From
The January 2004 St John's Eagle
“The Nunc Dimittis" - By John Harcourt
We do not
hear this canticle very often, since the Office of Evening Prayer has
all but disappeared from the Episcopal liturgy except in the largest
of metropolitan parishes. Yet, from the earliest years of Christianity,
it has held its place one of the several hymns Luke chose to incorporate
in the section of his gospel covering events before the beginning of
Jesus' public career.
Needless to say, Luke's hymns derive from Old Testament sources, and
the scene of an old man recognizing the new leader in a baby can be
found elsewhere in the history of world religion.
Who is
this man into whose mouth Luke places the Nunc Dimittis? Luke gives
him a name.
Now there
was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous
and devout, looking for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit
was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that
he should not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. And
inspired by the Spirit, he came into the temple, and when the parents
brought in the child Jesus to do for him according to the custom of
the law, he took him up in his arms. (Luke 2:25 28)
In his
novel The Nazarene. Sholem Asch offers a more naturalistic explanation:
Simeon stands by, day after day, year after year, as each first born
son is presented to the priest and pronounces over each one his hope
that "Perchance this is the Messiah."
Cultural
differences have shaped our translations of Simeon's words. In the Greek
text, the words for Lord and servant
are more accurately rendered as Master and slave.
"Now lettest Thou" is not a prayer but rather a statement
of fact, and the verb is in the present tense: "Now You are releasing
Your slave..." And all the translations that I know of reverse
the order of the last words of the Greek original, which reads "to
go according to Thy word in peace" — a significant change
of emphasis.
Free to
go where? Do these words simply mean to die? Or do they point to the
new freedom of the Christian life? Yet nothing in the Nunc Dimittis
is specifically Christian. Its phrases are largely adapted from II Isaiah
and reflect late Jewish expectations of the coming of the Messianic
kingdom. Luke stresses the universalism of God's saving act, prepared
"in the presence of all peoples," ...
"to be a light to lighten the Gentiles and to be the glory of Thy
people Israel." (How bitter, if we identify this light with Jesus,
is "to be the glory of Thy people Israel" seen against two
thousand years of often lethal hostility between Jews and Christians.)
The Nunc
Dimittis, only three verses long, is thus deceptively simple. As we
ponder its meanings and compare the various translations, we find verification
of a familiar generalization that each generation, each individual,
sees itself in an ancient text, whose original significance perhaps
lies beyond recovery.
Our present
Prayer Book offers two readings the traditional text of Rite I:
Lord,
Now lettes Thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word;
For
mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou has prepared before
the face of all people,
To be a light to lighten the Gentiles, and to be the glory of thy
people Israel.
and the
rather jaunty modern Rite II:
Lord,
you now have set your servant free to go in peace as you have promised;
For these eyes of mine have seen the Savior whom you have prepared
for all the world to see,
A Light to enlighten the nations, and the glory of your people Israel.
This version
continues the standard deviations from the Greek and makes its text
specifically Christian by identifying the broadly Messianic "your
salvation" with "the Savior."
Perhaps
we may venture yet another translation of the Nunc Dimittis, one admittedly
lacking the solemn resonance of the traditional versions:
Now you
are releasing your slave, master, according to your word in peace.
For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared before
the face of all the peoples;
for Gentiles, a light for revelation; and for your people Israel,
glory.
Professor
Harourt is the Charles A. Dana Professor of
English Emeritus at Ithaca College.
