Psalms

Numbering of the Psalms differs — mostly by one digit, see table — between the Hebrew (Masoretic) and Greek (Septuagint) manuscripts.Protestant translations (Lutheran, Anglican, Calvinist) use the Hebrew numbering, but other Christian traditions vary:

• Catholic official liturgical texts follow the Greek numbering
• Catholic modern translations often use the Hebrew numbering (noting the Greek number)
• Eastern Orthodox translations use the Greek numbering

For the remainder of this article the Hebrew numbering is used, unless otherwise noted.

The variance between Massorah and Septuagint texts in this numeration is likely enough due to a gradual neglect of the original poetic form of the Psalms; such neglect was occasioned by liturgical uses and carelessness of copyists. It is admitted by all that Pss. 9 and 10 were originally a single acrostic poem; they have been wrongly separated by Massorah, rightly united by the Septuagint and Vulgate. On the other hand Ps. 144 is made up of two songs — verses 1-11 and 12-15.^[3] Pss. 42 and 43 are shown by identity of subject (yearning for the house of Jahweh), of metrical structure and of refrain (cf. Heb. Ps. 42:6, 12; 43:5), to be three strophes of one and the same poem. The Hebrew text is correct in counting as one Ps. 146 and Ps. 147. Later liturgical usage would seem to have split up these and not a few other psalms. Zenner (Die Chorgesange im Buche der Psalmen, II, Freiburg im Br., 1896) ingeniously combines into what he deems were the original choral odes: Pss. 1, 2, 3, 4; 6 + 13; 9 + 10; 19, 20, 21; 156 + 157; 69 + 70; 114 + 115; 148, 149, 150. A choral ode would seem to have been the original form of Pss. 14 + 70. The two strophes and the epode are Ps. 14; the two antistrophes are Ps. 70 (cf. Zenner-Wiesmann, Die Psalmen nach dem Urtext, Munster, 1906, 305). It is noteworthy that, on the breaking up of the original ode, each portion crept twice into the Psalter: Ps. 14 = 53, Ps. 80 = 40:14-18. Other such duplicated psalms are Ps. 108:2-6 = Ps. 57:8-12; Ps. 108:7-14 = Ps. 60:7-14; Ps. 71:1-3 = Ps. 31:2-4. This loss of the original form of some of the psalms is allowed by the Biblical Commission (1 May 1910) to have been due to liturgical uses, neglect of copyists, or other causes.

Other psalms[edit source | editbeta]

Most manuscripts of the Septuagint also include a Psalm 151, present in Eastern Orthodox translations; a Hebrew version of this poem was found in the Psalms Scroll of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Psalms Scroll presents the Psalms in an order different from that found elsewhere, and also contains a number of non-canonical poems and hymns in the same style as the canonical Psalms, suggesting that the current collection of 150 may have been selected from a wider set.

Some versions of the Peshitta also include Psalms 152–155.

There are also the Psalms of Solomon, which are 18 psalms of Jewish origin — likely originally written in Hebrew, but only surviving in Greek and Syriac translation. They are not accepted as canonical by any major contemporary Jewish or Christian group.