Thursday, February 7, 2008

Nigeria, a missionary-sending nation

"For every one missionary who enters Nigeria, five nationals are going out as missionaries to other fields."
--from a Wycliffe Bible Translators report

9 comments:

Colin Clout said...

Somehow I deleted your email (I think I know it, but I'm not sure, and can't remember if it's yahoo or hotmail), so I'm posting this here.

Could you help me out with a little Latin translation?

The whole sentence is:

Deinde, cum subdit: etenim sicut ipsa et cetera, quod supra rationibus ostendebatur, ostendit auctoritate, cum dicit quod: ipsa, deitas, de seipsa in sacris eloquiis tradidit, sicut decet bonam, idest bonitatem eius, ut veritatem, scilicet, de seipsa tradat; hoc inquam, tradidit, quod omnibus existentibus scientia et contemplatio ipsius est invia, idest nullus ad eam accedere potest, non quidem qualicumque scientia vel contemplatione, sed qua quod quid est scitur vel contemplatur de ea quod quid est; quae quidem est scientia comprehensiva substantiae ipsius.

This is from Aquinas' commentary on Pseudo Dionysius' "On Divine Names." The italics are Dionysius, the plain type, Aquinas.

I think I have most of it, but I'r really having difficulty on the line "sed qua quod quid est scitur vel contemplatur de ea quod quid est." All those "qua quod quid" are really throwing me off.

(My translation of the rest is "Then next, when he says: “for just as itself” etc. (etenim sicut ipsa) he proves by authority what he had above proven by reason when he says that deity “itself” “handed over from Himself in” Sacred “Writings, just as is fitting for good” that is his Goodness that namely he should hand over his truth from Himself; “He handed over”—I say—because “knowledge (science) and contemplation of He Himself is impenetrable to all existing things” that is no one is able to come near to Him, not indeed through any sort of knowledge (science) or contemplation...which indeed is comprehensible knowledge of his substance."

Thanks

Matt

Colin Clout said...

I should probably clean up my translation a little...

Jeff Moss said...

sed qua quod quid est scitur vel contemplatur de ea quod quid est;

Wow, Matt, it's been a while since I've studied Latin, and I don't know if I ever got much into texts of this complexity. Here's a groping attempt at it; see if this helps your translation any.

"But as [the fact] that a thing (quid) is [i.e. exists], is known or contemplated from that which the thing is..."

In other words, before you ask the question whether something exists, you must first ascertain what sort of thing it is whose existence you are inquiring about.

See if that fits the context. Take quod as a conjunction ("that" or "because") and/or quid as an indefinite pronoun ("anything," "a thing"), and see if it works. I'm still not sure if I've gotten it right, but I hope this helps.

Colin Clout said...

In this case He's saying "God can only be known through God", (or any creaturly similitude of God falls short) and thus "scientia et contemplatio ipsius est invia" "knowledge and contemplation of Him is unattainable", but God hands unattainable knowledge over to us "tradidit de se ipsa in Sacris eloquiis."

But then if the unattainable knowledge is handed over, how then is it attained? "nullus ad eam accedere potest, non quidem qualicumque scientia vel contemplatione, sed qua quod quid est scitur vel contemplatur de ea quod quid est" "nothing is able to rise to Him (for He is beyond all created similitude), not even by any science or contemplation, but by that which what He is is known or contemplated from that which is what he is (that is knowledge of God from Scripture and from Christ--from God Himself, and from God Himself), and that sort of knowledge is indeed attainable knowledge of His substance."

Colin Clout said...

And thanks for the help.

Matt

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