-------- Forwarded Message

Christ is risen!

In his comments about adelphopoiesis EM says:

>>        In other areas of Epeirus the Priest reads the Eirmos of the 5th
Ode of the Canon of Holy Thursday "The Apostles bound with the bond of
love, offering themselves to Christ, who saves everybody, weakened their
nice legs, giving the good news of peace to everybody". [I have my
reservations about this piece as well - especially the verb. EM]<<

We must be very careful in translation, especially with sacred texts, and
be as accurate as possible, lest we inadvertently admit blasphemous
distortions.

Here is the text in Greek:

Heirmos, Ode V, Canon at Matins for Holy Thursday, Tone Pl. 2 (6th):

	To^j syndesmo^j te-s agape-s syndeo'menoi hoi Apo'stoloi, to^j
despo'zonti to^n ho'lo-n heautou`s Christo^j anathe'menoi, horai'ous po'das
exapeni'zonto, euangelizo'menoi pa^sin eire-'ne-n.

[Note on the transliteration:  A following circumflex ^ indicates a
circumflex accent on the preceding vowel (which is always long), the acute
accent is ', and the grave accent is `.  A following dash indicates a long
vowel: o- is omega, e- is eta.  The letter j indicates an iota subscript to
the preceding vowel.  Otherwise the usual rules of classical
transliteration were applied.  It should be very easy for one who knows the
Greek alphabet to reconstruct the original spelling.]

The only difficult part in the above heirmos is the only finite verb in the
sentence (the others are participles): exapenizonto.  This is analyzed
thus:  The root is the verb nizo which means to wash (as hands), and is the
older form of nipto.  The middle voice indicates action done with or for
the interest of the subject (e.g. to wash one's hands).  The epsilon before
the root is a sign of a past tense, here the imperfect, as further
indicated by the ending, and it views the action as ongoing in the past.
The two prefixes, ex and ap(o), together mean from off of, conveying the
idea of thorough cleansing.
A literal translation might run thus:

	By the bond/tie of love being bound the Apostles, to the
one-having-rule of all (things) themselves to Christ having offered,
beautiful feet (direct obj of vb) they thoroughly washed for themselves,
announcing-good-tidings to all peace.

In Slavonic the text is (this is a close, almost literal translation of the
Greek):

	Soju'zom ljubve` svjazu'emi apo'stoli, vlady'chestvujuschemu
vsje'mi sebe` Xristu` vozlo'zhshe, kra'sny no'gi ochischa'xu,
blagovjestvu'jusche vsje^m mi'r.

[Note on transliteration:  The Slavonic abbreviations have been expanded.
The accent convention is the same as in Greek.  The silent letter "er"
(hard sign) has been omitted when they appear at the end of a word.]

Bp Kallistos (Ware) and Mother Mary in their Lenten Triodion give this as:

	United by the bond of love and offering themselves to Christ the
Lord, the apostles were washed clean; and with feet made beautiful, they
preached to all the Gospel of peace.

Which seems to be a quite adequate translation.

Please do not mention my name as I do not wish to be drawn into
the fray over this messy issue.

				Yours in Christ,

				Fr N.N.

-------- End of Forwarded Message

>
> >>        In other areas of Epeirus the Priest reads the Eirmos of the 5th
> Ode of the Canon of Holy Thursday "The Apostles bound with the bond of
> love, offering themselves to Christ, who saves everybody, weakened their
> nice legs, giving the good news of peace to everybody". [I have my
> reservations about this piece as well - especially the verb. EM]<<
>
> We must be very careful in translation, especially with sacred texts, and
> be as accurate as possible, lest we inadvertently admit blasphemous
> distortions.
>
>         By the bond/tie of love being bound the Apostles, to the
> one-having-rule of all (things) themselves to Christ having offered,
> beautiful feet (direct obj of vb) they thoroughly washed for themselves,
> announcing-good-tidings to all peace.
>
Mark and Fr. N.N.,
Thank you so much for the correction! I am sorry I couldn't give the correct
translation but the original verb in the booklet whose translation was
posted in various lists was "exa_t_enizonto" which is obviously a
mistake. Thus, because the text wasn't making sense, I expressed my
reservations. Moreover, I don't have any liturgical books here to
crosscheck it and thus the mistake appeared. I certainly didn't have any
intention to sound offensive or, God forbid, blasphemous. Originally the
text was intended for Mr Michael DiMaio's private use and thus it was
translated very quickly. Thus, it contains a lot of spelling and language
mistakes (I'm not a native English speaker). It will certainly be
corrected and reposted. Therefore, any more suggestions and corrections
would be more than helpful.
Thanks once more Mark and Fr. N. N. and, please, pray to the Lord to
forgive me any problems that my translation may have caused.

Christ is risen
Efthimios