The “Luck” of the Irish?

Okay, this is really weird.

So I was looking at Volume 2 of The Religious Songs of Connaught again, and I noticed that on page 385, in “A Prayer for Baking Bread,” Douglas Hyde had translated “rath De” as “the luck of God.”

Um. That’s a really far down the page meaning of “rath.” It primarily means “grace” or “gift” or “charism.” So God’s grace, or even God’s favor, would be the more natural translation. Maybe people were thinking of it as a prayer for good luck, but that’s not what it said it was.

The prayer also asked for “bail Phadraig,” Patrick’s prosperity, which could also mean a good situation or good fortune (in the sense of things going well). So if anything was about luck, you’d think it would be that part (although again, it’s not really anything about luck — just hope).

Sometimes I just feel like the whole world is full of potholes, with both language and concepts.

Vineyard Workers Parable

I really do like the Greek. The guy is the master of the household (oikodespote) and the lord of the vineyard (kyrios tou ampelonos), which of course is an Isaiah reference. He gets up with the morning and starts hiring (misthososasthai) people, whom he sends (apesteilen, same as “apostle” comes from) into the vineyard. And everyone agrees (symphonesas) on a denarius for the day as their hire or pay (misthos).

What the Kyrios promises to the later workers is “dikaion,” the just thing or the righteous thing. Mind you, a just man is also “dikaios,” as is God Himself.

In Mt. 10:41, Jesus says that “he who receives a righteous man” (dikaion) “will receive a righteous man’s hire” (misthon dikaiou). So it’s a pretty good deal for the vineyard workers to get “dikaion.”

One of the things that got really translated for meaning was the punchline from the master of the household. After he asks, “Isn’t it legal for me to do what I will, with my own stuff?”, he further asks, “Is your eye bad because I am good?”

Okay, this is a pretty wild statement.

First off, it’s an I AM statement. “Ego agathos eimi,” I AM good, in the sense of excellence, nobility, and usefulness for agriculture.

And as elsewhere in the Gospels, the opposite is “poneros,” which means bad in the sense of being grinding hard work, or useless for agriculture, or I guess being a pain in the butt as a person.

Second, “your eye is bad” is a Hebrew/Aramaic idiom that means “your eyes are envious,” ie, “you are envious.” It’s connected to the whole Mediterranean concept of “the evil eye,” which is usually connected to an envy of good fortune to the point of being able to magically curse people. (It can also mean that there’s eye disease or an eye condition, in passages about healing the sick.)

So Mark 17:22 has a long list of bad qualities that include “ophthalmos poneros”. Proverbs 23:6 tells you, “Do not eat the bread of one with an evil eye,” where “evil eye” in Hebrew is ‘ayin ra’ or ‘ayin hara’. There are several passages with this same expression.

Jesus doesn’t use the word in the magical sense; but it’s definitely a strong expression, with envious human lack of productivity contrasted to God’s noble fruitfulness and generosity.

And we end with “So the last will be first and the first will be last, for many are called but few are chosen.”

Cal State Fresno Animation Senior Wins EWTN Video Contest

The excerpts look very sweet, and so does the animator herself.

Why 77, Suddenly?

This last week’s Gospel, in the US lectionary, translated Mt. 18:22 (“hebdomekontakis hepta”) as “seventy-seven times” because there is one stupid marginal note to that effect in the Revised Version of the Greek NT.

Needless to say, that is not the meaning taken in the Greek text used by the Greek Orthodox.

The passage is referencing Gen. 4:24, when the wicked Lamech’s policy is given — that if his father Cain would be avenged seven times (heptakis in Greek, sib atayim in Hebrew), that he, Lamech, would avenge himself seventy times seven times (hebdomekontakis hepta in Greek, sibim seba’ in Hebrew).

There is a variant Hebrew version that does say “seventy-seven times” (sibim wa-sebah). That is it.

So basically the marginal note was going with a minority version of the Hebrew, and translating the Greek accordingly. Yay. Great plan.

Grump grump grump.

The important thing is not changed. Peter and Jesus are both playing off this mysterious and wicked saying, and it is yet another way that Jesus reverses evil human doings in the OT. And lots of sevens still means a big indefinite amount, that ties into the Covenant.

Which leads me to ask why it was changed at all. To freak out the faithful? To make points over one’s academic rivals? For a real reason of truth? We don’t know and they didn’t tell us.

Grump grump grump.

So yeah, I think that was a dumb move by the lectionary, but mostly I think it should be explained if this stuff is pulled. And humbly too, because a lot of this is scholarly guesses versus the collective memory of all believers. The memory is more likely to prove true.

(Josephus says that Lamech had seventy-seven descendants (paides… hepta kai hebdomekonta), but I don’t know what that proves.)

(Josephus also thought that Gen. 4:15 meant that Cain’s seventh generation of kids would be killed instead of Cain (and connects the flood to Seth’s seventh generation being punished), and that Lamech knew prophetically that he had killed no-one but would also be killed as Cain’s punishment. Um. Well, obviously this would make Lamech a Christ figure/type, which is weird, but maybe he is. Gotta give oral tradition some kind of due on the weird stuff also.)

(There is even a legend from Rashi that Lamech went blind, still went hunting with helpers, and was directed to shoot a faraway animal by his son Tubal-Cain. Then they both realized his arrow had hit Cain. Lamech’s clap of grief was so mighty that the shockwave killed Tubal-Cain, and then his wives left him in grief for their kid. Very reminiscent of Baldur’s death, or vice versa, which might tie into Grendel as a descendant of Cain.)

Probably we are supposed to remember that Cain was protected by God from getting killed, by letting people know (by the mark on Cain) that they should not touch him. So also one should not touch Lamech.

So in that case, Jesus was warning Peter that everybody was protected by God, and that God would always be the one to take care of any vengeance or expiation. So forgiveness was mandatory.

I don’t think our priests’ little homily resource materials wanted to get into all this…. But that is what is going on with the new “seventy-seven.” (Since we all wondered, and made little correction mutters out in the pews.)

Inside Baseball… Argh.

The Catholic Telegraph this month had a nice little information piece about Eucharistic miracles.

However. It turns out that the “inside baseball” reason was that there was an alleged Eucharistic miracle in Cincinnati on September 8. There’s some information about it on the Internet, but not much. And that’s okay, when something may or may not have happened.

Now, the Telegraph is supposed to be a news magazine/newspaper for the archdiocese. So… why wouldn’t you just say, “And we’re putting out this information because of an alleged Eucharistic miracle down the street. Please remain calm and let the archbishop do his job of investigation, before making a fuss”?

I mean, yes, people have to be discreet, but sometimes you should just come right out in the open. Veiled references are kind of annoying.

(And if the article was planned a long time ago, and just appeared by coincidence, I guess it would be nice to know that also.)

EWTN Scripture Study Weekday Block

If you are at home on any day Monday to Friday, EWTN is running half-hour Bible study shows at 11:30 EST.

Monday is an Old Testament show, The Rise and Fall of Ancient Israel. Tuesday through Friday focus on the Gospels, with The Gospel of Mark: Way to Follow Jesus; St. Luke’s Gospel; Answering the Questions of Jesus; and Matthew’s Testimony to Jesus.

You will probably be able to watch these shows at other times too, which might be nice for night owls. 🙂 Sometimes this kind of TV show is also available as a podcast on the EWTN website or through podcast apps.

Obviously a half hour show is not going to take much time out of your day, so it might be a nice length for you!