Forum Name: Assyrian Forums - Peshitta
Message URL: https://www.atour.com/cgi-bin/forums/board.cgi?az=read_count&om=928&forum=peshitta&viewmode=all
Message ID: 30

#30, RE: small wonders
Posted by Paul Younan on Mar-19-2002 at 09:50 PM

In response to message #28

Shlama Akhi Iakov,

>How arrogant have we become in
>the west to ignore such
>things?

Had Meshikha delivered His message in Swahili I swear to you all that I would be placing that language on a pedestal and doing all I could to understand the revelation of His message according to Swahili psyche and the sociology behind Swahili linguistics.

The gulf between the Semitic and the Hellenistic psyche is immense. And in that gulf are thousands upon thousands of Greek versions with a bewildering array of variants that have not, even today, been completely cataloged.

The battle between the Semitic mindset and the Hellenistic mindset is as old as the Message itself. Unfortunately, today there are 1.5 billion believers who are not even aware of the importance of this debate.

In the West, Hellenism eventually won. And so today when a believer hears 'Agape' they are comfortable and at home, but when the strange-sounding foreign term 'Rakhma' is brought up - it immediately draws confusion and an uncomfortable feeling.

'Hypostasis' sounds familiar and true - but what's this 'Qnoma' thingie? Must be something those heretics in the desert invented to tamper with the original meaning.

It's by the sheer grace of God that these types of things didn't interfere with the main point of the Message in the West. It's not as if by using Hellenistic terminology the message was altered - it wasn't. It has been preserved as well as it possibly could given the circumstances.

But I believe, I truly feel, that so many viewpoints that differ from the Orthodox can be attributed to poorly-worded translations like "3 persons in 1 God."

You can almost see where this would be problematic. And you can almost understand why the JW's and Christadelphians and the Ebionites and the Arians, and all others who deny this essential truth of Orthodoxy - you can truly understand why they have a problem with this wording.

The Truth (with a capital T) lies within the Semitic framework from within which the Message was revealed.

Akhi John - it is apparent that your intent here is not to learn about that Semitic framework - especially where it would differ from your pre-conceived notions - but only to gather information on how exactly the Peshitta fits into the heretical schema you have drawn up in your own mind.

Good luck - and let me know if and when you decide to take down the straw men and put down the club. I'll be here when you want to learn something about this lingual psyche (which is all I'm good for, anyway.)

Ciao.

Fk^rwbw 0ml4

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