Presbyterorum Ordinis, n. 4, Latin vs. English, preaching the Gospel

[japhy]

Here’s a Latin excerpt from the Vatican II on the ministry of the ordained priesthood: Presbyteri … primum habent officium Evangelium Dei omnibus evangelizandi.

Here’s the corresponding English translation from the Vatican web site: “priests … have the primary duty of proclaiming the Gospel of God to all.”

Now, here is how the US Bishops translated it in their 1982 document on preaching entitled, “Fulfilled in Your Hearing”: “The primary duty of priests is the proclamation of the Gospel of God to all.”

Do you see the difference between the two translations? The first one says that the duty to proclaim the Gospel is primary and priests have that duty, whereas the second one says the duty to proclaim the Gospel is the primary duty of priests. It’s a subtle difference, and my gut tells me #2 isn’t correct theologically (what about the sacraments?! not to mention we all have the duty to preach the Gospel), but my meager Latin skills lead me to believe that both are potentially accurate translations of the Latin phrase primum habent officium, since primum can be either an adverb (“in the first place”) or an adjective (“primary” or “principal”). The fact that it comes before the noun rather than after it concerns me, and that it comes immediately before the verb, which seems to indicate it is, indeed, an adverb.

 

[IrishBrigade]

**but my meager Latin skills lead me to believe that both are potentially accurate translations of the Latin phrase primum habent officium, since primum can be either an adverb (“in the first place”) or an adjective (“primary” or “principal”). The fact that it comes before the noun rather than after it concerns me, and that it comes immediately before the verb, which seems to indicate it is, indeed, an adverb

…a subtle difference indeed, and an interesting one…regarding Latin word order, it is, of course, of minimal importance in conveying syntax, but my lexicon refers to primum as an adverb, meaning ‘in the first place’ or ‘firstly’, perhaps referring to the verb ‘proclaim’…my sense of the sentence would read ‘the priests have the duty firstly of proclaiming the Gospel…’, more in line with your understanding of it…**

 

[japhy]

I know this is an old thread, but I just heard an answer. In Fr. John Trigilio’s EWTN series “Council of Faith” (on the Vatican II documents), he mentions in episode 14, on Presbyterorum Ordinis, that the Latin is properly translated as “[their] first duty”, meaning first in order, not first in importance.