Psalm 23: Lessons from Its Translation from the Early Church until Today
Part 1--The Ancient Versions
William D. Barrick, Th.D.
Professor of Old Testament
The Master's Seminary
ETS Annual Meeting
November 16, 2005
Introduction
The "Shepherd Psalm" has enjoyed high favor in the Christian church from the earliest days. Its popularity began early (e.g.,
Augustine's and Jerome's homilies and Eusebius's commentary). In the early Syriac "Liturgy of St. James" Psalm 23 was recited in
full. Sunnias and Fretela (
A
.
D
. 403) disputed Jerome's calix meus ("my cup") in verse 5 because of the LXX's poth
,
rio
,
n sou
("your
cup"). The 8th-century Latin Vulgate codex (Amiatinus,
A
.
D
. 690-716) adds vox ecclesiae post raptismum ("the voice of the church
after rapture?/harassment?) to the superscription. Readings in the LXX, Syriac, Origen's Hexapla, and Vulgate reveal a number of
interpretive issues faced by the early Church. Some of those issues continue to this day. How do the same issues manifest themselves
in later Bible translations?
A recent deviation test analysis of modern English translations seems to indicate that projects that allow translators greater
freedom in handling this well-known text (e.g., HCSB, NIV, and NRSV) tend to be more accurate representations of the Hebrew than
versions too closely tied to the KJV tradition (e.g., NKJV, NASB, and NASU).
1
What are the lessons we might learn from the history
of translations of Psalm 23 from the early Church until today? This first part begins the study with a survey of the treatment of Psalm
23 by the ancient versions: the Greek Septuagint, the Aramaic Targum, the Syriac Peshitta, Origen's Hexapla (serving also as a source
for the Greek translations of Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion), and the Latin Vulgate. Although the Aramaic Targum is not a
Christian translation, it reveals the Jewish hermeneutic that at times impacted early Christian interpretive methodology. This stage of
the research is vital, since many of the variations in the translation of Psalm 23 can be traced to one or more of these ancient versions.
1
See Appendix A.