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Psalm 23: Lessons from Its Translation from the Early Church Until Today Part 1—The Ancient Versions

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Psalm 23: Lessons from Its Translation from the Early Church Until Today Part 1—The Ancient Versions Psalm 23: Lessons from Its Translation from the Early Church until Today Part 1—The Ancient Versions William D. Barrick, Th.D. Professor of Old Testament The Master’s Seminary ETS Annual Meeting November 16, 2005 Introduction The “Shepherd Psalm” has enjoyed high favor in the Christian church from the earliest days. Its popularity began early (e.g., Augustine’s and Jerome’s homilies and Eusebius’s commentary). In the early Syriac “Liturgy of St. James” Psalm 23 was recited in full. Sunnias and Fretela (A.D. 403) disputed Jerome’s calix meus (“my cup”) in verse 5 because of the LXX’s poth,rio,n sou (“your cup”). The 8th-century Latin Vulgate codex (Amiatinus, A.D. 690-716) adds vox ecclesiae post raptismum (“the voice of the church after rapture?/harassment?) to the superscription. Readings in the LXX, Syriac, Origen’s Hexapla, and Vulgate reveal a number of interpretive issues faced by the early Church. Some of those issues continue to this day. How do the same issues manifest themselves in later Bible translations? A recent deviation test analysis of modern English translations seems to indicate that projects that allow translators greater freedom in handling this well-known text (e.g., HCSB, NIV, and NRSV) tend to be more accurate representations of the Hebrew than versions too closely tied to the KJV tradition (e.g., NKJV, NASB, and NASU).1 What are the lessons we might learn from the history of translations of Psalm 23 from the early Church until today? This first part begins the study with a survey of the treatment of Psalm 23 by the ancient versions: the Greek Septuagint, the Aramaic Targum, the Syriac Peshitta, Origen’s Hexapla (serving also as a source for the Greek translations of Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion), and the Latin Vulgate. Although the Aramaic Targum is not a Christian translation, it reveals the Jewish hermeneutic that at times impacted early Christian interpretive methodology. This stage of the research is vital, since many of the variations in the translation of Psalm 23 can be traced to one or more of these ancient versions. 1 See Appendix A. Barrick, “Early Versions & Psalm 23” ETS — November 2005 2 Comparative Analysis of the Ancient Versions v Hebrew (MT)2 Greek Septuagint3 Aramaic Targum4 Syriac Peshitta5 Latin Vulgate6 7 1a dwI+d"l. rAmðz>mi yalmo.j tw/| Dauid dwdl atxbvwt psalmus [canticum] !)M(d hYNwP l( )bNtM David nY(GPd )XYN8 l( )(t$Mw 8 }lBB nM nYQLS dK nwhB b y[iªro÷ hw"ïhy> ku,rioj poimai,nei me hym[ ty !zd hwhy Dominus reget arbdmb hym[l yNY(rN )Yrm [pascit] me c `rs")x.a, al{å kai. ouvde,n me u`sterh,sei `alwk wrsx al et nihil mihi deerit ]yL rsXN )L mdMw Verse 1 1a (Heading): There is no significant variation in the psalm heading itself except in the popular edition of the Peshitta, which has “Prophecy concerning the return of the people and the narration concerning the rest that will meet with them after departing from 2 K. Elliger and W. Rudolph, eds., Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4th ed. (Stuttgart, Germany: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1990), electronic ed., BibleWorks Version 6.0.011y (Norfolk, Va.: BibleWorks, 2003). 3 Alfred Rahlfs, ed., Septuaginta, 2 vols., 9th ed. (Stuttgart, Germany: Württembergische Bibelanstalt, 1971), electronic ed., BibleWorks Version 6.0.011y (Norfolk, Va.: BibleWorks, 2003). 4 The Targum material is derived from the Hebrew Union College CAL (Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon) project per Lagarde, Hagiographia Chaldaice with variants from Luis Díez Merino, Targum de Salmos. Tradición sefardí de Alfonso Zamora. Edición Príncipe del Ms. Villa-Amil no. 5, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Instituto ‘Francisco Suárez,’ 1982. Electronic ed., BibleWorks Version 6.0.011y (Norfolk, Va.: BibleWorks, 2003). For an excellent annotated translation, see David M. Stec, The Targum of Psalms: Translated, with a Critical Introduction, Apparatus, and Notes, The Aramaic Bible 16 (Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 2004), 61. 5 D. M. Walter, ed., The Book of Psalms, The Old Testament in Syriac According to the PeshitIta Version II/3, ed. by The PeshitIta Institute (Leiden, The Netherlands: E. J. Brill, 1980). Unfortunately, this edition omits all psalm headings without explanation. 6 Bonifatio Fischer, Iohanne Gribomont, H. F. D. Sparks, and W. Thiele, eds., Biblia Sacra Iuxta Vulgatam Versionem, 2 vols., 3rd ed. (Stuttgart, Germany: Württembergische Bibelanstalt, 1983), electronic ed., BibleWorks Version 6.0.011y (Norfolk, Va.: BibleWorks, 2003). For the Latin Vulgate there are two versions of the Psalter: Psalterium Gallicanum (the Latin translation of the LXX) and Psalterium iuxta Hebraeos (the Latin translation of the Hebrew text). For the purpose of this study, the chart cites Psalterium Gallicanum and places variations represented by Psalterium iuxta Hebraeos within square brackets. 7 Theodotion and Origen agree, while Aquila has melw|,dhma and Symmachus w|dh,. Fridericus Field, ed., Origenis Hexaplorum, 2 vols. (Hildesheim, Germany: Georg Olms Verlagsburchhandlung, 1964), 2:120. 8 )$YdQ )BtK [ktb’ qdys’] (reprint; London: Trinitarian Bible Society, 1954), 353. © William D. Barrick 2005 Barrick, “Early Versions & Psalm 23” ETS — November 2005 3 Babylon.” Such an interpretive heading is an obvious post-exilic addition replacing the traditional Hebrew heading, “A psalm of David.” It is possible that the scribe for the Latin Codex Amiatinus9 created his heading for Psalm 23 on the instigation of the Syriac psalm heading. 1b: LXX interprets the 1cs pronominal suffix as an object suffix rather than a possessive genitive. Charles and Emilie Briggs argue that the parallelism requires just such a treatment.10 It is followed in this by the Peshitta and both versions of the Vulgate. The Gallican Psalter’s reget means “he guides” as compared to the Hebrew Psalter’s pascit, meaning “he pastures” or “he feeds.” Such a translation merely focuses on one particular aspect of shepherding—perhaps because verses 2 and 3 focus on the shepherd’s task in leading or guiding his sheep. The Peshitta’s nr‘yny is related to the Hebrew root h[r. The Greek, Syriac, and Latin all substitute an equivalent of ynwda for hwhy as the divine title. Paraphrastic and interpretive elements arise in the Targum of the Psalms: “It is (ty) YHWH who fed (!zd from !wz) his people in the wilderness.”11 One of the themes in the paraphrastic expansion of this psalm is that of the wilderness experience of Israel. Note, also, the references to manna and quails in verse 3 and manna in verse 5. While we readily acknowledge the paraphrastic and interpretive nature of the Targums, we sometimes ignore the reasons for such expansions. It is not too much to grant the Targumists their desire to make the Hebrew Bible “as intelligible as possible to people with a social, cultural and linguistic context different from that in which the Bible was written.”12 Therefore, the Targum on the Psalms tends to lean toward interpreting the text for readers. Sometimes this method is consistent with the Jewish hermeneutic called drash. Psalm 23 in the Targum reflects a translator’s reflection on Israel’s wilderness experience.13 1c: MT negates the verb while LXX turns the negation into a substantival concept: “nothing” (ouvde,n), a translation decision that the Vulgate chose to follow. Although the Syriac ties the negative to the verb, like the MT, the addition of mdMw indicates an approach similar to that of LXX. The Targum exhibits this same rendering by its use of alwk. Continuing the interpretive application to Israel’s wilderness experience, the Targum reads, “they did not lack (wrsx, 3cpl) anything.” 9 See Ernst Würthwein, Der Text des Alten Testaments: Eine Einführung in die Biblia Hebraica, 4th ed. (Stuttgart, Germany: Württembergische Bibelanstalt, 1973), 204-5 (Plate 43): psalmus David vox ecclesiae post raptismum. 10 Charles Augustus Briggs and Emilie Grace Briggs, The Book of Psalms, 2 vols., International Critical Commentary (reprint; Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark Ltd., 1987), 1:211. 11 arbdmb hym[l might mean “while his people were in the wilderness.” 12 Josep Ribera, “The Targum: From Translation to Interpretation,” in The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context, ed. by D. R. G. Beattie and M. J. McNamara, JSOTSS 166 (Sheffield, Eng.: Sheffield Academic Press, 1994), 218. 13 Moshe J. Bernstein, “A Jewish Reading of Psalms: Some Observations on the Method of the Aramaic Targum,” in The Book of Psalms: Composition and Reception, ed. by Peter W. Flint and Patrick D. Miller, Jr., Supplements to Vetus Testamentum 94 (Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2005), 495. © William D. Barrick 2005 Barrick, “Early Versions & Psalm 23” ETS — November 2005 4 2a eivj to,pon clo,hj evkei/ in loco pascuae ibi ynIcE+yBir>y: av,D<â tAaån>Bi atwwhc atxyc rtab )N$w(d )G{rM l(w me kateskh,nwsen ynnyrvy !yatyd tyynhb me conlocavit [in ]yNYr$N pascuis herbarum adclinavit me] b `ynIlE)h]n:y> tAxånUm. ymeÞ-l[; evpi. u[datoj ywm ayxyn ym l[ super aquam avnapau,sewj evxe,qreye,n )x*YN )YM* L(w [aquas] refectionis me `ynrbd xynd ]yNrBdN educavit [enutrivit] me Verse 2 2a: The LXX presents a fairly straightforward translation, employing a resumptive construction by means of eivj . evkei/ (“unto . there”), which the Gallican Psalter manages to reproduce with one change: pascuae (“of pasture”) for clo,hj (“of green grass”). The Hebrew Psalter represents a literal translation of the MT. In the Syriac, a conjunction is added at the beginning of the verse for smoothness in transition from the preceding verse. Also, )N$w(d )G{rM refers to “a large meadow,” in an attempt to depict the pasture as abundant in grass. The verb (]yNYr$N) could be translated “looses me” or “makes me rest” (from )r$).
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