for the Father and the Son (I'll leave the Holy Ghost aside) -- I hadn't heard of it until Todd linked to it, but I've just read it and loved it. Much worth a read.
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for the Father and the Son (I'll leave the Holy Ghost aside) -- I hadn't heard of it until Todd linked to it, but I've just read it and loved it. Much worth a read. |
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Obviously, it makes sense for orthodox Christians to speak of the Hebrew corpus as the "Old Testament" when they're operating within their own theological system, but I don't think that they should get into the habit of importing those assumptions into discourse outside that context. I don't have the same problem with "New Testament", because the historical/causal relation presupposed in the term is clearly justifiable without any commitment to the theology, which isn't the case the other way around. (I. e., the best secular scholarly analysis of the development of the Tanakh in its historical milieu will have no place for a causal role played by some Greek texts written centuries later, but the best secular scholarly analysis of the Gospels and Epistles in their historical milieu will have quite a lot to say about the causal role played by a preexisting corpus of Hebrew texts.)
However, there are many circumstances in which "Hebrew Bible" or "Tanakh" would seem extremely unusual and awkward--as in the article referenced in this post, for example, where the relevant point is clearly not the Tanakh in se, but the stylistic particularities of a specific translation of the Tanakh (the one in the 1611 Authorized Version) that existed and was transmitted only under the name "Old Testament" along with companion translations of the Greek Christian scriptures. In these or similar circumstances, I would use "Old Testament" without a second thought, as did the author of the parody and Professor Volokh--in fact, in a number of circumstances I would tend to think it somewhat misleading to do otherwise.
Thus, I have a usage pattern more or less on the lines of the following examples. (I've marked with a ? those usages that I would be unsure about.) Let me reiterate that this is just a description of my own discourse habits, not a dogmatic prescription for others:
(reference to the corpus in itself)
(in reference to a secular academic)
(in reference to a Catholic theologian, whose object of study is preconceived in specifically Christian terms)
(direct speech, avoiding theological presuppositions)
(indirect speech, taking on the context of the reported person's viewpoint hypothetically in the subordinate clause)
(reference to a version of the corpus considered and transmitted only in a specifically Christian context)
(ditto)
(could be referring either to the contents in themselves or [more plausibly] to the text as transmitted within the Christian tradition)
Anyway, I bring all this up because I think it's a very interesting and under-discussed usage point, and I'm curious to know what people of varying religious backgrounds and beliefs think about the subject. As I said, I'm in no way arguing that others who follow different patterns are doing something wrong: this set of rough rules is merely my personal attempt to fulfill the goals of (1) using theologically neutral terminology, (2) being historically accurate, (3) picking out the specific object to which I'm referring and the specific aspect under which I'm considering it unambiguously, and (4) avoiding giving needless offense to anyone, regardless of his or her religious faith or lack thereof. I recognize that in some cases those goals might come into conflict: the usage rules are the best compromise I can think of to fulfill the goals as fully as possible under various circumstances, without giving undue weight to any one of them.
I've never been offended by anyone's use of a different set of rules, and I can't imagine that I would be except in a case of gross, deliberate insensitivity. (E.g., repeatedly referring to the work that the rabbi was citing in synagogue as the "Old Testament", when discussing it in a specifically Jewish context, even after being corrected.) But, at the same time, I'm neither Christian nor Jewish, and I feel that I should be very modest in establishing linguistic norms about how people of faith describe their sacred texts (even if I don't attach a negative evaluation to the decision of others to deviate from those norms). If a number of people (of any religion) were to tell me that they were offended by my usage, I would try to find an alternative standard that continued to meet the other three criteria.
Thoughts, fellow language nerds?
Good evening. Working hard, in this busy time for you called. This is my friend and the Boke,just established, the time is not long. The issue here isthat everybody can see my Boke, Ha-ha, raising some visibility, which caused trouble to ask your forgiveness! We all hope to see. Please! 笑傲苍穹博客 晚秋稻草博客 绽放笑容 寂寞无痕博客 思念秋风博客 谷歌和百度的博客 小城故事专栏 流淌的河水 月是故乡明 拥有幸福 爱是什么 笑傲江湖 真爱无敌 幽默坏蛋博客 醉看红尘 诱惑的雨夜 热的发抖 记忆中的故乡 独自去徘徊 都市流浪人 漂泊的船 生命的感悟 秋日的午后 笑看天下 落花无泪