Tuesday 11 December 2012

A little Greek puzzle

I don't read Greek, but a couple of hundred people have followed the suggestion from Abram K-J that we read Isaiah in the LXX.  Am I ready finally to learn a little Greek? I have a dozen books around the house that have sat for 50 years waiting for me to pick them up. Well, I'm in - and I will listen.  At about 5 verses a day, perhaps I will get the hang of it sometime over the next 6 months.

In the meanwhile I thought about putting together one of my usual pictures of Isaiah 6:1-5.  In this I am ahead of the group. But I will go back, having done the first five verses and catch up a bit - at least at a conceptual level.  This is the origin of the Sanctus of the Ordinary of the Mass.  The music of verse 3 is like this:
For those who don't read music there's a quick rendition below.
 
Original audio source (here)

And here are the words that repeat in Isaiah 6:1-5, following my usual strategy of spotting similar sounds in the Hebrew - but this time the Greek is in the gloss.  I have to say this was very difficult to do for a blind and deaf person.  But the coherence and framing of these five verses is nevertheless obvious based on the words that repeat.

If anyone sees this - can you tell me if I got the interlinear sort of right?  It was hilarious trying to get glosses out of Google translate. It is difficult enough doing a manual interlinear in English!  What is this δυσὶν?

Anyway - I now have these five verses in a database where I can manipulate them somewhat (in raw form since my psalms software is somewhat specific to psalms... mea culpa).

Incidentally - I am doing the online reading with the polyglot Bible. I can't read the Greek yet - but I am OK with the Hebrew and Latin and I can frequently guess the Greek. This link has an easy to use dictionary - but it doesn't define δυσὶν either.

Selected recurring words (1 to 5)
Word and gloss * first usage12345678910123456VsRoot
המלך ὁ βασιλεύς
1מלך
ואראה εἶδον
1ראה
ישׁב καθήμενον
1ישׁב
מלאים καὶ πλήρης
1מלא
שׁשׁ ἓξ
2שׁשׁ
כנפים πτέρυγες
2כנף
שׁשׁ ἓξ
2שׁשׁ
כנפים πτέρυγες
2כנף
בשׁתים καὶ ταῖς μὲν δυσὶν
2שׁנים
יכסה κατεκάλυπτον
2כסה
ובשׁתים καὶ ταῖς δυσὶν
2שׁנים
יכסה δυσὶν κατεκάλυπτον
2כסה
ובשׁתים καὶ ταῖς δυσὶν
2שׁנים
וקרא καὶ ἐκέκραγον
3קרא
זה ἕτερος
3זה
זה ἕτερον
3זה
ואמר καὶ ἔλεγον
3אמר
קדושׁ ἅγιος
3קדשׁ
קדושׁ ἅγιος
3קדשׁ
קדושׁ ἅγιος
3קדשׁ
צבאות σαβαωθ
3צבא
מלא πλήρης
3מלא
הקורא ἧς ἐκέκραγον
4קרא
ימלא ἐπλήσθη
4מלא
ואמר καὶ εἶπα
5אמר
טמא ὢν καὶ ἀκάθαρτα
5טמא
שׂפתים χείλη
5שׂפה
אנכי ἔχων
5אנכי
טמא ἀκάθαρτα
5טמא
שׂפתים χείλη
5שׂפה
אנכי ἐγὼ
5אנכי
יושׁב ἔχοντος
5ישׁב
המלך βασιλέα
5מלך
צבאות σαβαωθ
5צבא
ראו εἶδον
5ראה
The meaning of the holy - what is that - and why is this passage here? 


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