New Translation Monday: Gloria in Excelsis Deo (Part II)

As a reminder, past editions of the New Translation Catechesis can be accessed via the top menu bar.

This week we present the second part in our catechesis on the Gloria.  The first part can be found here.  The first part of this ancient hymn is addressed to God the Father.  The second part is addressed to God the Son.  Let’s being by reminding ourselves of the current translation:

Lord Jesus Christ, only Son of the Father,

Lord God, Lamb of God,

you take away the sin of the world: have mercy on us;

you are seated at the right hand of the Father: receive our prayer.

For you alone are the Holy One, you alone are the Lord,

you alone are the Most High, Jesus Christ,

with the Holy Spirit, in the glory of God the Father.

Amen.

In Advent 2011 the faithful will sing instead:

Lord Jesus Christ, Only Begotten Son,

Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father,

you take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us;

you take away the sins of the world, receive our prayer;

you are seated at the right hand of the Father, have mercy on us.

For you alone are the Holy One, you alone are the Lord,

you alone are the Most High, Jesus Christ,

with the Holy Spirit, in the glory of God the Father.

Amen.

I have placed in bold those parts that differ.

A line-by-line comparison it a bit difficult because some of the changes involve moving the text around.  For instance, the pair of phrases in the first part:

you take away the sin of the world: have mercy on us;

you are seated at the right hand of the Father: receive our prayer

will be replaced with three lines:

you take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us;

you take away the sins of the world, receive our prayer;

you are seated at the right hand of the Father, have mercy on us.

Having the triple invocation (“have mercy on us ... receive our prayer ... have mercy on us”) is reminiscent of similar structures found in the Agnus Dei and Kyrie.  It is also more faithful to the Latin structure of the hymn:

qui tollis peccáta mundi, miserére nobis;

qui tollis peccáta mundi, súscipe deprecatiónem nostram.

Qui sedes ad déxteram Patris, miserére nobis.

The word qui is actually translated as “who” rather than “you.”  The second person singular is certainly the pronoun to whom the prayer is addressed, so repeating it in the English is appropriate, but a more literal translation might have been “You who take away the sins of the word, have mercy on us,” and so on through the other two lines.  The word dexteram translates literally as “right” (noun) but in other forms and contexts can stand for “right hand.”  Other than the fairly insignificant elimination of “who” (qui), the new translation is spot on in comparison to the Latin.

There is one other minor change in these lines that is worth mentioning.  The current translation uses “sin” for the Latin word peccata.  Secular Latin students may not see this in the first year, but those enrolled in Latin programs in a Christian setting will often experience peccatum as a very early vocabulary word, mostly because (1) it is a second declension noun, so easy to work with, and (2) it occurs frequently in Christian literature (biblical, liturgical, and theological).  These early students will waste no time in telling you that the form peccata is plural, not singular.  The new translation fixes this with “you take away the sins of the world.  While a minor change in comparison to the rest of the Gloria, there is an important theological point to be made here.  When we say that Christ came to take away the sin (singular) of the world, we speak rightly, but we are emphasizing that he combats sin in general, perhaps even referring to original sin.  This is certainly true, but Christ also came to take away personal sins, and it is this reality that is seemingly emphasized in the Latin text of the Gloria (as well as the Agnus Dei).  Again, this takes nothing away form the reality that Christ destroys evil in general and that Baptism washes away the stain of original sin, but the word in the Gloria is specifically plural, and hence recognizes our own personal sins and the saving reality of Christ’s grace.

Finally, there two changes to how Christ is addressed in the first two lines of this section.  The Latin for these lines reads:

Dómine Fili Unigénite, Iesu Christe,

Dómine Deus, Agnus Dei, Fílius Patris,

Fili Unigenite is an ancient and venerable title given to Jesus.  A similar construction occurs in the Nicene Creed:  Fílium Dei Unigénitum.  The new translation of the Creed renders this as “Only Begotten Son of God.”  Likewise the Gloria renders its version as “Only Begotten Son.”  This is precisely how the Latin should be translated, and the adjective “begotten” contains a precise theological reality: that the Second Person of the Trinity proceeds forth from the Father yet is no less divine, no less an eternal Person in the Blessed Trinity.

The second change is the restoration of the title “Son of the Father” at the end of the second line.  (Actually, it seems that the current translation combined “Only Begotten Son” and “Son of the Father” into “Only Son of the Father.”)  “Son of the Father” is a perfect translation of Filius Patris.

This concludes our presentation of the major changes to the people’s parts.  Next week we will dedicate a column that quickly goes through the rest of the changes, all minor in scope to what has been presented the past fifteen weeks.