Posted By: Clive Price
Posted On: 04:31:22 22nd Apr 200822nd April 2008 - High places - I have been looking up a passage from Romans in the old Latin, translated by Jerome. I was interested to see what meanings Jerome was trying to bring out of the original Greek, into the trans-European language of his early medieval world. In the section that says 'in all these things we overcome because of him who loved us', Jerome uses the old Latin word 'superamus'. What was he trying to say with the choice of this word?

To the pagan Romans, 'superamus' (or 'superus') meant 'the gods above...the higher places'. So perhaps Jerome was appealing to something way back in the pagan mind, because to the people of antiquity 'superamus' would have meant the highest place in creation - where the gods themselves live. In other words, 'in all these things we are in the highest places because of him who loved us'.

Interestingly, the Romans called the Adriatic Sea 'mare superum', perhaps because (to this day) it is teeming with life, has lots of little islands and is considered to be very beautiful, like the cradle of civilisation. So the Romans had this word 'superus' to describe things that were 'the ultimate'. Maybe Jerome was trying to get that idea across, too - 'in all these things we are in the highest place imaginable because of him who loved us'. That should encourage me in my worship today.

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