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Daily Vulgate: Day 18
Genesis 35-36, Job 25-26, and Proverbs 3:19-24

Welcome to Day 18!


The Death of Rachel by Gustav Metz

Today we happen upon an unusual conjunction usque dum. in Job 26:10.

Terminum circumdedit aquis,
usque dum finiantur lux et tenebrae.

Taken as the combination of usque and dum, the meaning comes across obtuse. A forced, ungrammatical English translation might read, He has delimited the ends of the waters up to while the light and darkness be bounded.

I was lucky enough to find, in Platter and White’s A Grammar Of The Vulgate, the real meaning of usque dum.

§142.
dum = while, usque dum = until.
(i) Indicative: Present, ‘dum iudicamur’ (= κρινόμενοι) I Cor. 11. 32 ; Future perfect, = cum, when, ‘dum uicerit filios Israhel’ Judith 6. 13, cf. 6.
(ii) Subjunctive (irregularly), ‘dum irent emere’ Mt. 25. 10, cf. Lie. 24. 15, Act. 8. 36, 10. 17 ; = dummodo (πλήν ὅτι, only that), ‘dum . . . Christus adnuntietur’ Phil. 1. 18.
usque dum.
(i) Indicative of past event: ‘usque dum eiecti sunt’ Ecclus. 48. 1 6, cf. 50. 21.
(ii) Subjunctive of result: ‘usque dum ueniens staret’ Mt. .2. 9 ; ‘usque dum dicam tibi’ ib. 13.

This knowledge in hand, the meaning becomes more coherent, the translation natural and far more elegant.
He has delimited the ends of the waters until light and darkness be bounded.

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Daily Vulgate: Day 19
Genesis 37, Job 27-28, Proverbs 3:25-27

Welcome to Day 19!


Joseph Recounting his Dream to his Brothers by Herman van Swanevelt

Today, I want to take a closer look at Joseph recounting his first dream to his brothers. In contrast to the Vulgate’s near universal use of quod, quia, or quoniam to introduce dependent finite clauses as the objects of verbs of saying, knowing, or perceiving (for discussion on this point, see paragraph 134 of A Grammar of the Vulgate by Plater and White), the “[p]utabam” of Genesis 37:7 takes a conjunction of four non-finite clauses as its object.

6 Dixitque ad eos: “Audite somnium meum, quod vidi.
7 Putabam ligare nos manipulos in agro, et quasi consurgere manipulum meum et stare, vestrosque manipulos circumstantes adorare manipulum meum”.

This rare classical usage renders Joseph’s dream sequence both vividly and succinctly.

Aside from the peculiarity of St. Jerome employing the accusative plus infinitive construction, what struck me as interesting in this example is the use of adverb “quasi” in the second conjunct, which modifies “consurgere”. I am so used to seeing quasi used to modify finite clauses, as in “quasi, cum pax sit, vastator irruat in eum.” (Job 15:21), where quasi makes an imaginative comparison, that I find it strange to see it in a non-finite clause.

Searching back through our readings, however, I found another instance of quasi modifying an infinitive in “Et visus est eis quasi ludens loqui” (Genesis 19:14), which on second thought is all the more interesting for the accusative subject of the infinitive loqui being swallowed up due to the passive voice of the main clause. If the sentence were in the active voice, it might read Et viderunt eum quasi ludens loqui. However, since the main clause is passive, eum is transformed to the subject of the main clause, and we lose the accusative subject of the dependent clause.

I am finding a lot to appreciate about the linguistic variety we have seen so far. There is lots to digest as I strive for comprehension and onwards to command of the language.

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Daily Vulgate: Day 20
Genesis 38, Job 29-30, Proverbs 3:28-32

Welcome to Day 20! Today we take a look at a variation on the meaning on quando.


Juda en Thamar by Elias van Nijmegen

Today I took particular notice of the use of quando as a conjunction with the temporal meaning of when. We see this usage in Genesis 38:5.

Tertium quoque peperit, quem appellavit Sela. Ipsa autem erat in Chasib, quando peperit illum.

We also see it in each verse of Job 29:3-7.

3 Quando splendebat lucerna eius super caput meum,
et ad lumen eius ambulabam in tenebris.
4 Sicut fui in diebus adulescentiae meae,
quando familiaris Deus erat in tabernaculo meo,
5 quando erat Omnipotens mecum,
et in circuitu meo pueri mei,
6 quando lavabam pedes meos lacte,
et petra fundebat mihi rivos olei.
7 Quando procedebam ad portam civitatis
et in platea parabam cathedram mihi,

These are by no means the first instances we have seen of quando used as a temporal conjunction. However, it struck me that far more often we see the conjunction cum used for this purpose. Plater and White’s A Grammar of the Vulgate treat cum in paragraph 141 as part of their discussion of conjunctions but see no need for a treatment of the rarer but apparently equivalent uses of quando.

Although rarer, it bears mentioning that quando also has an adverbial meaning. When preceded by ne or si, for instance, quando means ever. We see this in Job 29:24.

Si quando ridebam ad eos, non credebant,
et lux vultus mei non cadebat in terram.

Looking back, we can find examples of this adverbial usage in Genesis 24:6 and Genesis 31:8.

24:6 Dixit Abraham: “Cave, ne quando reducas illuc filium meum.
31:8 Si quando dixit: "Variae erunt mercedes tuae", pariebant omnes oves varios fetus. Quando vero e contrario ait: "Striata quaeque accipies pro mercede", omnes greges striata pepererunt.

I find it interesting that the certain usage of a word will strike me at a seemingly random point, not simply the first time I come across it. Perhaps it takes crossing a certain threshold of familiarity with the word and usage to look into the mechanics of that usage more deeply.

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Daily Vulgate: Day 21
Genesis 39-40, Job 31-32, Proverbs 3:33-35

Welcome to Day 21! Today we learn about a reversal of voice in the past participle form of the verb molesto.


Joseph in Prison by Dirck Dircksz

Today we learn the meaning of molestus through Genesis 39:10.

Huiuscemodi verbis per singulos dies et mulier molesta erat adulescenti, et ille recusabat stuprum.

That the adjective “molesta” means troublesome is surprising, given that the verb molesto means to trouble. One would rather expect molestus to mean troubled, but this is not the case.

This leads to the question of whether a past participle exists for molesto with a passive meaning. I will have to keep a lookout for examples of a true occurrence of the participle molestus meaning troubled and not troublesome.

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Daily Vulgate: Day 22
Genesis 41-42, Job 33-34, Proverbs 4:1-9

Welcome to Day 22! Today we consider variations on the numeral adverbs bis and ter.


Joseph’s Brothers on Their Way to Buy Grain in Egypt in a Wooded Landscape by the School of Hans Jordaens III

The typical way to express a repeated action in Latin would be to use the numeral adverbs semel, bis, ter, quater, quinquiens, sexiens, septiens, octiens, noviens, deciens, etc. For instance, we saw expressed with “deciens” that Job’s friends scolded him ten times over in Job 19:3.

En decies obiurgatis me
et non erubescitis opprimentes me.

We get to see an interesting variation on this expression in Job 33:29, where we read “duobus [vicibus]” and “tribus vicibus” instead of bis and ter.

Ecce haec omnia operatur Deus
duobus, tribus vicibus cum homine,

The reason for passing over numeral adverbs for cardinal numbers is not immediately clear. It is not as though numeral adverbs are scarce in the Vulgate. We find “semel” hiding just some few verses back in Job 33:14.

Semel loquitur Deus,
et secundo idipsum non repetit.

We are left to conclude that St. Jerome was deliberate in employing cardinal numbers in “duobus [vicibus]” and “tribus vicibus” instead of bis and ter, but what was his intention?

I speculate that this expression lends extra weight to the shades of meaning of the noun “vicibus”, meanings above and beyond the basic one of time or turn. The word suggests interchange, reciprocal interaction, and change of fate. Bare bis…ter would fail to depict these two or three interchanges which Elihu depicts between man and God.

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Daily Vulgate: Day 23
Genesis 43-44, Job 35-36, Proverbs 4:10-19

Welcome to Day 23! Today we return to a favorite word of mine, vicis, in the story of Joseph.


Joseph receives his Brothers by Giuseppe Bacchiacca

Today, we consider Judah’s complaint in Genesis 43:10.

8 Iudas quoque dixit patri suo Israel: “Mitte puerum mecum, ut proficiscamur et possimus vivere, ne moriamur nos et tu et parvuli nostri.
9 Ego spondeo pro puero; de manu mea require illum. Nisi reduxero et reddidero eum tibi, ero peccati reus in te omni tempore.
10 Si non intercessisset dilatio, iam vice altera venissemus”.

The Douay-Rheims Bible translates verse 10 “Si non intercessisset dilatio, iam vice altera venissemus” as “If delay had not been made, we had been here again the second time”, and the New American Bible, Revised Edition translates it more familiarly as “Had we not delayed, we could have been there and back twice by now”.

While I find the Douay-Rheims faithful to the meaning of “vice altera” as a second time, I fail to find in its translation the sense of there and back, palpable in the Latin verse in the choice of the word “vice”, which bears a meaning not only of time, but also of interchange, alternation, and reciprocal succession.

For a word like vicis, which has so many shades of meaning and which applies to so many situations, I expect that it is in understanding variations on the word’s meaning through many passages that I will come to command it.

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Daily Vulgate: Day 24
Genesis 45-46, Job 37-38, Proverbs 4:20-27

Welcome to Day 24! Today we consider how predicative attribution and a figurative play on words strengthen a poetic metaphor.


Jacob and Joseph Reunited by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld

Today we consider Job 38:8-9, a metaphor between childbirth and creation.

8 Quis conclusit ostiis mare,
quando erumpebat quasi de visceribus procedens,
9 cum ponerem nubem vestimentum eius
et caligine illud quasi fascia obvolverem?

Concerning childbirth and the postpartum care of the child, we read “de visceribus procedens”, “fascia”, and “vestimentum”. Standing in for creation, we read “mare”, “nubem”, and “caligine”. In verse 8, God likens the sea breaking through doors to childbirth, which continues in verse 9 with the simile between mists and swaddling clothes.

The broad strokes of the poetic metaphor are plain to see, but the attentive reader will consider two things more deeply.
First, the term swaddling clothes appears as “fascia” in the Nova Vulgata (In St. Jerome’s original translation, swaddling clothes appears as “pannis infantiae”, the same word as in the Gospel of Luke 2:7. “et peperit filium suum primogenitum; et pannis eum involvit et reclinavit eum in praesepio, quia non erat eis locus in deversorio.”). In a figurative sense, fascia can mean a streak of cloud in the sky. This sense harks back to caligo, strengthening the simile between the mists and the swaddling clothes through a relevant connotation.

The second concerns the first line of verse 9, “cum ponerem nubem vestimentum eius”. Although the two lines of verse 9 exhibit no parallelism in the syntax of the sentences, the two are complementary with respect to their meaning. In the second, we hear of God wrapping the cloud in mists as if with swaddling bands. The second line is a simile, so we might likewise expect the first line to be a poetic comparison between “nubem” and “vestimentum eius”. It appears that this comparison is achieved through the predicative attribution of “vestimentum eius” to “nubem”, with the verb pono achieving this predication in the same way as induco did in “Inducit consiliarios spoliatos” in Job 12:17 and “Inducit sacerdotes spoliatos” in Job 12:19, which we explored in Day 11. These instances of predicative attribution or double accusative are something I am still not fully comfortable with, so I will be on high alert for examples of similar constructions going forward.

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Daily Vulgate: Day 25
Genesis 47-48, Job 39-40, Psalm 16

Welcome to Day 25! Today we return to our enigmatic double accusative constructions.


Jacob Blessing the Sons of Joseph by Guercino

On Day 12 and Day 24, we studied examples of noun phrases that are predicate a quality of the direct object of a transitive verb. The examples were varied: “Inducit consiliarios spoliatos” from Job 12:17; “Inducit sacerdotes spoliatos” from Job 12:19; and “cum ponerem nubem vestimentum eius” from Job 38:9. I am still not particularly comfortable analyzing these, so I have been keeping an eye out for further examples.

With some luck, we immediately found another example in Job 40:28.

Numquid feriet tecum pactum,
et accipies eum servum sempiternum?

In such constructions, it would give me pause to consider one noun as merely standing in apposition to the other because the verb affects the relation between them. The meaning of “accipies” makes the relation between “eum” and “servum” in Job 40:28 one of respect. The meaning of “inducit” makes the relation between “consiliarios” and “spoliatos” in Job 12:17 resultative. The meaning of “ponerem” makes the relation between “nubem” and “vestimentum eius” in Job 38:9 one of comparison, almost a simile.

None of these verbs have dictionary entries which mention of these double accusative constructions. Nor do grammars of Latin mention these verbs in their systematic presentation of double accusative constructions unless we are to conceive of these as verbs of making (cf. Paragraph 392 of Hale and Buck), an analysis to which I become more and more inclined each day.

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Daily Vulgate: Day 26
Genesis 49-50, Job 41-42, Psalm 17

Welcome to Day 26!



Well, it was bound to happen eventually, only I wish not right as we came to the final readings from the first books we took up: Genesis and Job. I fell behind and did not get this reading done. I take some consolation from Dr. Junius Johnson, the host of All Things Wild and Wonderful is similarly reading the Vulgate in a year, albeit on a different schedule, when he says, “If you find yourself in that boat, where you are having trouble keeping up, you’re not alone!”

I will come back to Day 26. For now, consider this a promissory note and a placeholder for a substantial post on Genesis 49-50, Job 41-42, and Psalm 17 at some point in the future.

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Daily Vulgate: Day 27
Exodus 1-2, Leviticus 1, Psalm 4

Welcome to Day 27! Today we examine the parallelism of Leviticus 1.


The Finding of Moses by Jacques Stella

Leviticus 1 has three parallel passages. The first, Leviticus 1:3-9, concerns sacrifices of cattle. The second, Leviticus 1:10-13, concerns sacrifices of sheep or goats. The third, Leviticus 1:14-17, concerns sacrifices of birds. These parallel passages employ lexical and syntactic variations to express similar ideas. As we discussed in Day 1, this variation presents the learner with an opportunity to consider a range of lexical and syntactic variations available for expressing a particular idea, ideally in the context of a scriptorium drill (vide Day 6 and Day 7). Below, I present the parallel passages together for use in scriptorium drills.

1. General kind of offering


Armentum

3a si holocaustum fuerit eius oblatio de armento,

Pecus

10a Quod si de pecoribus eius oblatio est, de ovibus sive de capris holocaustum,

Avis

14a Sin autem de avibus holocausti oblatio fuerit Domino,

2. Specific kind of animal

Armentum

3b masculum immaculatum offeret ad ostium tabernaculi conventus ad placandum sibi Dominum;

Pecus

10b masculum absque macula offeret;

Avis

14b offeret de turturibus aut pullis columbae oblationem suam.

3. immolabit hostiam coram domino

Armentum

4 ponetque manum super caput hostiae, et acceptabilis erit atque in expiationem eius proficiens.
5a Immolabitque vitulum coram Domino,

Pecorum

11a immolabitque ad latus altaris, quod respicit ad aquilonem, coram Domino.

Avis

N/A

4. aspergent sive expriment sanguinem

Armentum

5b et offerent filii Aaron sacerdotes sanguinem eius aspergentes per altaris circuitum, quod est ante ostium tabernaculi conventus.

Pecus

11b Sanguinem vero illius aspergent contra altare filii Aaron sacerdotes per circuitum;

Avis

15 Et sacerdos afferet eam ad altare; retortum ad collum caput adolebit in altari, sanguisque eius exprimetur contra parietem altaris.

5. ponent

Armentum

6 Detracta pelle, hostiam offerens in frusta concidet;
7 et filii Aaron sacerdotis ponent in altari ignem, strueque lignorum super ignem composita,
8 membra, quae caesa sunt, desuper ordinabunt, caput videlicet et adipem.

Pecus

12 dividetque offerens membra, caput et adipem, et sacerdos imponet ea super ligna, quibus subest ignis in altari.

Avis

16 Vesiculam vero gutturis et plumas proiciet offerens prope altare ad orientalem plagam in loco, in quo cineres effundi solent;

6. intestina lavabit aqua et oblata adolebit super altare

Armentum

9a Intestina autem et crura offerens lavabit aqua adolebitque ea sacerdos super altare in holocaustum,

Pecus

13a Intestina vero et crura lavabit offerens aqua, et oblata omnia adolebit sacerdos super altare:

Avis

17a confringetque eam inter alas, quas non secabit, et adolebit eam sacerdos super altare, lignis super ignem positis:

7. incensum odoris suavissimi Domino

Armentum

9b incensum suavissimi odoris Domino.

Pecus

13b holocaustum est et incensum odoris suavissimi Domino.

Avis

17b holocaustum est et incensum suavissimi odoris Domino.