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Deum lacessat ac ianuam imbeat aperiri

English translation: Let him/her provoke God and even order the gate to be opened

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)
Latin term or phrase:Deum lacessat ac ianuam iubeat aperiri
English translation:Let him/her provoke God and even order the gate to be opened
Entered by: Joseph Brazauskas

18:15 Feb 13, 2008
Latin to English translations [Non-PRO]
Cinema, Film, TV, Drama / TV
Latin term or phrase: Deum lacessat ac ianuam imbeat aperiri
Hi,

Can anyone make anything of this, please? It came up in a film and may well have some mistakes in it. It’s supposed to mean “Open the door in the name of God”, but I can't see that.

Does this word “imbeat” even exist?

All the best, and many thanks,

Simon
SeiTT
United Kingdom
Local time: 13:10
Let him/her provoke God and even order the gate to be opened
Explanation:
'Lacessat' is good and intelligible Latin. 'Imbeat' does not exist. Almost certainly, as Jim Tucker suggests, it is a mistake for 'iubeat', a jussive subjunctive. 'Lacessat' too is a jussive subjunctive.

'Ac', a form of 'atque' ('and also, and even, and so, etc.') used almost exclusively before consonants, emphasises or implies some reflection, reservation, or the like about the word which it precedes and I have translated it accordingly.

There is not enough context to be certain, but z would suggest that the 'gate' refers either to the gate of heaven kept watch over by St. Peter or, perhaps more likely, to the gate of hell, through which, according to christian theology, the souls of the damned are said to have issued when Jesus descended into the underworld to free them. Just possibly the person provoking God may be Jesus.



Selected response from:

Joseph Brazauskas
United States
Local time: 08:10
Grading comment
many thanks, I'm amazed you were able to make such sense of it!
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
4 +2Let him/her provoke God and even order the gate to be opened
Joseph Brazauskas
5*
smarinella


  

Answers


16 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 5/5
*


Explanation:
the words make no sense, could you please try to write them exactly?

lacessat is surely wrong (cessat is latin...), the same for imbeat....

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 1 hr (2008-02-13 19:37:22 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

for Jim : lacessat et iubeat - coulb be possible, but where is the main sentence? They are cong. and then AKK + Inf. (Deum...ianuam..aperiri), but still.... something is missing : conj. + Akk./Inf. depending from....?

smarinella
Italy
Local time: 14:10
Native speaker of: Italian

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
neutral  Jim Tucker (X): lacesso = challenge, provoke, assail ; imb- probably iub- / nothing missing; hortatory subjunctives, acc + inf = order x to be y-ed
22 mins
neutral  Joseph Brazauskas: Nothing is missing. The clauses are coordinate and form a complete sentence, the subjunctives being independent, so that naturally there is no main verb to which they are subordinate.
3 hrs
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3 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +2
Let him/her provoke God and even order the gate to be opened


Explanation:
'Lacessat' is good and intelligible Latin. 'Imbeat' does not exist. Almost certainly, as Jim Tucker suggests, it is a mistake for 'iubeat', a jussive subjunctive. 'Lacessat' too is a jussive subjunctive.

'Ac', a form of 'atque' ('and also, and even, and so, etc.') used almost exclusively before consonants, emphasises or implies some reflection, reservation, or the like about the word which it precedes and I have translated it accordingly.

There is not enough context to be certain, but z would suggest that the 'gate' refers either to the gate of heaven kept watch over by St. Peter or, perhaps more likely, to the gate of hell, through which, according to christian theology, the souls of the damned are said to have issued when Jesus descended into the underworld to free them. Just possibly the person provoking God may be Jesus.





Joseph Brazauskas
United States
Local time: 08:10
Works in field
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish, Native in SpanishSpanish
Grading comment
many thanks, I'm amazed you were able to make such sense of it!

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  janice parker: Yes, absolutely!
12 hrs
  -> Thank you, Janice.
agree  Leonardo Marcello Pignataro (X): Just wondering, my most learned friend, could it be a misunderstood: "Deo placeat"?
1 day 13 hrs
  -> Conceivably. I imagine that the only way to be certain of what was said in the movie is to hear it, and even so it may well not have been pronounced correctly.
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