Dear Ed,
Thank you very much for taking the time to point me in the right
direction with this!
Actually, the circumstances are a bit more complicated than I first
mentioned, but your help was invaluable. The handwritten Latin quote
was found in the early Psalms section of a paraphrased Bible called the
"Free Inside International" version which was given to my son after he
was arrested and requested a Bible. I do not think that it was an
actual translation at all; he described it as a Black slang-dialect
that sort of told the story without any verse or chapter delineations,
so there was really no way to say which Psalm it was actually near,
other than comparing/remembering what each Psalm said and translating
the original into street slang. You can imagine the surprise that my
highly educated son felt when he first leafed through this incredibly
oversimplified version (all of Genesis only takes 21 pages!!!), only to
stumble over a hand written entry in Latin. What was going on here?
Whoever wrote it was obviously also very learned, since it would have
had to have been written from memory. And what was the point?
Obviously, there is a tension between the classical Roman theology that
Horace believed (where works were primary, and protection and favor
from the gods came from doing their will), and with the Christian
doctrines that salvation comes from God's grace and has nothing to do
with works; in fact, our good works only come after we accept and
receive the gift of Christ's redemptive work on the cross. And what
would prompt him to write it in Latin? He had to know that probably no
one would ever come across the statement who would know what it meant.
Anyway, that is what my request was all about. Thanks for shedding
light on the mystery (and also thanks for helping me to remember
Horace; I found an online translation of his Odes and I am reminded of
how beautiful his phraseology was!)
Hope you are having a great week.
If you wanted to drop a line, why not send it directly to me at
***@yahoo.com
Sincerely,
Kent Whitaker