Question on Psalm 23

[Benedict54]

I was reading in my English-Latin Bible (Douay-Rhemis version and Biblia Sacra Juxta Vulgatam Clementinam) . [Psalm 23 is actually Psalm 22 in this version.]. The 1st phrase of verse 1 is “Dominus regit me,…” and is translated "The Lord ruleth me:… .
Does anyone know how this came to be rendered as "The Lord is my Shepherd…?

Thank you.

 

[Ocarm]

The 1st phrase of verse 1 is “Dominus regit me,…” and is translated "The Lord ruleth me:… .
Does anyone know how this came to be rendered as "The Lord is my Shepherd…

The straight answer is that the Vulgate gives an elliptical translation of the word, and as a translation of a translation, the Douay-Rheims replicates the problem.

The original Hebrew word is רעה ( transliteration râ‛âh, phonetically raw-aw) meaning one who tends a flock or who pastures sheep. This can by association be rendered as one who rules over/ has responsibility for [as a shepherd rules over a flock] but by isolating the idea of rulership, the nurturing connotation is lost.

‘The Lord is my shepherd’ is a much better translation, more poetic and more literal.

 

[Todd_Easton]

In the Catholic Church, the change began last century as a result of the directive of Pope Pius XII (Divino Afflante Spiritu) and the decree of the Second Vatican Council (Dei Verbum) that new vernacular Bibles be produced in which translational preference should be given to the original language texts. In the case of Psalm 23, that meant translational preference was to be given to the original Hebrew text. Previously, in the English Douay-Rheims Bible translational preference was given to St. Jerome’s Latin Vulgate over the Hebrew, which in turn appears to have given translational preference to the Greek Septuagint over the Hebrew. The Greek Septuagint was the pre-Christian translation of the original Hebrew texts favored by the first Christians. The authors of the New Testament itself gave translational preference to the Greek Septuagint over the Hebrew.

Protestant churches began giving translational preference to the original texts much earlier. The 1611 Protestant King James Bible reads, “The Lord is my shepherd.”