"How precious is your loving mercy, O God!
All mortal flesh shall take refuge
under the shadow of your wings."
A deeply inclusivized - if the word exists - version of Ps 36:7 (NRSV, if you couldn't guess).
"How priceless is your unfailing love!
Both high and low among men find refuge in
the shadow of your wings." (NIV)
So you see that all mortal flesh becomes "both high and low among men". Or vice-versa.
Can't be bothered to care. It's interesting that NRSV inclusivizes both the gender and the class implications, but that's interesting in the way it's interesting that some people are quite tall, or can run quite, fast, or look quite geeky, or look like a gorilla's doing something unexpected to them. i.e. it's interesting but doesn't really matter.
The thing both translations have in common is "the shadow of your wings". A thread across to a previous post on here of gathering chicks together. My good friend, micropetrophile (i.e. she likes pebbles) Sally has more to say on this. And better than I could. I can only comment that most female animals are docile in general, and mad as hell if you go near them when they've got young to protect. You don't go near lambs or calves in a field unless you're daft (and if you're our Beaker Folk you don't go near farm animals full stop - you know how scary they can all be, unless they're on a plate with a suitable dressing).
All a hen's future is tied up in her chicks. She doesn't know they'll end up roast anyway, or they'll be stuck in a cage the size of a copy of Private Eye until their laying drops to 80% at which point they'll be minced and turned into cat food. She just knows they're hers. They're her sons and daughters and she is going to hide them. If a fox comes she'll protect them. If the coop burns down she'll cover them. She'll even protect them to death.
I wonder why that's an image of God?
Dear Archdruid,
ReplyDeleteI continue to be confused why Beaker Folk bother with the Christian scriptures - perhaps you could tell us about that.
But then I had to shake my head over what said about the psalms. Firstly, the first version you cite is the Common Worship Psalter, not NRSV. 'Mortal flesh' is a dead giveaway (or is that give-away?). Secondly, the NIV is the odd one here, not the CW Psalter (or NRSV). The Septuagint has υἱοὶ τῶν ἀνθρώπων whereas the Hebrew Bible reads וּבְנֵי אָדָם . So it's pretty obvious.
Of course, just where the NIV got the high and low from I am not sure - perhaps some manuscript variation. It's too hot to find out.
Which brings me to the third point about the "shadow of wings". This is a metaphor from the Holy Land you are talking about, not the Beark battery chicken farm. The operative word is 'shadow'. Out of the sun. In the cool of the evening breeze. No sun-screen needed. With a cool glass of lager, or a nice G&T.
Or perhaps I am getting carried away there.
Need to go off and find some more needles in that haystack.
Comrade Holger
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments once again. Incisive and erudite as they are. I feel thoroughly fisked. I do, however, wonder whether you've enough to do on your Southern island?
As to Christianity - the Beaker Folk have always harked back to that primeval Christianity that pre-dates so-called "Celtic" and therefore have always been avowedly Christian. However our lack of explicit doctrinal beliefs can occasionally cause confusion. People think we're liberal Anglicans.
New Jerusalem has 'children of Adam' which has some slight merit I feel (though not much).
ReplyDeleteI think using 'all mortal flesh' for 'sons of man' is just a way of having a go at Dawkins by suggesting that all living creatures evolved from man.