Crescentia

DOMINA BASSILA COMANDAMVS TIBI

CRESCENTIVS ET MICINA FILIA NOSTRA

CRECEN --- QVE VIXIT MEN X ET DES

Domina Bassila comandamus tibi

Crescentius et Micina filia nostra 

Crecen -- quae vixit menses X et dies

We, Crescentius and Micina, commend to you,

Heavenly Queen, our daughter

Crescentia, who lived 10 months and a day.

Gentianus

GENTIANVS FIDELIS IN PACE . QVI

VIXIT ANNIS XXI MENSES VIII DIES

XVI ET IN ORATIONIS TVIS

ROGES PRO NOBIS QVIA SCIMVS

TE IN XP

Genantius fidelis in pace.  qui

vixit annis XXI menses VIII dies

XVI et in orationis tuis

roges pro nobis quia scimus

te in XP.

Faithful Genantius, in peace.  who

lived 21 years, eight months,

16 days, and in your prayers

beseech for us, because we know

that you are in Christ.

(I used XP in the above example because I can't reproduce the Chi-Rho symbol on this keyboard).

Matronata Matuta

PETE PRO PARENTES TVOS

MATRONATA MATRONA

QVE VIXIT AN. I DI. LII

Pete pro parentes tuos,

Matronata Matrona,

quae vixit annum I dies LII

Pray for your parents,

Matronata Matrona,

who lived for 1 year 52 days

Crux Gammata

Which is what I'm calling this so we don't get unusual people dropping by.

Noticing the designs on the clothing of Diogenes, one cannot but think that he is wearing swastikas.  I knew that the swastika predated the National Socialist Worker's Party, but I didn't know by how much, and how widespread, until I did some reading.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika

Suffice it to say that this symbol is extremely widespread in both space and time:  it appears in Asia, Europe, North America, from as early as 10,000 years ago.  It is a widely used symbol in Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism, and by Native Americans; in all cases, as a symbol of good luck..  Here is a 1909 picture of a basketball team from the Chiloco Indian School, in Ponca City, OK.

The US 45th Infantry Division, which was made of National Guard units from Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Oklahoma, had this as their unit's shoulder patch from the Division's creation in 1924:

WIth the growth of the Nazi Party in the 1930's, this patch was abandoned and a new one was chosen to go with the Division's nickname, the "Thunderbird" Division.

There are numerous examples of its occurrence to be found all over the world, from many periods in history.

As far as its association with the Church, here is an excerpt from the Catholic Encyclopedia,  http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04517a.htm

The sign of the cross, represented in its simplest form by a crossing of two lines at right angles, greatly antedates, in both the East and the West, the introduction of Christianity. It goes back to a very remote period of human civilization. In fact, some have sought to attach to the widespread use of this sign, a real ethnographic importance. It is true that in the sign of the cross the decorative and geometrical concept, obtained by a juxtaposition of lines pleasing to the sight, is remarkably prominent; nevertheless, the cross was originally not a mere means or object of ornament, and from the earliest times had certainly another — i.e. symbolico-religious — significance. The primitive form of the cross seems to have been that of the so-called "gamma" cross (crux gammata), better known to Orientalists and students of prehistoric archæology by its Sanskrit name, swastika.

...

It is fairly common on the Christian monuments of Rome, being found on some sepulchral inscriptions, besides occurring twice, painted, on the Good Shepherd's tunic in an arcosolium in the Catacomb of St. Generosa in the Via Portuensis, and again on the tunic of the fossor Diogenes (the original epitaph is no longer extant) in the Catacomb of St. Domitilla in the Via Ardeatina. Outside of Rome it is less frequent.

Fossores

Like most cultures which bury their dead the world tend to look down on those who deal with the deceased, the ancient Romans treated gravediggers as outcasts.  With the advent of Christianity, that changed. Fossores or "Diggers" (from 'foedere'; 'to dig') not only dug graves, but there is evidence that they decorated and painted them as well.  In fact, several sources name 'fossores' as one of the minor orders of clerics.  There is also evidence that part of their duty was to exclude outsiders from Eucharistic celebrations held in the catacombs or in Christian cemetaries.     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravedigger#Fossors

The drawing of the fossor Diogenes was badly damaged in the attempt to remove it from the wall on which it was drawn, but we have this sketch of its appearance.  He stands with the tools of his trade; a pick, a staff, and a light, as well as a sack lunch.  We will examine the symbols on his clothes in our next post.

Diogenes Fossor

 

DIOGENES FOSSOR IN PACE DEPOSITVS

OCTABV KALENDAS OCTOBRIS

Diogenes fossor in pace depositus

octabus Kalendas  Octobris

Diogenes, a 'digger', buried in peace

on the eighth day before the Kalends of October (Sept 24)

What did the angels really say on the first Christmas? Part 3

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This is a scan of the page which contains Luke 2, 8-14.  Verse 14 at the bottom is the verse in question, which I transliterated in my previous post as "Doxa en hypsistois theo kai epi geis eireinei en anthropois eudokia(s)."

Below the Greek text is what is called the 'Critical Apparatus'.  This indicates to scholars what parts of the text have differing words or spellings than what is printed above in the 'official' text.  It also indicates where these variations come from, and give an editorial judgement, consisting of a grade which can range from 'A' (most realiable) through 'D' (least reliable) on how reliable our 'official' reading is.

For example, in verse 11 the words "Christos kyrios" appear as part of the sentence "is born to you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord".  Most of the manuscripts of Luke say "Christos kyrios", as indicated by the letters and numbers which follow that Greek phrase in the note.  Each letter or number stands for a manuscript or collection which has this Gospel (most of these manuscripts go back to the 4th-6th centuries AD, although some are later).  After that, the note tells us that the readings "kyrios Christos", "Christos kyriou", "Christos Iesus", "Christos Iesus kyrios", "Christos Soter", and "Christos" appear in this verse in one or more other manuscripts, but based on the editors' judgement, "Christos kyrios" is the correct reading, and so, while they list the variants, they assign the "Christos kyrios" reading a grade of 'A' , based on the editors' knowledge, judgement, and the evidence of the texts.

We see that the reading of "en anthropois eudokias" (among men of good will), is assigned a 'B', meaning that scholars are pretty sure that this is the correct original reading, but not enough to assign an 'A'.  You can tell that there is quite a variation in this verse by just looking at the numbers of manuscripts that have different readings. 
 
By the way, Luke F.  pointed out to me that the earliest complete manuscript we have of the Bible, including the entire New Testament, is now online for viewing at http://www.codexsinaiticus.org/en/  (this manuscript is represented in the Critical Apparatus above by the Hebrew letter Aleph).  So go over there and take a look at Luke 2, verse 14, and see what you think!

Colloquium XIX - June 2009

SACRED, BEAUTIFUL, & UNIVERSAL: Colloquium XIX from Corpus Christi Watershed on Vimeo.

Sorry for the hiatus

I've been very sick.  Hope to be energetic again soon.

What did the Angels really say on the first Christmas? Part II

The original Greek text of Luke 2:14 is transliterated into the Roman alphabet as follows:

Doxa en hypsistois Theo, kai epi geis eireinei en anthropois eudokia[s].

The brackets around the final letter s (sigma in Greek) are the key to this mystery.  Why are they there?

Before going into that, let's look at the Greek.  Literally, word by word: "Glory in the highest to God, and peace on earth among men good thought".  OK, I fudged on the last word.  "Eudokia" is a compound word made of "eu", an extremely common word meaning "good" or "well", and "dokia", which means "thought" or "opinion". 

Therefore "eudokia" means either "thinking well of someone else" or "being well thought of", depending on the context.  The bracketed sigma means that some manuscripts have the sigma, and others don't.  How would that affect the meaning?

If the sigma is there, then "eudokias" is a genitive singular form of the noun, which would refer to another noun in the phrase:  "men of good thought toward others".  This is how St. Jerome translated it: "bonae voluntatis" "of good will".

If the sigma is not there, then "eudokia" is the nominative singular, which means it is the subject, and this is where we get the translation "good will toward men".

What about "to those on whom His favor rests"?  I'm guessing here, but I think that depends on the interpretation of "eudokias" as "being well thought of" instead of "thinking well of someone else".  "Peace on earth to men who are well thought of" (by God); hence "peace on earth to men on whom His favor rests".

So, is the sigma there or not?  That will be the subject of the next post.

What did the Angels really say on the first Christmas? Part I

The Gospel for Midnight Mass (Luke 2:1-14) ends thus: "and suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God, and singing".  followed by verse 14.

Here are three translations of that verse.  See if you can spot the differences:

Glory to God in the highest; and on earth peace to men of good will.(Douay-Rhiems)

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. (King James)

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.(New International Version)

When I was a wee lad sitting in the pews during the Great Chaos (otherwise known as the 1960's), this was a verse so widely known that it even appeared on network TV (A Charlie Brown Christmas), and I would hear these differences and wonder, "What does it really say?"  This was what impelled me, eventually, to study Greek so that I could find out for myself.

First, of all, let's look at the Latin translation of the original Greek:

Gloria in altissimis Deo, et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis.

Pretty straightforward, although we have 'in altissimis' instead of 'in excelsis' from the Gloria in the Mass (the meaning is basically the same: "in the highest").  Then we have the phrase "pax hominibus bonae voluntatis". "Bonae voluntatis" must be the genitive singular case.  So, according to the Latin, we would come down in favor of "on earth peace to men (dative plural) of good will", which is what Douay-Rhiems has.

This would make a nice parallel in the construction:  A (glory) in B (the highest) to C (God),  and X (peace) in Y (earth) to Z (men). This makes "bonae voluntatis" look like an extraneous addition, though, and where did those other two translations come from?  How could something as simple as "hominibus bonae voluntatis" come out as "good will toward men"?  It would have to be something like "et in terra pax, hominibus bona voluntas".  And where in the world does "on whom his favor rests" come from?

We'll examine that in the next post.

Spelling changes..or doesn't

In the inscription for Ruta, one thing which we have seen before is the tendency to replace "v" with "b":  using "bibet" instead of "vivet" - "she will live".  We see this in Spanish. 

Another curiousity is the fact that we have the adjective "affabilis"  spelled "atfabilis", which means, literally, "can ('abilis') be spoken ('fa') to ('at') ".  We have words derived from the same roots: affable, 'that which can be spoken to', hence, 'easy' to speak to', 'approachable', and ineffable, 'that which cannot be spoken of' .

What is the "at-" prefix, though?  This is a relic, because the "af-" of "fabilis" was originally "ad-", so this word would have been spelled "adfabilis".  "Ad" is familiar as a regular preposition and prefix in Latin meaning 'to' or 'toward', and, as a prefix, frequently changes its spelling to assimilate (ad-similate) to the word it was being attached (ad-tached) to.  So, ad + fxxxx gives us affxxxx.  In this word, however, the 'ad-' prefix, rather than assimiliating to 'af-', merely softened from a 'd' to a 't'.  Its persistence reminds us of its genesis and original spelling.

Ruta

RVTA OMNIBVS SVBDITA ET ATFABI-

LIS BIBET IN NOMINE PETRI

IN PACE

Ruta omnibus subdita et affabilis

vivet in nomine Petri

in pace

Ruta, subject to and easily spoken to by all

will live in the name of Peter

in peace.