The choir I sing in will be singing Bobby McFerrin's 23rd Psalm in the near future. It ends with "As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be world without end. Amen."
Hm! That contradicts the belief of the "End-timers" who believe the end of the world is near, based on their reading of Revelations.
OK, let's do a quick check of the "original" 23rd Psalm. "Psalm 23 'world without end'" gives Bobby McFerrin's version as first and several more later. The second item is from the burial section of "The Book of Common Prayer of the Church of Ireland". Oops! Every Psalm listed ends with "As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be : world without end. Amen." This cannot be part of each of these psalms. Especially when it it proceeded with "GLORY be to the Father, and to the Son : and to the Holy Ghost;" The concept of the Trinity had not even been considered at the writing of the Psalms.
A bit more searching gives that this appendage is the "Gloria Patri". It is also known as the "Minor Doxology". A doxology is a short hymn of praise.
Interestingly, the original Greek uses a different ending. The "world without end" dates from Cranmer's Book of Common Prayer, either 1549 or 1552. Modern usage varies all over, from the Cranmer words to a closer rendition of the original Greek.
If scholars who know ancient Greek, Latin, and Hebrew can't agree on what the surviving texts contain, how can the rest of be sure what the translations state?
