03-24-2021, 10:54 AM
“I Am the Mother of Fair Love . . .”
Now, let us consider Ecclesiasticus 24:24- 31 (Sirach in the new bibles), verses the Church has used for centuries in her Sacred Liturgy for the various feasts of Our Lady at Mass. The most famous part is as follows:
“I am the mother of fair love, and of fear, and of knowledge, and of holy hope. In me is all grace of the way and of the truth, in me is all hope of life and of virtue. Come over to me, all ye that desire me, and be filled with my fruits. For my spirit is sweet above honey and my inheritance above honey and the honeycomb. My memory is unto everlasting generations. They that eat me, shall yet hunger: and they that drink me, shall yet thirst. He that harkeneth to me, shall not be confounded: and they that work by me, shall not sin. They that explain me shall have life everlasting.” (DRB).
Now, how do the other Catholic bibles translate this passage? Well . . . you see . . . they do not exactly! Save for the JB, they leave out four verses entirely from this passage (the non-italicized words)! The italicized part is included in the NAB (’70 and ’86) and the CRSV (with different wording for each version, of course); the rest is omitted in the NAB ’70 and ’86 and in the CRSV. All together, Chapter 24 of Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) has some 16 fewer verses in the NAB (’70 and ’86) and 13 fewer verses in the CRSV than the Vulgate and DRB! (The JB has the full 47.) According to these modern translators, apparently the Church for all these centuries was wrong for using these verses that, according to them, are not even part of authentic Scripture! One is forced to ask himself, “How much do they expect us to swallow “I Am the Mother of Fair Love . . .” 29 before we say, ‘Enough already!’ ”
One is reminded of the solemn decree of the Council of Trent issued in 1546: “If anyone does not accept as sacred and canonical the aforesaid [72] books in their entirety and with all their parts, as they have been accustomed to be read in the Catholic Church and as they are contained in the old Latin Vulgate Edition, and knowingly and deliberately rejects the aforesaid traditions, let him be anathema.” (Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent, Sess. IV, “Decree concerning the Canonical Scriptures,” April 8, 1546).
“Wheresoever the Body Shall Be . . .”
A very unusual verse appears in Matthew 24:28, which occurs in the midst of Our Lord’s description and prophecies about the “consummation of the world.” (This verse is in the Gospel reading for the Last Sunday after Pentecost in the Traditional Latin Rite Liturgy.) Our Lord has been describing all the terrible things that are to come to pass at that time, when seemingly “out of the blue” appears this incredible verse: “Wheresoever the body 30 Which Bible Should You Read? shall be, there shall the eagles also be gathered together.” (DRB). (Matt. 24:28).
What does it mean? Cast in the future tense, it is a prophecy: “body” refers to: the Eucharistic Body of Christ, which at the End of Time will not be found just everywhere. For we know that Antichrist will take away the Perpetual Sacrifice (cf. Daniel 8:11-14), and we know that the Great Apostasy will have occurred that was mentioned by St. Paul in 2 Thessalonians 2:3. Also, we know that Our Lord asked the Apostles, “But yet the Son of man, when he cometh, shall he find, think you, faith on earth?” (Luke 18:8), which would imply an answer of “No” and that therefore the Mass would be very scarce. But where the Mass is found, where the Eucharistic Body of Christ is located, “there shall the eagles,” the Saints of the Catholic Church, be gathered together, for these people alone understand spiritually, and in the eyes of God they soar above the rest of mankind like eagles with sharp eyesight and a wide perspective of the true meaning of human existence; whereas, most people, interested only in the things of this world, grovel about on the ground, hindered by a spiritual myopia—if not indeed being totally “Wheresoever the Body Shall Be . . .” 31 blind to the true meaning of man’s existence. (Such is also very much the gist of St. Alphonsus Liguori’s traditional analysis of this verse in Chapter 21 of Visits to the Blessed Sacrament. St. Alphonsus—1696- 1797—was a Doctor of the Church.)
The eagle, moreover, feeds on living flesh. And what did Our Lord say of His Eucharistic Body: “My flesh is meat indeed” (John 6:56); “I am the living bread which came down from Heaven” (John 6:51); etc. Plus, the eagle is a war bird and the sign of the soldier. Now the Catholic Church on earth is the Church Militant, the Church fighting—as soldiers of Christ.
All this meaning comes forth out of one short, compact verse of Scripture! And a person can see from this one short verse just how very rich, how poetic, how incredibly powerful the Bible can be, even in English . . . when properly translated!
But now, how do the new bibles translate this beautiful and consoling prophecy of Our Lord? Just consider the following:
“Where the carcass lies, there the vultures gather.” (NAB, ’70).
“Wherever the corpse is, there the vul- 32 Which Bible Should You Read? tures will gather.” (NAB, ’86).
“Wherever the body is, there the eagles will be gathered together.” (CRSV, ’66).
“Wherever the corpse is, there will the vultures gather.” (JB, ’66).
“Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather.” (NIV, ’78).
“Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.” (NRSV, ’89).
“For wherever the carcass is, there the eagles will be gathered together.” (NKJV, ’85).
“Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.” (NASV, ’77).
“Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.” (NEB, ’76).
Gone is the prophecy! Gone is the poetry! Gone the beautiful symbolism! Gone are the consolation and the hope! And in their place? At best a trite little truism. But when read in the context of Matthew 24, these new translations, save for the CRSV, have no meaning at all. Worded in the traditional way, however, the verse is rich and redolent with meaning, as seen above.
Only the Catholic Edition of the Revised Standard Version translates the passage correctly; whereas, all the others do not. “Wheresoever the Body Shall Be . . .” 33 (However, the CRSV makes errors in other passages, as we shall observe further along.)
St. Jerome’s Latin Vulgate translates this verse: “Ubicumque (Wherever) fuerit (it will be) corpus (the body) illic (there) congregabuntur (shall be gathered) et (also) aquilae (eagles).” It is pretty hard to mistake aquilae; it simply means “eagles.” The Greek original says: “hópou ’eán (Wheresoever) è (shall be) tò (the) ptõma (body), e’kei (there) sunachthésontai (shall be gathered) hoi (the) àetoí (eagles). Aetophóros in Greek, for example, means a “standardbearer,” literally, the “eagle-bearer,” the one who carries the eagle (comparable to Christophóros, “Christ-bearer,” from which we have the name Christopher).
Ancient armies would not have been caught dead mounting a vulture on their standards. If àetoi were “vultures,” the Greek-speaking St. Jerome would surely have called them “vultures.” If we today know what vultures are, you can be sure St. Jerome did! He was a man so eminent he was almost elected Pope when his friend, Pope St. Damasus I (366-384), died.
“Let All Your Things Be Done in Charity”
But there are other instances as well which show the glaring differences between the Douay-Rheims Version and the three modern Catholic versions of the Bible. Consider the following:
The New American Bible, the Jerusalem Bible and the Catholic Revised Standard Version (being new Catholic bibles) all substitute the word “love” for “charity,” for example, in 1 Corinthians 16:14, St. Paul says, “Let all your things be done in charity.” (DRB). Whereas, the others say,
“Do everything with love.” (NAB, ’70).
“Your every act should be done with love.” (NAB, ’86).
“Let all that you do be done in love.” (CRSV, ’66).
“Let everything you do be done in love.” (JB, ’66).
“Let all that you do be done with love.” (NKJV, ’85). “Do everything in love.” (NIV, ’78).
“Let all that you do be done in love.” (NRSV, ’89).
“Let All . . . Be Done in Charity” 35 “Let all that you do be done in love.” (NASV, ’77).
“Let all you do be done in love.” (NEB, ’76). (Emphasis added to all quotes above.)
In Latin, it reads: “Omnia (all [things]) vestra (your) in (in) charitate (charity) fiant (let [them] be done).” (Latin Vulgate). In Greek, it reads: “Pánta (all things) humon (your) e’n (in) àgápe (charity) ginéstho (let [them] be done).” (Liddell-Scott’s Lexicon of 1889 gives “love” as the translation for àgápe, but in the sense of “esp. brotherly love, charity; the love of God for man and of man for God. N.T.”—Page 4). Therefore, “charity” best translates this type of “love.”
The Greek word for human love is philía, for sexual love is ’éros, but for divine love it is àgápe; now, St. Paul used àgápe, which St. Jerome translated as charitas, which in English is charity. The Greek philía becomes in Latin amor and in English love. “Charity” in the Catholic sense is “divine love”—love of God for man, love of man for God, and love of man for his fellow men, out of love for God—and “charity,” moreover, has a connotation of being tempered with justice and truth; and when referring to man, it includes his being in the state of Sanctifying Grace. The English word “love,” however, simply does not convey this fuller meaning.
One has to wonder how so many versions of the Bible can all agree to be wrong on the translation of this one common word in the Bible—but a word denoting the most important Christian virtue, namely charity.
“Amen, Amen, I Say to You . . .”
The Hebrew word amen has been brought over into Greek, into Latin and into English, because there is simply no equivalent to it in any other language. It has a meaning of solemnly calling the hearer to witness the truth of what is about to be said, and in the New Testament only Our Lord used it. The Douay-Rheims Version retains it, but the modern Catholic versions bend over backwards to translate it, although it is truly untranslatable and is already a bona fide English word. Witness John 8:58:
“Amen, amen I say to you, before Abraham was made, I am.” (DRB). Now consider the three new Catholic versions and the Protestant versions:
“I solemnly declare it: before Abraham came to be, I AM.” (NAB, ’70).
“Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” (CRSV, ’66).
“I tell you most solemnly, before Abraham ever was, I Am.” (JB, ’66).
“Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.” (NKJV, ’85).
“I tell you the truth, . . . before Abraham was born, I am.” (NIV, ’78).
“Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am!” (NASV, ’77).
“Very truly, I tell you, before Abraham was, I am.” (NRSV, ’89).
“In very truth I tell you, before Abraham was born, I am.” (NEB, ’76).
“Amen, amen, I say to you” has a power the other translations do not even approach. (By the way, notice the powerful contrast in the Douay-Rheims Bible between “was made,” regarding Abraham, and “I am,” regarding God; the other translations miss this subtlety also. The Greek genesthaí comes from gígnomai and means “to come into being,” according to Liddell- Scott, p. 164, and thus “to be made,” which St. Jerome translates as fieret (“to come to be”), meaning literally, “was made.” That is why the Douay-Rheims translates this verb as “was made.” Now consider the 1986 version of the New American Bible: “Amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham came to be, I AM.” (NAB, ’86). This new version is almost identical to the Douay-Rheims, except to translate genesthaí as “came to be,” rather than “was made.” Apparently the New American Bible translators have been listening to some criticism of their work.
Now, let us consider Ecclesiasticus 24:24- 31 (Sirach in the new bibles), verses the Church has used for centuries in her Sacred Liturgy for the various feasts of Our Lady at Mass. The most famous part is as follows:
“I am the mother of fair love, and of fear, and of knowledge, and of holy hope. In me is all grace of the way and of the truth, in me is all hope of life and of virtue. Come over to me, all ye that desire me, and be filled with my fruits. For my spirit is sweet above honey and my inheritance above honey and the honeycomb. My memory is unto everlasting generations. They that eat me, shall yet hunger: and they that drink me, shall yet thirst. He that harkeneth to me, shall not be confounded: and they that work by me, shall not sin. They that explain me shall have life everlasting.” (DRB).
Now, how do the other Catholic bibles translate this passage? Well . . . you see . . . they do not exactly! Save for the JB, they leave out four verses entirely from this passage (the non-italicized words)! The italicized part is included in the NAB (’70 and ’86) and the CRSV (with different wording for each version, of course); the rest is omitted in the NAB ’70 and ’86 and in the CRSV. All together, Chapter 24 of Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) has some 16 fewer verses in the NAB (’70 and ’86) and 13 fewer verses in the CRSV than the Vulgate and DRB! (The JB has the full 47.) According to these modern translators, apparently the Church for all these centuries was wrong for using these verses that, according to them, are not even part of authentic Scripture! One is forced to ask himself, “How much do they expect us to swallow “I Am the Mother of Fair Love . . .” 29 before we say, ‘Enough already!’ ”
One is reminded of the solemn decree of the Council of Trent issued in 1546: “If anyone does not accept as sacred and canonical the aforesaid [72] books in their entirety and with all their parts, as they have been accustomed to be read in the Catholic Church and as they are contained in the old Latin Vulgate Edition, and knowingly and deliberately rejects the aforesaid traditions, let him be anathema.” (Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent, Sess. IV, “Decree concerning the Canonical Scriptures,” April 8, 1546).
“Wheresoever the Body Shall Be . . .”
A very unusual verse appears in Matthew 24:28, which occurs in the midst of Our Lord’s description and prophecies about the “consummation of the world.” (This verse is in the Gospel reading for the Last Sunday after Pentecost in the Traditional Latin Rite Liturgy.) Our Lord has been describing all the terrible things that are to come to pass at that time, when seemingly “out of the blue” appears this incredible verse: “Wheresoever the body 30 Which Bible Should You Read? shall be, there shall the eagles also be gathered together.” (DRB). (Matt. 24:28).
What does it mean? Cast in the future tense, it is a prophecy: “body” refers to: the Eucharistic Body of Christ, which at the End of Time will not be found just everywhere. For we know that Antichrist will take away the Perpetual Sacrifice (cf. Daniel 8:11-14), and we know that the Great Apostasy will have occurred that was mentioned by St. Paul in 2 Thessalonians 2:3. Also, we know that Our Lord asked the Apostles, “But yet the Son of man, when he cometh, shall he find, think you, faith on earth?” (Luke 18:8), which would imply an answer of “No” and that therefore the Mass would be very scarce. But where the Mass is found, where the Eucharistic Body of Christ is located, “there shall the eagles,” the Saints of the Catholic Church, be gathered together, for these people alone understand spiritually, and in the eyes of God they soar above the rest of mankind like eagles with sharp eyesight and a wide perspective of the true meaning of human existence; whereas, most people, interested only in the things of this world, grovel about on the ground, hindered by a spiritual myopia—if not indeed being totally “Wheresoever the Body Shall Be . . .” 31 blind to the true meaning of man’s existence. (Such is also very much the gist of St. Alphonsus Liguori’s traditional analysis of this verse in Chapter 21 of Visits to the Blessed Sacrament. St. Alphonsus—1696- 1797—was a Doctor of the Church.)
The eagle, moreover, feeds on living flesh. And what did Our Lord say of His Eucharistic Body: “My flesh is meat indeed” (John 6:56); “I am the living bread which came down from Heaven” (John 6:51); etc. Plus, the eagle is a war bird and the sign of the soldier. Now the Catholic Church on earth is the Church Militant, the Church fighting—as soldiers of Christ.
All this meaning comes forth out of one short, compact verse of Scripture! And a person can see from this one short verse just how very rich, how poetic, how incredibly powerful the Bible can be, even in English . . . when properly translated!
But now, how do the new bibles translate this beautiful and consoling prophecy of Our Lord? Just consider the following:
“Where the carcass lies, there the vultures gather.” (NAB, ’70).
“Wherever the corpse is, there the vul- 32 Which Bible Should You Read? tures will gather.” (NAB, ’86).
“Wherever the body is, there the eagles will be gathered together.” (CRSV, ’66).
“Wherever the corpse is, there will the vultures gather.” (JB, ’66).
“Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather.” (NIV, ’78).
“Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.” (NRSV, ’89).
“For wherever the carcass is, there the eagles will be gathered together.” (NKJV, ’85).
“Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.” (NASV, ’77).
“Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.” (NEB, ’76).
Gone is the prophecy! Gone is the poetry! Gone the beautiful symbolism! Gone are the consolation and the hope! And in their place? At best a trite little truism. But when read in the context of Matthew 24, these new translations, save for the CRSV, have no meaning at all. Worded in the traditional way, however, the verse is rich and redolent with meaning, as seen above.
Only the Catholic Edition of the Revised Standard Version translates the passage correctly; whereas, all the others do not. “Wheresoever the Body Shall Be . . .” 33 (However, the CRSV makes errors in other passages, as we shall observe further along.)
St. Jerome’s Latin Vulgate translates this verse: “Ubicumque (Wherever) fuerit (it will be) corpus (the body) illic (there) congregabuntur (shall be gathered) et (also) aquilae (eagles).” It is pretty hard to mistake aquilae; it simply means “eagles.” The Greek original says: “hópou ’eán (Wheresoever) è (shall be) tò (the) ptõma (body), e’kei (there) sunachthésontai (shall be gathered) hoi (the) àetoí (eagles). Aetophóros in Greek, for example, means a “standardbearer,” literally, the “eagle-bearer,” the one who carries the eagle (comparable to Christophóros, “Christ-bearer,” from which we have the name Christopher).
Ancient armies would not have been caught dead mounting a vulture on their standards. If àetoi were “vultures,” the Greek-speaking St. Jerome would surely have called them “vultures.” If we today know what vultures are, you can be sure St. Jerome did! He was a man so eminent he was almost elected Pope when his friend, Pope St. Damasus I (366-384), died.
“Let All Your Things Be Done in Charity”
But there are other instances as well which show the glaring differences between the Douay-Rheims Version and the three modern Catholic versions of the Bible. Consider the following:
The New American Bible, the Jerusalem Bible and the Catholic Revised Standard Version (being new Catholic bibles) all substitute the word “love” for “charity,” for example, in 1 Corinthians 16:14, St. Paul says, “Let all your things be done in charity.” (DRB). Whereas, the others say,
“Do everything with love.” (NAB, ’70).
“Your every act should be done with love.” (NAB, ’86).
“Let all that you do be done in love.” (CRSV, ’66).
“Let everything you do be done in love.” (JB, ’66).
“Let all that you do be done with love.” (NKJV, ’85). “Do everything in love.” (NIV, ’78).
“Let all that you do be done in love.” (NRSV, ’89).
“Let All . . . Be Done in Charity” 35 “Let all that you do be done in love.” (NASV, ’77).
“Let all you do be done in love.” (NEB, ’76). (Emphasis added to all quotes above.)
In Latin, it reads: “Omnia (all [things]) vestra (your) in (in) charitate (charity) fiant (let [them] be done).” (Latin Vulgate). In Greek, it reads: “Pánta (all things) humon (your) e’n (in) àgápe (charity) ginéstho (let [them] be done).” (Liddell-Scott’s Lexicon of 1889 gives “love” as the translation for àgápe, but in the sense of “esp. brotherly love, charity; the love of God for man and of man for God. N.T.”—Page 4). Therefore, “charity” best translates this type of “love.”
The Greek word for human love is philía, for sexual love is ’éros, but for divine love it is àgápe; now, St. Paul used àgápe, which St. Jerome translated as charitas, which in English is charity. The Greek philía becomes in Latin amor and in English love. “Charity” in the Catholic sense is “divine love”—love of God for man, love of man for God, and love of man for his fellow men, out of love for God—and “charity,” moreover, has a connotation of being tempered with justice and truth; and when referring to man, it includes his being in the state of Sanctifying Grace. The English word “love,” however, simply does not convey this fuller meaning.
One has to wonder how so many versions of the Bible can all agree to be wrong on the translation of this one common word in the Bible—but a word denoting the most important Christian virtue, namely charity.
“Amen, Amen, I Say to You . . .”
The Hebrew word amen has been brought over into Greek, into Latin and into English, because there is simply no equivalent to it in any other language. It has a meaning of solemnly calling the hearer to witness the truth of what is about to be said, and in the New Testament only Our Lord used it. The Douay-Rheims Version retains it, but the modern Catholic versions bend over backwards to translate it, although it is truly untranslatable and is already a bona fide English word. Witness John 8:58:
“Amen, amen I say to you, before Abraham was made, I am.” (DRB). Now consider the three new Catholic versions and the Protestant versions:
“I solemnly declare it: before Abraham came to be, I AM.” (NAB, ’70).
“Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” (CRSV, ’66).
“I tell you most solemnly, before Abraham ever was, I Am.” (JB, ’66).
“Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.” (NKJV, ’85).
“I tell you the truth, . . . before Abraham was born, I am.” (NIV, ’78).
“Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am!” (NASV, ’77).
“Very truly, I tell you, before Abraham was, I am.” (NRSV, ’89).
“In very truth I tell you, before Abraham was born, I am.” (NEB, ’76).
“Amen, amen, I say to you” has a power the other translations do not even approach. (By the way, notice the powerful contrast in the Douay-Rheims Bible between “was made,” regarding Abraham, and “I am,” regarding God; the other translations miss this subtlety also. The Greek genesthaí comes from gígnomai and means “to come into being,” according to Liddell- Scott, p. 164, and thus “to be made,” which St. Jerome translates as fieret (“to come to be”), meaning literally, “was made.” That is why the Douay-Rheims translates this verb as “was made.” Now consider the 1986 version of the New American Bible: “Amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham came to be, I AM.” (NAB, ’86). This new version is almost identical to the Douay-Rheims, except to translate genesthaí as “came to be,” rather than “was made.” Apparently the New American Bible translators have been listening to some criticism of their work.