F YOU EXAMINE the translation of Psalm 84:9 by Monsignor Knox, you’ll notice it says “the voice of the Lord God within me.” However, when translating the PIUS XII PSALTER, Knox rendered that same passage as: “the voice of the Lord God.” That’s because the Latin words “in me” (within me) were omitted in the PIUS XII PSALTER, whereas those words do occur in the VULGATA. According to Yves Chiron: “Revising the Latin translation of the psalms was among the projects closest to Pius XII’s heart.” Chiron also believes Pope Pius XII felt personally attacked when his psalter—released a few months before the end of World War II—was castigated by most scholars.1 Father Valentine Young, OFM, who entered the seminary in 1943, told me his congregation briefly adopted the PIUS XII PSALTER, but rejected it after about a year.
Father Charles J. Callan • As I mentioned, the erudite Dominican priest, FATHER CHARLES J. CALLAN, published a book in 1949 that provides the Latin alongside an English translation for the entire PIUS XII PSALTER. Father Callan was a seminary professor who, on 22 July 1940, was appointed by Pope Pius XII as ‘consultor’ to the Pontifical Biblical Commission in Rome. Hundreds of his friends gathered within the walls of one of New York’s most beautiful churches, Saint Vincent Ferrer’s, on 12 October 1940 to offer their congratulations to Father Callan, since he the first American to receive this honor. Father Callan wrote many books, including an impressive 1934 hand-missal for the laity, but—in my humble opinion—his greatest contribution was founding The Homiletic and Pastoral Review. We have made available as a free PDF download this monumental 1949 publication. Its full title is: The New Psalter Of Pius XII In Latin And English With Introductions, Notes And Spiritual Reflections by Father Charles J. Callan.
* PDF Download • COMMENTARY AND TRANSLATION (532 pages)
—“Pius XII Psalter: Latin & English w/ Notes & Spiritual Reflections” (1949).
—Book by Very Reverend Charles Jerome Callan (1877-1962).
Differences & Similarities • When it comes to the PIUS XII PSALTER, some psalms are quite similar to the Vulgate, while others depart from it in a radical way. However, when it comes to speaking about the substance of the psalter itself, most discrepancies aren’t important. This book has been out of print for many decades, and it’s impossible to find a used version for less than $200. That’s why I think our readers will very much appreciate it!
Spotted In The Wild • Certain feasts added in the late 1940s and 1950s employed the PIUS XII PSALTER. For instance, examine the psalm for the INTROIT on the feast of Pope Saint Pius X (3 September) and you can verify this with your own eyes. In the 1950s, Pope Pius XII made changes to HEBDOMADA MAJOR (“Holy week”), and excerpts from the PIUS XII PSALTER were employed, although this was not mandatory. In the 1960s, the LIBER USUALIS often included an APPENDIX at the back, containing what they called “the new psalms.”
Misunderstanding • In the 1940s, it became fashionable to attack Saint Jerome and favor translation directly from the ‘original’ languages. For instance, Penelope Fitzgerald wrote about “the great Jerusalem Bible, prepared by the Dominicans straight from the ancient texts.” But many authorities remind us that Saint Jerome translated directly from manuscripts far more ancient than those we have access to. According to what I’ve been told by scholars, the Hebrew version of the psalter by the Massoretes is only preserved in MSS dating from about the 10th century. That’s about 600 years later than Saint Jerome. Father Cuthbert Lattey (d. 1954) wrote:
“In a large number of cases the ancient Christian versions and some other ancient sources seem to have been based upon a better Hebrew text than that adopted by the rabbis for official use and alone suffered to survive. Sometimes, too, the cognate languages suggest a suitable meaning for which there is little or no support in the comparatively small amount of ancient Hebrew that has survived. The evidence of the metre is also at times so clear as of itself to furnish a strong argument; often it is confirmed by some other considerations. […] The Jewish copyists and their directors, however, seem to have lost the tradition of the metre at an early date, and the meticulous care of the rabbis in preserving their own official and traditional text (the ‘massoretic’ text) came too late, when the mischief had already been done.”
Monsignor Knox wisely adds:
“It seems the safest principle to follow the Latin—after all, Saint Jerome will sometimes have had a better text than the Massoretes—except on the rare occasions when there is no sense to be extracted from the Vulgate at all.”
Ideological Changes • There’s another problem with accepting uncritically the version of the psalter according to the Massoretes. Because Jews do not accept Christ as Messiah and reject the Gospel, in some instances, the rabbis modified psalm texts they felt were too ‘Christological’ or spoke about the Messiah in too Christian a manner. As a result, MT (the “massoretic text”) is not as accurate as Saint Jerome.
It might be better, therefore, to stop making reference to the ‘original’ languages. Instead, it might be better to make reference to “the very late manuscripts.” Or perhaps they should be called: “The manuscripts that are 600 years later than Saint Jerome.”
1 Oddly enough, the PIUS XII PSALTER did find a defender in Ferdinando Cardinal Antonelli, who wrote on 19 December 1963: “No one can deny the worth and advantage of this version.”
