as it was in the beginning
A few observations on the translation of the Gloria Patri, or Lesser Doxology, which is one of the earliest Christian hymns, and an important part of denominational liturgies both Catholic and Protestant.
This is the English translation of the Doxology, as sung by various American Protestant denominations:
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
Virtually any Protestant who has gone to church regularly in an English-speaking country will know the words to this hymn by heart. It is traditionally sung by the entire congregation at the end of readings from the Bible, for the dual purpose of expressing thanks to God for the text that was just recited and for emphasizing the divine gravity of the words (so that perhaps the congregation will actually take them to heart instead of forgetting them the moment they leave the church, as they frequently do).
These are the Roman Catholic words to the hymn:
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.
Whoa! The differences are subtle, but the implications on their theology are immense. Note how the Protestant version emphasizes constancy--as it was in the past, it is now, and will be forever. In a world without end, forever unchanging, no less--which seems to contradict Jesus's message, repeated throughout the Gospels, that the world will, in fact, end, and you damn well better get ready. Protestants explain it away, rather reasonably, by saying that the "world without end" refers to the world after this one, which will not, in fact, end. But this still seems to betray a general bias towards conservatism in the Protestant churches--a theology in which we are ruled by a perfect, unchanging God, whom we already know how to please, and the danger is in the temptations of the new, which will cause us to do otherwise. There is parallelism at work here: Just as it was in the beginning, it is now, and always will be, a world without end.
(Which is strange, considering that traditionally it's been the Protestants who have been more liberal in their theology, and the Catholics who have been more assertive about keeping things the way they are. But, details.)
The Roman Catholic version, on the other hand, by the choice of "and will be forever" and the omission of "world without end," changes the meaning of the hymn completely. In their version it is the glory of the Trinity that existed in the beginning, and is now, and will be forever, not His promise of a world more eternal. Perhaps this is, semantically, what the translator of the the Protestant version actually meant. It matters not. The former is sung in at every Sunday service of virtually every Protestant church, and its implications, intentional are not, weekly reinforce the theological beliefs of millions.
Catholic hymnologists, ever critical of the legitimacy of the Reformation, point out in various essays, articles, and encyclopediae that the Protestant version is simply a mistranslation of the Latin. Someone on Wikipedia points out (without sourcing, but possibly with credibility) that "world without end" probably refers to in saecula seaculorum, which does not, in fact, mean "world without end," but seems like it should. That someone might be right. Or maybe not. But it doesn't matter. Because the Protestants and Roman Catholics are both wrong. This hymn, as a bunch of non-Wikipedia Bible encyclopediae confirm, wasn't originally sung in Latin. It was sung in Greek.
And this is the version, carefully translated, that the English-speaking parts of the Greek Orthodox church uses:
Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and to the ages of ages. Amen.
Ooh, ouch! Nothing about the constancy of God here, or even of His glory. There isn't even an "as it was" indicating that he was sufficiently glorified in the past. (Which makes sense. I mean...we nailed him to a cross and left him to die.) Instead, this version merely asserts that we give God glory now, and will continue to do so. We have no control over the past, but certainly have a stake in the present and the future--and it is these promises a congregation makes, in worship, that are meaningful. Also intriguing is that it translates whatever became "in saecula seaculorum" literally, as "to the ages of ages." Suddenly this is a hymn not only to God, but to the eternal span of time in which God reigns. Catholics and Protestants alike would find this theologically...difficult.
And yet...even as a Protestant myself, from what I know about the early church, I have to admit the version my Greek Orthodox brothers and sisters sing is probably truest to the spirit of what was sung in the early days, a mere ten or so generations after Christ walked the earth with human feet.
Do you see what difference a couple words make? Two translations of the same source material, however faithful, may not be equivalent to each other...
Then we bring Christianity farther eastward, and the semantic pot really starts to bubble.
This is the classical Chinese translation of the Doxology, as recited by Chinese Catholics:
欽頌榮福，天主聖父，及聖子，及聖神，吾願其獲光榮。
闕初如何，今玆亦然，以迨永遠，及世之世。亞孟。
For those of you who cannot read Chinese, I must comment that this version is gorgeous. This was evidently translated directly from the Latin, as informed by the Greek--"ages of ages" becomes "N16N4bN16" a translation as rich with meaning and ambiguity as in saecula seaculorum. Perhaps the only way to fully capture the awe and majesty of an ancient language is to translate it to another awesome and majestic ancient language, as the words as translated here look and sound absolutely timeless. You half expect to see them etched on the walls of some eon-buried cave, the bones of its carver long since dust. Alas, it not only insists on keeping "as it was in the beginning," it makes the parallelism between that phrase and "it now and ever shall be" even more prominent. Various Bible dictionaries I've looked this up in claim that the Catholic Church added the "as it was in the beginning" to the Latin sometime in 500 AD, also clarifying "with the Son" to "to the Son", to rob the dissenting Arianists of a textual ambiguity from which they based their faith, and this act of revisionism seems to have survived into the Chinese. Oh well--at least it allows the second half of the hymn to fit in the 4 character by 4 character format that makes it suitable for carving onto pillars and painting onto scrolls.
Compare this to the modern Chinese version used by many contemporary Protestants:
但願榮耀，歸於父子聖靈，父子聖靈
起初這樣現在這樣，以後也這樣
永無窮盡，阿們，阿們。
This is obviously directly translated from the Protestant English version, making it a translation of a translation of a translation. As such, it is by far less faithful to the original than the Catholic version--and yet I can't really complain. Protestants have always been about making the text accessible to everyone, even if it may rob the ritual of its Catholic grandeur, and in this translation they are certainly true to their aim. While this is certainly not colloquial Chinese, the use of modern ideographs and complete sentences does make this translation far more personal. It's the kind of wording you'd use if you were casually telling a friend about God, rather than participating in some ancient mystical ritual--which is perfectly in line with most Protestant denominations' evangelical objectives in China. The large number of extra syllables robs the hymn of its elegance, but does make it easier to sing around a campfire with a meek, cheerful, relentlessly optimistic Chinese worship team. (Chinese Protestants are so cute. Woefully unprepared to deal with sin--but cute.) This translation is the doxology of the masses--the kind you'd whisper in your lover's ear, not the kind you'd scream in battle while defending the Ark of the Covenant.
Tellingly, of all the translations I've discussed here, this one emphasizes the parallelism between "as it was in the beginning" and "is now, and ever shall be" the most. They even kept the lone comma between the "is now" and "ever shall be," indicating that the "as it was in the beginning is now" is a single thought to which the "and ever shall be" should be compared. As evangelical Protestantism as preached in Chinese countries values Chinese converts' cultural readiness to obedience, which rarely comes easily to the stereotypically independent Americans who make up the majority of Protestant evangelism, this is more than a little worrying. It's a good bet that the placement of the comma isn't intentional, though--that's where the break between the verses in the song goes, and perhaps the translator just wanted to give new converts an indication that they are supposed to stop singing there and resume after the pause. I just hope it won't subtly influence Protestantism in China any more than it has Protestantism in the U.S.
The Eastern Orthodox Church, as far as I can tell, sings the doxology in Greek. Fair enough.
This is the English translation of the Doxology, as sung by various American Protestant denominations:
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
Virtually any Protestant who has gone to church regularly in an English-speaking country will know the words to this hymn by heart. It is traditionally sung by the entire congregation at the end of readings from the Bible, for the dual purpose of expressing thanks to God for the text that was just recited and for emphasizing the divine gravity of the words (so that perhaps the congregation will actually take them to heart instead of forgetting them the moment they leave the church, as they frequently do).
These are the Roman Catholic words to the hymn:
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.
Whoa! The differences are subtle, but the implications on their theology are immense. Note how the Protestant version emphasizes constancy--as it was in the past, it is now, and will be forever. In a world without end, forever unchanging, no less--which seems to contradict Jesus's message, repeated throughout the Gospels, that the world will, in fact, end, and you damn well better get ready. Protestants explain it away, rather reasonably, by saying that the "world without end" refers to the world after this one, which will not, in fact, end. But this still seems to betray a general bias towards conservatism in the Protestant churches--a theology in which we are ruled by a perfect, unchanging God, whom we already know how to please, and the danger is in the temptations of the new, which will cause us to do otherwise. There is parallelism at work here: Just as it was in the beginning, it is now, and always will be, a world without end.
(Which is strange, considering that traditionally it's been the Protestants who have been more liberal in their theology, and the Catholics who have been more assertive about keeping things the way they are. But, details.)
The Roman Catholic version, on the other hand, by the choice of "and will be forever" and the omission of "world without end," changes the meaning of the hymn completely. In their version it is the glory of the Trinity that existed in the beginning, and is now, and will be forever, not His promise of a world more eternal. Perhaps this is, semantically, what the translator of the the Protestant version actually meant. It matters not. The former is sung in at every Sunday service of virtually every Protestant church, and its implications, intentional are not, weekly reinforce the theological beliefs of millions.
Catholic hymnologists, ever critical of the legitimacy of the Reformation, point out in various essays, articles, and encyclopediae that the Protestant version is simply a mistranslation of the Latin. Someone on Wikipedia points out (without sourcing, but possibly with credibility) that "world without end" probably refers to in saecula seaculorum, which does not, in fact, mean "world without end," but seems like it should. That someone might be right. Or maybe not. But it doesn't matter. Because the Protestants and Roman Catholics are both wrong. This hymn, as a bunch of non-Wikipedia Bible encyclopediae confirm, wasn't originally sung in Latin. It was sung in Greek.
And this is the version, carefully translated, that the English-speaking parts of the Greek Orthodox church uses:
Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and to the ages of ages. Amen.
Ooh, ouch! Nothing about the constancy of God here, or even of His glory. There isn't even an "as it was" indicating that he was sufficiently glorified in the past. (Which makes sense. I mean...we nailed him to a cross and left him to die.) Instead, this version merely asserts that we give God glory now, and will continue to do so. We have no control over the past, but certainly have a stake in the present and the future--and it is these promises a congregation makes, in worship, that are meaningful. Also intriguing is that it translates whatever became "in saecula seaculorum" literally, as "to the ages of ages." Suddenly this is a hymn not only to God, but to the eternal span of time in which God reigns. Catholics and Protestants alike would find this theologically...difficult.
And yet...even as a Protestant myself, from what I know about the early church, I have to admit the version my Greek Orthodox brothers and sisters sing is probably truest to the spirit of what was sung in the early days, a mere ten or so generations after Christ walked the earth with human feet.
Do you see what difference a couple words make? Two translations of the same source material, however faithful, may not be equivalent to each other...
Then we bring Christianity farther eastward, and the semantic pot really starts to bubble.
This is the classical Chinese translation of the Doxology, as recited by Chinese Catholics:
欽頌榮福，天主聖父，及聖子，及聖神，吾願其獲光榮。
闕初如何，今玆亦然，以迨永遠，及世之世。亞孟。
For those of you who cannot read Chinese, I must comment that this version is gorgeous. This was evidently translated directly from the Latin, as informed by the Greek--"ages of ages" becomes "N16N4bN16" a translation as rich with meaning and ambiguity as in saecula seaculorum. Perhaps the only way to fully capture the awe and majesty of an ancient language is to translate it to another awesome and majestic ancient language, as the words as translated here look and sound absolutely timeless. You half expect to see them etched on the walls of some eon-buried cave, the bones of its carver long since dust. Alas, it not only insists on keeping "as it was in the beginning," it makes the parallelism between that phrase and "it now and ever shall be" even more prominent. Various Bible dictionaries I've looked this up in claim that the Catholic Church added the "as it was in the beginning" to the Latin sometime in 500 AD, also clarifying "with the Son" to "to the Son", to rob the dissenting Arianists of a textual ambiguity from which they based their faith, and this act of revisionism seems to have survived into the Chinese. Oh well--at least it allows the second half of the hymn to fit in the 4 character by 4 character format that makes it suitable for carving onto pillars and painting onto scrolls.
Compare this to the modern Chinese version used by many contemporary Protestants:
但願榮耀，歸於父子聖靈，父子聖靈
起初這樣現在這樣，以後也這樣
永無窮盡，阿們，阿們。
This is obviously directly translated from the Protestant English version, making it a translation of a translation of a translation. As such, it is by far less faithful to the original than the Catholic version--and yet I can't really complain. Protestants have always been about making the text accessible to everyone, even if it may rob the ritual of its Catholic grandeur, and in this translation they are certainly true to their aim. While this is certainly not colloquial Chinese, the use of modern ideographs and complete sentences does make this translation far more personal. It's the kind of wording you'd use if you were casually telling a friend about God, rather than participating in some ancient mystical ritual--which is perfectly in line with most Protestant denominations' evangelical objectives in China. The large number of extra syllables robs the hymn of its elegance, but does make it easier to sing around a campfire with a meek, cheerful, relentlessly optimistic Chinese worship team. (Chinese Protestants are so cute. Woefully unprepared to deal with sin--but cute.) This translation is the doxology of the masses--the kind you'd whisper in your lover's ear, not the kind you'd scream in battle while defending the Ark of the Covenant.
Tellingly, of all the translations I've discussed here, this one emphasizes the parallelism between "as it was in the beginning" and "is now, and ever shall be" the most. They even kept the lone comma between the "is now" and "ever shall be," indicating that the "as it was in the beginning is now" is a single thought to which the "and ever shall be" should be compared. As evangelical Protestantism as preached in Chinese countries values Chinese converts' cultural readiness to obedience, which rarely comes easily to the stereotypically independent Americans who make up the majority of Protestant evangelism, this is more than a little worrying. It's a good bet that the placement of the comma isn't intentional, though--that's where the break between the verses in the song goes, and perhaps the translator just wanted to give new converts an indication that they are supposed to stop singing there and resume after the pause. I just hope it won't subtly influence Protestantism in China any more than it has Protestantism in the U.S.
The Eastern Orthodox Church, as far as I can tell, sings the doxology in Greek. Fair enough.