On Friday November 8th, the St Irenaeus Institute and the Bible Society for the Netherlands and Flanders jointly presented De Psalmen van de Vroege Kerk (“The Psalms of the Early Church”) with a mini-symposium (‘The Psalms of the Early Church: a different way of reading’). This festive occasion took place in the Coptic Orthodox church in Amsterdam. It turned out to be a busy afternoon with over 120 attendees!
Mini-symposium
The speakers at the mini-symposium were Father Michael Bakker, Marten van Willigen, Mattias Rouw and Paul van Geest. They each spoke about the Psalms in their own way, which highlighted the wide application of this new translation as an asset for personal prayer, academia and the church.
After a brief introduction to De Psalmen van de Vroege Kerk and the developmental process of the translation, father Michael Bakker, under the title ‘Three for the price of one’, highlighted the rich history and the significance of the three ways in which the Orthodox churches read the Psalms: literal, symbolic and psychological. “Following the example of the disciples on the road to Emmaus, the first Christians read references to Christ in the Psalms. Like the first Christians, we pray using the Psalms. In a symbolic reading you discover for example that literal ‘enemies’ can also be ‘demons’, the negative thoughts that can assail a person.”
Marten van Willigen discussed the historical importance of the Psalms for the Fathers of the Early Church, with a particular focus on Ambrose of Milan and John Chrysostom, both of whom used the same text that served as the source text for this translation: the Greek text of the Septuagint. Mattias Rouw took us on ‘a Psalmic journey to Christ’ in a personal narrative, sharing what the Christological way of reading the Psalms means to him. Paul van Geest shared insights from his own Roman Catholic tradition and experience as an oblate in the Benedictine order on the importance of reading Psalms. “The psalms show our vulnerable side. They show us that we are imperfect. This makes us more pleasant people.”
With a musical interlude, the practical way Psalms are used in the Orthodox churches became clear to the attendees. Father Antonios Tarlizos sang Psalm 1 in the Byzantine style, using the text from De Psalmen van de Vroege Kerk. This Psalm is sung in the Eastern Orthodox Church during the Vespers service on Saturday evening.
Presentation
Rieuwerd Buitenwerf, the director of the Bible Society for the Netherlands and Flanders, called the translation ‘a milestone’. He stressed that it is “the first time we have produced a Bible edition together with the Orthodox churches.” He handed the first copies of De Psalmen van de Vroege Kerk to the translation team, to Geert van Dartel, president of the Dutch Council of Churches, to representatives of the Orthodox churches and of the new generation of Orthodox Christians.
As Buitenwerf said, “this tastes like more”. Fortunately, we already have ideas for more! Discover and support those here.
The Psalms of the Early Church
De Psalmen van de Vroege Kerk offers a translation of the Psalms from the Septuagint into contemporary Dutch. The publication can be purchased on the webshop of the Bible Society for the Netherlands and Flanders (or enquire about it in your local bookstore).
