5

In the Douay-Rheims Baile, Gen. 1:2 is given as:

Terra autem erat inanis et vacua et tenebrae super faciem abyssi et spiritus Dei ferebatur super aquas.

The translation of the last clause is given as, "and the spirit of God moved over the waters". With the the passive verb ferebatur it seems better translated as "the spirit of God was born (or was moved) over the waters".

Any thoughts as to why Jerome chose the passive voice. Or perhaps is the translation a little off?

Stephen Perencevich
  • 541
  • 2
  • 5

2 Answers2

6

Here's that passage in the Septuagint:

ἡ δὲ γῆ ἦν ἀόρατος καὶ ἀκατασκεύαστος, καὶ σκότος ἐπάνω τῆς ἀβύσσου, καὶ πνεῦμα Θεοῦ ἐπεφέρετο ἐπάνω τοῦ ὕδατος.

Jerome follows this quite closely; ferebatur translates ἐπεφέρετο, which is a mediopassive imperfect (of ἐπιφέρω rather than φέρω, but Latin doesn't have an exact cognate and fero is close enough; it's just repeating the preposition from ἐπάνω anyway), and it's pretty clear the medial meaning ('laid himself upon', if you like) is intended rather than the passive ('was laid upon').
Classical Latin doesn't have morphology for the middle voice or mediopassive and doesn't really permit passives to be used with medial meanings in most cases, but Jerome is generally more concerned with hewing closely to his sources than with producing perfectly idiomatic Latin.

Cairnarvon
  • 10,062
  • 1
  • 31
  • 57
5

Compare the LXX:

ἡ δὲ γῆ ἦν ἀόρατος καὶ ἀκατασκεύαστος, καὶ σκότος ἐπάνω τῆς ἀβύσσου, καὶ πνεῦμα Θεοῦ ἐπεφέρετο ἐπάνω τοῦ ὕδατος.
But the Earth was unseen and unfinished, and darkness [was] above the Abyss, and the spirit of God was being borne/bearing itself above the water.

Ἐπεφέρετο is the imperfect middle/passive of ἐπι-φέρω, "place upon, carry with". Ferebatur, imperfect passive, is a very literal translation of this form.

Why middle/passive in the LXX? The Hebrew is מְרַחֶ֖פֶת məraħepheth; I'm not great at Biblical Hebrew, but this seems to come from the root RĦP in piʕel form, and all the information I've found about this particular usage points right back to Genesis 1:2.

So the best explanation I can offer is, it's how the LXX did it, and Jerome generally tried to mimic the Greek and Hebrew very closely. Explaining the nuances of the Hebrew form will require someone with better proficiency at that language than me.

Draconis
  • 66,625
  • 6
  • 117
  • 269
  • 1
    The Hebrew verb means "hover" (and isn't passive), so the LXX isn't translating very closely here. – TKR Jan 03 '22 at 04:58
  • In this case, the form of the Hebrew verb probably implies some kind of repetitive motion. Scholars are not in full agreement about its meaning, but "hover" has the most consensus. It might also mean "flit/flutter about" or maybe even "brood." A form of this same word is also used in Deuteronomy 32:11, where the Latin translation is "volitans" ("fly about/hasten/hover"). I don't understand the Septuagint Greek fully, but it seems to use a very liberal translation of the Hebrew, using ἐπεπόθησεν ("yearned after") instead of a motion verb. – Vegawatcher Jan 03 '22 at 14:47