Biblical paraphrase

A biblical paraphrase is a literary work which has as its goal, not the translation of the Bible, but rather, the rendering of the Bible into a work that retells all or part of the Bible in a manner that accords with a particular set of theological or political doctrines.^[1] Such works "weave with ease and without self-consciousness, in and out of material from the volume we know between hard covers as the Bible ...(bringing it) into play with disparate sources, religious practices, and (prayers)."^[2]

Background

Before the Bible existed, paraphrase was used as a tool for rhetorical and educational purposes in ancient Greece and Rome. Demosthenes practiced paraphrase on his own orations, according to Plutarch. Quintilian recommended paraphrase. These rhetoricians used paraphrase to improve their writing. In schools, verse by Homer and Virgil were commonly paraphrased. Paraphrase of verse "translates" the meaning stylistically into prose.^[3]

As a religious practice, Targumim, a Jewish tradition, was a paraphrase that performed interpretive work. Targumim often translated parts of the Hebrew Bible from Hebrew into a vernacular tongue like Aramaic. Many other examples of paraphrase exist within Jewish literature. One example is by Philo, who interspersed quotation of Genesis 2:1-6 with paraphrase.^[4]

The purpose and justification for biblical paraphrase varies depending on the time period and language of the work. In the middle ages, English biblical paraphrase was considered a kind of translation, where the translator was expected to add interpretation, expansion, or other inventions to the text. This was especially apparent in Middle and Modern English metrical psalters.^[5]

History

Early Church

Christian biblical paraphrase dates back to its earliest written history. They vary in their adherence to the meaning of the original text. Sometimes they reflected commonly accepted interpretations of passages, and sometimes they showed an original interpretation by the paraphrase's author. With metrical paraphrase, meaning could have been altered for the sake of more easily adhering to the demands of the poetic form.^[6]

Melito of Sardis, an early Christian prelate, wrote a paraphrase of Exodus as part of a Passover sermon. Gregory of Nyssa explained that his paraphrase of part of Psalm 57 was "for the sake of clarity." Other early Christian writings incorporated paraphrase in their homilies and other writings. Verse-by-verse paraphrase started in the fourth and fifth centuries, often using the meter of pagan poetry. Septuagint's hexameter paraphrase of the Psalms and Nonnus of Panopolis's of the gospel of John are two examples from Greek. In Latin, Juvencus and Paulinus of Nola both wrote biblical paraphrases.^[7]

Medieval

Biblical paraphrases in the 15th century had influences from earlier compositions that were closer to narrative retellings than verse-by-verse paraphrase. Cursor Mundi, a narrative poem that retells the stories in the Bible, was undergoing ongoing editing in the early 1400s, even though its composition had begun almost a century earlier. The Vernon Manuscript contained multiple biblical narratives in Middle English, including La Estorie del Euangelie, a harmonization of the gospels in verse, as well as translations of several psalms into Middle English by Richard Maidstone.^[8] The Historia scholastica was a popular Latin biblical narrative completed around 1170. The Middle English Metrical Paraphrase of the Old Testament, finished around 1380, paraphrased Historia Scholastica extensively. It also used Old French metrical paraphrase of the Old Testament and Cursor Mundi as source material.^[9] The motivation behind Paraphrase, according to its own text, was "for the uneducated men to understand quickly."^[10] Paraphrase also related Biblical events to current events in order for the scripture to be "at once ancient history and present reality."^[10] Generally, Middle English paraphrases of psalms made liturgically significant psalms legible to readers who did not know Latin.^[11] The earliest Middle English paraphrase of a psalm is from the 1330s in the Auchinleck Manuscript, and is of Psalm 50. The paraphrase appears alongside quotation of the Latin text and commentary.^[12]

The Arundel Constitutions, set forth in 1409, limited what lay people could read and write about scripture and its translation in parts of England and specifically at Oxford University. While commentary and translations were not allowed, biblical paraphrases were a popular way for lay readers to understand the Bible. Verse paraphrase made the Bible stories more memorable and easier to understand. During this period, biblical translation included glosses and commentary, and translators were simultaneously commentators.^[13] They often relied on previous Middle English translations of the Psalms, and the Wycliffe translations clearly influenced many paraphrases, even though the Wycliffe texts were considered heterodox.^[14] Individual penitential psalms were popular subjects of devotional paraphrase. Richard Maidstone and Thomas Brampton both wrote paraphrases of them in the 15th century, with both supplementing paraphrase of individual verses in poetry with commentary.^[15] Maidstone's poetic paraphrases were popular, especially his paraphrase of Psalm 50. Maidstone's paraphrases appear in over 20 manuscripts, with the majority being part of larger collections of devotional and quasi-liturgical texts. Brampton's paraphrases appear in manuscripts in a similar context.^[16]

Early modern

Erasmus, a Christian humanist, wrote prominent biblical paraphrases. Erasmus paraphrased whole chapters and books of the Bible, including Acts and Romans, in a more accessible Latin form. These were collected and published posthumously as the Paraphrases. Erasmus himself saw biblical paraphrase as " a kind of commentary" which extended and elaborated on the original text. Erasmus's paraphrases were translated into English. In the 1540s, Nicholas Udall oversaw translation of the New Testament paraphrases. Leonard Cox's translation of the paraphrase of Titus in 1534 had a clear political motive, as it emphasized the importance of obeying the king shortly after King Henry VIII married Anne Boleyn. Cox stated that the paraphrase would make all things "playne" (plain), in contrast to scholarly commentary.^[17]

Erasmus didn't believe that the Psalms could be paraphrased well, but many others in the medieval and early modern era wrote psalm paraphrases. One such paraphrase by Wolfgang Capito was translated into English by Richard Taverner. The Taverner-Capito Psalter (1539), like many paraphrases, made theological inferences plain, but relied on the paraphraser's interpretation of the psalm text. In this way, the paraphrase became a literary genre where Protestant men and women could exercise imaginative skills in a devotional act.^[17]

Prayer 36 from Wheathill's A hanfulll of hole-some (though homelie) hearbs, which includes a paraphrase of Psalm 23.

Protestant women composed paraphrases in the 16th century. Anne Locke paraphrased Psalm 51 in the form of a sonnet sequence in "A Meditation of A Penitent Sinner: Written in Maner of a Paraphrase." Her paraphrase expresses her own theological and political ideas. She compares Jerusalem to England and states that after Catholic Mary I of England's reign, England will be safe for Protestants once again. Anne Wheathill's collection of prose prayers, A Handfull of Holesome (though homelie) Hearbs includes a paraphrase of Psalm 23 and of Psalm 90. The paraphrases contain references to other parts of the Bible and show Wheathill's ideas about the creation, the fall, and redemption.^[17]

Devotional poetry and biblical paraphrase in the 17th century have been strongly associated with the Protestant Reformation. Protestant approaches to Bible study emphasized the importance of individual interpretation. ^[18] However, R. V. Young, in his book Doctrine and Devotion in 17th-Century Poetry, argues that Erasmus and the humanist tradition influenced scholars to write Biblical poetry, translations, and paraphrases in both Catholic and Protestant traditions at this time. ^[19]

Paraphrases could take the form of poetry, prose, or be written as the lyrics of songs such as the Presbyterian paraphrases.^{[citation needed]}

The Living Bible, first published in 1971, is a modern example of a paraphrase Bible.^[20]