Translating Θεοτοκος / Богородица

Sat Feb 15 06:44:32 UTC 2014

Mr. Rancour-Laferriere,

You might want to look at any of the texts that the Orthodox Church of
America uses. I can recall "Theotokos" (obviously a simple transliteration
of the Greek) being used in OCA services I attended, alongside related
terms like "Mother of God".

Sincerely,

Brian Hayden

On Sat, Feb 15, 2014 at 7:59 AM, Yuliya I. Ballou <ybinvt at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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] <#14433b3a79915005_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]<#14433b3a79915005_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]<#14433b3a79915005_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] <#14433b3a79915005_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] <#14433b3a79915005_14432c616226e056__ftnref> Fasmer 1986-1987
>> (1950-1958), vol. I, 183.
>>
>> [2] <#14433b3a79915005_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] <#14433b3a79915005_14432c616226e056__ftnref> Uspenskii 1996-1997,
>> vol. 2, 93.
>>
>> [4] <#14433b3a79915005_14432c616226e056__ftnref> Quoted in: Fedotov
>> 1991, 78; Uspenskii 1996-1997, vol. 2, 85.
>>
>>
>>
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