Russian vs. American politeness

Sat Oct 5 18:30:39 UTC 2013

Dear Slavists,

I have a comment on this usage in religious context, i.e., Mary's response to the announcing angel in Luke (from work in progress):

> she says to the angel: “Here am I, the slave of the Lord [hē doulē kuriou]; let it be with me according to your word” (Luke 1:38; cf. 1:48, where Mary again characterizes herself as the Lord’s “slave” in her famous Magnificat).[1]
> 
> 
> [1] Here I have altered the NRSV phrase “the servant of the Lord” to “the slave of the Lord,” for that is the literal meaning of the Greek phrase (hē doulē kuriou; cf. Miller 1994, ed. 119; Funk and the Jesus Seminar 1998, 515, 517; Gaventa 2004, 24; Barnstone 2009, 331).  The Arndt/Gingrich translation and adaptation of Bauer’s standard dictionary offers “female slave, bondmaid” as the correct English translation for doulē, and cites the very phrase in question from Luke 1:38.  Under the corresponding entry for a generic slave (doulos) it is observed that “‘servant’ for ‘slave’ is largely confined to Biblical transl[ation]” (Bauer 1957 [1952], 204).  Why this should be (or once was) so in English would be a worthy topic of investigation.  It is worth noting that for Luke 1:38 the Vulgate offers ancilla Domini, and a check of some Bibles in other languages yields French (La Ligue Biblique) la servante du Seigneur, Spanish (Reina Valera Revisada) la sierva del Señor, German (Gute Nachricht, literal rendition) die Sklavin des Herrn, and Russian (Synodal) Raba Gospodnia.  Obviously, opinion is divided on whether or not to tone down the literal meaning of the Greek original.

On Oct 5, 2013, at 7:05 AM, R. M. Cleminson wrote:

----- Pôvodná správa -----
Od: "Alina Israeli" <aisrael at AMERICAN.EDU>
Komu: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.UA.EDU
Odoslané: piatok, 4. október 2013 16:18:45
Predmet: Re: [SEELANGS] Russian vs. American politeness

> Maybe specialists in Christianity could chime in, because a Russian Christian is раб 
> божий, OK, божий, but раб. And it's ingrained in communication. 

Рабъ Божий is the Slavonic translation of the Biblical δοῦλος Θεοῦ, rendered in English translations as "servant of God".  The traditional English Bible regularly renders "δοῦλος" as "servant" (120 examples), though some modern translations prefer "slave".  "Servant" is also regularly used liturgically in English, as is "рабъ" in Slavonic.

I am not convinced, however, that this has much bearing on social intercourse.  "Your humble servant" is, after all, "слуга покорный".
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