum in the Cyrillo-Methodian tradition.

Erik Petersen: Suscipere digneris. A find and some hypotheses on the Copenhagen Psalter Thott 143 2° and its history. The Copenhagen Psalter Thott 143 2º has often, and rightly, been praised as an outstanding example of the subtlety and artistic quality of Romanesque art in manuscripts. Its illumination, the saints of its calendar and litany place it in an English context. Two added elements, an obituary notice on the death in 1272 of Eric duke of Jutland, son of the Danish king Abel, and a prayer of an anonymous woman, link the codex to Medieval Denmark and Scandinavia as well. Addressing the Holy Trinity with the words Suscipere digneris the woman prays for herself, pro me misera peccatrice, and for the souls of her father and mother, of her brothers and sisters, of all members of her family, and for the souls of all brothers and sisters and familiares of her order. She also prays pro anima Byrgeri ducis. The occurrence of duke Birger, or Birger Jarl, in her prayer has given the book the name “Psalter of the Folkungar”, in particular in Scandinavian scholarship. The assumptions have been that the Psalter belonged to the Swedish aristocratic family of the Folkungar, that the duke Birger mentioned in the prayer was the older member of the family bearing that name (d. 1202), and that the book later passed to Mechtilde, the mother of duke Eric and widow of king Abel killed in 1252, who married the younger duke Birger in 1261. Duke Birger died in 1266, Mechtilde in 1288. The fate of the Psalter from the end of the 13th century until it entered the huge library of count Otto Thott (1703–1785) has been entirely unknown. There are, however, a couple of clues to its history, one in the codex itself and one external, which do cast some light on its whereabouts. The first is a small piece of paper with bibliographical notes from the 18th century inserted at the very end of the codex. The second is an elaborate copy of the calendar and the prayer that I became aware of while working on the German humanist and theologian Johann Albert Fabricius (1668–1736) and his manuscripts. It could be proved that the copy was made in Fabricius’ own hand between 1720 and 1736. Since I knew that Fabricius did not leave Hamburg at any time during these years, it could also be proved that the Copenhagen Psalter must have been present in the city at least for some time in the same period. The codex did not belong to Fabricius, and since he left no information about it apart from the copy itself, I was not able to determine how he had had access to it. The answer was to be found in a hitherto unnoticed treatise De Psalterio Manuscripto Capelliano ob singularem elegantiam commemorabili observatio, written by Johann Heinrich von Seelen (1687–1762) and published in the third volume of his Meditationes Exegeticae, quibus varia utriusque Testamenti loca expenduntur et illustrantur, Lübeck 1737. Von Seelen’s treatise is based on an autoptic study of the codex. He informs his readers that the codex once belonged to Rudolphus Capellus (1635–1684), professor of Greek and History at the Gymnasium Academicum in Hamburg. Von Seelen gives a detailed description of the codex, which leaves no doubt about its identity with the Psalter now in Copenhagen. He also states that the codex was sent to him for his use and information by his friend Michael Richey (1678–1761) in Hamburg. Michael Richey had been a colleague and close friend of Fabricius, who must have copied the codex while it was in Richey’s library. After Rudolphus Capellus’ death it passed on to his son Dietericus Matthias Capellus (1672–1720), who noted down the bibliographical notes on the sheet of paper attached to the codex. It was sold by auction as part of the bibliotheca Capelliana in Hamburg in 1721, and it will have been on that occasion that Michael Richey acquired it. It is not known where and how Rudolphus Capellus acquired the Psalter. Von Seelen called it Capellianum, because Capellus was the first owner known to him. In the present paper the old Benedictine nunnery in Buxtehude, Altkloster, is suggested as the likely previous home of the codex. The short distance from Hamburg to Buxtehude, Capellus’ limited radius of action, and the fact that Altkloster was dissolved as a catholic monastery exactly in the period when Capellus acquired the codex is adduced in support of the hypothesis. In addition, archival material in Stade confirms that there were still several medieval manuscripts in the monastery when it was dissolved as a consequence of the Peace of Westphalia. Only one of them has been identified – actually another manuscript that found its way into the Thott collection in Copenhagen. This manuscript, Thott 8 8º with a late medieval German translation of the New Testament, contains a note in the hand of its first modern owner, Dietrich von Stade (1637–1718), which attests the presence of medieval books in Altkloster even as late as in 1696. They had been taken over by the first Lutheran minister in the former monastery and were in the custody of his widow when Dietrich von Stade visited it. Capellus left his marks and scars on the manuscript. His hand, which I recognize from an autograph manuscript now in the Fabricius Collection, can be identified as the one that added numbers to the psalms. He also added the heading to the list of relics on top of f. 1r, and four lines of text on f. 199v. He added a note to the prayer on f. 16v, and even wrote down the Greek passages in the NT as parallels to the Latin canticles Magnificat and Nunc dimittis on f. 185r–185v. As to the medieval additions in the manuscript it is pointed out in the paper that the owner of the relics listed on the first page of the book was not the owner of the manuscript. The name was erased at an unknown date, but the letters dns (for dominus) before the erasure indicate that the owner was a man, not a woman or a church or a monastery. It is suggested that the list of relics is probably younger than usually assumed. The text that Capellus completed with the four lines and a final Amen at the very end of the codex is itself an addition to the original manuscript. Despite its length (f. 194v–199v) it has received little attention from scholars. It is actually a version of the so-called Oratio Sancti Brandani, copied in a late medieval hand that imitates the script of the Psalter proper. Palaeographically as well as textually it appears to be a foreign element in the context of the Psalter, but it is, of course, interesting for its history. The text ends abruptly, so Capellus’ addition may perhaps be seen as more justifiable here than elsewhere in the book. The only date explicitly noted down in the entire codex is found in the calendar. There are two medieval additions in it, one, little noticed, mentioning the 11.000 virgins in October, and the one noting the death of Eric duke of Jutland in year 1272, added to the line of the 27th day of the month of May. The present paper offers new suggestions as to how to understand the notices, and argues against the interpretation most often put forward, namely that Mechtilde was the direct or indirect authoress of the obituary-notice about duke Eric. It also argues against the identification of Mechtilde with the ego of the prayer on f. 16v. Based on palaeographical and other formal observations it is contended that the text should be dated to the end of the 13th Century and not its beginning, and that Byrgerus dux is likely to be the younger Birger Jarl, not the older. It is pointed out that he is not included in the prayer as a family member, but merely as Byrgerus dux. Following a structural analysis of the text, it is concluded that the anonymous voice of prayer is not that of Mechtilde; instead it is suggested that it could belong to an otherwise unknown daughter of Mechtilde and king Abel, and thus a sister of Eric duke of Jutland. Her place was a monastery, her present time the year 1288 or later. Prayers beginning with words Suscipere digneris are found in many variations in medieval manuscripts. In one source, MS 78 a 8 in the Kupferstichkabinet in Berlin, a Psalter, this prayer as well as other significant elements, display a striking similarity with the Copenhagen Psalter. The Berlin Psalter, which is younger than the Copenhagen Psalter, has added elements that relates to persons in Sweden and Norway. The Berlin Psalter was presented to the nuns in Buxtehude in 1362 by a miles who passed by from his hometown in the western part of Northern Germany. The relation between the Psalters now in Berlin and Copenhagen is complicated. In the present paper it is suggested that, with respect to the prayer, they may depend on a common source. It is concluded that the Berlin Psalter may have had closer links to the Folkungar in Sweden than the Copenhagen Psalter, whose history, in so far as we know it, points rather to its presence in Medieval Jutland, that is Southern Denmark and Northern Germany.