Expert: Maria - 1/10/2010

Question
I want to use the correct Latin translation for "Into your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit."  I have seen:
1) "In manus tuas, Domine, confide spiritum meum"
2) "In manus tuam, Domine, confide spiritum meum"
3) "In manus tuas, Domine, commendo spiritum meum"
Which is correct?

The King James from Luke is: "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit." (Luke 23:46)  What would that be?  What was it in the Guttenberg Latin Bible?

Answer
Hello,

Hello,

The only one correct translation for “Into your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit" is the third sentence: "In manus tuas, Domine, commendo spiritum meum".

As for the King James from Luke 23:46  "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit", it is in Latin “Pater, in manus tuas commendo spiritum meum”, as we read in the Guttenberg Latin Bible, i.e. in the Vulgate, translated by St.Jerome between 382 and 405 AD, and  known as the 'versio vulgata',  literally meaning 'common translation'.


Hope this can be helpful to you.
Best regards,
Maria
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Note that:

-Into = IN (preposition which takes the accusative case MANUS)

-your = TUAS (accusative feminine plural of the possessive adjective TUUS agreed with MANUS)

-hands = MANUS (accusative plural of the feminine noun MANUS, 4th.declension)

-O Lord = DOMINE (vocative case of DOMINUS, 2nd.declension)

-I commend = COMMENDO

-my = MEUM (accusative masculine singular of the possessive adjective MEUS agreed with SPIRITUM)

-spirit = SPIRITUM (direct object, accusative of the masculine noun SPIRITUS, 4th.declension)


As you can see, the differences between “Pater, in manus tuas commendo spiritum meum" and "In manus tuas, Domine, commendo spiritum meum" are the following:

1-the vocative case PATER (3rd.declension) instead of DOMINE which is the vocative of a noun belonging to the 2nd.declension

2-the placement of PATER (Father) at the beginning of the sentence instead of in the middle of the phrase.