“Three square meals” is a first-world idiom and definitely not synonymous with “our daily bread”

On September 16, 2008 -- nearly five years ago -- I showed you the Lord’s Prayer in Old English, also known as Anglo-Saxon, which was spoken in the British Isles from around 450 A.D. until around 1100:

Fæder úre, ðú ðe eart on heofonum,
Sí ðín nama gehálgod.
Tó becume ðín rice.
Gewurde ðín willa
On eorþan swá swá on heofonum.
Urne dægwhamlícan hlaf syle ús tódæg.
And forgyf ús úre gyltas,
Swá swá wé forgyfaþ úrum gyltendum.
And ne gelæd ðu ús on costnunge,
Ac álýs ús of yfele. Sóþlice.

Next I showed it to you in Middle English, the language of Chaucer, when some of the old Anglo-Saxon characters were still being used:

Oure fadir þat art in heuenes halwid be þi name;
þi reume or kyngdom come to be.
Be þi wille don in herþe as it is doun in heuene.
yeue to us today oure eche dayes bred.
And foryeue to us oure dettis þat is oure synnys as we foryeuen to oure dettouris þat is to men þat han synned in us.
And lede us not into temptacion but delyuere us from euyl.

Then I showed it to you in the English of the Wycliffe Bible published in 1390. The Anglo-Saxon characters had been replaced by the letters “th” but the “i” and “y” were still pretty much interchangeable, as were the “u” and “v”:

Oure fadir that art in heuenes, halewid be thi name; thi kyngdoom come to;
be thi wille don in erthe as in heuene;
yyue to vs this dai oure breed ouer othir substaunce;
and foryyue to vs oure dettis, as we foryyuen to oure dettouris;
and lede vs not in to temptacioun, but delyuere vs fro yuel. Amen.

...and in the familiar English of the King James Version of 1611:

Our Father which art in heaven,
Hallowed be Thy name.
Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil:
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever.
Amen.

I ended my September 2008 post by saying that the miracle is that English has not changed all that much since 1611.

I was wrong. Here is what purports to be the Lord’s Prayer in something called The Message:

Our Father in heaven,
Reveal who you are.
Set the world right;
Do what’s best — as above, so below.
Keep us alive with three square meals.
Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.
Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil.
You’re in charge!
You can do anything you want!
You’re ablaze in beauty!
Yes. Yes. Yes.

Part of me wants to applaud, but part of me wants to throw up. Think of it! No “Hallowed be thy name” or “thy kingdom come, thy will be done” anywhere in sight. Certainly nothing about guilt or debts or trespasses. Furthermore, “three square meals” is a first-world idiom and definitely not synonymous with “our daily bread.”

Wikipedia calls The Message, which was created between 1993 and 2002 by a man named Eugene Peterson, “a contemporary rendering of the Holy Bible” and adds, “Though The Message is often considered a paraphrase, it is not explicitly; The Message was translated by Peterson from the original languages. Thus, it is a highly idiomatic translation, and as such falls on the extreme dynamic end of the dynamic and formal equivalence spectrum.”

All righty, then. Highly idiomatic. Extreme dynamic end of the whatchamacallit. Indeed.

I just don’t think I’m quite ready yet to drop “Give us this day our daily bread” or “Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory” and perhaps most especially, “Amen.” After all, there are several other contexts in which one might say, “Yes. Yes. Yes.” Other bloggers (Snowbrush and Yorkshire Pudding, perhaps) can fill you in on those scenarios.

In 2011, still another version of the Bible was published called the Common English Bible. In it, the Lord’s Prayer is certainly not King James English but neither is it the radical change of The Message :

Our Father who is in heaven, uphold the holiness of your name.
Bring in your kingdom so that your will is done on earth as it’s done in heaven.
Give us the bread we need for today.
Forgive us for the ways we have wronged you, just as we also forgive those who have wronged us.
And don’t lead us into temptation, but rescue us from the evil one.

Perhaps that is a good starting place for the modern reader.
Only time will tell. But I still miss the kingdom and the power and the glory and the Amen.

Language is always changing. If some reader finds this blog five hundred years from now, this entire post will probably seem like Anglo-Saxon.

We aim to please.

In the bowels -- apologies to Yorkshire Pudding -- of the Feedjit Live Traffic thingie over in the sidebar, I noticed that a reader in Houston who had done a search on black women who singing one day at a time sweet jesus had landed on a post of mine entitled “One Day at a Time, Sweet Jesus” which includes a photograph of a field of bluebonnets somewhere in East Texas followed by the “Take no thought for the morrow” passage of scripture from the sixth chapter of the Gospel According to St. Matthew. It contains absolutely nothing, however, about the song mentioned in the post’s title (except for the obvious connection readers were supposed to make from the “Take no thought for the morrow” passage of scripture from the sixth chapter of the Gospel According to St. Matthew).

A thousand pardons.

I want to remedy that at once. Houston Reader, here is -- not black women (plural), sorry -- but a black woman (singular) singing Christy Lane’s song, “One Day At A Time, Sweet Jesus” (5:33).

The church is Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church in Chicago, Illinois.

And here, Houston Reader, are black women (plural), black men, and a rather flamboyant an impassioned pianist, organist, and drummer performing “The Lord's Prayer” (5:00).

Although that particular musical style and level of intensity in worship may not be your cup of tea, it is what is referred to in the U.S. as “black gospel” music, a genre in which sincerity trumps technique.

But I do hope that Houston Reader is now happy, that Snow- brush out in Oregon has managed to recall a few fond memories from his early years in Mississippi, and that Yorkshire Pudding’s diarrhoea (his spelling, not mine) is now cured.

Writing this post brings to mind what an anonymous woman from Montgomery, Alabama, said at the end of the 381-day-long bus boycott in her city during the Civil Rights era: “My feet are tired, but my soul is rested.”

As a sort of parting gift to you to get you through my possible impending absence

...here are Andrea Bocelli and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir singing “The Lord’s Prayer” (4:25).

This particular piece of music was written by a man named Albert Hay Malotte (1895 - 1964), about whom I knew absolutely nothing until I read about him in that ever-changing fount of all knowledge, or not, Wikipedia.

Here is an excerpt:

“Malotte composed a number of film scores, including mostly uncredited music for animations from the Disney studios. Although two movies for which he composed scores won best Short Subject Academy Awards (Ferdinand the Bull in 1939 and The Ugly Duckling in 1940), he is best remembered for a setting of the Lord's Prayer. Written in 1935, it was recorded by the baritone John Charles Thomas, and remained highly popular for use as a solo in churches and at weddings in the US for some decades.”

My six degrees of separation, or two, or whatever, from both Albert Hay Malotte and John Charles Thomas is the fact that when I was a child living in a third-floor apartment in a house in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, around 1946 or 1947, I listened to that recording made by John Charles Thomas. It was one of two 78-rpm recordings that I played over and over on a huge wind-up, hand-cranked Victrola rather like this one:

The other recording I listened to over and over in those days was not sung by John Charles Thomas and it was not composed by Albert Hay Malotte. It was a country/western/hillbilly song called “I'm Goin’ Back to Whur I Come From” that included the immortal line, “whur the mockin’ bird is singin’ in the lilac bush” and here it is (2:51).

Parts of this post are ridiculous and parts of this post are sublime, and I’ll leave it to you to decide which are which.

Can’t you understand plain English? (Part 2)

Fæder úre, ðú ðe eart on heofonum,
Sí ðín nama gehálgod.
Tó becume ðín rice.
Gewurde ðín willa
On eorþan swá swá on heofonum.
Urne dægwhamlícan hlaf syle ús tódæg.
And forgyf ús úre gyltas,
Swá swá wé forgyfaþ úrum gyltendum.
And ne gelæd ðu ús on costnunge,
Ac álýs ús of yfele. Sóþlice.

Yes, this is English too. Old English, also known as Anglo-Saxon, which was spoken in the British Isles from around 450 A.D. until around 1100.

By 1384, English had changed into what is now called Middle English, the language of Chaucer, but some of the old Anglo-Saxon characters were still being used:

Oure fadir þat art in heuenes halwid be þi name;
þi reume or kyngdom come to be.
Be þi wille don in herþe as it is doun in heuene.
yeue to us today oure eche dayes bred.
And foryeue to us oure dettis þat is oure synnys as we foryeuen to oure dettouris þat is to men þat han synned in us.
And lede us not into temptacion but delyuere us from euyl.

In the Wycliffe Bible of 1390, the Anglo-Saxon characters were replaced by the letters “th” but the “i” and “y” were still pretty much interchangeable, as were the “u” and “v”:

Oure fadir that art in heuenes, halewid be thi name; thi kyngdoom come to;
be thi wille don in erthe as in heuene;
yyue to vs this dai oure breed ouer othir substaunce;
and foryyue to vs oure dettis, as we foryyuen to oure dettouris;
and lede vs not in to temptacioun, but delyuere vs fro yuel. Amen.

By 1611, English had developed into the familiar language of the King James Version of the Bible:

Our Father which art in heaven,
Hallowed be Thy name.
Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil:
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever.
Amen.

The miracle is that English has not changed all that much since 1611.

Here it is; you knew it was coming. The Lord's Prayer in Anglo-Saxon, complete for some strange reason with desolate landscapes and eerie music.

You're most wolcum.