Translating Θεοτοκος / Богородица

Sat Feb 15 03:59:27 UTC 2014

I know that this was quoted:

The third mother is the one who took on pain [i.e., in
childbirth].[4]<https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#14432c616226e056__ftn4>

but I wanted to mention that скорбь has more of the meaning of great sorrow
than pain...

as for the Богородица, here are my "two cents", not sure if this would be
of any help at all,
I feel that (and this is my personal perspective, since I was born and grew
up in Russia, but if you are interested I could survey several people,
including my cousin who is Russian Orthodox priest in Brest, Belarus) the
term should not be taken as meaning just "God-birther" and excluding the
implication of mothering and rearing the god-child after the birthing was
over. In fact, I would say that it is automatically implied in the Russian/
Russian Orthodox culture. First of all the only time that term is used s to
talk about mary Mother of God and it's known that she was there for Jesus
at all times.  Most Russian mothers are the most motherly and nurturing  (
and maybe it's a subjective opinion), and no one in Russian can imagine
(outside of the rare cases of troubled mothers abandoning their kids right
after birth) a mother who just did the birthing and then stopped her
motherly duties and walked away...
My speculation is that it's almost like a "honorary title" that shouldn't
take away the significance of bringing up the God-child, but stresses the
fact that Mary/Maria gave birth to God. Which is somewhat strange in a way,
since in Russian Orthodoxy Christmas/ celebration of the birth of Christ is
less important than celebrating Easter/ celebration of Christ's
resurrection. So in that case it is more important that Jesus has risen
from the dead thus proving his godliness. So his 2nd birth/ rebirth is more
important than his actual birth to Bogoroditsa...
Sorry if this wasn't helpful at all...
Best wishes,
Yuliya Ballou

On Fri, Feb 14, 2014 at 4:57 PM, Daniel Rancour-Laferriere <
darancourlaferriere at comcast.net> wrote:

> Dear Slavists,
>
> I am considering possible alternatives to "Mother of God" in translating
> Russian "Bogoroditsa" (which is a calque on Greek "Theotokos" according to
> Fasmer).  Some possibilities:
>
> Godbearer
> Birth-giver of God
> Godbirther
> Birther of God
> The God-bearing One
>
> The christological and mariological consequences of the terminology here
> have been enormous (see, for example, the four columns of fine print under
> the entry "theotokos" in Lampe's Patristic Greek Lexicon).  From a
> psychological perspective, "Mother of God" is too inclusive, for there is
> much more to mothering God than giving birth to him.  So Latin "Deipara"
> was a precise rendition of "Theotokos," while "Mater Dei" came later.
>  Analogously, I am looking for a more precise rendition of "Bogoroditsa,"
> and I have tentatively chosen one in a major revision of a passage from an
> earlier book, The Joy of All Who Sorrow (2005).  For the time being, it
> reads as pasted in below.
>
> Any suggestions would be most welcome.
>
> With regards to the list,
>
> Daniel Rancour-Laferriere
>
>
>             The universal core experience of having been mothered helps
> to explain why it is possible for one maternal metaphor to replace (or to
> exist in syncretistic overlap with) another such metaphor.  In ancient
> feudal Rus', for example, the Birther of God (*Bogoroditsa*, a calque on
> the Greek *Theotokos*)[1] <#14432c616226e056__ftn1> as Mary is still
> called in Russia) arrived from Byzantium in the tenth century and began to
> provide some of the same maternal amenities which the pagan "Mother Moist
> Earth" (*mat' syra zemlia*) had provided worshippers before the
> conversion of Rus' to Christianity.[2] <#14432c616226e056__ftn2>  Even in
> the late pre-Soviet period Russian peasants would still sometimes refer to
> the Birther of God as "Earth" (*zemlia*), and conversely, they would
> sometimes refer to Earth as "Birther of God" (*Bogoroditsia*).[3]<#14432c616226e056__ftn3>
> This replaceability or interchangeability of metaphorical mothers was made
> possible by the ontogenetic past of the individuals involved, that is, by
> personal childhood experience of the real mother in those particular adult
> individuals who were choosing to worship one or the other - pagan or
> Christian - maternal deity.  Even without the help of psychology, the
> Russian folk themselves understood perfectly well that a third party -
> one's real mother - had to be involved, as in this passage from a spiritual
> song collected in the middle of the nineteenth century:
>
>
>
>                         *Первая мать - Пресвятая Богородица;*
>
> *                        Вторая мать - сыра земля;*
>
> *                        Третия мать - кая скорбь приняла.*
>
>
>
>                         The first mother is the Most Holy Birther of God;
>
>                         The second mother is Moist Earth;
>
>                         The third mother is the one who took on pain
> [i.e., in childbirth].[4] <#14432c616226e056__ftn4>
>
>
>
> From a religious (Russian Orthodox) viewpoint, the Birther of God was
> certainly 'number one,' as indicated here.  From a historical viewpoint,
> however, this ditty is wrong.  Moist Earth was first, not second, for
> this pagan metaphor (among others) was revered in Rus' before Christianity
> officially arrived there in the tenth century.  From a psychological
> viewpoint, however, neither the Birther of God nor Moist Earth was primary.
> One's own mother was (and still is) 'number one' in Russia (as elsewhere),
> for she was the first human being an individual interacted with from the
> moment of conception, and for quite some time after birth the preponderance
> of interaction was with this particular, literal mother.  Both "Moist
> Earth" and the "Birther of God" were experienced relatively late in
> childhood development - if at all, depending on the individual's
> socio-cultural environment within Russia.
>
> ------------------------------
>
> [1] <#14432c616226e056__ftnref> Fasmer 1986-1987 (1950-1958), vol. I, 183.
>
> [2] <#14432c616226e056__ftnref> For a review of some of the literature on
> this topic, see: Rancour-Laferriere 2005, 256-260 (from which some of the
> observations about the Russian *Bogoroditsa* made here are adapted).
>
> [3] <#14432c616226e056__ftnref> Uspenskii 1996-1997, vol. 2, 93.
>
> [4] <#14432c616226e056__ftnref> Quoted in: Fedotov 1991, 78; Uspenskii
> 1996-1997, vol. 2, 85.
>
>
>
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