Non serviam

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In literature, the Latin phrase non serviam was spoken by Satan as he refused to serve God. It translates into "I will not serve."

Spoken by the protagonist, Stephen Dedalus in James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, after his decision to follow the life of an artist, rather than that prescribed to him by the Roman Catholic Church, it is an allusion to Lucifer's assertion to God in Milton's Paradise Lost, first chapter. Lucifer states that it is better to reign in hell than submit in heaven.

Although the phrase "non serviam" appears in Jeremiah 2:20, there God is scolding Israel, not Satan; the verse is attributed to Satan spiritually and logically. "Spiritually" means that passages in the Bible often point to realities beyond their literal meaning. This manner of interpretation is often employed within the Bible itself, such as when the New Testament interprets parts of the Old Testament as referring to Jesus even when in context they obviously refer to something else (cf. John 19:36 "Not a bone of it will be broken," a quotation of the Passover precription of Exodus 12:46 used to explain why none of Jesus' bones were broken). Logically, "non serviam" is not a case unique to Israel, but the basic manner of rejecting God, such that it would apply even to the fall of Satan. Everyone who sins against God sins after this manner, the same manner in which Satan would have sinned long before Israel existed.

Many English language Bibles 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.

Because there is no evidence that the phrase first appeared in St. Jerome's translation and not in any older Latin translation, it is impossible to give a date on its origin. Moreover, the original Hebrew phrase לֹא אעבוד (Lô´ ´e`ĕvôd) is logically much older.

[edit] Scriptural Reference

Jeremiah 2:20: "a saeculo confregisti iugum meum rupisti vincula mea et dixisti non serviam in omni enim colle sublimi et sub omni ligno frondoso tu prosternebaris meretrix."

"Long ago you broke off my yoke and tore off my bonds; and said, 'I will not serve!' Indeed, on every high hill and under every spreading tree you lay down as a harlot."

[edit] Influence

The phrase is used by several political, cultural, and religious groups who do not want to conform.

In literature:

The Swedish poet Gunnar Ekelöf composed a famous poem named Non Serviam in a book with the same name in 1945.
Hagbard Celine uses this phrase to voice his refusal to (among other things) pay his taxes in Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea's The Illuminatus! Trilogy.
Vicente Huidobro read a Creationist manifesto (Santiago de Chile, 1914) in which the poet rejects to follow Nature.
The book A Perfect Vacuum by Science Fiction author Stanislaw Lem, which is a collection of book reviews of nonexistent books, features a fictional review of the book Non Serviam.
The phrase is used as the title of a poem by Carlos de la Cruz.

In music:

The Greek black metal band Rotting Christ released their fourth album under the name of "Non Serviam" in 1994, via The End Records. The band's frontman has also had the phrase tattooed on his chest.
The now-defunct Nebraska band Lullaby for the Working Class released their third and final album "Song" in 1999, with a track entitled "Non Serviam."
A black/death metal band was also named "Non Serviam" in the 1990s.

In film:

In the Martin Scorsese film, The Departed, Jack Nicholson's character Frank Costello uses "non serviam" to sum up his gangland theories of independence and leadership.