Augustine frequently preached sermons on the psalms until his later years, after 415, when he preferred to dictate treatises. Indeed he mentions doing so in his letter to Evodius (lett. 169). The result was a ramshackle mass of psalm-related material. None of this has reached us independently, but instead it was organised into “decades”, probably by his own secretaries and scriptorium in Hippo, and transmitted in large chunks. The title “Enarrationes in Psalmos” is not ancient either, but was coined by Erasmus. This information I draw from the fascinating and illuminating English-language introduction to CSEL 94, part 2 – Enarrationes in Psalmos 61-70, by Hildegund Müller.
Naturally this included a discussion of Psalm 97 (in the Hebrew and KJV) / 96 (LXX and Latin). In the Latin, verse 5 reads:
Montes sicut cera fluxerunt a facie Domini; a facie Domini omnis terrae.
The mountains melted like wax, at the presence of the Lord: at the presence of the Lord of all the earth.
but quite a few versions of the text read:
a facie Domini omnis terra.
and all the earth at his presence.
I talked about this in my last post, which provoked many interesting comments. It seems that “omnis terrae” reflects the LXX Greek correctly, and indeed the Hebrew original, although the Latin is a translation of the LXX.
Here is the relevant section of Augustine. The repetition of the verse tells us at once that this is expository preaching.
Montes fluxerunt sicut cera a facie Domini.
Qui sunt montes? Superbi. Omnis altitudo extollens se adversus Deum, factis Christi et Christianorum contremuit, succubuit, et quando dico quod dictum est, Fluxit, melius verbum inveniri non potest. Montes fluxerunt velut cera a facie Domini.
Ubi est altitudo potestatum? ubi duritia infidelium? Montes fluxerunt sicut cera a facie Domini. Ignis eis fuit Dominus, illi ante faciem eius sicut cera fluxerunt; tamdiu duri, donec ignis ille admoveretur. Complanata est omnis altitudo; modo blasphemare Christum non audet: et paganus non in eum credit, non eum tamen blasphemat; etsi nondum factus est vivus lapis, tamen victus est durus mons.
Montes fluxerunt sicut cera a facie Domini, a facie Domini omnis terrae: non Judaeorum tantum, sed et Gentium, sicut dicit Apostolus [Rom. III, 29]; non enim est Judaeorum tantum Deus, sed et Gentium. Dominus ergo universae terrae, Dominus Jesus Christus in Judaea natus, sed non Iudaeae tantum natus: quia et antequam natus omnes fecit; et qui omnes fecit, omnes refecit. A facie Domini omnis terrae.[1]
9. The mountains melted away like wax from the presence of the Lord.
Who are the mountains? The proud. Every high thing that exalts itself against God [16] shuddered at the deeds wrought by Christ and by Christians, and sank down. If I say this in the same words that the psalm used, it is because no better expression could be found: the mountains melted away like wax from the presence of the Lord.
What has become of those towering authorities? Where now is the rock like obstinacy of the unbelievers? The mountains melted away like wax from the presence of the Lord. The Lord came to them as fire, and they melted in his presence like wax; they were hard only until the fire was applied to them. Every hill has been levelled, and dare not blaspheme Christ nowadays. A pagan may not believe in him, but dare not blaspheme him. Even if such a person has not yet become a living stone, at least the stony mountain he or she once was has been brought low.
The mountains melted away like wax from the presence of the Lord, from the presence of the Lord of all the earth.[17] He is Lord not of the Jews alone, but of the Gentiles too; for God is God not only of Jews but also of Gentiles, as the apostle teaches.[18] As Lord of the whole earth the Lord Jesus Christ was born in Judea, but born not for Judea alone, because even before his birth he made us all, and he who made all has remade all. From the presence of the Lord of all the earth.[2]
The Latin here is the Migne edition, Patrologia Latina 37, col. 1243. This reprints the 18th century Maurist edition. The English is from the New City Press translation, which actually (and correctly) signals the alternative reading and translates it.
The Corpus Christianorum Series Latina 39, pp.1360-1, also has “terrae”. But this is not a critical edition, but also a descendant of the Maurist edition.
In fact, at this moment, there does not seem to be a critical edition of this portion of the Enarrationes. Over the last decade,the Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum (CSEL) series have been producing volumes of a critical edition – the first ever -, as CSEL 93, 94 and 95. But I could not see that the relevant volume has appeared. (Why are publishers’ websites so universally dreadful at listing series?)
The biblical text of the Psalms used by Augustine differs significantly from the Vulgate “Gallican” Psalter, or so Müller states (p.32 f.). This is the Latin translation of the LXX by Jerome, who also made a translation direct from the Hebrew. The fact is that Augustine was using the Vetus Latina, the Old Latin version of the psalms, familiar to his audience.
The closest parallel text, to that used by Augustine, is found in the Verona Psalter, a bi-lingual Greek and Latin manuscript of the 6th century, in uncials, apparently written in northern Italy. This has the shelfmark: “Verona, Chapter Library I (1), but sadly it is offline. More details of this Psalterium Veronensis can be found in R. Weber, Le Psautier romain et les auttres anciens psautiers latins, Rome (1953) p.x-xi. From this I learn that a transcription was published by J. Bianchini in 1740 in Rome under the title of Vindiciae canonicarum Scripturarum Vulgatae Latinae editionis. This is online here at the Internet Archive, but – caveat lector – the reader is warned that page 1 is preceded by 456 pages of “introduction”.
Our portion is on p.170 (p.626 of the PDF). The Greek text, on the left, is given in Roman letters.
And here we see… “terra”.
In the Stuttgart Vulgate (5th ed., p.892), we find “terrae”, but a footnote “terra” in MSS “SKΦc”. In vol. 2 of Sabatier’s edition of the Old Latin, p.192, he gives a “versio antiqua”, i.e. before Jerome, from a ms., with “terra” and a “Vulgata hodierna”, as Jerome’s translation of the LXX, also “terra”. Only the version from the Hebrew is “terrae”.
So, is “terra” a Vetus Latina reading, straightened out by St Jerome, but persisting through liturgical usage? In my state of ignorance, it seems like it might be.
- [1]Taken from this site, which professes to offer the Migne text: PL 36, 67-1026; PL 37, 1033-1966; this portion PL 37, col. 1243.↩
- [2]St Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, volume 4, p.446. Series: The Works of St Augustine. A Translation for the 21st Century, Part III – Books; volume 18: Expositions of the Psalms 73-98. New City Press (2002)↩