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Journey of a Passage

Psalm 1:1

"Blessed is the man"

The Psalter's first verse is stable across the library's versions. Hebrew, Greek, Latin and English all keep the three verbs (walk, stand, sit) and the three groups (wicked, sinners, scoffers). The Greek and Latin turn "the seat of scoffers" into "the chair of pestilence."

Stable text: no manuscript differences in meaning

The family tree

Each row is a language or text tradition. Witnesses in the same row may share ancestry, revise one another, or have an uncertain relationship; the line under each box says which. A solid arrow appears only where direct copying or a documented revised edition is established. Order by date never implies copying. Scroll sideways on a phone.

✓ contains this verse · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives

  • Same line, through lost copies
  • Translation
Hebrew
  1. The psalm as first composedPsalms composed over centuries (c. 10th–4th century BC; debated)
  2. Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)AD 1008Descends, through lost copies, from The psalm as first composed
Greek
  1. Greek Psalter (library: Giguet's French)Old Greek c. 2nd century BC; French 1872Translated from the Old Greek Psalter
Latin
  1. Jerome's Gallican Psalter (Clementine Vulgate)c. AD 386–392, revised from the GreekTranslated from the Greek Psalter (Origen's Hexapla)
English
  1. King James Bible1611Translated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

Every witness, in order

  1. Psalms composed over centuries (c. 10th–4th century BC; debated)

    The psalm as first composed

    – No copy survives

    No original survives. About forty Psalms manuscripts from Qumran, Masada and Nahal Hever (c. 2nd century BC – 1st century AD) are the oldest copies.

  2. c. AD 386–392, revised from the Greek

    Jerome's Gallican Psalter (Clementine Vulgate)

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from the Greek Psalter (Origen's Hexapla)

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Clementine Vulgate (1592 edition).

    Beatus vir qui non abiit in consilio impiorum, et in via peccatorum non stetit, et in cathedra pestilentiæ non sedit;

    Latin numbering: Psalm 1:1. Jerome revised this Latin Psalter from the Greek, so it is a witness to the Greek, not to the Hebrew.

  3. AD 1008

    Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)

    ✓ Contains this passageDescends, through lost copies, from The psalm as first composed

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.

    אַ֥שְֽׁרֵי־הָאִ֗ישׁ אֲשֶׁ֤ר ׀ לֹ֥א הָלַךְ֮ בַּעֲצַ֢ת רְשָׁ֫עִ֥ים וּבְדֶ֣רֶךְ חַ֭טָּאִים לֹ֥א עָמָ֑ד וּבְמוֹשַׁ֥ב לֵ֝צִ֗ים לֹ֣א יָשָֽׁב׃

    Happy the man who has not walked in the counsel of the wicked, nor stood in the way of sinners, nor sat in the seat of scoffers

    Hebrew numbering: Psalm 1:1.

  4. 1611

    King James Bible

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).

    Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.

  5. Old Greek c. 2nd century BC; French 1872

    Greek Psalter (library: Giguet's French)

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from the Old Greek Psalter

    How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.

    Heureux l’homme qui n’est point allé au conseil des impies, qui ne s’est pas arrêté dans la voie des pécheurs et ne s’est point assis dans la chaire de pestilence,

    Greek numbering: Psalm 1:1. Giguet's 1872 French of a printed Greek text; not checked against Rahlfs' critical edition.

What changed, and why

The opening word ashre ("happy, blessed") is a plural noun, "the happinesses of the man." The Greek makarios and Latin beatus are the words used again in the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:3–11).

"Scoffers" (letsim) became in the Greek loimōn, "pests, pestilent men" (Vulgate cathedra pestilentiae; Giguet "la chaire de pestilence"): an interpretation of the scoffers as a public danger.

What the evidence shows

  • Independently documentedThe three-verb structure is preserved in all four library witnesses.
  • Independently documentedThe Greek reads "pestilence" for "scoffers."

Sources

    Related lessons

    • Psalm 1: The Two Ways →The Psalter opens without a title, without a speaker and without a prayer. Psalm 1 is a short wisdom poem about two ways of living. "Blessed is the man" who does not walk, stand or sit with the wicked but delights in the LORD's torah (instruction) and murmurs it day and night; he is like a tree planted by streams of water. The wicked are like chaff the wind drives away. "The LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish."