Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 12.djvu/600

PSALMS

instrument; its Hebrew equivalent (from, "to trim") means a poem of "trimmed" and measured form. The two words show us that a psalm was a poem of set structure to be sung to the accompaniment of stringed instruments. The New Testament text uses the names  (Luke, xxiv, 44),  (Luke, XX, 42; Acts, i, 20), and  (Heb., iv, 7).

C. The Vulgate follows the Greek text and translates psalmi, liber psalmorum. The Syriac Bible in like manner names the collection Mazmore.

II. Contents. — The Book of Psalms contains 150 psalms, divided into five books, together with four doxologies and the titles of most of the psalms.

A. Number. — The printed Hebrew Bible lists 150 psalms. Fewer are given by some Massoretic MSS. The older Septuagint MSS. (Codd. Sinaiticus, Vati- canus, and Alexandrinus) give 151, but expressly state that the last psalm is not canonical: "This psalm was written by David with liis own hand and is outside the number", e^wSev toO dpiSfioO. The Vulgate follows the numeration of the Septuagint but omits Ps. cli. The differences in the numerations of the Hebrew and Vulgate texts may be seen in the following scheme: Hebrew Septuagint and Vulgate

i-viii i-viii

ix ix-x

x-cxii xi-cxiii

cxiii cxiv-cxv

cxiv-cxv ^^^.

cxvi— cxlv cxvii— cxlvi

cxlvi-cxlvii cxlvii

cxlviii-cl cxlviii-cl

In the course of this article, we shall follow the Hebrew numeration and bracket that of the Septua- gint and Vulgate. Each numeration has its defects; neither is preferable to the other. The variance be- tween Massorah and Septuagint texts in this numera- tion is likely enough due to a gradual neglect of the original poetic form of the Psalms; such neglect was occasioned by liturgical uses and carelessness of copy- ists. It is admitted by all that Pss. ix and x were originally a single acrostic poem; they have been wrongly separated by Massorah, rightly united by the Septuagint and Vulgate. On the other hand Ps. cxliv (cxlv) is made up of two songs — verses 1-11 and 12-15. Pss. xlii and xliii (xli and xlii) are shown by identity of subject (yearning for the house of Jahweh), of metrical structure and of refrain (cf. Heb. Ps. xlii, 6, 12; xliii, 5), to be three strophes of one and the same poem. The Hebrew text is correct in count- ing as one Ps. cxvi (cxiv+cxv) and Ps. cxlvii (cxlvi -t- cxlviii). Later liturgical usage would seem to have split up these and not a few other psalms. Zenner ("Die Chorgesiinge im Buclie der Psalmen", II, Frei- burg im Br., 1896) ingeniously combines into what he deems were the original choral odes: Pss. i, ii, iii, iv; vi-f-xiii (vi+xii); ix+x (ix); xix, xx, xxi (xx, xxi, xxii); xlvi+xlvii (xlvii+xlviii); Ixix-)-lxx (Ixx-flxxi); cxiv-- cxv (cxiii); cxlviii, cxlix, cl. A choral ode would seem to have been the original form of Pss. xiv+lxx (xiii + Ixix). The two strophes and the epode are Ps. xiv; the two antistrophes are Ps. Ixx (cf. Zenner-Wies- mann, "Die Psalmen nach dem Urtext", Milnster, 1900, 305). It is noteworthy that, on the breaking up of the original ode, each portion crept twice into the Psalter: Ps. xiv = liii, Ps. lxx = xl, 14-18. Other such duplicated psalms are Ps. cviii, 2-6 (cvii) = Ps. Ivii, 8-12 (Ivi); Ps. cviii, 7-14 (cvii)=Ps. Ix, 7-14 (lix); Ps. Ixxi, 1-3 (lxx)=P8. xxxi, 2-4 (xxx). This loss of the original form of some of the psalms is al- lowed by the Biblical Commission (1 May, 1910) to have been due to liturgical uses, neglect of copyists, or other causes.

B. Division. — The Psalter is divided into five books. Each book, save the last, ends with a doxology. These hturgical forms differ slightly. All agree that

the doxologies at the end of the first three books have nothing to do with the original songs to which they have been appended. Some consider that the fourth doxology was always a part of Ps. cvi (cv) (cf. Kirk- patrick, "Psalms", IV and V, p. 634). We prefer, with Zenner-Wiesmann (op. cit., 76), to rate it as a doxology pure and simple. The fifth book has no need of an appended doxology. Ps. cl, whether com- posed as such or not, serves the purpose of a grand doxology which fittingly brings the whole Psalter to its close.

The five books of the Psalter are made up as fol- lows: —

Bk. I: Pss. i-xU (i-xl); doxology, Ps. xli, 14.

Bk. II: Pss. xlii-lxxii (xli-lxxi); doxology, Ps. Ixxii, lS-20.

Bk. Ill: Pss. Ixxiii-lxxxix (Ixxii-lxxxviii); doxology, Ps. Ixxxix, 53.

Bk. IV: Pss. xc-cvi (Ixxxix-cv); doxology, Ps. cvi, 48.

Bk. V: Pss. cvii-cl (cvi-cl); no doxology.

In the Massoretic text, the doxology is immediately followed by an ordinal adjective indicating the num- ber of the succeeding book; not so in the Septuagint and Vulgate. This division of the Psalter into five parts belongs to early Jewish tradition. The Midrash on Ps. i tells us that Da\-id gave to the Jews five books of psalms to correspond to the five books of the Law given them by Moses. This tradition was accepted by the early Fathers. Hippolj'tus, in the doubtful fragment already referred to, calls the Psalter and its five books a second Pentateuch (ed. Lagarde, 193). St. Jerome defends the division in his important "Prologus Galeatus" (P. L., XXVIII, 553) and in Ep. cxl (P. L., XXII, 11, 68). Writing to Marcella (P. L., XXIII, 431), he says: "In quinque siquidem volumina psalterium apud Hebraios di visum est". He, however, contradicts this statement in his letter to Sophronius (P. L., XXVIII, 1123): "Nos Hebra;- ormn aactoritatem secuti et maxime apostolorum, qui semper in Novo Testamento psalmorum librum nominant, unum volumen asserimus".

C. Titles. — In the Hebrew Psalter, all the psalms, save thirty-four, have either simple or rather complex titles. The Septuagint and Vulgate supply titles to most of the thirty-four psalms that lack Hebrew titles. These latter, called "orphan psalms" by Jewish tradi- tion, are thus distributed in the five books of the Psalter:

Bk. I has 4 — Pss. i, iii, x, xxxiii [i, iii, ix (b), xxxii]. Of these, Ps. x is broken from Ps. ix; Ps. xxxiii has a title in the Septuagint and Vulgate.

Bk. II has 2— Pss. xhii, Ixxi (xlii, Ixx). Of these, Ps. xliii is broken from Ps. xlii.

Bk. Ill has none.

Bk. IV has 10 — Pss. xci, xciii-xcvii, xcix, civ-cvi (xc, xcii-xcvi, xcviii, ciii-cv). Of these, all have titles in the Septuagint and Vulgate.

Bk. V has 18 — Pss. cvii, cxi-cxix, cxxxv-cxxxvii, cxlvi-cl (cvi, cx-cxviii, cxxxiv-exxxvii, cxlv-cl). Of these, Ps. cxii has a title in the Vulgate, Ps. cxxxvii in the Septuagint and Vulgate; the quasi-title hallelA yah precedes nine (cxi-cxiii, cxxxv, cxlvi-cl); the Greek equivalent ' AW-nXoil'a precedes seven others (cvii, cxiv, cxvi-cxix, cxxxvi). Only Ps. cxv [cxiii (b)) has no title either in the Hebrew or the Septuagint.

(1) Meaning of Titles:— These titles tell us one or more of five things about the psalms: (a) the author, or, perhaps, collection; (b) the historical occasion of the song; (c) its poetic characteristics; (d) its musical setting; (e) its liturgical use.

(a) Titles indicating the author:— Bk. I has four anonymous psalms out of the forty-one (Pss. i, ii, x, xxxiii). The other thirty-seven are Davidic. Ps. x is part of ix; Ps. xxxiii is Davidic in the Septuagint; and Pss. i and ii are prefatory to the entire collect ion. — Bk. II has three anonymous psalms out of the thirty-