Too Literal to Be Correct.
THE S. F. Bulletin gives a report of a sermon preached by Dr. Robert Patterson at Pacific Grove Retreat on the subject of the Sabbath. In this report is the following paragraph:— “Dr. Patterson then referred to the teachings of physiology, which show that in work there is a constant expenditure of oxygen belonging to the body, and that there is received through the air less than is given out. This drain can only be stopped by resting from labor one day in each week. It is upon this ground, of the vital necessity of the Sabbath for the supply of the deficiency of oxygen caused by work in men and beasts, that the Lord insists upon the Sabbath rest in Exodus 23:12: ‘Six days shalt thou do thy work, and on the seventh thou shalt rest, that thine ox and thine ass may rest, and the son of thine handmaid, and the stranger may take breath.’ Wanephesh our translation renders ‘may be refreshed;’ but God gives more accurately the precise mode by which the working man is refreshed by his Sabbath rest, ‘by taking breath,’ by supplying the deficient breath of life.” The ability of Dr. Patterson is altogether beyond question, but an able man may run his points too fine in aiming at a desired conclusion. There is such a thing as being entirely too literal in the translation of a Hebrew sentence. We have been often reminded of the remark made to us several years ago by the learned Rabbi, the late Dr. Lillienthal, of Cincinnati. He said he found fault with the Christian grammarians in the Hebrew because they tried to bring the Hebrew of the Old Testament to the precision of western languages, which, said he, cannot be done. The language is too brief; it deals too largely in figures. That Dr. Patterson is strictly literal in his translation, no one can dispute. That his rendering is preferable to that of the received Version we must beg leave to doubt. His reasoning and rendering will not apply in the case of the same expression in Exodus 31:17, thus: “In six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed;” literally, “he took breath.” In this text, the words “was refreshed” have a significance; the words “he took breath,” have no significance whatever, except as a figure of speech. In every like instance the received translation is the very best that can be made. We believe there is more implied in the expression than a mere restoration of oxygen to the physical frame. Dr. Clarke very aptly says of Ex. 23:12, “that they may be re-inspired or new-souled.” Eld. Andrews, in History of the Sabbath, makes “was refreshed,” in Ex. 31:17, to represent that the Lord delighted in the work from which he rested. Dr. Clarke also compares Ex. 23:12 with Acts 3:19, “times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.” And this is justified by the Greek of the Septuagint and of the text in Acts. “Times of oxygenating” would but faintly express the idea of the apostle in Acts 3:19. We think it comes equally short of reaching to the full meaning of Ex. 23:12. There is a strong tendency in these days to make the Sabbath a mere rest from physical labor. This is not the Scriptural idea at all.