When we see a pair of words in the Bible joined by "and", it is very common for some scholars or non-scholars to interpret them as a kind of synonymous parallelism. There needs to be another option as well. Not everything joined by "and" is connected in the same way. To illustrate, in carpentry it is understood that there is a plumb line and a level line. These are not synonymous and yet they still are similar in that they are both measurements performed by a tool called a "level(er)" . What if this perpendicular connection also happens in the world of words and not just in the world of carpentry?
In reading Martin Luther years ago I ran across the idea of a broad definition and a narrow definition for word. This was a bit confusing for me at first, but gradually I was able to grasp what he meant by such a distinction.
It is more like perpendicular parallelism.
[under construction]
Jon
Saturday, November 23, 2013
Holy: Understanding it Better by Understanding the Order of Driver, Horse, and Cart.
There is a very old analogy in which someone says to someone else: "You are putting the cart in front of the horse". I would add also this following saying: "You are putting the horse in front of the driver". The idea is that the driver initiates the entire process, then the horse follows, and then the cart follows the horse. I think this pair of sayings fit very well with the three most promising definitions of holy. I am convinced they follow a similar pattern of priority.
The three most popular definitions for holy in alphabetic order are: 1) pure, 2) set apart, and 3) moral wholeness. These three in popularity have easily outdistanced any other possible definitions for holy. Could it be that they are related like the driver, the horse and the cart? If this is true, then it helps explain how it is that these three have each been seen as the definition of holy. Currently, "set apart" enjoys the greatest popularity following the scholarship of the 20th century.
In scholarly circles, it is known that a person must distinguish what kind of meaning a person is referring to whether it be: 1) definition, 2) implication, or 3) significance. Dr. Robert Stein, one of my teachers from my undergraduate and graduate years refers to: 1) meaning, 2) implication, and significance. "Is" may only have one definition perhaps, but "means" clearly has more than one meaning. A lot has been written on what meaning means. Rather than debate that issue, I think it is sufficient to realize that definition is more definite than meaning, so that is why I use it in place of Dr. Stein's "meaning". Eugene Nida also wrote extensively on the need to define words much as our English Dictionaries do, rather than simply listing a full list of words used in translation to replace the original.
[ in process]
Jon
The three most popular definitions for holy in alphabetic order are: 1) pure, 2) set apart, and 3) moral wholeness. These three in popularity have easily outdistanced any other possible definitions for holy. Could it be that they are related like the driver, the horse and the cart? If this is true, then it helps explain how it is that these three have each been seen as the definition of holy. Currently, "set apart" enjoys the greatest popularity following the scholarship of the 20th century.
In scholarly circles, it is known that a person must distinguish what kind of meaning a person is referring to whether it be: 1) definition, 2) implication, or 3) significance. Dr. Robert Stein, one of my teachers from my undergraduate and graduate years refers to: 1) meaning, 2) implication, and significance. "Is" may only have one definition perhaps, but "means" clearly has more than one meaning. A lot has been written on what meaning means. Rather than debate that issue, I think it is sufficient to realize that definition is more definite than meaning, so that is why I use it in place of Dr. Stein's "meaning". Eugene Nida also wrote extensively on the need to define words much as our English Dictionaries do, rather than simply listing a full list of words used in translation to replace the original.
[ in process]
Jon
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