A Journey of Two Psalms: The Reception of Psalms 1 and 2 in Jewish and Christian Tradition

381 Pages·2014·9.76 MB·English

by  Susan Gillingham

A JOURNEY OF TWO PSALMS
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A Journey of Two Psalms
The Reception of Psalms 1 and 2 in Jewish
and Christian Tradition
SUSAN GILLINGHAM
1
3
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP,
United Kingdom
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© Susan Gillingham 2013
The moral rights of the author have been asserted
First published 2013
Impression: 1
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Data available
Library of Congress Control Number: 2013938317
ISBN 978–0–19–965241–9
As printed and bound by
CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY
In memory of my father, Lance Mull (Mühle) 1908–1967,
who, in my formative years, gave me a love of languages,
music, literature and art
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Preface
I am principally indebted to the Board of the Faculty of Theology for
encouraging me to apply for a further term’s sabbatical leave in Trinity Term
2012 and to the Governing Body of Worcester College for supporting my
decision to do so. I was only able to take this leave through the generosity
of the John Fell Research Fund of Oxford University Press: it is appropriate
that this work is being published by that Press. The staff there have been
characteristically supportive––a second book in one year––and I am especially
grateful again to Tom Perridge who commissioned this and to Elizabeth
Robottom who has been involved throughout its production.
The research for much of this book had been done before the sabbatical
leave, and during that research period and throughout the process of writing
I have been very much aware of John Sawyer’s support, for his advice in the
earlier stages and, later, for his suggestions for improvement: he believes in
reception history as an academic discipline as much as I do, and his wisdom
and encouragement have been indispensable. I am also grateful to the many
colleagues in and beyond my Faculty and College who have responded to my
many questions about these two psalms and who have helped me, through
their expertise, to get some partial answers. These include Afifi Al-Akiti,
Jonathan Arnold, Margaret Barker, John Barton, Adele Berlin, Eberhard Bons,
Alma Brodersen, George Brooke, Laurent Clémenceau, Mark Chapman,
Robert Cole, Barbara Crostini, Brian Daley, Mark Edwards, Peter Flint,
Sarah Foot, Howard Goodall, Martin Goodman, Peter Groves, Frank-Lothar
Hossfeld, Dirk Human, Bernd Janoswki, Michael Jessing, Simon Jones,
Gunnlaugur Jónsson, Christine Stephan-Kassis, Nicholas King, Reinhard
Kratz, Michael Kuczynski, Diarmaid MacCulloch, Jonathan Magonet, David
Mitchell, Deborah Rooke, Aaron Rosen, Christopher Rowland, Robert
Saxton, Jeremy Schofield, Elizabeth Smith, Elizabeth Solopova, Hermann
Spieckermann, Till Steiner, David Taylor, Eva de Visscher, Roger Wagner,
Robin Ward, Hugh Williamson, Jonathan Wittenberg, Michael Wolter, and
until his death in 2010, Erich Zenger. I am equally grateful to the many
institutions which have allowed me to use their resources in the presentation
of the images, music and poetry of these two psalms: they are acknowledged
within the permissions.
Most of the book was written over the period of my research leave,
and I thus was dependent on someone close at hand to read and comment on
my first draft and someone else who could present the work in a consistent
house style. So I thank my husband, Richard Smethurst, for so patiently
enduring the former role in the first year of his retirement and indeed for
viii Preface
reading through the draft twice, without complaint, and Holly Morse, my
research assistant, for coping so graciously with very tight deadlines in her
performance of the other task.
As is always the case, whatever infelicities remain are mine alone. Reception
history is a discipline which requires a good deal of collaborative support, and
this book has certainly proved it.
List of Acknowledgements for Literary Excerpts
1. Psalm 1: ‘Happy is the One’ © David Rosenberg, Blues of the Sky interpreted from
the Original Hebrew Book of Psalms (New York, San Francisco, and London: Harper
and Row, 1976): 1–2
2. Psalm 1.1–2 by Richard Rolle © A. Hudson (ed.) Two Revisions of Rolle’s English
Psalter Commentary and the Related Canticles Volume I, Early English Text Society
Original Series (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012): 2
3. Passus V 415–19; Passus X 322–3, 326; and Passus XV 60–4 © M. P. Kuczynski,
Prophetic Song. The Psalms as Moral Discourse in Late Medieval England
(Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1995): 189–215
4. George Sandys and Henry King’s versions of Psalm 1 © H. Hamlin, Psalm Culture
and Early Modern English Literature (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
2004): 78 and 66–7
5. Psalms 1.1–3 and 2.10–12 taken from The New Jerusalem Bible, ed. H. Wansbrough
(London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 1990), with permission of the publishers
6. Psalms 1.1–4 and 2.1–6 © Marchiene Vroon Rienstra in M. V. Rienstra, Swallow’s
Nest. A Feminine Reading of the Psalms (Grand Rapids, MI: W. B. Eerdmans, 1992):
18–19, 13–14
7. ‘Blessed is the Man’, from The Poems of Marianne Moore, ed. Grace Schulman,
© 2003 by Marianne Craig Moore, Executor of the Estate of Marianne Moore.
Used by permission of Viking Penguin, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
8. ‘O how well off he will be’ © Gordon Jackson in G. Jackson, The Lincoln Psalter
(Manchester: Carcanet, 1997): 13
9. ‘Why are the nations up in arms’ © Gordon Jackson in G. Jackson, The Lincoln
Psalter (Manchester: Carcanet, 1997): 13–14