THE PREFACE

Jude Mon 29 Apr 2013, 21:19

In the name of God most Gracious, ever Merciful!

The Beloved and I

Volume 1: The Books of Moses

Thomas McElwain

New Jubilees Version of Sacred Scripture in Verse With Verse Commentaries

Revised Edition

Adams & McElwain Publishers

Copyright © 2007 Adams & McElwain Publishers and Thomas McElwain

First published in two volumes, The Beloved and I 2005, and Led of the Beloved, 2006.

Second edition, 2010

Third and revised edition, 2012

Fourth and revised edition 2013

All rights reserved.

No part of this verse commentary on the sacred Scriptures may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in a retrieval system,
in any form or by any means, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Published by

Adams & McElwain Publishers
Puijonrinne 7
70200 Kuopio, Finland

ThomasGMcElwain@gmail.com
www.lulu.com

Cover photo by Anna Maria McElwain

Contents

Preface
Foreword
Genesis
Exodus
Leviticus
Numbers
Deuteronomy

PREFACE

The New Jubilees Version is an extended collection of contemplations on the Bible, the Qur'an, and some other ancient texts translated mostly from the original languages into English verse. The texts have been chosen in view of three factors: their being within the Decalogue tradition, their historical relevance, and their claims, however tenuous, to canonicity. The last text to be included, the holy Qur'an, is, I believe, the expression of the early, non-Monophysite Abrahamic faith of Yemen and Ethiopia, and so deserves its place at the end of the canon accepted by Christianity and Judaism. I have not considered inconsistencies irrelevant to the Decalogue nor ambiguities of authorship to be important enough to exclude any work. As late as the seventh century A.D. ecclesiastical authorities were making individual pronouncements on the constituency of the Canon, generally for less than justifiable motives and criteria. While the collection that appears here is a uniquely personal Canon, its trinity of criteria is more objective by far than the motivations of the Church Councils in establishing a more limited one.

The comments upon these texts reflect an appreciation for traditions outside those of the texts themselves, not only Jewish, Christian, and Islamic, but even some further afield. There is no implication for or against these various religious traditions as such. In my view, all are valid to the extent they conform to the Ten Commandments, and all have gone astray to the extent they ignore and conflict with the Decalogue.

My assumption is that the Ten Commandments are the criterion not only for determining what is valid Scripture, but also the criterion for evaluating one's understanding not only of Scripture but of life and experience. This contrasts with popular religious traditions and accounts for the ambiguous relationship to them found in the following pages. It is hardly unique in the contemporary, fragmented world that one's religious experience becomes so personal as to exclude establishment and even in some cases congregation.

The first concerns in translation are readability and faithfulness to the Massoretic text, a Byzantine Greek text and the Arabic Qur'an, while consulting other Scriptural sources in critical editions. The translation process begins with a recitation and investigation of these source texts. Even in those parts where I have made only sporadic recourse to non-English sources the work goes far beyond a mere versification of an English text. The original language versions I have followed are NIV Interlinear Hebrew Kohlenberger 1987, Biblia Hebraica Leusden 1822, Stuttgartensia 1997, Koren 1997, and British and Foreign Bible Societies n.d.; The Septuagint Version Bagster n.d., Biblia LXX et Testam Novum Moscow 1842, Greek New Testament Nestle, Westcott and Hort 1948, United Bible Societies 1968, and The New Testament, Trinitarian Bible Society.

Few translators of Scripture are foolish enough to ignore earlier translations, and in this I am no exception. For difficult points of translations I have consulted the following scholarly versions: the King James Version, New King James Version 1982 especially for names of people and places in the Torah, Modern King James Version, 21st Century King James Version, the Good News Bible 1976, the American Standard Version 1901, Revised Standard Version 1947 especially for the Apocrypha, Darby 1889, Douay Rheims 1899, Weymouth 1912, Young’s Literal Translation 1898, Green’s Literal Translation, The New English Bible New Testament 1961, The Jerusalem Bible, The Psalms, singing version 1963, Latin Vulgata, Ethiopic Version, Pismo Swiete 1964, Ksiega Psalmow Milosz 1982, Pyhä Raamattu 1861, 1933-38, 1992, Psalmit Nykysuomeksi Aro 1973, Uusi Testamentti Saarisalo 1978, Diodati 1649, La Sacra Bibbia v. riveduta 1986, Die Bibel Luther 1545, Elberfelder 1871, Die Gute Nachricht 1967, Bibeln 1917, Biblia Sagrada Paulus 1993, Y Bibl, Y Beibl Cymraeg Newydd 1975-79, Sagradas Escrituras 1569, Dios Llega al Hombre 1966, La Bible Segond 1910, Bonnes Nouvelles Aujourd’hui 1971, Russian Synodal edition 1956, Kitabi Mukaddes Ali Bey, Arabic Bible 1991, New Testament in Church Slovonic 1897, Gaelic New Testament 1829. I have consulted the Qur’an as paraphrased by Yusuf Ali, Zafrulla Khan, Shakir, S.V. Mir Ahmed Ali, Sayyid Ali Quli Qarai, and others. For Enoch and Jubilees I have consulted Joshua Williams's editing of Charles's reworking of Lawrence's translation, Ras Feqade II's rendering from Amharic, and Geza Vermes’ The Dead Sea Scrolls in English. I am completely dependent on the translation of Londsdale and Laura Ragg for the Gospel of Barnabas, which goes beyond being a mere versification only because I have taken into consideration as much as possible the textual criticism of the work.

There has been an attempt to use italics for all words, phrases and occasionally lines that have been added in commentary to the text within the verse numbered passages themselves. Given that this is a verse rendering, the accuracy achieved by the masterful King James Versions is not attained here, although it goes beyond that of some modern versions.

With the exception of some Psalms cast in the eleven-syllable format used by Turkish folk-hymns of Bektashi dervishes and other Alevis, the Scriptural portions are set in octosyllabic, following the same Turkish tradition. Obviously, besides Turkish poetics, English hymnodic tradition, specifically Long Metre, has been influential. The rhyme scheme is based on the couplet with variation. A hint is taken from Medieval Hebrew poetry as well as Turkish tradition in the predilection for complete identity rhymes, something that is not acceptable in traditional English poetry except in the sestina. The poetics is thus a combination of Turkish, English, and medieval Hebrew traditions. Although the syllable count, based on Turkish-style scansion is exact, except for feminine rhymes, it sometimes includes weak syllables, which of course contrasts with normal English scansion. The result is that the entire text of the Scriptures could conceivably be sung to the tunes of Christian Long Metre hymns and many folk tunes in Turkish and other traditions, including such obscure ones as Finnish Kalevala melodies. Of course octosyllabic lines are the most English of all verses since before the time of Chaucer. The challenge is to imbue a translation into that ancient form with any degree of freshness.

The commentaries are distinguished, for the most part, by a form combining features from the Shakespearean sonnet and the Oriental ghazel. It consists of fourteen lines of iambic pentameter, the English heroic line. The rhyme scheme, however, is the same as that for the Scriptural translations, mirroring a ghazel style.

There are three passages in which the Hebrew cognate of the name Ali is rather enigmatic, and in those cases efforts to translate rather than transliterate the word have consistently resulted in confusion. Against all other translators known to me, I have chosen to leave this word in those three Torah texts untranslated, merely providing the transliteration Ali and leaving the reader to interpret as she wishes. A similar situation obtains with thirteen texts using a Hebrew cognate of the word Muhammad. It appears to me that the instance in Psalm 106:24 must be accepted as a prophetic prediction of a coming figure of that name, if we are to accept the far less clear instance in Isaiah 7 to refer to Jesus. Consistency demands accepting either both or neither. To accept Muhammad as a proper name in the one instance makes it plausible to accept it in any or all of the twelve or more other instances in which it seems possible to do so. I have gone so far as to assume the original Hebrew cognate behind the Greek even in a passage of Sirach, and behind the Ethiopic in several passages of Enoch and Jubilees. The cognates of Ali and Muhammad quite simply exist in the Hebrew Scriptures, and the reader has a right to know this, whether or not she chooses to apply it prophetically.

Finally, I have occasionally translated the Hebrew word shalom not as peace, but as Islam, with the view that the word refers, not to a particular religious establishment, but to that peace with God that comes through submission to His revealed will. No implications favouring a religious establishment should be inferred. Indeed, the unbiased reader of the Qur’an will soon become aware that its intention was not to create a new religious tradition, but to call people of all sects back to the faith of Abraham.

This work is unique in several ways. Others have single-handedly translated great bodies of Scripture, although it is fairly rare in this age of committees, at least in such languages as English. A few have even translated large segments of Scripture into verse. Examination of the greater portion of the material in early languages and directly from critical texts is hardly unusual for translators of Scripture. But the combination of critical investigation with translation into verse of such an enormous canonical collection, coupled with extensive mystical commentary in poetic form, is unusual in the Oriental context and even more so in a Western one.

At least since the Protestant Reformation, Scripture has been increasingly perceived as factual literature instead of the more evocative mythical. The fact that so many today perceive Scripture as myth, by which they mean it is not true, only demonstrates the blind and narrow factuality that has oppressed the human soul in recent centuries. Nothing in post-modern thought mitigates this approach: factuality has merely splintered into the meaningless. It is the conscious attempt of the author and translator to avoid not only the deconstructionist fashion of the present as well as historical conventions and outlooks. But this work does not replace the functions of prose translations, study Bibles, or critical editions. Its unique form implies a different function altogether, yet one that approaches the early usage “to be read in churches.” Its intention is to provide a reliable text for the purpose of devotional, liturgical, mystical and perhaps sacramental recitation of Scripture. That does not prevent its being read as poetry or even as a novel. The personal practice of the author, however, is to use the Torah portion for a Sabbath reading in congregation, and the rest of the work as devotional readings throughout the week.

The mysticism at the foundation of this work is the realization that absolute existence belongs to the one God alone. The implication for the identity of the “I” and the unity of humankind ought, with a little contemplation, to become evident. In this context the self of illusion and the Self which is God are in variable tension. The result is sometimes the expression of contempt for institutions and even individuals. This should be understood mainly in terms of the microcosmos of the individual, rather than a projection of suspicion on the world about. To understand these expressions in a literal and exterior sense is to miss the entire point in terms of the self in mystical thought. By the same token, those expressions of love and adoration that may appear to refer to human beings should be understood in the mystical contemplation of the human face, whereby God is apperceived. This danger of misapprehension is well known and is at the root of secretiveness among such mystical groups as Sufis, Kabbalists, and others. One can only pray that the spiritual benefits of this contemplation will outweigh any detriment that careless reading may experience.

The conscientious and spiritual will immediately see beyond the shiny surface of these waters of revelation to the towers and pinnacles of the jewelled city arising from the seabed below. Let these lines be a springboard for the truly adept to plunge into the refreshing flood. These meditations, by contrast to many readings of the Scriptures, couched in the form of verse dialogues, are conversations or love letters between the Beloved, who once inspired the Scriptures, and the lover who now turns to their contemplation.

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Thomas McElwain Sat 16 Nov 2013, 02:36

I am so happy to see The Beloved and I books published on this lovely site. May God bless you for giving them an opportunity for reaching more people and hopefully being a blessing to many.

THE PREFACE

THE PREFACE

Thank you