Non serviam
Encyclopedia
Non serviam is Latin for "I will not serve". The phrase is generally attributed to Lucifer
, who is said to have spoken these words to express rejection to serve his God
in the heavenly kingdom.
Today "Non serviam" is also used or referred to as motto
by a number of political
, cultural
, and religious
groups to express their wish not to conform; it may be used to express a radical view against established common beliefs and organisational structures accepted by the majority.
However, in the Latin
Vulgate
, Jeremiah
mourns that the people of Israel speak "Non serviam" to express their rejection of God.
The words became a general expression of the basic manner of rejecting God, such that it would apply to the fall of Lucifer. The words have thus been attributed to Lucifer.
In modern times "Non serviam" developed also into a general phrase used by modernists to express radical, sometimes even revolutionary rejection of conformity, not necessarily limited to religious matters only and as expressed in modern literary adaptations of the motto.
Bibles may translate "non serviam" as "I will not transgress"; this seems to be an alternate reading of certain manuscripts. This is most likely a scribal error because the difference between "serve" (עבד) and "transgress" (עבר) in late Hebrew characters is so minute that it would be easy to mistake one for the other when hand-copying a manuscript. Most modern literal translations (such as the Revised Standard Version
) choose "serve" over "transgress" as the proper reading because the context calls for a statement of disobedience, not of obedience.
Lucifer
Traditionally, Lucifer is a name that in English generally refers to the devil or Satan before being cast from Heaven, although this is not the original meaning of the term. In Latin, from which the English word is derived, Lucifer means "light-bearer"...
, who is said to have spoken these words to express rejection to serve his God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
in the heavenly kingdom.
Today "Non serviam" is also used or referred to as motto
Motto
A motto is a phrase meant to formally summarize the general motivation or intention of a social group or organization. A motto may be in any language, but Latin is the most used. The local language is usual in the mottoes of governments...
by a number of political
Politics
Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...
, cultural
Culture
Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...
, and religious
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
groups to express their wish not to conform; it may be used to express a radical view against established common beliefs and organisational structures accepted by the majority.
Origin
Biblical references to the fall of Lucifer or Satan do not quote these words.However, in the Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
Vulgate
Vulgate
The Vulgate is a late 4th-century Latin translation of the Bible. It was largely the work of St. Jerome, who was commissioned by Pope Damasus I in 382 to make a revision of the old Latin translations...
, Jeremiah
Jeremiah
Jeremiah Hebrew：יִרְמְיָה , Modern Hebrew:Yirməyāhū, IPA: jirməˈjaːhu, Tiberian:Yirmĭyahu, Greek:Ἰερεμίας), meaning "Yahweh exalts", or called the "Weeping prophet" was one of the main prophets of the Hebrew Bible...
mourns that the people of Israel speak "Non serviam" to express their rejection of God.
The words became a general expression of the basic manner of rejecting God, such that it would apply to the fall of Lucifer. The words have thus been attributed to Lucifer.
In modern times "Non serviam" developed also into a general phrase used by modernists to express radical, sometimes even revolutionary rejection of conformity, not necessarily limited to religious matters only and as expressed in modern literary adaptations of the motto.
In culture
- In James JoyceJames JoyceJames Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...
's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young ManA Portrait of the Artist as a Young ManA Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is a semi-autobiographical novel by James Joyce, first serialised in the magazine The Egoist from 1914 to 1915, and published first in book format in 1916 by B. W. Huebsch, New York. The first English edition was published by the Egoist Press in February 1917...
, Father Arnall uses the phrase "Non serviam: I will not serve" to characterize Lucifer's sin, an allusion to Lucifer's assertion of non serviam to God in MiltonJohn MiltonJohn Milton was an English poet, polemicist, a scholarly man of letters, and a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell...
's Paradise LostParadise LostParadise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton. It was originally published in 1667 in ten books, with a total of over ten thousand individual lines of verse...
, where the fallen angel Mammon states that it is "Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven". The protagonist Stephen DedalusStephen DedalusStephen Dedalus is James Joyce's literary alter ego, appearing as the protagonist and antihero of his first, semi-autobiographical novel of artistic existence A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and an important character in Joyce's Ulysses...
later echoes Lucifer in his decision to follow the life of the artist, telling Cranly, "I will not serve that in which I no longer believe whether it call itself my home, my fatherland or my church." Eamonn Hughes maintains that Joyce takes a dialecticDialecticDialectic is a method of argument for resolving disagreement that has been central to Indic and European philosophy since antiquity. The word dialectic originated in Ancient Greece, and was made popular by Plato in the Socratic dialogues...
approach, both assenting and denying, saying that Steven’s much noted non serviam is qualified - “I will not serve that which I no longer believe…”, and that the non serviam will always be balanced by Stephen’s “I am a servant…” and MollyMolly BloomMolly Bloom is a fictional character in the novel Ulysses by James Joyce. The wife of main character Leopold Bloom, she roughly corresponds to Penelope in the Odyssey. The major difference between Molly and Penelope is that while Penelope is eternally faithful, Molly is not, having an affair with...
’s “yes”. - Stephen repeats the phrase non serviam in UlyssesUlysses (novel)Ulysses is a novel by the Irish author James Joyce. It was first serialised in parts in the American journal The Little Review from March 1918 to December 1920, and then published in its entirety by Sylvia Beach on 2 February 1922, in Paris. One of the most important works of Modernist literature,...
during his confrontation with his dead mother. - In Patrick McGrathPatrick McGrathPatrick McGrath was born on 7th February, 1950 in London and grew up near Broadmoor Hospital where his father was Medical Superintendent. He was educated at Stonyhurst College. He is a British novelist whose work has been categorized as gothic fiction...
's Dr. Haggard's disease, Dr Haggard cries the phrase "Non serviam" to reject the medical science. - Non ServiamNon Serviam (book)Non Serviam is a 1945 poetry collection by the Swedish writer Gunnar Ekelöf. The title comes from the Christian phrase "Non serviam", which is Latin for "I will not serve" and is attributed to Lucifer...
is the title of a book and poem from 1945 by the Swedish poetSwedish literatureSwedish literature refers to literature written in the Swedish language or by writers from Sweden.The first literary text from Sweden is the Rök Runestone, carved during the Viking Age circa 800 AD. With the conversion of the land to Christianity around 1100 AD, Sweden entered the Middle Ages,...
Gunnar EkelöfGunnar EkelöfGunnar Ekelöf was a Swedish poet and writer. He was a member of the Swedish Academy from 1958. He was also awarded an honorary doctorate in philosophy by Uppsala University in 1958...
. - In Robert Anton WilsonRobert Anton WilsonRobert Anton Wilson , known to friends as "Bob", was an American author and polymath who became at various times a novelist, philosopher, psychologist, essayist, editor, playwright, poet, futurist, civil libertarian and self-described agnostic mystic...
and Robert SheaRobert SheaRobert Joseph Shea was an American novelist and former journalist best known as co-author with Robert Anton Wilson of the science fantasy trilogy Illuminatus!. It became a cult success and was later turned into a marathon-length stage show put on at the British National Theatre and elsewhere. In...
's The Illuminatus! TrilogyThe Illuminatus! TrilogyThe Illuminatus! Trilogy is a series of three novels written by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson first published in 1975. The trilogy is a satirical, postmodern, science fiction-influenced adventure story; a drug-, sex-, and magick-laden trek through a number of conspiracy theories, both...
the character Hagbard CelineHagbard CelineFreeman Hagbard Celine, H.M., S.H. is a central protagonist in the Illuminatus trilogy of books by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson, named after the legendary Viking hero Hagbard who died for love. In the Schrödinger's Cat trilogy, the sequel to Illuminatus!, it is stated that 'Hagbard Celine'...
uses this phrase to voice his refusal to (among other things) pay taxes. - Vicente HuidobroVicente HuidobroVicente García-Huidobro Fernández was a Chilean poet born to an aristocratic family. He was an exponent of the artistic movement called Creacionismo , which held that a poet should bring life to the things he or she writes about, rather than just describe them.Huidobro was born into a wealthy...
read a CreationistCreacionismoCreationism was a literary movement, initiated by Chilean poet Vicente Huidobro around 1912. Creationism is based on the idea of a poem as a truly new thing, created by the author for the sake of itself — that is, not to praise another thing, not to please the reader, not even to be...
manifesto (Santiago de Chile, 1914) in which the poet rejects to follow Nature. - The book A Perfect VacuumA Perfect VacuumA Perfect Vacuum is a 1971 book by Polish author Stanisław Lem. It is an anthology of reviews of nonexistent books. It was translated into English by Michael Kandel...
by Science FictionScience fictionScience fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
author Stanislaw LemStanislaw LemStanisław Lem was a Polish writer of science fiction, philosophy and satire. He was named a Knight of the Order of the White Eagle. His books have been translated into 41 languages and have sold over 27 million copies. He is perhaps best known as the author of the 1961 novel Solaris, which has...
, is a collection of book reviews of non-existent books, one of which reviews such a fictional book with the title Non Serviam. - "Non serviam" is the title of a poem by Carlos de la CruzCarlos de la CruzCarlos M. de la Cruz, Sr. is Chairman of the Board of CC1 Companies, Inc. which includes Coca-Cola Puerto Rico Bottlers, CC1 Beer Distributors, Inc., and Coca-Cola Bottlers Trinidad & Tobago...
. - "Non serviam" is the title of a poem by Mexican poet Jorge Fernández Granados (b. 1964).
- Non serviam is the motto of the protagonist in the 1971 novel "The bushwacked piano" by Thomas McGuaneThomas McGuaneThomas Francis McGuane III is an American author. His work includes ten novels, short fiction and screenplays, as well as three collections of essays devoted to his life in the outdoors.-Early life:...
. - In American author Louis Begley's 2007 novel "Matters of Honor," the protagonist labels the declaration of his Jewish roommate at Harvard to be whatever he likes, instead of openly, obviously Jewish, a "non serviam."
- Non serviam is the title of a music album by Greek black metalBlack metalBlack metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include fast tempos, shrieked vocals, highly distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, blast beat drumming, raw recording, and unconventional song structure....
band Rotting ChristRotting ChristRotting Christ is a Greek black metal band formed in 1987. They are noted for being one of the first black metal bands within this region, as well as a premier act within the European underground metal scene.- Line-up :...
. - In the Martin ScorseseMartin ScorseseMartin Charles Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. In 1990 he founded The Film Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to film preservation, and in 2007 he founded the World Cinema Foundation...
film The DepartedThe DepartedThe Departed is a 2006 American crime thriller film, fashioned as a remake of the 2002 Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs. The film was directed by Martin Scorsese and written by William Monahan...
, Jack Nicholson'sJack NicholsonJohn Joseph "Jack" Nicholson is an American actor, film director, producer and writer. He is renowned for his often dark portrayals of neurotic characters. Nicholson has been nominated for an Academy Award twelve times, and has won the Academy Award for Best Actor twice: for One Flew Over the...
character Frank Costello uses "non serviam" to sum up his gangland theories of independence and leadership to his young charge Colin Sullivan. Costello is impressed when Colin quickly ascribes the term to Joyce. - In "Godkiller: Walk Among UsGodkiller (series)Godkiller is a transmedia series of graphic novels, illustrated films, and novels created by award-winning filmmaker Matt Pizzolo that tells the stories of human beings caught in the crossfire of warring fallen gods. The core series is a trilogy of feature-length illustrated films beginning with...
", the phrase is used by the rebel groups that live in Outer City, as well as by Starkiller before he destroyed New York City. - In the novel Barbelo's Blood by Joseph Ferri, Non Serviam is the motto of the British government black ops agency known as 'The Craft.' http://barbelosblood.com/
Scriptural discussion
The original Hebrew phrase is לֹא אעבוד (Lô´ ´e`ĕvôd). Some English languageEnglish language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
Bibles may translate "non serviam" as "I will not transgress"; this seems to be an alternate reading of certain manuscripts. This is most likely a scribal error because the difference between "serve" (עבד) and "transgress" (עבר) in late Hebrew characters is so minute that it would be easy to mistake one for the other when hand-copying a manuscript. Most modern literal translations (such as the Revised Standard Version
Revised Standard Version
The Revised Standard Version is an English translation of the Bible published in the mid-20th century. It traces its history to William Tyndale's New Testament translation of 1525. The RSV is an authorized revision of the American Standard Version of 1901...
) choose "serve" over "transgress" as the proper reading because the context calls for a statement of disobedience, not of obedience.