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ELPENOR EDITIONS IN PRINT
 

The mystical meaning of confirmation

 

Ivo writes: 

How do you translate "ich bin bewaehret"?

Alain de Libera translates "j'ai ete confirmee"

DUDEN, Das groesse Woerterbuch der deutschen Sprache, Dudenverlag, 1999, in 10 Baende

mittelhochdeutsch bewaeren (a attached to e)

althochdeutsch bewaren (horizontal line above the a)

sich als wahr, als richtig erweisen

[heutige Bedeutung]

- sich als geeignet, zuverlaessig erweisen

- beweisen, zeigen

The old (AHD and MHD) meanings appear to me to be better or does it mean "mein Sein ist/war bestaetigt"?

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Hi Ivo,

In matters as these I don't stay to a linguistic approach. Of course language can give some help, but it is much more important for one to understand the meaning in the context of what is said. Does the text give any evidence of what exactly the meaning of this condition of being bewaehret is? However, from what you say I undestand it to mean rather certain in the sense of rooted, based, founded, established. I understand it in the meaning of what Symeon the New Theologian (the Meister Eckhart of the East, as some call him), confesses about this condition: "they see only God - in a mind without concepts, in a mind plunged on the Light, as the arrow on the wall, or as the star on the sky...".Add a note!

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Related:

The Meister Eckhart Site 

The Greek Word : Three Millennia of Greek Literature

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