Here again, as in the previous case, we can distinguish between the third stage, when the Latin question was simply transliterated into Hebrew, and the fourth, in which the transliteration, no longer understood, was accidentally modified into something that made sense to the readers of NY, even though it betrayed the meaning of the original. But the present passage also tells us something else about the reactive nature of the NY in the first and second stages of its compilation. If we try to imagine a Jewish writer searching Catholic liturgical texts for polemical ammunition, it is of course possible that he might have focused on the question "Do you renounce Satan?" But it is much easier to imagine that a Christian polemicist would have referred to the renunciation of Satan in an anti-Jewish sermon—hoping, as he saw it, to persuade Jews to make this very renunciation. This in turn would have created an obvious need for Jews to counter-interpret and refute the passage. In other words, this section of the NY gives the impression that it was not based on a first-hand knowledge of the Catholic liturgy, but on quotations that became known to Jews only through being cited by Christian apologists.

This section also provides possible evidence of the organizing and rewriting that may have taken place at the notional fifth stage. In two manuscripts of NY the implausible Offerentia Satane has been replaced by the words for making the Sign of the Cross, "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen." Apparently this was confused with the very similar formula that the priest spoke as he poured the water over the head of the person being baptized.¹² Yet this Trinitarian formula, which in principle would have been a good target for Jewish refutation, is not discussed as such, but simply and wrongly given the same translation as before, "let this be an offering to Satan." In short, this is a kind of hypercorrection, an attempt to replace the troublesome Offerentia Satane with wording the baptismal service actually contains, though not quite successfully, and without altering the Hebrew mistranslation. A corruption of this sort surely arose after the original NY had been completed, and its manuscript diffusion had already begun.

The next section of the text quotes another part of the baptismal service, giving the first half of the so-called Apostles' Creed in both Latin and German:

The following is called the Credo in their language: Credo in Deum patrem omnipotentem creatorem celi et terrae e<t>in Jesum Christu<m>filiu<m> eius (some say at this point: unicum dominum nostrum qui conceptus est de spiritu san<c>to natus ex Maria vir<gi>ne—this is as far as the additional passage extends) passus <sub> Pon<t>io Pilato, crucifi<x>sus, mortuus et sepultus, descent<u>s ad infera, tertia <d>ie re<s>urrexit a mortuis, as<c>endit a<d>caelu<m>, sedet a<d>dex<t>eram Dei patris omnipotentis. This means the following: I believe in God the ruling father, creator of heaven and earth, and also in his son Jesus who suffered agonies at the hand of the procurator Pilate. He suffered, and he was killed and buried, and on the third day he rose from the dead—he who sits at the right hand of God the ruling father. The German [Ashkenaz] translation is: Ich gloybe an Gott Vater gewiltig Schöpfer Himmel un' Erde un' an seinen Sohn Jesu der hat gelitten von dem Fürsten Pilatus den Marter. Er ist gepeinigt un' getödet un' begraben. Am dritten Tag stund er oyf von seinem Tode, der sitzt zu der Rechten Seiten Gottes Vater gewiltig. Now, one may ask that since they say they believe in God and Jesus, it follows that Jesus is not God. Moreover, they say that he sits at the right hand of God; this indicates that he himself is not God. Otherwise they would have said, "He who sits on a lofty and exalted throne" [Isaiah 6:1]; only that would indicate that he himself is divine.

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | Contents

Academics | Admissions | Alumni | Works | Listen | Look | Contact | Index | Home | Yale University

Copyright © 2003-2005.  Yale Institute of Sacred Music
409 Prospect Street,   New Haven, Connecticut 06511
Telephone: 203 432 5180    Fax: 203 432 5296