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WE LOOK INTO THE CASE BUT THEY HEAR IT

The following lines have been prompted by our curiosity in the English and Bulgarian choice of words for the conduct of a court case.
In English the court case is HEARD while in Bulgarian it is LOOKED INTO.
Why? Where is this difference of perception coming from? How were these two idioms chosen?
A possible answer is to be found in the translation of the Bible in both languages-
the source of Law and Court concept to both these Christian nations.

In the Old Testament Fifth Book (Deuteronomy) Moses says:
1/17: Do not show partiality in judgment; hear both small and great alike.
Do not be afraid of any man, for judgment belongs to God.
Bring me any case too hard for you and I shall hear it.

In John’s Gospel Christ preaches:
5/30: I judge only as I hear and my judgment is just.

But in the Bulgarian version of the Old Testament Prophet Jeremiah says:
5/28: …they do not look into the cases of the fatherless…
22/16: …He looked into the case of the poor and needy
and all went well…

The coincidence between the above biblical quotes and the court jargon in the respective country is hardly accidental. Moses and Christ perceive the case through their ears, they hear it. But Prophet Jeremiah perceives it with his vision- he looks into it. One can often hear in a Bulgarian court room the statement: “Scheduled cases shall be looked into at second reading” (where “reading” implies a sight too) or “the court took up Case Nr… to be looked into”.
It is absolutely not a question of priority of one sense (hear) over another (look) or of any scale of values re that choice of words. No judge can hear the case without looking into/seeing it or look into the case without hearing. Probably the metaphor “to hear a case” is closer to the image of the Goddess Themis with a band on the eyes – she cannot see hence she cannot discrete between faces in court as Moses instructs in 1/17. In fact in most distant ancient times Themis had no banded eyes because she was first an oracle-looking into the future and into the past- and then the Goddess of Justice. The band on the eyes was more typical of her Roman successor Iustitia who was related to Jupiter (Ius-titia and Ius-pater) just like Themis was from the family of Zeus. It is therefore nothing strange that in the Christian pantheon justice is a central question and a divine occupation with various symbols and verbal metaphors like in the previous civilizations.
The band on the eyes does not indicate a sensual perception but is a symbol of the judge’s conscience which speaks regardless of the eyes and ears. It is the divine spark in the judge’s personality and that is why the words to describe it come from the Divine Book – the Bible – and relates to the symbols of the preceding mythologies.
So it does not matter whether one hears a case and another looks into a case provided that in both instances the conscience does speak.

September 2011                                                                                                                          Valentin Braykov