Wednesday, May 31, 2023

Words of the Month (June 2023)

1. Incarnation (English)-Merriam-Webster defines the English noun, incarnation as "the act of incarnating : the state of being incarnate, a particular physical form or state; a concrete or actual form of a quality or concept."

When the noun is capitalized and used within the context of discourse about Jesus Christ, it traditionally means "the union of divinity with humanity in Jesus Christ."

John 1:14 serves as the locus classicus for the teaching of the Incarnation: "the Word became flesh."

The Online Etymology Dictionary provides this explanation:

c. 1300, "embodiment of God in the person of Christ," from Old French incarnacion "the Incarnation" (12c.), from Late Latin incarnationem (nominative incarnatio), "act of being made flesh" (used by Church writers especially in reference to God in Christ; source also of Spanish encarnacion, Italian incarnazione), noun of action from past-participle stem of Late Latin incarnari "be made flesh," from in- "in" (from PIE root *en "in") + caro (genitive carnis) "flesh" (originally "a piece of flesh," from PIE root *sker- (1) "to cut"). Glossed in Old English as inflæscnesinlichomung. As "person or thing that is the embodiment" (of some quality, deity, etc.) from 1742.
See https://www.etymonline.com/word/incarnation


2. Paraenesis (English)-Oxford Bibliographies has a helpful introduction for the subject of paraenesis. The word comes from the Greek 
παραίνεσις, "which originally meant any kind of advice, instruction, or counsel." Some scholars think we find occurrences of paraenesis in the NT when vice and virtue lists occur, warning examples are given or when NT writers set forth the so-called Haustafeln. Due to insurmountable difficulties with this approach, others choose to define NT paraenesis "in terms of its ancient meaning as an umbrella term for any kind of instruction, moral or otherwise."

The problem with the second approach is that paraenesis becomes semantically vacuous with no specific content to differentiate it denotationally from similar terms. Hence, the predominant view of paraenesis is to interpret it as specific moral counsel given within a determinate Christian setting; in other words, NT writers are supposed to be unfolding the moral implications of the Christian faith and, in this sense, their counsel is evidently paraenetic

See https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/display/document/obo-9780195393361/obo-9780195393361-0143.xml

2 comments:

aservantofJEHOVAH said...

Romans ch.1:22,23NIV"Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things"
So our brother Paul is having none of it ,even to claim that God resembles Man outwardly is to cross the line.
Romans ch.1:25NIV"because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen."
The categories of Creator and creature are mutually exclusive ones ,and any narrative that negates or obscures this fact is in effect an exchanging of the truth about God for a lie.

Edgar Foster said...

It's ironic that church apologists criticize Witnesses for believing the Son of God is an angel (a creature) rather than God (the Creator), but they turn around and claim the Son (the Creator) assumed flesh/humanity, thus becoming a God-man (Creator and creature).