Non serviam
|
|
In literature, the Latin phrase non serviam was spoken by Satan as he refused to serve God. It translates into "I will not serve."
It is attributed to Satan in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce, but the origin of this attribution is unknown. It might have originated in one of Friedrich Nietzsche's works, quoting an older source, but this is unconfirmed. A version of St. Jerome's Vulgate does contain the phrase "non serviam" in Jeremiah 2:20, but God is scolding Israel, not Satan. This places the phrase as originating in 382 AD or later.
A check of Hebrew or Greek scriptures may point to an earlier origin or point to the Vulgate as the origin since about half of the Bibles consulted (including the KJV) translate "non serviam" as "I will not transgress." This significant variation in translation might indicate that a translation error introduced the phrase to the Vulgate (or sectarian strife), but a translation error does not negate the phrase entering literature in about 382 AD. If you are familiar with the Hebrew or Greek language versions of the Scriptures or the history of the various translations of the Bible, please contribute.
Scriptural Reference
Jeremiah 2:20: "a saeculo confregisti iugum meum rupisti vincula mea et dixisti non serviam in omni enim colle sublimi et sub omni ligno frondoso tu prosternebaris meretrix."
"Long ago you broke off your yoke and tore off your bonds; you said, 'I will not serve!' Indeed, on every high hill and under every spreading tree you lay down as a prostitute."
Influence
The phrase is used by several political, cultural, and religious groups who do not want to conform.
In literature:
- The Swedish poet Gunnar Ekelöf composed a famous poem named Non Serviam in a book with the same name in 1945.
- Hagbard Celine ties this phrase in with the Illuminati conspiracy in Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea's The Illuminatus! Trilogy.
External links
- A Latin Vulgate (http://www.drbo.org/lvb/chapter/28002.htm)
- Comparative translations of this verse (http://bible.cc/jeremiah/2-20.htm)