Wednesday Liturgy: Follow-up: "And With Your Spirit"

ROME, SEPT. 28, 2010 (Zenit.org).- Answered by Legionary of Christ Father Edward McNamara, professor of liturgy at the Regina Apostolorum university.


After our explanation of the reason behind the response "And with your spirit" (see Sept. 14), a Missouri reader respectfully disagreed with my comment that the current translation, "And also with you," was a fairly accurate rendering of the Hebrew.

Although this point was not the main thrust of our earlier article, I believe that our reader's comments offer a valid complement. To wit: "According to an article by Paulinus Milner, 'Et Cum Spiritu Tuo,' in Studies in Pastoral Liturgy, Volume 3, edited by Placid Murray, OSB (Dublin: The Furrow Trust, 1967), the Hebrew word nephesh means soul or spirit, but can also mean self. The closest examples we have of this translation into a Semitic language, however, does not use the equivalent of nephesh but rather ruah, which only means breath or spirit (cf. the Syriac translation of The Apostolic Tradition). Plus, the Greek pneuma is never used in the LXX [the Septuagint] to render the Hebrew nephesh, but ruah. Therefore, 'And also with you' is [not] an accurate rendering of the Hebrew background to this liturgical phrase."