On Paraphrase — The Eighth Method
Paraphrase (ΠΑΡΑΦΡΑΣΙΣ), Ecphrasis, or Metaphrasis — which (the distinction of certain rhetoricians being omitted) I wish to signify the same thing 1 — is that [method] which turns the very narration of divine scripture into another narration corresponding to it in proportion; in which indeed, as Themistius asserts in the preface of Aristotle’s Posterior [Analytics], [it is permitted]… 2 [continues p178]
[continuing from p177] …[in which indeed, as Themistius asserts in the preface of Aristotle’s Posterior Analytics,] it is permitted to the Paraphrast — the integrity of the same sense being always preserved — to compress things prolix and poured out at length; freely to dilate and amplify things terse and concise; to supply things omitted; to fill up things gaping; to illustrate things involved and obscure with open and conspicuous words; and to adorn [them] with a becoming elegance of speech; and to connect those things which seem far separated among themselves and disposed in no order, and to arrange [them] in an ordered series.
Now there are two species of Paraphrase: 3 the one more compressed and stricter, which is nothing else than a certain freer translation — whether you call it a Paraphrastic translation, or a Translational Paraphrase, you will call it rightly. In this species there excelled, among the Hebrews, Onkelos, Jonathan, and Joseph, who published the Targum — that is, a Paraphrase upon the whole old testament in the Chaldaic tongue.
The other, which is somewhat fuller and broader, is distinguished by a twofold variety: of which the former, which follows the sense of the words rather than the words themselves, elucidates the meaning of the sacred reading under a certain copious brevity — in which matter, among the Greeks, Gregory bishop of Neocaesarea availed much, and among the Latins, Francis Titelmann. But the latter [variety], which contains more artifice, is so tenacious of the words that it does not suffer even a single word of the sacred context to be transposed, or changed, or omitted. This latter variety is called by us — and not ineptly — the Interwoven Paraphrase, 4 because it interweaves and connects the words of the sacred reading together with the very words of elucidation with such artifice that, unless both be distinguished by characters (whether by size or by form), these could not easily be discerned from those. An example of this skill — no less laborious than profitable — Rainer Snoy of Gouda furnished, in the Paraphrase of all the psalms published by him; which, together with the formulas of the other Paraphrases, I have thought worth inserting here.
An Example of Translational Paraphrase, on Psalm 116
Praise the Lord, all nations; extol him with praises, all peoples wheresoever you are. For most copiously has he used toward us his twofold mercy, and his constancy in the promises themselves is to endure perpetually.
An Example of the Broader Paraphrase, following the sense rather than the words (from Francis Titelmann, on the same Psalm)
[Praise the Lord, all nations:] O all you nations of the Gentiles, who once were far from God, serving idols and demons and ignorant of the true God — now give praise and glory to God the Lord, in whom, taught by the apostolic preaching, you have believed.
[Praise him, all peoples:] Nor let the people of the Jews alone henceforth praise God; but, without distinction, all the nations of the peoples, wheresoever established on earth, equally praise together the Lord God.
[For his mercy is confirmed over us:] For now, in this time of grace, it has been fulfilled for all us believers, and by [His] work the mercy once promised to the fathers has been exhibited — that is, the redemption of the human race through Christ. And the mercy of the Lord (from which we were once far, when we were by nature children of wrath) is now corroborated and established over us who believe, so that it can never be taken away from us who believe in Him.
[And the truth of the Lord remains forever:] And the truth of His promises will not fail us for ever; but what He promised, He will keep for the believers with infallible truth. Which twofold consideration ought indeed to be matter of the greatest joy to all believers.
An Example of the Interwoven Paraphrase, from Rainer Snoy of Gouda, in which the words of the sacred context are distinguished from the words of elucidation by differently-formed letters
(the sacred text in bold, the elucidation in plain type)
Praise the Lord — God — all nations of the whole world; praise him — and magnify [the] benefits freely bestowed — all peoples of the Jews to be converted to the faith. For it is confirmed — by the effect of Christ’s incarnation — over us the faithful — his mercy, and our reparation mercifully promised; for what he promised through the prophets, he fulfilled by the coming of Christ — and the truth of the Lord — which is Christ — remains with us unto eternity, even to the consummation of the age.
Another Example of the Interwoven Paraphrase, from our own commentaries on various psalms, in which the [sacred] context is distinguished from the exposition by capital letters
Praise the one and true God, creator of heaven and earth, and Lord of the whole world, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ — all you nations diffused through the whole world of lands, who live piously and holily according to the laws of nature; but especially, and before all nations, praise, celebrate, and with innumerable praises, hymns, Psalms, and canticles extol him — not with voice and tongue alone, but with the affections of the mind and works conformable to the voice; proclaim him, all you twelve tribes of Israel, and peoples of the renowned Jews, whom the Lord chose for himself as a peculiar possession out of all the nations of the earth by a certain singular privilege. And the Lord is to be praised by you — both Gentiles and Jews — chiefly for this cause: for, bestowed and most fully completed, is confirmed (and in these latest times bountifully and splendidly poured out) over us — not only Jews, but also Gentiles — his mercy, the kindness and grace of human reparation exhibited to us in Christ Jesus, his only-begotten Son; and again and again is God to be celebrated by us with perpetual praise, because the truth of the promises which God once made through the prophets, in the holy scriptures, concerning the sending of His Son — and the fidelity of God the Father and of our Lord, and the firmness of His words, and the constancy of His promises — has not fallen away or utterly vanished, but has remained fixed, and still unmoved remains, and is so stable unto eternity, and shall abide for ever and ever, that no force can ever break, weaken, or change it. [continues p179]