Study Guide: Group 26

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 no verbs, except for present tense forms of the verb "to be" (and usually no expressed verb at all):

319. The verb is implied in the second portion: in me est Pater et ego (sum) in Patre.

320. This is an existential use of the verb est which can be translated into English as, "there is" (non est, "there is not").

321. The verb is implied in the first portion: ego (sum) Dominus.

322. The verb is implied in the first portion: ego (sum) primus et ego (sum) novissimus. In addition to meaning "newest," novissimus can also mean "latest," (as we talk about the "latest fashion") or "last."

323. The word mecum is the same as the prepositional phrase cum me.

324. See Verse #323 for mecum. The antecedent of the relative pronoun is the implied subject of the verb est.

325. The exclamation vae takes the dative.

326. This verse is from the apocryphal additions to the book of Daniel, telling the story of Susanna and the Elders. The verb is implied but not expressed: angustiae (sunt) mihi undique.

327. The verb is implied but not expressed: Dominus (est) mihi adiutor.

328. The verbs are implied but not expressed: Ego (sum) dilecto meo et dilectus meus (est)mihi. These datives express possession.

329. The dative mihi expresses possession. In the second part of the verse, multi is a predicate adjective.

330. The dative mihi expresses possession. In the second portion, the verb is implied but not expressed: terra autem (est) scabillum pedum meorum. The word autem is a postpositive particle, in second position in its clause.

Verse: Filioli, adhuc modicum vobiscum sum.

I've been working very hard lately on the final version of the manuscript of the Aesop's Fables book I am preparing for Bolchazy-Carducci. It will contain 80 fables selected from Barlow's seventeenth-century Latin Aesop, along with a grammar commentary. I'm actually a grammar fanatic, and I'm really enjoying the process of writing up little grammar "blurbs" for each fable.

One of the grammar blurbs that I was working on today was a note about Latin diminutives, and I thought I would comment on a verse here which features a lovely diminutive:

(John 13:33) Filioli, adhuc modicum vobiscum sum.

Instead of using the standard filius, meaning son, the text reads filioli, from the diminutive filiolus. What we are dealing with here is a diminutive that does not convey smallness in size, but rather an endearing quality, an affectionate diminutive.

The Greek read τεκνία, a diminutive form from the standard word for "child" in Greek, τέκνον.

So, in both the Greek and the Latin, a diminutive is used, expressing affection. This poses a real problem for English, which is a language with many fewer diminutive forms than either Latin or Greek. For "child" you could argue that "kid" or "kiddo" is a diminutive form, and for "son," there is the word "sonny" - but this vocabulary is probably not going to be helpful in a translation of this Bible verse.

The King James translation, following the Greek, renders this line as, "Little children, yet a little while I am with you." The phrase "little children" does not, to my ears, convey the fully affectionate nature of the diminutive, and it also creates an awkward, and misleading, resonance between "little children" and "little while." A "little time" is smallness in terms of actual size/amount, with negative connotations; in Latin, a modicum is a limited amount of time in a negative sense. The sense of "little children," however, is meant to be endearing, and not literally about small children in the physical sense at all. Having both uses of the word "little," one literal (but tending to the negative) and one metaphorical (but entirely positive) side by side in the same verse is confusing at best.

The New International Version reads, "My children, I will be with you only a little longer." I think this is probably a good option; if there is no easy way to express the diminutive, it is better not to force it. The addition of "my" is also good; in both Greek and Latin the possessive pronouns are rarely used with family terms, but this usage is absolutely regular in English. I would go so far as to add "dear" and say "My dear children..." in order to convey more fully in English the positive emotional connotations of the endearing diminutive.

The free use of diminutives is one of the distinctive uses of both Latin and Greek; I'll try to post a few most verses here in the coming weeks that show other notable examples of Latin diminutives in the Biblical text.

Study Guide: Group 25

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 no verbs, except for present tense forms of the verb "to be" (and usually no expressed verb at all):

302. The verb is implied but not expressed: Ego (sum) Dominus Deus tuus.

303. The verb is implied but not expressed: Ego (sum) Dominus Deus universae carnis.

304. The letter "z" is your clue that the word zelotes comes from Greek. It is a noun meaning "a jealous person, one who loves with ardent zeal."

305. The verb is implied but not expressed: Ego (sum) Dominus, sanator tuus. The word sanator is in apposition to the word Dominus.

306. Be careful to distinguish between the subject, ego et Pater, and the predicate unum sumus.

307. The noun panis could be nominative singular or genitive singular; from the context, you can see here that it is nominative, and vitae is genitive singular.

308. The word mundi could be genitive singular or nominative plural; from the context here, you can tell that it is genitive singular.

309. From the Latin word ostium, "door," comes the word ostiarius, "the door-man," which ultimately gives us the word "usher" in English.

310. Although we use the word "pastor" in English to mean a church leader, in Latin the word pastor means "shepherd."

311. Don't be fooled by the -o ending on the word resurrectio; this is a feminine noun of the third declension, in the nominative singular, just like the word vita, which is a feminine nominative singular noun of the first declension.

312. Notice the nice alliteration in Latin: v-ia et v-eritas et v-ita.

313. For more about the beginning and the end, the alpha and the omega, see this post in the ReligiousReading.com blog.

314. In addition to meaning "newest," novissimus can also mean "latest," (as we talk about the "latest fashion") or "last."

315. This is the response of Isaiah the prophet to the voice of God, which he hears asking, "Whom shall I send? and who shall go for us?"

316. This verse is from the apocryphal book of Wisdom. The word et here is being used adverbially, meaning "also, likewise." Be careful to distinguish between the subject, ego, and the predicate, mortalis homo.

317. The verb is implied but not expressed: Ego (sum) flos campi et lilium convallium.

318. Be careful with the word prophetae. It belongs to the first declension, and takes the usual first declension endings (as you can see from the genitive singular form here, prophetae), but it is masculine in gender.