Twerketai he Kyros.

Fr John Hunwicke, formerly an Anglican, now an Ordinariate priest, considers the task of Latinists turning Pope Francis' homilies into Latin for the Acta. It is just a fantasy. The Holy See has been happy for a while now to produce official documents in languages other than Latin.  St Pius X's Instruction on Sacred Music, Tra le Sollecitudini, was addressed to the Cardinal Vicar of the Diocese of Rome and so written in Italian. The current norms on translation of liturgical texts into the vernacular are contained in Liturgiam Authenticam, issued by the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments in 2001. This replaced the decree of the Consilium for Implementing the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy (which put together the new Liturgical books), Comme le Prévoit (1969) issued in French.

So it does not seem likely that gangs of Latinists are occupying the empty Papal apartments in the Apostolic Palace. But I was struck by Fr Hunwicke's suggestion of a Greek, and therefore Latin — the Romans often adopted Greek words — translation of "twerking" . (If you do not know what Twerking is, lucky you).

Fr. Hunwicke suggests the name of a salacious dance mentioned in various comedies: the kordax. It is mentioned in many places. Aristophanes has the chorus refer to it in Nubes 540 (English translation here). A scholiast says ἡ κόρδαξ δὲ κωμικὴ αἰσχρῶς περιδινοῦσα τὴν ὀσφῦν  the kordax is a comic dance of shamefully twirling the loins around. The New Pauly suggests (how astonishing that one can get such a book for free on the internet) that the Kordax might have been a solo dance. Twerking by definition requires a partner. Also the word twerking is a participle but κόρδαξ a noun. So a certain amount of, er, tweaking, is required.

 

Hazing for scriptural scholars

Why the Biblical Languages Matter—Even if You Forget Them (via Rod Decker).

In another month or so, a new crop of seminary students will begin the grueling month-long experience of Summer Greek.   And, like all seminary students before them, they will begin to ask the question of why studying these ancient languages even matters.   After all, a few years after graduation all will be forgotten.   In the midst of a busy pastoral life, who could possibly maintain proficiency in the languages?  As a result of these questions, some students decide (very early on) that the biblical languages are just something to be endured.  They are like a hazing ritual at a college fraternity.  No one likes it, but you have to go through it to be in the club.  And then it will be over.

He means seminarians for Protestant Churches of course. Catholic Seminarians having all availed themselves of the many opportunities to learn Latin and Greek (as well as Hebrew, Syriac and the rest) available in Catholic schools. Stop laughing at the back.

From what you know to what you don't know

There are plenty of Catholic parishes totally allergic to the use of Latin.  You get the impression they would come out in hives if you just said "in nomine Patris…" Nevertheless, even in such parishes, the original language of the "Lord have mercy", the Greek "Kyrie eleison", is often used. 

 Kyrie eleison consists of a vocative, Kyrie, followed by an aorist imperative eleison. The vocative is the case for addressing someone.  "The Lord sits on high" – "the Lord" is in the nominative; but "Lord have mercy" – "Lord" is in the vocative since he is being addressed or called on (Latin voco I call).  In the indicative mood (the mood used for the verb in basic statements or questions – and for present purposes I am restricting this account to theGreek of the New Testament) the default tense is the present.  Outside of the indicative, for example in the imperative (where we give orders) the default tense is the aorist.  In the indicative the aorist is typically about past time, it is the equivalent of the English simple past (he went there). In Greek, the aorist indicative modifies the beginning of the verb with an augment (usually a short e) which shows that the verb is about the past. In the imperative the aorist has no reference to the time when something takes place or the length of time it takes to occur. For this reason the aorist imperative does not have an augment

We write "Kyrie eleison" in English texts because that is how it is spelt in Latin texts.  In Greek it is Κύριε ἐλέησον which might (I stress might) be more accurately transliterated "Kurïe eleēson".  The exigencies of Roman pronunciation of Greek led to the spelling we use.  The aorist imperative is a bit abrupt. It is the way one addresses a servant.  The possible rudeness of this construction when addressing the Almighty might be explained by remembering that each time we are asking for mercy, we do so because we actually need it right now – not that we are fine for the moment but keep the mercy coming just in case.

ἐλέησον looks like it has an augment (ἐ/e) which is confusing since the ending is an imperative. But don't (as I said above) aorist imperatives lack the augment? They do and in this case the ἐ is not an augment but part of the stem of the verb ἐλέεω "I have mercy on, show pity to". The aorist indicative "I had pity" is ἠλέησα ēleēsa. In this verb past time is indicated by "stretching" the initial "e" so that it becomes long.

When I was teaching Greek I pointed my students to the Eleemosynary Office(s) (search Eleemosynarius and see here) of the Holy See which carry out the Pope's charitable activities to help them remember that ἐλέησον comes from a verb that begins with an epsilon (ε).

Of course that depends on being familiar with that institution. (It is the source of Papal blessings which people give newly weds or couples on their major anniversaries and so on). To Dr Rod Decker (due respect, due respect) of the Baptist Bible Seminary it is an entirely new word. The article he links to is very interesting.

 

Greek teaching in the Unided Stades

Rod Decker provides A Recommended Bibliography for Beginning Greek Students. He lists different kinds of books (texts, grammars, lexicons, concordances) etc. by year of study. For a third year student he recommends as a lexicon the following:

Liddell & Scott (the standard lexicon for classical Greek; it does include NT material). “Liddell,” BTW, is pronounced “little” (not “li-dell”).

The surname of the co-author of this lexicon, Henry George Liddell (the father of Alice in Wonderland, believe it or not), is given the pronunciation  /ˈlɪdəl/ by Wikipedia (at least it did when I wrote this) not /ˈlɪtl̩/. I was puzzled by this apparent typo before I realised Decker is relying on the voiced American T.

 

Preaching and the Biblical Languages

The Rev. Gerald Ambulance discusses the problem of preaching.

Greek is another good time-killer. Try this kind of thing: "Now the word translated 'preaching' here is the Greek word kerygma. And that comes from the verb kerysso, meaning 'to preach'. So when St Paul says 'preaching', what that word really means is 'preaching'." (Stephen Tomkins, My Ministry Manual by Rev. Gerald Ambulance, p.31).
Rod Decker, Preaching and the Biblical Languages: Garnish or Entrée Mellon or Mantra? has a more serious approach.

Some extracts.
Forty years ago as a college and seminary student I was a cook. I worked in various types of kitchen settings: short order, line cook, and commercial dining rooms. In most such situations we were concerned that the plate we served look nice. Part of the “dressing” was some sort of garnish—a sprig of parsley, a spiced apple ring, a lemon curl, etc. The garnish was not part of the nutritional value of the meal. We did not intend that our customers eat the parsley. It just looked nice. What we wanted them to eat was the entrée. Whether that was a juicy steak grilled to perfection or a chicken breast stuffed and wrapped and prepared just so, we took great pains that it be good quality, tender, and tasty. We did not, however, carry it to their table on a greasy spatula or in a crusty roasting pan. We served the finished product in an appealing, ready-to-eat form. That setting provides my analogy. 
The biblical languages should not function merely as a garnish. Too often pastors pay only lip service to the biblical languages. They may acknowledge that they are important—at least to the commentary writer. They expect others to do the dirty work so that they can garnish their sermons with impressive-sounding jargon, a sprig of Greek parsley. “In the original Greek this is an ‘ā-or-ist’ tense, therefore it means [such and such.]” Or they add a lemon curl. “The Greek perfect mood proves that we were saved in the past and will be eternally secure forever.” Or for a real “ringer” (i.e., a spiced apple ring garnish), “This word in the original Greek is number 4352 which is a compound of 4314 and 2965, so it means to lick God’s hand like a puppy dog.” All such statements are merely attempts to sound impressive or to wield the Greek as an authority club. They prove nothing and do not add anything to understanding the meaning of the text. That is neither the purpose nor the value of the biblical languages.
The languages are much more like the entrée than the garnish. They are not the entrée as such, but the tools used to prepare the entrée. We do not feed God’s people with Greek and Hebrew. What goes on the sermonic plate is an appetizing, tender piece of meat. If we are ministering in an English-speaking context, that means that the entrée—the biblical content—must be explained in relatively simple English that our audience can understand. Just as the goal of a vernacular translation of the Bible is communication, so the goal of a biblical sermon must be the communication of the Bible’s message in language that our audience can understand.
He then discusses the Doors of Durin in The Lord of the Rings. (It seems even Baptists are not immune to the lure of Tolkien.) Just as the Fellowship needed to say the Elvish word for "friend" mellon, to enter Moria, so "it is through the door of the biblical languages that we enter (certainly as friends!) into the Scriptures".
On the other hand, we ought not make the biblical languages, as important as they are, into a mantra (the last part of my subtitle). Some people, being firmly convinced of the general argument that I have proposed thus far, use the biblical languages, not as a mellon, but as a mantra. They are certainly sincere and they have commendably placed a high priority on the biblical languages, but they then go one step too far in making the tools of exegesis into the gadgets of homiletics. Just as a mantra refers to something repeated continually, so these preachers continually inflict their audience with Greek and Hebrew. They preach Robertson and Danker and Wallace in their efforts to preach Christ. Their sermons contain profuse reference to Greek and Hebrew words, to technical grammatical description, to diachronic etymologies, and even verb parsings. Some even imply to God’s people that they should (or even must) learn Greek if they are going to understand Scripture and become spiritually mature. Their churches become language institutes and their pulpits become lecterns.
According to the epilogue to Decker's paper, Dr Christopher Cone, at the same conference, argued that it is the job of preachers to teach their audiences the Biblical languages, textual criticism, genre, and so on.
God revealed Himself using language. That he revealed Himself in such a way has tremendous implications for teaching. God expected that His audience would be sufficiently skilled in the principles of the languages He used so that they could understand His meaning. We all need to understand how to understand God’s word. We all need to know how to handle variants, translations, background, rhetorical structure, grammar, syntax, vocabulary, and context.
"We all"? Everyone needs to be able to cope with textual criticism, ancient genres etc not to mention the languages? How shall we be saved?

What Cone and, to a lesser extent, Decker do, is confuse preaching the words of God with preaching the Word of God. They come rather close to the Mahometan approach of treating a particular language (at least two languages so far as Christians are concerned) as the very language of the Almighty.

Almost ten years ago, as friends of mine were ordained to the diaconate, I was always writing the following passage in greeting cards, from St Gregory the Great (Hom. in Ev. xvii) used in the Office for St Luke on 18th October.
For our Lord follows in the wake of those who preach him, since preaching paves the way, and then our Lord himself comes to make his dwelling-place in our hearts. First come the words that exhort us, and then by means of them truth is received into the mind. It was for this reason that Isaiah [40:3] commanded preachers: "Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight the paths of our God." For the same reason too the psalmist gives them the order: "Make a highway for him who goes on high above the setting sun" (Ps 67:5/68:4). 
Msgr. Charles Pope discusses this passage.

Ronald Knox's Particular Dialogue

While he was teaching at Shrewsbury School, Ronald Knox made a number of contributions to its newspaper, The Salopian. One of them was 'A Particular Dialogue' – a conversation between different Greek particles, and combinations of Greek particles, designed to illustrate how they were used.

It is found in In Three Tongues (p. 133) but this version provided by Holt Parker of the University of Cincinatti, includes links to Smyth's Greek Grammar courtesy of the Perseus Project and references to J. D. Denniston's The Greek Particles.

'A Particular Dialogue' (The Salopian, July 1918) by Ronald Knox .

Searching the Septuagint

To teach New Testament Greek, you need to have a handle on the Greek of the Septuagint.

Housman had some pungent things to say about the (editors of) the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae, but he was not really attacking thesauruses per se. They are pretty useful. Faced with a bold assertion in a text book on the use of such and such a word, you can often check to see if it is true. Unfortunately the Perseus Project does not include the Septuagint and I have not yet worked out how to use the TLG.

Bible Researcher provides two pages of relevant information: one on the Septuagint and the other on Greek versions of scripture. (That looks like afterthoughts in site design rather than a really subtle distinction.)

Septuagint Online : Tools and Resources is a gateway to a mine of information on the Septuagint.

Septuagint.org is an ambitious attempt to have a fully parsed version of the Septuagint. I could do without the parsing and would prefer an index. It seems to have been forgotten and was supposed to have moved to its new home where none of the LXX has yet arrived.

The Apostoliki Diakonia of the Church of Greece presents itself as an official website of the Greek Orthodox Church. I have no idea if this is true. It claims that Ieronimos II Archbishop of Athens) is Chairman. The design, to my eyes, is reminiscent of a certain other *cough* Ecclesiastical website.

Whoever they are they at least have the complete Septuagint.

New Advent has the Septuagint with parallel English (Douay Rheims) and Latin translations.

Origenal work

Between 1933 and 1941 Sir Frederic Kenyon published descriptions of 12 papyrus manuscripts, the Chester Beatty Papyri, principally containing texts of scripture. Number xii included an otherwise unknown homily by St Melito of Sardis. Sir Frederic gave it the title "On the Passion". This was corrected to "On the Pasch" after the discovery of the Bodmer Papyri in 1952. Fourteen years after that the homily was published in Sources Chretiennes 123. Extracts were used in volume ii of Liturgia Horarum (1971) for the Office of Readings on Maundy Thursday and Easter Monday.

I mention all this because a 12th century Greek manuscript in the Bavarian State Library has now been identified as a series of homilies on the Psalms by Origen of Alexandria. See the article by Catholic World Report and also this blog post which includes instructions on how to view pictures of the entire manuscript.

Lionel at Forget the Channel says:
The importance of this find cannot be overestimated.
Plus there's this bloke called Benedict, living in Rome, who used to have something to do with Bavaria:
[Origen] was a true "maestro", and so it was that his pupils remembered him with nostalgia and emotion: he was not only a brilliant theologian but also an exemplary witness of the doctrine he passed on. Eusebius of Caesarea, his enthusiastic biographer, said "his manner of life was as his doctrine, and his doctrine as his life. Therefore, by the divine power working with him he aroused a great many to his own zeal" 

I wonder how long before we get an edition.