Feast of Sts. Philip and James, Apostles
1 Corinthians 15:1-8 | Psalm 18:2-5 | John 14:6-14
[…] and last of all he appeared to me too; it was as though I was born when no one expected it. (1 Cor 15:8)
The end of today’s reading (taken from the Jerusalem Bible) caught my eye for its exceedingly strange formulation. I looked up some other translations, and this is what I found:
as though I was a child born abnormally (New Jerusalem Bible, New American Bible)
as though to one born at the wrong time (New English Translation)
as by one born out of due time (Douay-Rheims, King James Version)
as to one untimely born (Latin Vulgate, La Sacra Bibbia)
All these stem from the original Greek text:
ὡσπερεὶ τῷ ἐκτρώματι (hosperei to ektromati: as to one who was miscarried)
It took me a while to appreciate the poetry of St. Paul’s words. Remember that his conversion to the apostolate was a sudden shazam! moment, and he was not privy to the years that all the other apostles spent journeying with and learning their craft from Jesus. One might therefore say that St. Paul was a metaphorical “premature birth”, though he certainly acquitted himself well despite the lack of “on-the-job training”.
Also, “preemies” who survive their unexpected introduction to a cold and cruel world tend to be less well-developed than their age peers. According to St. John Chrysostom, St. Paul was rather short (“paulus” in Latin) with a crooked body and bald head, so one might assume that the fiery apostle was also trying to be self-deprecatingly punny.
Smart man, that St. Paul.
Lord, give us the strength to bear the approbation of others with good humour, so as to show to all the true depth and meaning of Your abundant Love. Amen.