Blessing God: The Liturgy as ‘Middle Voiced’
On the Role of Humans in Worship
In 2011, the Norwegian Bible Society (Bibelselskapet) launched a new translation of the Bible (Bibel 2011),1 replacing the one from the late 70s and early 80s (Bibel 1978/85).2 With this translation, the Bible Society made some choices which proved controversial. In Bibel 1878/95, the Bible Society had distinguished sharply between blessing and praise, choosing to translate the Hebrew and Greek verbs barukh and eulogéō as variants of ‘(to) bless’ when God was the subject and ‘(to) praise’ or ‘(to) worship’ when humans were, the Greek noun eulogía with a wide variety of translations (‘blessing,’ ‘gift,’ ‘thanksgiving,’ etc.), and the Greek adjective eulogētós as ‘praised’ or ‘worshipped’ when God was the object and ‘blessed’ when humans were. With Bibel 2011 they decided to try something new by translating the words as ‘(to) bless’ and ‘blessed’ in some select places, but not consistently. Psalm 103:1, for instance, was changed from “mi sjel, lov Herren” (“my soul, praise the Lord”) to “velsign Herren, mi sjel” (“bless the Lord, my soul”) and Ephesians 1:3 was changed from “lova vere Gud, vår Herre Jesu Kristi Far” (“praised be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ”) to “velsigna er Gud, vår Herre Jesu Kristi Far” (“blessed is God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ”), while 1 Peter 1:3 remained unchanged at “lova vere Gud, vår Herre Jesu Kristi Far” (“praised be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ”). The now late New Testament scholar Hans Kvalbein reacted against the changes, asking “can human beings bless God?”3 And elsewhere he stated that he would have problems saying “bless the Lord, my soul,” and then ending with “this is the word of the Lord.”4 Kvalbein claimed that ‘to bless’ is to be given the goodness of God, as a gift: “God himself is the source of all blessing. To praise has the opposite direction. There the good words, thanksgiving and praise, are directed from human beings back to God.”5 His point, then, was that ‘blessing’ and ‘praise’ are two different things that should not be mixed. This discussion has now been renewed, since the Bible Society launched a revised translation of Bibel 2011 in March this year (Bibel 2024).6 Where Bibel 2011 was a bit inconsistent, Bibel 2024 is more consistent in translating the words in question as ‘(to) bless’ and ‘blessed.’7
Alf Kjetil Walgermo, author and journalist in Vårt Land, is critical of this, saying, “The direction of God’s grace risks being turned upside down when Bibel 2024 allows people to bless God. It is God who blesses us, not the other way around.”8 He maintains that there is a difference in use (in Norwegian) between blessing and praising, and thinks that this nuance disappears in the new translation and that we risk thinking that we give something to God which He does not already have. He uses the example of Luke 24:53, where we find a description of the disciples after the ascension (but before Pentecost): “Since then they were continually in the temple, worshipping and praising God” (Bibel 2011, emphasis added).9 In Bibel 2024, however, this has been changed: “Since then they were continually in the temple, blessing God” (emphasis added).10 Citing Hebrews 7:7, he opposes this, saying that God (the superior) blesses us (who are inferior).
He has since received a response from professor Anders Aschim, who makes the point that Christians who speak Latin or Greek, English or Romance languages (and most likely more) have no problem blessing God.11 He says that the Greek and Hebrew texts have no problem using the same word, and in some cases the rhetorical point is lost if you don’t. He specifically mentions Genesis 14:19-20 and Luke 24:51-53. In the former, Melchizedek blesses Abram (who hadn’t changed his name to Abraham yet), saying (emphasis added): “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, maker of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand!”12 And in Luke 24:51, we see that Christ blesses the disciples, who then go on to bless God in Luke 24:53. For those who can read Norwegian, all these debate texts are interesting and I would recommend reading them. I agree with the choices made in the revised translation, and I would like here to show why.
As I have shown elsewhere, there is a tendency in Lutheran theology, and especially in those who oppose the use of ‘blessing God,’ to separate, or at least distinguish sharply between, the gifts of God and our worship in a way which obscures the divine character of worship.13 I have made the point that this must be understood as ‘middle voiced,’ a theological-grammatical concept I have found in the theology of Catherine Pickstock.14 This category, which is usually used to denote reciprocity or reflexivity, can also be used “to denote action of a verb which is neither active nor passive.”15 And this helps us to understand how we might envision the distinction between blessing and praise, while also maintaining that they are in many ways the same thing, and that we might partake of it without thereby being on the level of God. Pickstock writes:
Characteristically, [the self within the liturgical order] is “middle voiced”. He is not purely active since his liturgical performances are prescribed and made possible by divine forces. But nor is he wholly passive since his active and creative subjectivity is necessary to mediate those forces. Indeed, he is a characteristically representative subject, not first and foremost his own self, self-directive and self-governed, but first of all only constituted as a subject by his symbolic, mediating and channelling role. In this way, the self is to begin with distanced from himself, constituted by a certain kind of openness, since he never perfectly fulfils the role, which nonetheless defines him. … The middle voice is a grammatical category known to ancient Indo-European languages which was employed to denote action of a verb which is neither active nor passive. There is some evidence to suggest that its use was not simply to cast an action as either a reciprocal or a reflexive, but to express the mediation of divine by human action.16
The point is that by grace, we are given the dignity to live out our lives as children of God. The problem with the separation of blessing and praise, and the accompanying claim that the former comes from God while the latter comes from humans, is that it actually makes human beings too autonomous while also muddling St. Paul’s teachings.17 He had no problem using the same word (eulogía, eulogētós, or eulogéō) to indicate both the received gift of blessing and its return as blessing, and neither should we. The point is that everything, including our praise, comes from God, and we only praise God because he allows us to participate in that which is His. And that is exactly what we see in Luke 24:51-53. Because Christ blessed His disciples (v.51), they could go on to bless God (c.53), precisely because their blessing is a participation in His. It is the very same thing – a well-spoken word, which is what the word ‘blessing’ means – but it originates in Him and returns to Him by His own power. To use Neoplatonic language, like all things, the blessing emanates from God but it also returns to Him by His own work, in creation and in creatures. Perhaps this can help us to understand that what we give to God is actually only His work that He works through us. We worship because He has put a new song in our mouths, “a song of praise to our God” (Psalm 40:3). “We love,” says St. John, “because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19).
So give thanks and praise to God, bless Him with all your being, and know that you do so because He “is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13).
Notes:
See Bibelen: Den Heilage Skrifta (Oslo: Bibelselskapet, 2011).
See Bibelen: Den heilage skrifta. Det gamle og Det nye testamentet (Oslo: Det norske bibelselskap, 1987). The different translations of the Bible Society, going back to the 1930s, can be found at their website.
Cited by Anders Aschim and Ingeborg Mongstad-Kvammen, “Velsignet er Gud” (Verdidebatt, 29th Feb. 2012), translated from Norwegian.
This was from a reponse to Gunnar Haaland, “«Velsignet er Han!» Bidrag til en ordveksling om Bibel 2011” (Verdidebatt, 29th Feb. 2012), translated from Norwegian. The response is unfortunately no longer available online, as the newspaper Vårt Land restructured their whole debate page, so that you might find the original pieces but no the responses below. For a sampling of the debate, in chronological order, see Aschim and Mongstad-Kvammen, “Velsignet er Gud”; Hans Kvalbein, “Tanken om «å velsigne Gud» gjør meg urolig” (Verdidebatt, 1st Mar. 2012); Haaland, “«Velsignet er Han!»”; Simon Høimyr, “Subjekt eller objekt for velsignelse” (Verdidebatt, 15th Mar. 2012).
Cited by Aschim and Mongstad-Kvammen, “Velsignet er Gud” (translated from Norwegian).
See Bibelen: Den Heilage Skrifta, Katolsk kanon (Oslo: Bibelselskapet, 2024).
The words are not translated as variants of ‘bless’ or ‘blessed’ in a few places in the New Testament. Eulogéō is translated as takkebøn (‘prayer of thanksgiving’) in Matthew 14:19 and Mark 6:41, as takka (‘thank, give thanks’) in Matthew 26:26 and Mark 14:22, as lova (‘(to) worship’) in 1 Corinthians 14:16, and as lovprisa (‘(to) praise’) in James 3:9. Eulogía is translated as lokkande tale (‘flattery’) in Romans 16:18, as gåve (‘gift’) in 2 Corinthians 9:5 (yet ‘blessing’ in the next verse), and as lovprising (‘praise’) in James 3:10.
Alf Kjetil Walgermo, “Skal menneska velsigne Gud?” (Vårt Land, 9th Apr. 2024). Original: “Retninga for Guds nåde risikerer å bli snudd på hovudet når Bibel 2024 lar menneska velsigne Gud. Det er Gud som velsignar oss, ikkje omvendt.”
Norwegian: “Sidan var dei stadig i tempelet og lova og prisa Gud.”
Norwegian: “Sidan var dei stadig i tempelet og velsigna Gud.”
Anders Aschim, “Menneske som velsignar Gud” (Vårt Land, 16th Apr. 2024).
If not otherwise noted, when I quote Scripture in English, I use the Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition (RSV-CE).
See Kjetil Kringlebotten, “‘Do this in remembrance of me…’ A Lutheran defence of the sacrifice of the mass” (Studia Theologica – Nordic Journal of Theology 71:2, 2017), 127-147 (esp. 130-136); Kjetil Kringlebotten, Liturgy, Theurgy, and Active Participation: On Theurgic Participation in God (Eugene, Or: Cascade Books, 2023), 128-131.
Kringlebotten, Liturgy, Theurgy, and Active Participation, 128.
Catherine Pickstock, “Liturgy, Art and Politics” (Modern Theology 16:2, 2000): 159-180 (here: 180, n.8).
Pickstock, “Liturgy, Art and Politics,” 161, 180, n.8.
Kringlebotten, Liturgy, Theurgy, and Active Participation, 129.