I was raised as a Catholic, and I remember being taught a litany that was part of the Mass, called the Kyrie Eleison. The nun proudly told us that it was a relic of the time when the early Christians spoke Greek instead of Latin. It was, in fact, the only part of the Mass that was still in Greek.
"Kyrie, eleison" means "Lord, have mercy." It does not mean, "Lord, have steadfast love."
We are studying Psalm 61:7 (the verse is numbered 8 in the Masoretic text and in the Septuagint (LXX), where they count the introductory formula as a verse). The word used in the LXX is "eleos." If I look it up in my Greek dictionary, the definition I am given is "mercy."
In the newest translation of the Septuagint, called NETS, the translation given here is "steadfast love." What is wrong with these people? Because the RV (1885) mistranslated with the euphemism "lovingkindness,," followed by the ASV (1901), and the RSV (1952) mistranslated with the euphemism "steadfast love," now they ALL have to do it?
Yes, even the JPS Tanakh (1985, 2000) has "steadfast love," and they neglected to translate the word "truth" at all. So it's not just a Christian thing.
Isn't this akin to moving the goalposts in the middle of the game, because you don't like the size of the field?
It appears that, to get back to a world where mercy and truth are still important, you have to go back to the King James Version,
KJV-R (Webster) Psalms 61:7 He shall abide before God for ever: O prepare mercy and truth,
which may preserve him.
or the Latin of the Vulgate, which gives you a choice between a translation based on the LXX:
permanet in aeternum in conspectu Dei
misericordiam et veritatem quis requiret eius
or one based on an unpointed Hebrew text of ca. 400 CE:
sedebit semper ante faciem Dei
misericordia et veritas servabunt eum
Of the two Latin translations given above, that based on the Hebrew is closer to being correct. Neither is correct, but at least they do translate "mercy" and "truth" correctly.
In desperation, we go forward in time, to the new Latin Psalter of 1945:
Regnet in aeternum coram Deo:
gratiam et fidelitatem mitte, ut conservent eum.
This doesn't really solve our problem, either. It is better than Jerome's LXX-based translation, but it is worse than Jerome's Hebrew-based one, and unfortunately it calls "mercy" "gratia," and "truth" "fidelitas," instead of using their correct names as both of Jerome's translations did.
So what are we to do? I guess we'll have to translate the Psalm ourselves (including the meaning of the mystery word).
(to be continued)
