Logan
Puritan Board Graduate
I was working a little bit on my long-term project of the history of the RPCNA psalter and found something I thought was fascinating.
In 1882 the RPCNA synod appointed a committee to revise the 1650 Psalter with some verbal corrections and suitable music. This was completed in 1899. The goal was to:
1. Remove imperfections in the meter as far as possible by slight verbal changes
2. To recast the stanza when serious defect in the meter could not be otherwise overcome
3. To secure closer conformity to the original Hebrew, by omitting unnecessary additions, and especially in the use of the Divine names.
It was this last one which piqued my interest and they went into further detail. The revisers noted of the 1650 psalter that
Given the general effort toward accuracy in the 1650 translation, I found this somewhat surprising.
As an aside, the 1899 RPCNA revision seems fairly admirable, smoothing things like the 1650's famously inscrutable "Pure to the pure, froward thou kyth'st unto the froward wight" in Psalm 18:26 to "Pure to the pure, but froward still To men of froward heart". Which is much more in line with the KJV. But it also clearly never caught on and ended up being supplanted by the 1911 newer translation/revision.
In 1882 the RPCNA synod appointed a committee to revise the 1650 Psalter with some verbal corrections and suitable music. This was completed in 1899. The goal was to:
1. Remove imperfections in the meter as far as possible by slight verbal changes
2. To recast the stanza when serious defect in the meter could not be otherwise overcome
3. To secure closer conformity to the original Hebrew, by omitting unnecessary additions, and especially in the use of the Divine names.
It was this last one which piqued my interest and they went into further detail. The revisers noted of the 1650 psalter that
- The Divine name was omitted in fifty cases
- The Divine name was inserted in many cases, e.g. Psalm 119 where "God" is introduced twice and "Lord" nineteen times.
- The 1650 uses "Lord" for both "Adonai" and "YHWH", never distinguishing by capital letters
Given the general effort toward accuracy in the 1650 translation, I found this somewhat surprising.
As an aside, the 1899 RPCNA revision seems fairly admirable, smoothing things like the 1650's famously inscrutable "Pure to the pure, froward thou kyth'st unto the froward wight" in Psalm 18:26 to "Pure to the pure, but froward still To men of froward heart". Which is much more in line with the KJV. But it also clearly never caught on and ended up being supplanted by the 1911 newer translation/revision.