Fr Tim Finigan writes:
Last Friday, Bishop Serratelli, Chairman of the US Bishops' Committee on Divine Worship sent this letter from Cardinal Arinze and Archbishop Ranjith concerning the use of the Divine Name, signified in the sacred tetragrammaton. The key directives are as follows:
1. In liturgical celebrations, in songs and prayers the name of God in the form of the tetragrammaton YHWH is neither to be used or pronounced.
2. For the translation of the Biblical text in modern languages, destined for liturgical usage of the Church, what is already prescribed by n. 41 of the Instruction Liturgiam authenticam is to be followed; that is, the divine tetragrammaton is to be rendered by the equivalent of Adonai/Kyrios: "Lord", "Signore", "Seigneur", "Herr", "Señor", etc.
3. In translating, in the liturgical context, texts in which are present, one after the other, either the Hebrew term Adonai or the tetragrammaton YHWH, Adonai is to be translated "Lord" and the form God" is to be used for the tetragrammaton YHWH, similar to what happens in the Greek translation of the Septuagint and in the Latin translation of the Vulgate.
There is a quite remarkable economy in the letter and directives which manage to achieve a number of things all at once:
• There is an important note on New Testament Christology pointing out that the attribution of the title "Lord" to Christ is a proclamation of His divinity.
• We are reminded again of the principles set out in Liturgiam Authenticam.
• A quite needless offence to Jewish sensibilities is removed.
• A number of execrable hymns are ruled out at a stroke.
The Tetragrammaton was never, ever pronounced. Probably not in all of history. When you see "the LORD" in English translations of the Old Testament, it translates "YHWH"; "the Lord GOD" translates "Adonai YHWH".
In Jesus of Nazareth, the Holy Father strongly deprecates the practice of using "Yahweh" as not only impious, but also suggestive that the God of the Hebrews was just another Near Eastern deity, alongside Baal and such like.
It is worth noting that the "Yahweh"-strewn Jerusalem and New Jerusalem Bibles, though compiled by Catholics, have never been approved for the liturgical use to which they are, sadly, put almost universally in English-speaking Catholicism.
Not for much longer, one trusts.
And one prays.
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"suggestive that the God of the Hebrews was just another Near Eastern deity, alongside Baal and such like"
ReplyDeleteWhich, at the time, he probably was.
No, He never was. No Old Testament scholar suggests that He was, and nor did anyone else in the Near East during the really very long period (even discounting for this purpose everything before the call of Abram) that the Old Testament covers.
ReplyDeleteSee today's post about alleged parallels with Jesus. They don't exist, and nobody suggested them at the time.
And what about reverence for the actual Holy Name?
ReplyDeleteIt would be nice!
Wouldn't it just.
ReplyDelete