Study Guide: Group 9

Here is the latest Study Guide! I have not provided English translations, since those are easy enough to find by consulting versions of the Bible in English. Instead, I have tried to call attention to the various grammatical features of the verses, along with interesting vocabulary items, the importance of a specific Biblical context, etc.

You will find more Study Guides at the Vulgate Verses wiki.

These verses contain first, second and third declension nouns:

96. This is the question which Jesus poses to Pilate. There is a famous anagram of this verse which provides an answer to the question: Est vir qui adest.

97. The gender of the nouns lets you know where the adjective tuus belongs: Sermo tuus is the subject, veritas is the predicate.

98. The Latin word legislator is composed of the root legis, genitive singular of the word lex, "law," and lat-, a participle of the verb ferre, "to carry, bear." So, the legislator is the one who introduces the laws, brings them forward. This is a noun in Latin, and there is no corresponding verb. The English verb "legislate" is formed from the English word "legislator," borrowed from the Latin.

99. The verb is implied here: Benedictus (est) Deus, with the noun phrase Pater misericordiarum standing in apposition to Deus.

100. The verb is implied: Dominus Deus (est) fortitudo mea.

101. The verb is implied: Statera dolosa (est) abominatio apud Dominum. There are other references to this proverbial statera dolosa in Proverbs 20:23 and Hosea 12:7.

102. The use of the plural noun, sunt, shows that vana is being used substantively here, neuter in gender, plural in number: vana sunt, "they are empty things, worthless things."

103. The verb is implied: Stipendia peccati (est) mors.

104. This is the existential use of the verb "to be," which we render with "there" in English: non est potestas, "There is no power."

105. This verse is from the apocryphal book of Sirach. Notice that the compound subject of the sentence is treated as a plural group, taking a plural noun, sunt.

106. The word mors is here in the vocative case, although the nominative and vocative forms are identical for nouns in the third declension.

107. See the note to Verse 106.