Sunday, June 18, 2006
More majorum
The evangelical community is troubled by an unusual phenomenon. It isn't atheism, the defection of youth, or the death of pastoral staff. Instead, they are troubled by their own language or habits of speaking. The Christian world has developed its own idioms and metaphors that everybody uses but nobody can quite define. They are uniquely identifiable as belonging to the evangelical community and help to separate evangelicals from mainline or liberal churches. This, of course, may have been their intention. However, in trying to win members from other churches, using an alternative language is not always the best option.
Idioms in themselves have no bearing on the understandability of a language to those who actually speak or write the language. However, when one tries to translate between languages, or explain the meaning of an idiom to a person who speaks a different language, errors and misinterpretations ensue in the thousands.
Take a common sentence from the old British Empire: "It is time for tea." Teatime is very meaningful and more than a little bit delicious to anybody who happens to speak English. Of course, we mean that we will be drinking tea presently. However, to a German, this sentence is literally translated as "Es ist Zeit fur Tee". The German, then, not understanding the idiom, might ask what is time for tea? That is, to what does the pronoun it refer? How can it be time for tea if we don't know what it is? A Chinese person, whose language does not make assumptions about verbs (it is time to drink tea), might wonder what one is going to do with the tea. Matters become even more confusing if we specify that two o'clock is time for tea.
The expression "it is time" is an English idiom. It has inherent meaning that makes sense to those who speak British English or one of its descendants, but translation to other languages requires some interpretation.
Now consider a common expression in evangelical circles:
I will be doing these things during my walk with God. From this day forward, I will walk with God in all things.
This is an idiom directly taken from the Genesis 5:22 (or so). It is said that Enoch walked with God for 300 years. A few sentences later (6:9), we are told that Noah also walked with God. Nowhere else in Scripture is this phrase used to indicate any sort of relationship with God. However, modern evangelicals have seized it as their own. A Google search for "walk with God" returns 640,000 results and "walked with God" returns another 133,000. Every translation of the Bible from the King James Version to the New International Version to Young's Literal Translation includes some variant of walking with God. (Young's says that he "walketh habitually" with God.)
But what does it mean? An unreligious friend interpreted the phrase as implying death. Since you meet God when you die, a walk with God would naturally require death, wouldn't it? So a person who expresses a desire to walk with God may be suicidal! However, it's clear from the Scripture that Enoch is not yet dead; he dies two sentences later (or one, depending on your translation).
The truth is, we're dealing with an ancient idiom that requires some translation into English. In the ancient Middle East, it was common for people who were close and in agreement to take leisurely walks. To be seen walking with a person was almost a sure sign that you were friends with him and agreed with his views. Amos 3:3 mentions this cultural phenomenon directly. Knowing this, as most people do on some level, it's fairly easy to extract a fairly accurate meaning from the phrase.
Enoch and God were in agreement in all things. Since God cannot, by definition, be mistaken, anybody who disagrees with him must be wrong - so Enoch was right. More than that, he was righteous, somebody who could be considered a friend of the Creator God. But some theologians, and some churches, have further interpolated a context into this fairly simple phrase. John Wesley, founder of the Methodist and Wesleyan churches, writes about the Enoch verse:
Imagine that you are a non-Christian reading Genesis 5:22 or hearing somebody talk about his or her walk with God. Would you be able to weave Wesley's dissertation into those three words without a few moments of explanation? As evangelists, we don't usually get those moments of explanation! So why do we use these words in our writings and explanations that are packed full of meaning for us but make little to no sense to non-Christians?
Have you ever ended a prayer with in Christ we pray? Have you ever completed some action in God? What did you mean? A Christian songwriter wrote that, after being forgiven, only those actions you do in God will be remembered. What did he mean? A recent sermon instructed the congregation to stand firm in the faith.
This phrase first appears in the Old Testament in 1 Samuel 23:16. Jonathan goes to David to help him find strength in God. Later in the Old Testament, we find people putting their faith and hope in God. Habbukuk writes that he will be joyful in God. David rejoices in God in at least one psalm. Other people believe in God. None of these uses seem to have the same contextual meaning!
In the New Testament, it is used in the beginning of Luke's gospel to express Mary's song about God (Lk 1:47). Paul writes once that he rejoices in God (Rom 5:11). Things were hidden in God in past ages, according to the letter to the Ephesians (3:9), that are now made plain. A confusing theological statement at the beginning of Colossians 3 says that our own lives are hidden in God and will not be revealed until the Second Coming!
The truth is that I have no idea what this phrase actually means, and I suspect that you don't either. Sometimes, it appears to mean for God, other times to God, and other times with God. In the Jonathan and David usage, for instance, it appears to have the same contextual meaning as finding comfort in a bottle (of alcohol). Other times, such as belief in God, it has an idiomatic meaning in English that it probably didn't to the ancient Greeks. Evangelical Christians, including myself, throw it around as though it has some meaning, and most of the time we can assign some meaning to the words, but those meanings vary. Now, if I was a non-Christian reading a testimonial or sermon (or Bible verse) that included our elusive phrase, I would probably be thoroughly confused.
It's interesting to note that the King James Bible uses the same phrase in the same 35 places, despite its usual dependence on archaic language. It even appears in the 1611 edition so popular among some fundamentalists! This is one phrase that has not been touched in 400 years. It's probably somehow related to in God's name, but the connection seems variable and is definitely unclear. If anybody knows the origin of this phrase, please post a comment and let me know!
On that topic, in God's name presents another problem. People append this phrase and amen to the end of their prayers as a single term. "Please help me God in-Jesus'-name-amen!" What in the world do they mean by that? If you ask many people who mindlessly regurgitate the phrase, they probably wouldn't be able to tell you.
Fortunately, a bit of substitution makes the meaning of this idiom clear. A speaker once told my college's Campus Crusade group that praying in Jesus's name is the same as shopping in the speaker's name. If the speaker sends you to the grocery store with his credit card, you are making purchases in his name. If Jesus sends you into town for a mule, you are going into town in his name. If you have power of attorney, you can sign another person's legal documents in his name.
In other words, when you do something in somebody's name, you are acting with the credentials of that person. You are performing some act either at his bequest or on his behalf (or both). Doing a thing in the name of God or Jesus is no different. When you pray in Jesus's name, you are talking to God using Jesus's credentials! You have this privilege because he specifically granted it to you during his earthly life and death. As an adopted child of God, you can pray with the full credentials of the begotten Son.
Are you a lukewarm Christian? Have you ever accused somebody of being a lukewarm Christian? This is another term with a long symbolic history. Accusing a person of being lukewarm without introducing that history is like me calling you bladed and a bugglewump without explaining the meanings of those terms. Of course, the term derives from the idea that a Christian should be on fire for God. That term, too, derives from a different symbol - the Holy Spirit as tongues of fire at Pentecost. A Christian who is on fire is experiencing the effects of the Holy Spirit. A lukewarm Christian is one who is only temperate. There is no fire in a lukewarm person.
The term is derived from the book of Revelation (3:16), where God threatens to spit a particular church (not a person!) out of his mouth because the organization (!) is lukewarm - "neither hot nor cold". The Greek word corresponding to our term is chliaros, which, according to one dictionary, is a metaphor of the condition of the soul wretchedly fluctuating between a torpor and a fervour of love. Torpor is another word for inactivity or hibernation, while fervor is great and intense heat. So, a lukewarm church is one that is ambivalent - with bursts of lethargy accompanied by flurries of energy - not one that is merely doctrinally unsound.
We've found a word that is almost exclusively applied to individuals - but was not in its original context! It does not imply a steady lack of interest but an almost manic depressive swing back and forth between furious love and sleep. Remember, in ancient times, it was very difficult to keep water lukewarm. They had neither refrigerators or stoves equipped with thermostats. It was either cold - a little bit colder than "room temperature" - or it was being actively heated over a fire. Lukewarm water was either in the process of heating up or cooling down. Think before you use this word - it doesn't mean what you think it means!
Idioms in themselves have no bearing on the understandability of a language to those who actually speak or write the language. However, when one tries to translate between languages, or explain the meaning of an idiom to a person who speaks a different language, errors and misinterpretations ensue in the thousands.
Take a common sentence from the old British Empire: "It is time for tea." Teatime is very meaningful and more than a little bit delicious to anybody who happens to speak English. Of course, we mean that we will be drinking tea presently. However, to a German, this sentence is literally translated as "Es ist Zeit fur Tee". The German, then, not understanding the idiom, might ask what is time for tea? That is, to what does the pronoun it refer? How can it be time for tea if we don't know what it is? A Chinese person, whose language does not make assumptions about verbs (it is time to drink tea), might wonder what one is going to do with the tea. Matters become even more confusing if we specify that two o'clock is time for tea.
The expression "it is time" is an English idiom. It has inherent meaning that makes sense to those who speak British English or one of its descendants, but translation to other languages requires some interpretation.
Now consider a common expression in evangelical circles:
I will be doing these things during my walk with God. From this day forward, I will walk with God in all things.
This is an idiom directly taken from the Genesis 5:22 (or so). It is said that Enoch walked with God for 300 years. A few sentences later (6:9), we are told that Noah also walked with God. Nowhere else in Scripture is this phrase used to indicate any sort of relationship with God. However, modern evangelicals have seized it as their own. A Google search for "walk with God" returns 640,000 results and "walked with God" returns another 133,000. Every translation of the Bible from the King James Version to the New International Version to Young's Literal Translation includes some variant of walking with God. (Young's says that he "walketh habitually" with God.)
But what does it mean? An unreligious friend interpreted the phrase as implying death. Since you meet God when you die, a walk with God would naturally require death, wouldn't it? So a person who expresses a desire to walk with God may be suicidal! However, it's clear from the Scripture that Enoch is not yet dead; he dies two sentences later (or one, depending on your translation).
The truth is, we're dealing with an ancient idiom that requires some translation into English. In the ancient Middle East, it was common for people who were close and in agreement to take leisurely walks. To be seen walking with a person was almost a sure sign that you were friends with him and agreed with his views. Amos 3:3 mentions this cultural phenomenon directly. Knowing this, as most people do on some level, it's fairly easy to extract a fairly accurate meaning from the phrase.
Enoch and God were in agreement in all things. Since God cannot, by definition, be mistaken, anybody who disagrees with him must be wrong - so Enoch was right. More than that, he was righteous, somebody who could be considered a friend of the Creator God. But some theologians, and some churches, have further interpolated a context into this fairly simple phrase. John Wesley, founder of the Methodist and Wesleyan churches, writes about the Enoch verse:
To walk with God, is to set God always before us, and to act as those that are always under his eye. It is to live a life of communion with God, both in ordinances and providences; it is to make God's word our rule, and his glory our end, in all our actions; it is to make it our constant care and endeavour in every thing to please God, and in nothing to offend him; it is to comply with his will, to concur with his designs, and to be workers together with him.That's an enormous leap from two friends walking together in fellowship! And it's the same huge leap made by many evangelical Christians today. When an evangelical Christian says he walks with God, or reads about Enoch walking with God, he understands something close to John Wesley's definition.
Imagine that you are a non-Christian reading Genesis 5:22 or hearing somebody talk about his or her walk with God. Would you be able to weave Wesley's dissertation into those three words without a few moments of explanation? As evangelists, we don't usually get those moments of explanation! So why do we use these words in our writings and explanations that are packed full of meaning for us but make little to no sense to non-Christians?
Have you ever ended a prayer with in Christ we pray? Have you ever completed some action in God? What did you mean? A Christian songwriter wrote that, after being forgiven, only those actions you do in God will be remembered. What did he mean? A recent sermon instructed the congregation to stand firm in the faith.
This phrase first appears in the Old Testament in 1 Samuel 23:16. Jonathan goes to David to help him find strength in God. Later in the Old Testament, we find people putting their faith and hope in God. Habbukuk writes that he will be joyful in God. David rejoices in God in at least one psalm. Other people believe in God. None of these uses seem to have the same contextual meaning!
In the New Testament, it is used in the beginning of Luke's gospel to express Mary's song about God (Lk 1:47). Paul writes once that he rejoices in God (Rom 5:11). Things were hidden in God in past ages, according to the letter to the Ephesians (3:9), that are now made plain. A confusing theological statement at the beginning of Colossians 3 says that our own lives are hidden in God and will not be revealed until the Second Coming!
The truth is that I have no idea what this phrase actually means, and I suspect that you don't either. Sometimes, it appears to mean for God, other times to God, and other times with God. In the Jonathan and David usage, for instance, it appears to have the same contextual meaning as finding comfort in a bottle (of alcohol). Other times, such as belief in God, it has an idiomatic meaning in English that it probably didn't to the ancient Greeks. Evangelical Christians, including myself, throw it around as though it has some meaning, and most of the time we can assign some meaning to the words, but those meanings vary. Now, if I was a non-Christian reading a testimonial or sermon (or Bible verse) that included our elusive phrase, I would probably be thoroughly confused.
It's interesting to note that the King James Bible uses the same phrase in the same 35 places, despite its usual dependence on archaic language. It even appears in the 1611 edition so popular among some fundamentalists! This is one phrase that has not been touched in 400 years. It's probably somehow related to in God's name, but the connection seems variable and is definitely unclear. If anybody knows the origin of this phrase, please post a comment and let me know!
On that topic, in God's name presents another problem. People append this phrase and amen to the end of their prayers as a single term. "Please help me God in-Jesus'-name-amen!" What in the world do they mean by that? If you ask many people who mindlessly regurgitate the phrase, they probably wouldn't be able to tell you.
Fortunately, a bit of substitution makes the meaning of this idiom clear. A speaker once told my college's Campus Crusade group that praying in Jesus's name is the same as shopping in the speaker's name. If the speaker sends you to the grocery store with his credit card, you are making purchases in his name. If Jesus sends you into town for a mule, you are going into town in his name. If you have power of attorney, you can sign another person's legal documents in his name.
In other words, when you do something in somebody's name, you are acting with the credentials of that person. You are performing some act either at his bequest or on his behalf (or both). Doing a thing in the name of God or Jesus is no different. When you pray in Jesus's name, you are talking to God using Jesus's credentials! You have this privilege because he specifically granted it to you during his earthly life and death. As an adopted child of God, you can pray with the full credentials of the begotten Son.
Are you a lukewarm Christian? Have you ever accused somebody of being a lukewarm Christian? This is another term with a long symbolic history. Accusing a person of being lukewarm without introducing that history is like me calling you bladed and a bugglewump without explaining the meanings of those terms. Of course, the term derives from the idea that a Christian should be on fire for God. That term, too, derives from a different symbol - the Holy Spirit as tongues of fire at Pentecost. A Christian who is on fire is experiencing the effects of the Holy Spirit. A lukewarm Christian is one who is only temperate. There is no fire in a lukewarm person.
The term is derived from the book of Revelation (3:16), where God threatens to spit a particular church (not a person!) out of his mouth because the organization (!) is lukewarm - "neither hot nor cold". The Greek word corresponding to our term is chliaros, which, according to one dictionary, is a metaphor of the condition of the soul wretchedly fluctuating between a torpor and a fervour of love. Torpor is another word for inactivity or hibernation, while fervor is great and intense heat. So, a lukewarm church is one that is ambivalent - with bursts of lethargy accompanied by flurries of energy - not one that is merely doctrinally unsound.
We've found a word that is almost exclusively applied to individuals - but was not in its original context! It does not imply a steady lack of interest but an almost manic depressive swing back and forth between furious love and sleep. Remember, in ancient times, it was very difficult to keep water lukewarm. They had neither refrigerators or stoves equipped with thermostats. It was either cold - a little bit colder than "room temperature" - or it was being actively heated over a fire. Lukewarm water was either in the process of heating up or cooling down. Think before you use this word - it doesn't mean what you think it means!
# posted by Dev @ 5:40 PM 
