Sum id quod sum
  • JulieCollJulieColl
    Posts: 2,465
    Such a penetrating and elegantly turned phrase from St. Paul. This was the end of the first reading today at Mass. (EF)

    Grátia autem Dei sum id quod sum, et grátia ejus in me vácua non fuit.

    (But by the grace of God I am what I am; and His grace in me hath not been void. I Cor. 15,10)
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,482
    image
    Thanked by 1JulieColl
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,482
    (Popeye doesn't ALWAYS agree with St. Paul...)
    Thanked by 2jpal CHGiffen
  • JulieCollJulieColl
    Posts: 2,465
    That made my day. Thank you, Adam!
    Thanked by 1Adam Wood
  • mrcoppermrcopper
    Posts: 653
    Exodus 3:14, And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM:

    Ehyeh-Asher-Ehyeh (often contracted in English as "I AM") is one of the Seven Names of God accorded special care by medieval Jewish tradition
    Thanked by 1JulieColl
  • JulieCollJulieColl
    Posts: 2,465
    Thanks for that connection, mr copper! That lends an entirely different connotation to that phrase. Was St. Paul evoking the Name of God in his statement above--albeit with the necessary qualifier gratia Dei (by the grace of God) to show that we are made in the image and likeness of God?

    Thanked by 1Adam Wood
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,482
    @julieColl

    I've always assumed he was.
    Thanked by 1mrcopper
  • JulieCollJulieColl
    Posts: 2,465
    I'm still trying to wrap my head around this---that St. Paul actually appropriated the Name of God and used in reference to himself---although with the qualifier of the grace of God, but this really seems to be the case.

    I looked up Exodus 3:14 in the Latin Vulgate and bingo, there's almost exactly the same phrase from the Lord Himself to Moses:

    Dixit Deus ad Moysen: Ego sum qui sum.

    I imagine if there were any Jews in the audience well-acquainted with the Pentateuch, as they almost certainly would have been, might have been a bit scandalized by St. Paul's boldness.
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,482
    Jews.. scandalized by St. Paul's boldness

    not just about this, either.
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,509
    The more I think about it, the more I like this metaphor. Switch out "grace" for "spinach," and about half of the New Testament is reducible to a Popeye cartoon.
    Thanked by 3Adam Wood mrcopper CHGiffen
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,482
    I'm strong for the race, cuz I've got my grace,
    I'm St. Paul th'apostle, man!
    Thanked by 1Kathy
  • GavinGavin
    Posts: 2,799
    "St. Paul actually appropriated the Name of God and used in reference to himself"

    So he wrote "Here I am, Lord"?
  • mrcoppermrcopper
    Posts: 653
    Gavin, Moses said that, too. On first meeting God around the burning bush.
  • mrcoppermrcopper
    Posts: 653
    Kathy, perhaps a third of the Old Testament, too?
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,193
    So ... I-AM-bic ... makes one wonder about IAMbic pentameter ... or, perhaps, IAMbic Pentateuch?
    Thanked by 4Kathy JulieColl Gavin mrcopper
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