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Re: Sensible passives (was: confession: roots)

From:John Cowan <jcowan@...>
Date:Thursday, May 10, 2001, 20:20
Raymond Brown wrote:


> who......was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary
This reads almost like horse-breeding records, which are of the form "Foobiscuit by Baratariat out of Bazwozzle", meaning that Baratariat is the sire, Bazwozzle the dam.
> ".....in Jesus Christ...........begotten of the Father...; > > by the power of the Holy Spirit he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary..." > > Interesting that the old Tudor 'of' stuck in there with the phrase > "begotten of" - I'd have thought "begotten by" or "begotten from" would've > been better.
"Begotten" is archaic already, although I suppose "fathered by the Father" would be a bit over the top! And "incarnate from" still seems very strange; it seems to assign Source to a verb that doesn't seem to need it. Being both theologically correct and properly modern in language can be an insuperable problem: consider JRRT's attempt to rewrite King Theoden's declaration to Gandalf in ModE. -- There is / one art || John Cowan <jcowan@...> no more / no less || http://www.reutershealth.com to do / all things || http://www.ccil.org/~cowan with art- / lessness \\ -- Piet Hein

Replies

Yoon Ha Lee <yl112@...>
Raymond Brown <ray.brown@...>Being both theologically correct and properly modern
Amanda Babcock <langs@...>