Jeremy Thompson Catholic PhD in Biblical Languages, Programmer, Runner

It appears as though Daniel McClellan is offering translations and notes on some of the Psalms.  He has started with Psalms 1 and 2 and I hope he continues this.  Check out the translations and notes here – Psalm 1 and Psalm 2.

As an aside, it is always interesting to see how different translators handle the word torah as well as the tetragrammaton.  Daniel has opted for the transliteration of each, i.e. torah is rendered as “torah” and the divine name is rendered as “Yhwh.”

I think matters like this are usually a tough call, especially when a translation is intended for a wider audience, which I don’t particularly think Daniel is doing on his blog.  It’s not like he’s trying to develop the new NRSV or anything like that.

These are the kinds of things that are pleasing to me as a scholar.  I would prefer to see torah as “torah” and the divine name as Yhwh rather than as Lord (all caps or otherwise).

On the other hand, I think these are the kinds of things that might lead to a translation not being well received by the general public.  They have simply gotten accustomed to hearing “on his law he meditates ….”

Daniel McClellan and Doug Chaplin are two bloggers that I enjoy reading a lot.  They have both drawn attention to a relief effort being made by Richard Dawkins for the recent earthquake in Haiti.  Daniel is a little more hopeful; Doug is a bit more disappointed.  These are interesting takes on the topic, and I hope you will click over an read them.  I have to say that I find at Daniel’s assessment spot on and couldn’t agree more with this point (I would bold it and italicize it, but that might be overdoing it a bit):

First, I’d like to say that contributing to the relief efforts in Haiti is important no matter the motivation.

If you haven’t made use of the Red Cross’ opportunity to give through text message, I can’t think of any way that it could possibly be any easier.

If you have ever heard Judaism, Christianity, and Isalm, vilified and described as a primary catalyst of war in both the history of the world and more modern times, be sure to check out Daniel McClellan’s most recent post entitled “St. Francis of Assisi and the Crusades.”  The topic of religion is fresh in my mind as I just finished Susan Niditch’s War in the Hebrew Bible: A Study in the Ethics of Violence.  Following Niditch’s strategy in the text, I would point out that to assume there is only one strand of thought in Christianity concerning war and that the crusading mentality is it, it a gross oversimplification and misunderstanding of the Judeo-Christian tradition with St. Francis being a case in point.  This is not event to mention Just War Theory.  At any rate, McClellan offers some of his own thoughtful reflections at the end of which he states:

The absence of religion will no more solve the problem of war any more than communism solved the problem of poverty. We need more St. Francises to promulgate the principles of peace, but we also need to recognize the need for world leaders to balance of the promotion of peace with the defense and security of their citizens, their cultures, and their ideologies.

Related Posts:

Fretheim on God and Violence in the Old Testament

Ezra 9-10 – The Context of Today’s Reading Makes it a Tough One