Today's reading

[TheInquisitor]

Ok, so I attended Daily mass today and ran into a small difficulty.

First: It quoted Psalms 40:6 in the responsorial psalm. “Sacrifice or oblation you wished not,
but ears open to obedience you gave me.”

Then: It quoted Hebrews 10:5 which quotes Psalms 40:6 but says “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me;”

Seems like quite a difference.

What say you Catholic forum goers?

Have a nice day,
Inquisitor

 

[Della]

Ok, so I attended Daily mass today and ran into a small difficulty.

First: It quoted Psalms 40:6 in the responsorial psalm. “Sacrifice or oblation you wished not,
but ears open to obedience you gave me.”

Then: It quoted Hebrews 10:5 which quotes Psalms 40:6 but says “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me;”

Seems like quite a difference.

What say you Catholic forum goers?

Have a nice day,
Inquisitor

It could be the difference between the Septuagint (Greek) translation of the OT and the Hebrew translation. Also, such citings are not meant to prove doctrine but rather are referenced as a witness to the fulfillment of the promised Messiah. Either translation does that.

 

[steve_b]

Ok, so I attended Daily mass today and ran into a small difficulty.

First: It quoted Psalms 40:6 in the responsorial psalm. “Sacrifice or oblation you wished not,
but ears open to obedience you gave me.”

Then: It quoted Hebrews 10:5 which quotes Psalms 40:6 but says “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me;”

Seems like quite a difference.

What say you Catholic forum goers?

Have a nice day,
Inquisitor

taken together they are designed to complement each other. Can you see the common thread that runs through them?

**Monday, March 26, 2012 **
The Annunciation of the Lord (Solemnity)

Isaiah 7:10-14
Psalm 40:7-11
Hebrews 10:4-10
Luke 1:26-38

 

[TheInquisitor]

It could be the difference between the Septuagint (Greek) translation of the OT and the Hebrew translation. Also, such citings are not meant to prove doctrine but rather are referenced as a witness to the fulfillment of the promised Messiah. Either translation does that.

That’s actually precisely the reason. So it’s not a bad thing to render a different interpretation of the scriptures in this case?

 

[DaveBj]

This is precisely the issue that got me started thinking about Catholicism. “Why the difference? Which one is right? More importantly, who has the authority to tell me which one is right, or whether it even matters which one is right?”

Hello, Magisterium.

 

[TimothyH]

Hebrews is one of the most beautifully written and most difficult to understand books of the entire Bible. I’m no expert but this is what I gather from the Sacra Pagina commentary on Hebrews.

The issue faced in the OP has to do in part with translations, and with what the original Hebrew Bible (masoretic text) says in the Psalm and how the Greek translation (septuaging) renders the same passage in Greek.

The Hebrew Bible seems to say, “ears you have dug for me” or “ears you have hollowed out for me.”

In the Old Testament, phrases like “Hear, O Israel!” didn’t just mean that the sound of his voice should reach your ears. It was more akin to how a mother would reprimand a child saying, “Why did you disobey me? Didn’t you hear what I said!?” The mother isn’t talking about the sound of her voice reaching the child’s ears but asking why her child did not obey, why he didn’t listen to her.

To have ears is not just hearing but is to take the words to heart and live them out.

Some of the Greek manuscripts say, “Ears you have prepared for me” and other’s say, “A body you have prepared for me.” The author of Hebrews seems to be relying on the latter and in so doing he is not contrasting contrition vs sacrifice as does Psalm 40 and Psalm 51, but linking them.

Inquisitor, read verses 8 through 10.

When he said above, “Thou hast neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the law), then he added, “Lo, I have come to do thy will.” He abolishes the first in order to establish the second. And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. (Hebrews 10:8-10)

the idea of obedience, as in “Hear, O Israel” and “He who has ears ought to hear” and “Ears you have hollowed out for me” is personified in the body which God has prepared for the Second person of the Trinity.

Instead of obedience vs sacrifice, Christ himself has become both perfect obedience (ears) and the perfect sacrifice (body), forever linking the two.

Some of this is quite new to me, and more than a little fuzzy. It is the first time I have looked at that passage at length and am relying on a commentary which is more designed for graduate level theologians rather than some guy with a keyboard. But I did read through both the passages and some reference matarial severa times and learned a lot. I my poor understanding helps you in some way.

For some reason I have been fascinated by the book of Hebrews for the past several months.

-Tim-

 

[mercytruth]

Tim,

Exactly as you have written:

’Instead of obedience vs sacrifice, Christ himself has become both perfect obedience (ears) and the perfect sacrifice (body), forever linking the two."

Agree that Hebrews is a beautiful book, one that continues to cause one to reflect.

as strangers and sojourners they dwelt in tents,
“for they looked for a city whose builder and maker is God”