Nemini Invidens in Irenaeus

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Secret Alias
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Nemini Invidens in Irenaeus

Post by Secret Alias »

I noticed that Henry Deane translates a critical expression in Irenaeus differently than the standard 'without respect to persons':
If St. Paul possessed a knowledge of deeper mysteries than the other Apostles, St. Luke must have known these, for he was St. Paul s companion. St. Luke wrote what St. Paul taught him ; and St. Paul, like the other Apostles, taught what he knew. Neither St. Paul nor St. Luke taught with reserve [nemini invidens]. To reject St. Luke is to reject a large part of the Gospel. Heretics must not pick and choose what to accept and what to reject. Those who admit St. Luke cannot reject St. Paul. The Gnostics are reproved for their perversions of the truth, and for their reserve in teaching, which is contrary to the Spirit of the Gospel. https://archive.org/stream/thirdbooksti ... t_djvu.txt
Which is the better translation? Thanks in advance. Here's the Latin:
Sic Apostoli simpliciter, et nemini invidentes, quae didicerant ipsi a Domino, haec omnibus tradebant. Sic igitur et Lucas nemini invidens, ea quae ab eis didicerat, tradidit nobis, sicut ipse testificatur LUC. i. 2. dicens : Quemadmodum tradiderunt nobis qui ab initio contemplatores, et ministri fuerunt verbi.
Obviously the Deane translation makes the material more like Prescription Against Heresies 24 - 26 - i.e. about 'secret knowledge' versus open teaching.
“Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
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Ben C. Smith
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Re: Nemini Invidens in Irenaeus

Post by Ben C. Smith »

Secret Alias wrote: Wed May 27, 2020 11:14 am I noticed that Henry Deane translates a critical expression in Irenaeus differently than the standard 'without respect to persons':
If St. Paul possessed a knowledge of deeper mysteries than the other Apostles, St. Luke must have known these, for he was St. Paul s companion. St. Luke wrote what St. Paul taught him ; and St. Paul, like the other Apostles, taught what he knew. Neither St. Paul nor St. Luke taught with reserve [nemini invidens]. To reject St. Luke is to reject a large part of the Gospel. Heretics must not pick and choose what to accept and what to reject. Those who admit St. Luke cannot reject St. Paul. The Gnostics are reproved for their perversions of the truth, and for their reserve in teaching, which is contrary to the Spirit of the Gospel. https://archive.org/stream/thirdbooksti ... t_djvu.txt
Which is the better translation? Thanks in advance. Here's the Latin:
Sic Apostoli simpliciter, et nemini invidentes, quae didicerant ipsi a Domino, haec omnibus tradebant. Sic igitur et Lucas nemini invidens, ea quae ab eis didicerat, tradidit nobis, sicut ipse testificatur LUC. i. 2. dicens : Quemadmodum tradiderunt nobis qui ab initio contemplatores, et ministri fuerunt verbi.
Obviously the Deane translation makes the material more like Prescription Against Heresies 24 - 26 - i.e. about 'secret knowledge' versus open teaching.
Here is the passage:

Irenaeus, Against Heresies 3.14.2b: Sic Apostoli simpliciter, et nemini invidentes, quae didicerant ipsi a Domino, haec omnibus tradebant. Sic igitur et Lucas nemini invidens, ea quae ab eis didicerat, tradidit nobis, sicut ipse testificatur dicens : Quemadmodum tradiderunt nobis qui ab initio contemplatores, et ministri fuerunt verbi (= Luke 1.2). / [ANF Series translation:] Thus did the apostles simply, and without respect of persons, deliver to all what they had themselves learned from the Lord. Thus also does Luke, without respect of persons, deliver to us what he had learned from them, as he has himself testified, saying, "Even as they delivered them unto us, who from the beginning were eye-witnesses and ministers of the Word."

I would hesitate to call Deane's rendering, "taught with reserve," a translation, since he is not translating the passage; he is summarizing it, and the parenthetical nemini invidens is simply his textual basis for Luke and Paul having taught in a certain way.

I may be missing something, but it seems to me that nemini invidens is the sum of its parts: Paul and Luke were envious of no one; that is, they preached the same message to any and all, without ranking their hearers or favoring one over the other.
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Secret Alias
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Re: Nemini Invidens in Irenaeus

Post by Secret Alias »

Thank you.
“Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
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