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- Path: sparky!uunet!pipex!unipalm!uknet!comlab.ox.ac.uk!oxuniv!wilcox
- From: wilcox@vax.oxford.ac.uk
- Newsgroups: sci.classics
- Subject: Re: Habemus ad dominum
- Message-ID: <1992Aug24.161043.8474@vax.oxford.ac.uk>
- Date: 24 Aug 92 15:10:43 GMT
- References: <Bt8qo2.2F1@netnews.jhuapl.edu> <19AUG199214061798@jetson.uh.edu> <aardvark-200892110652@146.154.24.90>
- Followup-To: sci.classics
- Organization: Oxford University VAX 6620
- Lines: 30
-
- In article <aardvark-200892110652@146.154.24.90>, aardvark@ial1.jsc.nasa.gov (Michael Martin) writes:
- >
- >> As for "Agnus Dei", I think the answer must be that this is
- >> medieval/ecclesiastical Latin and simply doesn't follow the classical rule for
- >> vocatives in the second declension.
- >
- > Actualy, I would propose a much simpler and more 'classical' explanation.
- > The Romans, being the terse people they were, often dropped the verb from
- > their sentances. Angus being nominative requires it to be a subject. If we
- > supply the missing verb 'to be' we arrive at;
- >
- > Angus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi.....
- >
- > You are the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world...
- >
- The trouble with this is that "miserere nobis" and "dona nobis pacem" both have
- to be imperative, not indicative, so adding a dropped "es" does not make sense.
-
- >
- > Which seems to make good sense in both languages. There are plenty of other
- > examples of the missing 'to be' in the Liturgy. The phrase, 'Verbum
- > Domini', after the readings is an example. This, until recently, was
- > rendered in English as 'This is the Word of the Lord'.
- >
- And still is, in the Church of England.
-
- --
-
- Stephen Wilcox | Remember what happened to the dinosaurs!
- wilcox@maths.oxford.ac.uk | I did---and look what happened to me.
-