You mention that what's normally given as " paths of righteousness" or such is actually a circle in Hebrew and Norman Fisher's translation of it as a "spiral". I thought I also heard you saying that you wanted to check German translations. I just did that, with the three translations which are relevant here - Lutheran Church based on Luther from Hebrew, post-Vatican II Roman Catholic translation from Hebrew, and Martin Buber. Interestingly enough, none of them refer to circles, not even Buber. Big surprise! He renders it
er leitet mich
in wahrhaftigen Gleisen
(He guides me in tracks of truth.) The other two translations are using variations of "path", implying linear movement/progress.
Further on the RC translation, I see now that it says in the introduction that the translation and editorial teams were supported by experts in liturgy, catechesis, church music and German linguistics, and that this applied especially to the psalms. It also mentions that these identified liturgical needs sometimes forced compromises in translation.
With regard to Psalm 23, I assume this means that a conscious decision was made to keep the standard translation of a path or road of righteousness. The responsible bishops probably wanted to prevent members of their congregations falling out of the pews from shock, so to speak, especially given the use of Psalm 23 in sad and painful moments of people's lives when they hope for succour from the familiar.
You mention that what's normally given as " paths of righteousness" or such is actually a circle in Hebrew and Norman Fisher's translation of it as a "spiral". I thought I also heard you saying that you wanted to check German translations. I just did that, with the three translations which are relevant here - Lutheran Church based on Luther from Hebrew, post-Vatican II Roman Catholic translation from Hebrew, and Martin Buber. Interestingly enough, none of them refer to circles, not even Buber. Big surprise! He renders it
er leitet mich
in wahrhaftigen Gleisen
(He guides me in tracks of truth.) The other two translations are using variations of "path", implying linear movement/progress.
Hope this is useful.
Further on the RC translation, I see now that it says in the introduction that the translation and editorial teams were supported by experts in liturgy, catechesis, church music and German linguistics, and that this applied especially to the psalms. It also mentions that these identified liturgical needs sometimes forced compromises in translation.
With regard to Psalm 23, I assume this means that a conscious decision was made to keep the standard translation of a path or road of righteousness. The responsible bishops probably wanted to prevent members of their congregations falling out of the pews from shock, so to speak, especially given the use of Psalm 23 in sad and painful moments of people's lives when they hope for succour from the familiar.
Thank you for posting these, Rabbi! I couldn’t be there for it live. So grateful for all you share with us. 🙏🏽