| Berean-Stein Bares. |
I never did like the Berenstain Bears. It was too repetitive, and they always made the father bear look like a fool. Not my kind of kids book.
But I do like the word play.
First, This looks to be a promising movie. Check out the extended trailer.
Second, how many times have you heard that the term "Christian" literally means "little Christ". I have heard that in too many sermons to count, and read it on too many places to remember. So I was a bit shocked this morning as I was looking at the Greek word Christianos and trying to see where and how this meant "little Christ".
After some checking, it seems that Martin Luther actually coined the phrase, and it is by no means a literal translation. The ending -ianos came into the Greek through the Latin practice of appending an -ianus to the name of someone that somebody else was following, in order to identify a follower. We do the same sort of thing today with endings such as -ite (Hodge-ite, Ryrie-ite, etc.). Thus the label "Christian" - which was originally derogatory - simply means someone who is devoted to Christ.
As one who has regurgitated (rather uncritically) this myth myself, I should like to take this opportunity to repent of it altogether.
Notwithstanding, we are called to imitate Christ in the sense that we ought to be obedient to the Holy Spirit just as Christ was; and I certainly think Luther was on the ball in describing it as being a "little Christ" - the error is in suggesting that this is the literal meaning - when it is really a figurative one.
Finally, if you are interested, Here is the sermon I preached today in two parts, Part 1, and part 2.Labels: Corrections |
posted by Daniel @
6:44 AM
 
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| 1 Comments: |
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I just finished the first part of NT Wright's two part commentary on Acts. In it he translates it as "Messiah people" and notes it was not their choice of a name; "The Way" was a name they had seemed to adopt on their own.
I had known about the derogatory nature of the name before (as most names applied to groups are; ie. Methodist), but had never thought about any translation beside Christian. I kind of like "Messiah persons" better.
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I just finished the first part of NT Wright's two part commentary on Acts. In it he translates it as "Messiah people" and notes it was not their choice of a name; "The Way" was a name they had seemed to adopt on their own.
I had known about the derogatory nature of the name before (as most names applied to groups are; ie. Methodist), but had never thought about any translation beside Christian. I kind of like "Messiah persons" better.