St Gregory

[jaffa]

I wonder if someone could help me with this quotation from St Gregory's homilies:

Dum divinitas defectum nostrae carnes suscepit, humanum genus lumen, quod amiserat, recepit. Unde enim Deus humana patitur, inde homo ad divina sublevatur.

I can understand the meaning but am struggling with the way the first few words are working in the sentence,

Dum divinitas defectum nostrae carnes suscepit

I have translated this as 'While the Godhead assumed our weak flesh...'

However 'carnes' is plural and 'defectum' singular.

The only way I can make sense of it is to treat 'carnes' like a kind of accusative of respect... but I'm not convinced about this at all. And where would this leave 'nostrae'?

 

[Adrian]

I was curious myself. It appears there is a typo in your text

Sancti Gregorii Papae I. cognomento magni XL. homiliarum in evangelia libri duo

books.google.pl

Corpus Corporum

It should be "quia dum divinitas defectum nostrae carnis suscepit, humanum genus lumen, quod amiserat, recepit.

When divinity upholds our broken human flesh, the human race receives back light that it had lost.

 

[jaffa]

Ah thank you so much. The mistake occurs in a book I am reading by Abbot Marmion where he quotes St Gregory.

 

[Agrippa]

...
It should be "quia dum divinitas defectum nostrae carnis suscepit, humanum genus lumen, quod amiserat, recepit.
When divinity upholds our broken human flesh, the human race receives back light that it had lost.

Hello, Adrian!
"suscepit" and "recepit"] Latin perfect tense: Why do you use English present tense?

 

[Pacifica]

Also, "assumed" is a better translation for suscepit than "upholds" or even "upheld".

Defectum nostrae carnis is literally "the defect/imperfection of our flesh", but I guess "our weak flesh" is acceptable as a non-literal translation.