Bible Vocabulary: Words that Should Remain. Part I

When Christianity first came to the Anglo-Saxons (Brits, essentially), there were many concepts that had to be explained. Most of the concepts had words in other languages. While some were borrowed directly from Latin (for example 'justify'), many words were "translated" by making up words. Here are a four of those.


1) 'Trinity' was translated 'Threeness.' It certainly doesn't have the ring that 'Trinity' does, but it gets the message across. 'Tri' is translated 'three' and 'ity.' What I don't like about either 'Trinity' or 'Threeness' is that it doesn't really explain the Unity part. An alternative is 'Three-in-One,' but this is a mouthful. 'Triunity' is okay, but it's my understanding that this was the original pronunciation for 'Trinity' but was shortened. 'Triune God' works, but again, it has no ring.


My conclusion: While I think Threeness is preferable to Trinity in conveying a meaning, it just sounds stupid. I vote we keep 'Trinity.'


2) 'Divinity' was translated 'God-kindness.' Now, how that worked, I don't know. Furthermore, I think most English speakers understand what 'divinity' means. But to create a new word, what about translating the Hebrew word 'חֶסֶד'? Coverdale invented the term 'loving-kindness' for this, but 'God-kindness' would be a syllable shorter. 


My conclusion: In reality, חֶסֶד is one of the most difficult words to translate and no English term can do it justice. 'God-kindness' works, but sounds a lot like a word found in The Message. Maybe transliterating the Hebrew and providing a footnoted definition would be the best solution. This is what is sometimes done with the Greek word 'αγάπη.'


3) Atonement: This word has actually stuck around. When pronounced "at-WUN-ment," the word makes more sense. However, this takes a bit longer.


My Conclusion: continue the original spelling, but pronounce it 'at-one-ment' and when someone asks, tell them it's your accent. :)


4) Pardon was translated 'forgive.' The Latin 'par' meant 'for.' It is related to the Spanish "para," the Italian "per," the French, "pour," and probably a Romanian and Portuguese word, as well. 'Don' is from the verb meaning 'to give.' It is related to the English 'donate.' 
While both words are understood in English, the word 'pardon' carries with it an extra weight; it is often used in reference to a judicial or governmental person 'pardoning' a criminal. Often, the pardoning is controversial because a large portion of the population believes that the recipient has not gotten her/his deserved punishment. Similarly, God grants us pardon in spite of our deserving punishment.


My Conclusion: Use the word 'forgive' when referencing typical human activity. Use the word 'pardon' when referencing God's pardoning of us as well as what we humans are to be doing.


There are a number of other words that were invented and fell out, but most of them have to do with Roman hierarchies, etc.


My conclusion to my conclusions: most difficult words need to be explained to people. Whether one uses footnotes, Bible studies, sermons, or blogs, we as Church need to educate people.