A friend of mine has an old (1663) KJV Bible with the following Latin quote (ascribed to Luther) hand inscribed in one of the front pages:
“Pactum feci Domino Deo meo, ne mihi mittat vel visiones, vel somnia, vel etiam angelos. Contentus enim sum Hoc Dono, quod habeo Scripturam sanctum, qua abunde docet, ac suppeditat omnia qua necessaria, tum ad hanc vitam tum ad futuram.”
My rough translation on the fly:
“I have made a covenant with the Lord my God, that He give me neither visions nor dreams nor even angels. For I am content with This Gift which I have: Holy Scripture which teaches abundantly, and supplies everything necessary, both for this life and for the future.”
So how’d I do? Any suggestions or corrections?
Thanks and cheers in advance.
David Bennett says
Toby:
The following is a link to a digitized Google book which is “The Christian Guardian and Church of England magazine” from November 1831:
http://books.google.com/books?id=Vw8EAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA431&lpg=PA431&dq=luther+quote:+vel+visiones,+vel+somnia,+vel+etiam+angelos&source=bl&ots=_sOVcMyJmR&sig=GzXktJngn7XT9w6k0h8QOkCI2QU&hl=en&sa=X&ei=oz0sUaj9A678yAGEzIGABg&ved=0CD4Q6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=luther%20quote%3A%20vel%20visiones%2C%20vel%20somnia%2C%20vel%20etiam%20angelos&f=false
and it offers this translation of the quote, whilst still asking their readers for the original source of the quote:
“I have made a covenant with the Lord God, nor do I wish that he would send me visions or dreams or even angels: I am content with this Gift, that I have the Holy Scripture, which abundantly teaches and supplies all things necessary both to this and to a future life.”
Their exact Latin quote is: “Pactum feci cum Domino Deonec nec mihi mittat vel visiones, vel somnia, vel etiam angelos: hoc Dono contentus sum, qoud habeo Scripturum Sanctum, quae abunde docet ac suppedittat omnia quae necessaria sunt, tum ad hanc vitam, tum ad futuram.”
Yet, even with the remarkable search capacity of Google, I cannot yet find the quote in any of Luther’s writings.
David Bennett
David Bennett says
Toby:
One too many “nec” in the original quote I wrote. If you could strike the last three letter of the non-word Deonec, it would read better.
David
David Bennett says
Toby:
It looks like the “nec” which I wrote is really “nee”, in the first portion of their Latin quote. If you would correct that, it would read still better.
David
Mark says
I’m not a “Latin peep”, but google translate’s translation seems quite similar to yours:
I have made a covenant of the Lord my God, do not let him send to me or visions, or dreams, or even of the angels. For I am not content with this, the Gift, which I have the holy Scripture, which teaches us more than enough, and supplies of all things which are necessary, both for this life as well as to the future.
Helen Howell says
What a cool quote! Given the punctuation, you could also shift the emphasis slightly and say, “For I am content with This Gift, that I have the Holy Scripture…” etc. It’s not a huge difference, but it highlights his contrast to the previous sentence a little more.
Melissa Dow says
If the text is actually qua abunde docet, it should probably be translated “by which He teaches abundantly.” Qua would be is ablative of means, not the subject.
If, however (as David found), qua actually is quae in the original, then it’s definitely the subject and your translation stands. Given that whoever copied this also wrote qua necessaria (which definitely ought to be quae necessaria), I’m guessing that David’s discovery is the accurate text.