The intoxication of words

Noe's drunkenness. J-J Tissot. 1896-1902. The Jewish Collection online.

When comparing Challoner's Douay-Rheims Gospel of St Luke with the original version of 1582, I was surprised to come across an unusual English word:  ſicer (sicer):

15. For he shall be great before the Lord; and shall drink no wine nor strong drink: and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb.

[Luc. i. 15, Challoner]

15. For he ſhal be great before our Lord; and wine and ſicer he ſhal not drinke ; and he ſhal be repleniſhed with the Holy Ghoſt euen from his mothers womb. [1582 version]

Here is the verse in the Latin Vulgate...

15. erit enim magnus coram Domino : et vinum et siceram non bibet, et Spiritu Sancto replebitur adhuc ex utero matris suæ :

and the Greek...

15. ἔσται γὰρ μέγας ἐνώπιον ⸀τοῦ κυρίου, καὶ οἶνον καὶ σίκερα οὐ μὴ πίῃ, καὶ πνεύματος ἁγίου πλησθήσεται ἔτι ἐκ κοιλίας μητρὸς αὐτοῦ,

The OED says of sicer:

a1400–1609. sicer, n. Intoxicating liquor, strong drink.A borrowing from Latin. Etymon: Latin sicera.

Lewis Short (on Logeion) says:

sīcĕra, n., = σίκερα [from the Heb. ],a kind of spirituous, intoxicating drink (eccl. Lat.). There are seven instances of the word siceram in the Latin Vulgate, all from the Old testament except one, which is in chapter xv of St Luke's Gospel. The word is always written paired with vinum (wine). [See: Deuteronomy xiv. 26, Deuteronomy xxix. 6, Judges xiii. 4, Judges xiii. 7, [Judges xiii.14 & Luke i.15].

There are many Hebrew sources which explain sicer actually refers to beer... Here is one excerpt:

The importance of beer in the ancient Near East can be seen by the fact that, in time,

the word for beer came to designate the state of drunkenness. The word for beer

became synonymous with inebriation in Akkadian, Aramaic, Ugaritic and Arabic.

Similarly in the Egyptian language, “beer” (hnqt) was used for general drunkenness.

And in the Bible, shekhar is often a verb that means “to get drunk” (e.g., Genesis ix. 21;

Isaiah xxix.9), a parallel linguistic usage that furthers the case for shekhar as “beer.”

(This parallel usage has also survived in modern Hebrew: A drunk is a shekhor (שכור),

and shekhar (שכר) means beer, although beer is also commonly called simply beera.)

[Taken from Beer in the Bible, arranged by Rabbi Drew Kaplan]

It seems that this beer would have been much stronger and sweeter than the northern European variety, perhaps more akin to "amber nectar." 

For a selection of Jewish interpretations of the word shekar, see Shekhar: Is it Wine or Beer? by Dr.Elaine Goodfriend. 

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SUB tuum præsidium confugimus, Sancta Dei Genitrix. Nostras deprecationes ne despicias in necessitatibus, sed a periculis cunctis libera nos semper, Virgo gloriosa et benedicta. Amen.

 

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.

On the Feast of Christ the King

 The Holy Infant of Prague.
Fotobanka ČTK, René Fluger.

Today, on the great feast of Christ the King, we launch the first of a new series of posts on the life of Christ according to the Gospel of St Luke. You can read this Life (and others in the series) by clicking here: 👉 The Life of Christ Our Lord.

The Life includes the Douay-Rheims [1] and Vulgate texts of the Gospel, followed by annotations which make extensive use of the commentary by Cornelius Cornelii a Lapide (1567-1637). The illustrations are by Jacques-Joseph Tissot (1836-1902), except where otherwise stated.

[1] With revisions by Bishop Richard Challoner, 1749-52. Taken from a hardcopy of the 1899 Edition by the John Murphy Company. See here for DRBO site.

The Holy Infant of Prague

👈This is the original statue of the Holy Infant, Lord Jesus Christ our King.   It was given by Princess Polyxena von Lobkowicz to the Discalced Carmelites in 1628 and is now located in the Discalced Carmelite Church of Our Lady of Victories in Prague. The author is blessed to have a statue of the Holy Infant received as a gift from the late Fr Dodd, parish priest of Corpus Christi Church, Maiden Lane (Covent Garden).

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The Icon of Vladimir. ?12th century.
  Church of St. Nicholas, Moscow.

I offer our work on St Luke's Gospel as a gift to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, our gentle Queen and Mother, with a petition that she present it as an act of reparation to her Divine Son so that He, in His mercy, may heal the wounds, repair the damage and undo the scandal caused by sins.

O Lord Jesus Christ our King who hast said, "Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened,"[1] through the intercession of Mary, Your Most Holy Mother, I knock, I seek, I ask that my prayer be granted.

Domine Jesu Christe, Rex noster, qui dixisti: Petite, et dabitur vobis; quærite, et invenietis; pulsate, et aperietur vobis,[1] per intercessionem Mariæ Sanctissimæ Matris Tuæ, pulso, quæro et peto ut deprecationes meas exaudias.

[1] [Luc. xi. 19]

The Icon of Vladimir

This ancient Icon of the Mother of God is said to be based on one painted by the Evangelist St Luke himself on a board taken from the table used by the Holy Family in Nazareth. In 1131, the icon was sent from Constantinople to Rus and was installed in the Devichi monastery in Vyshgorod. In 1155, it was brought to the city of Vladimir and was installed in the Dormition cathedral. It was from this time that the icon received its name of the Vladimir Icon. The icon was first brought to Moscow in 1395 where it is now housed in the Church of St. Nicholas.

Let us pray that our Blessed Mother will gather together her faithful sons from the East and the West so as to be reunited as once they were in the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.

WE fly to thy patronage, O holy Mother of God;

 despise not our petitions in our necessities,

 but deliver us always from all dangers,

O glorious and blessed Virgin. Amen.

 

SUB tuum præsidium confugimus, Sancta Dei Genitrix.

 Nostras deprecationes ne despicias in necessitatibus,

sed a periculis cunctis libera nos semper,

 Virgo gloriosa et benedicta. Amen.

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.

The Life of Christ : St Matthew

Three Archangels with Tobias. c.1471 Uffizi, Florence. 

Today, the feast of St Raphael, sees the last posting on the Life of Christ according to the Gospel of St Matthew on The Life of Christ website. I established the Life of Christ site in 2019 to provide a platform for presenting and illustrating the life of Christ. This was in response to an idea which seemed to speak from the last line of the motto I had adopted as a seal in the same year (see below and at the end of each post):

Ad Jesum per Mariam.

It also reflects the emphasis found in the opening lines of The Imitation of Christ, by Thomas a Kempis:

     He that followeth me, walketh not in darkness, saith Our Lord. (John viii.12). These are the words of Christ, by which we are admonished, that we must imitate His life and manners, if we would be truly enlightened, and delivered from all blindness of heart. Let it then be our chief study to meditate on the life of Jesus Christ. [From The Imitation of Christ, Thomas a Kempis (c. 1418–1427); translated by Bishop Richard Challoner (1755)]

     Qui sequitur me non ambulat in tenebris dicit Dominus. Hæc sunt verba Christi, quibus admonemur quatenus vitam eius et mores imitemur, si volumus veraciter illuminari, et ab omni cæcitate cordis liberari. Summum igitur studium nostrum, sit in vita Jesu meditari.

     Celui qui me suit, ne marche point dans les ténèbres, dit le Seigneur. Ce sont les paroles de Jésus-Christ, par lesquelles il nous exhorte à imiter sa conduite et sa vie, si nous voulons être vraiment éclairés et délivrés de tout aveuglement du cœur. Que notre principale étude soit donc de méditer la vie de Jésus-Christ. [L'Imitation de Jésus-Christ, traduction avec des réflections par M l'Abbé F De Lamenais (1859)]

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Here is a summary of the projects completed to date:

1. The first Life followed the format of The Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ by the remarkable artist James J. Tissot (1897). The posts began on the 14th of October 2019 and concluded on the feast of the Ascension, the 21st of May 2020.
2. The second Life followed the work of l'Abbé Constant Fouard:  La Vie de N-S Jésus-Christ (1880). The first post was published on the feast of Corpus Christi (11th of June 2020) and the series concluded on the 4th of October 2020.
3. The third Life followed the Gospel of St Mark, making use of a work by Madame Cecilia published in 1904 entitled The Gospel according to St Mark. This Life opened on the Feast of St Mark (25th April 2022) and concluded on the 26th of June 2022.
4. The fourth project featured the Acts of the Apostles and also made use of Madame Cecilia's work published in 1907 entitled The Acts of the Apostles. The series began on the 29th June 2022 and concluded on the 11th of September in the same year.
5. The most recent project featured the Gospel of St Matthew.  Making use of Madame Cecilia's commentaries published in 1906, it began on the 29th of June 2023, the feast of St Peter and St Paul, and concluded today, the 24th of October, on the feast of St Raphael.

I offer this work to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, our gentle Queen and Mother, with a petition that she present it as an act of reparation to her Divine Son's most Sacred Heart so that He, in His mercy, may heal the wounds, repair the damage and undo the scandal caused by sins.

O Lord, graciously send Your holy Archangel Raphael to help us, that he who we know stands ever in the presence of Your Majesty, may present our humble prayers for Your blessing.

Dirigere dignáre, Dómine Deus, in adiutórium nostrum sanctum Raphaélem Archángelum: et, quem tuæ maiestáti semper assístere crédimus, tibi nostras exíguas preces benedicéndas assígnet.

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.