The Shepherd, September 2009
POINTS FROM CORRESPONDENCE
IN PROVERBS 18:2, it says, “A fool hath no delight in understanding, but that his heart may discover itself.” What does this mean? Isaiah 45:17 says “But Israel shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation; ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without end.” (King James translation) What does this mean? The sentence doesn’t appear to make sense. Also, when we are told to visit those in prison, does that mean we should visit even criminals? - N.L., by email
ONE PROBLEM seems to be that you are using the KJV for the Old Testament rather than the Septuagint, which is the version used by the Orthodox Church. Unfortunately, there is as yet no standard translation of the Septuagint approved by the Church, but we have a parallel text one in Greek and English, and for the verse Proverbs 18:2, it reads: “A senseless man feels no need of wisdom, for he is rather led by folly.” This seems to make sense!
The Esaias quotation is closer in the two versions. Our Septuagint has: “Israel is saved by the Lord with a everlasting salvation: they shall not be ashamed or confounded for evermore.” Israel is, of course, often a figure of the Church or the people of the Church, and in this context the verse makes sense. Perhaps also the “world without end” confused you. In Protestant usage the expression “world without end” often replaces “for evermore” or as we say in the prayers “unto the ages of ages.” I think the odd expression came about by a mistranslation of the medieval Latin. I know when I was a young and an Anglican, I used to wonder whether it implied that the world would not end!
When translations of Orthodox texts were first made in this country, there seemed to be an ardent desire to make Orthodoxy as close to Anglicanism as possible, and so “world without end” and a host of other mistranslations were shepherded into Orthodox usage, even when they confused or even distorted the meaning of the original. Fortunately these eccentric usages seem now to have had their day, but you will still come across some.
And yes, we should visit criminals in prison - why ever not? They, like us, are made in the image of God and we should show them love. They, like us, have sinned, and need the loving ministrations of the Church. Many of them are our brothers and sisters in the Orthodox Faith. You or I may not have committed criminal offences, or may have done so and not been found out, and so we are not in prison - but that does not mean that we might not be far greater sinners than those people who are locked up in gaols. We are in no position to judge them, but we are in a position to show them the love of Christ. Again hope some of this verbiage helps.
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