Roland Murphy O.Carm. (1917-2002) was the subject of July’s
Carmelite Conversation at the Carmelite Library. Fr Roland was an American
Carmelite and prolific biblical scholar. His youthful study life began at the
critical moment when the Catholic Church had just approved pursuit of the
historical critical method in reading the Bible. This huge advance in thinking
resulted in a remarkable outpouring of work from Roland Murphy, especially on
his favourite subject, the Wisdom Literature of the Hebrew Bible. The
Conversation included, for enjoyment and edification, structured readings of
parts of his translations and commentaries on Ecclesiastes, Proverbs, and
Psalms. Here is the biographical section of the morning’s offerings, prepared by Philip Harvey.
A theological cataloguer
becomes familiar with the names of well-known and not-so-well-known
theologians. We make it our business to know who’s who, also who they all are, in
fact. We describe their books, follow their reviews, and watch out for the
latest works. A name that I’ve known for as long as I’ve worked in theology
libraries is Roland Murphy, though until this year the only book of his I’d
spent time with at length was ‘The Tree of Life’, his enriching overview of the
Wisdom Literature of the Hebrew Bible, now in its third and I suspect final
edition. Roland Murphy died in 2002 at the biblical age of 85. Those with
calculators can tell us that he was therefore born in 1917.
A fellow Carmelite remembers
him at seminary at Niagara Falls, Ontario in 1930. Two periods each day were
devoted to the study of Latin, where Roland stood out because “invariably he
received a mark of 100 on the daily vocabulary test.” (Egan 84) His exceptional
gift for language would inform his whole career, as eventually he came to
master the modern languages of German, French, Italian, Portuguese, and
Spanish; the biblical languages of Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic; and the ancient
languages that impact on scriptural composition: Syriac, Akkadian, Arabic, and
Ugaritic.
“Coincident with the graduate
studies Roland began his twenty-five year career as teacher of Scripture at
Whitefriars Hall. This direct contact with a whole generation of Carmelite
students was the single most important feature of his influence on the
intellectual life of the Carmelites. His achievements and reputation outside
the community as university professor, researcher, writer, and editor, gave him
a high profile and were a source of pride and admiration among his Carmelite
brethren. But the teaching put the man in living contact with the students,
where he touched minds and hearts. Here students experienced his contagious
enthusiasm for Scripture, his competence as a scholar, his rigorous honesty in
both academic and practical matters, his high standards and expectations, and
his undeviating commitment to truth. Roland was a giant: physically, mentally,
and spiritually. In his religious life he followed the strictior observantia
and taught by silent example rather than word.” (Egan 59-60)
Stories abound of his
“contagious enthusiasm for Scripture”.
“Roland livened his classes
by dramatizing the biblical stories and by taking on the different personages.
He was the first in my experience to use the term ‘Yahweh’ for God. It wasn’t
long before thestudents pinned on him, outside of class of course, the very
title he used for God, ‘Yahweh’.
“When Roland taught the
prophets, he could play the prophet as he resoundingly condemned the kings of
Israel and Judah, echoing the judgment of Yahweh. He paced back and forth with
those giant strides that his six foot four frame permitted. More than once he
had to grab the toppling blackboard as he went on his pursuit of God in
history. We left class breathless from his physical and psychic energy.
“ I [Peter Hinde, O.Carm.]
recall his treatment of Wisdom, the Song of Songs, Ben Sirach, and Ecclesiastes.
He delighted in the concrete imagery of wisdom literature: ‘As a door turns on
its hinges, so does the sluggard in his bed’ (Proverbs 26:14) He’d scrutinize
the room as if looking for an example in the class.” (Egan 68)
Sources vary as to Fr Roland’s
height, others saying he was six foot seven. Those of you who have studied the
Bible in church or theology school will wonder at his idea of an exam. “Many of
his students from the early 60’s remember the final exam in which for the first
hour they were told to outline Salvation History from the Garden to candles
glowing in the Temple after the Maccabbean revolt. During the second hour of
the exam they were to fill in the outline!” (Egan 69-70)
When we look at his works set
out before us, we cannot miss that Everest amongst the many peaks, ‘The Jerome
Biblical Commentary’, of which he was one of the three editors, as well as
major contributor. It was published in 1968 and has served as the first resort,
and sometimes alas the last resort, of Catholic theological students ever
since. In other words, this is an author whose words reach millions of readers
every year, Catholic and non-Catholic alike, even if they have no idea that
they are reading Roland Murphy. Some would say that the Jerome Commentary is
merely the Annapurna put beside his work as translator of the New American
Bible (NAB). The point I am making is that his life was one of concerted and
brilliant scholarship. His talent as a teacher was in some ways simply an
extension of his extraordinary breadth of working knowledge and unbounded
enthusiasm for the Bible. He produced more than 230 books and articles in his
life. I have calculated that if we had a reading simply of the titles and
publishing details of all those works it would take longer than the hour and a
half we have together now.
His career in this respect
takes him well beyond the confines of seminary teaching in Washington D.C.As
well as Catholic University of America, where he also taught Semitic languages
and theology, he studies Arabic at the American Schools of Oriental Research in
Jerusalem. He had strong connections with the Pontifical Biblical Institute in
Rome, as we would expect. He held important professorial positions, was
President of the Catholic Biblical Association and the Society of Biblical
Literature of the United States. (Corley)
For 25 years he taught inside
Catholic schools of theology, but after the Vatican Council Roland Murphy began
dividing time with Protestant schools: the Presbyterians at Pittsburgh
Theological Seminary, Yale and Princeton Universities, and then for many years
with the Methodists at Duke University (Corley). This itself is another
historical shift in his life – the ecumenical engagement – that he pursued and
led by example. Working with Protestant scholars and students further expanded his
worldview and knowledge. They could learn from him and he could learn from
them.
We may never learn about all
the differences he had with Catholic faculties of theology, though being of
independent mind he does seem to have had encounters. For example, he signed a
petition in support of more openness about the encyclical Humanae Vitae (1968),
explaining that he was not in rebellion against it, just part of the loyal
opposition. Biographical writing on Roland Murphy is coy about details of departmental
clashes, but his gradual shift to faculties of advanced non-Catholic schools is
observable through this period. For biblical studies and Fr Roland this was an
expansion of possibilities.
One story (source now lost)
that I have encountered is told by a student at Duke. She was starting her
study in Old testament and needed to meet her new teacher, Roland Murphy. Wher
can I find him? What does he look like? She was told to look out for a Q-Tip.
This expression was new to me so I googled it. In the United States a Q-Tip is
a brand of cotton bud. In other words, the person she was looking for had a
head of white hair. Which, of course, was true, he was tall and by this time
had a white mane of hair. This story appeals to me: someone who has dedicated
his life to the study of Wisdom ends up as a Q-Tip.
I wish to make some
observations about his writing style. Roland Murphy’s commentaries, his essays
and articles, are written in an English that is concise, spare, and direct. This
style is in marked contrast to what we consider the attributes of the poetry
and Wisdom sayings of the Bible, which are imaginative, ambiguous, multi-layered,
daring, even flowery. It is not just that Wisdom Literature is expected to be
this way. Fr Roland’s scholarly attention is upon the fact that it is the very
nature of this literature. We notice and hear the differences when we read his
translations beside his own interpretations. While I have wondered at the
seeming contradictions in these styles, I hesitate to make final judgments, or
conclude that it is unusual. His concise English style has been cultivated and
his normal speaking voice. The style gets to the point, strives for utter
clarity of meaning, sets the scene for discussion. I do wonder if it has been
influenced by a lifetime reading ancient languages, with their clipped words, invisible
particles, and tricky declensions. The Bible wishes to say things in the
briefest and surest ways possible – the attention span of people being what it
is – and this has affected his written English. I would also draw attention to
his mode of translation, which would avoid prosy English in favour of hardline
arrangement, even to the point of placing words strictly in the order they
appear in the original.
My conclusion to this
biography returns to his life as a Carmelite, for throughout his life he always
lived with the support and friendship of the Order. It is valuable to hear his
confrere Kilian Healy write this. “It is the liturgical life of the [Carmelite]
community, the daily recitation of the liturgy of the Hours, and the
celebration of the Eucharist that plays an important part in Roland’s life. The
Word of God which he studies each day and proclaims in the classroom has become
the soul of his prayerful life. In this he is faithful to the Carmelite Rule
that exhorts its members: ‘Each one of you is to stay in his own cell or
nearby, pondering the Lord’s law day and night and keeping watch at his prayers
unless attending to some other duty.’ (ch.7) ‘The sword of the spirit, the Word
of God, must abound in your mouths and hearts. Let all you do have the Lord’s
Word for accompaniment.’ (ch. 14)” (Egan 67)
Sources
Corley, Felix. Fr Roland
Murphy, O.Carm. (1917-2002) – Catholic Biblical Scholar. In The Independent
newspaper, London, 2002.
Egan, Keith & Craig
Morrison (editors). Master of the sacred page : essays and articles in honor of
Roland E. Murphy, O.Carm., on the occasion of his eightieth birthday. Carmelite
Institute, 1997
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