Religious English

The religious language is consisted of words that refer to different beliefs in God or gods. The
religious notions existed hundred years BC. Firstly, the Sacred Scriptures were written in ebrew !the
"ld Testa#ent$ and Septuagint !#eans %seventy&$ ' which is a translation of the "ld Testa#ent #ade
by () *ews !+ fro# e,ery tribe$ in the ti#es of an Egyptian -ing ' .tole#y // .hiladelphus !012')3+
BC$. This translation is considered to be old Gree- language and it was #ade on the island .haros in
the library of the -ing fro# 4lexandria. 5ater, these scriptures were translated into ebrew, but
unfortunately they were lost. /n the ti#es of the early Church the 6ew Testa#ent was written in
Gree-. /n the first centuries of Christianity nobody tried to translate the Bible, because the ser,ices
were held in Gree- and later as the potential of 5atin grew the liturgy was led in 5atin and officially
the Bible was translated into this language at the #iddle of the third century 47. Then, in the
#edie,al era all the scholars were starting their studies in the church and the access to -nowledge at
that ti#e was only in theological institutes. 4s the influential power of the church grew in all spheres
of the society for that ti#e in Europe !including political power$, cler-s did not allowed any
translation of the Bible because of the fear to lose all the wealth that they then possessed.
Fro# the history we -now that 8artin 5uther was the first church refor#er in Europe. 5uther was
against the ecclesiastic hierarchy, the worship of the 9irgin 8ary and other saints, paying for sins to
be forgi,en: he considered the Bible the #ain boo- of Christianity and he also insisted on the
translation of the Bible in the national language. So, in ;<0< appears the first Ger#an translation,
though, it is considered that there were other atte#pts of translating it in ;3++ !inco#plete ,ersions$.
The 4nglo=Saxon translation starts by the (
th
century. /t is considered that the first translation fro#
5atin 9ulgate into "ld English was #ade by a few #on-s and scholars. 4ll the atte#pts of translating
at that ti#e were #ade only partial ,ersions. The full English translation of the Bible was #ade in the
;3
th
century by John Wycliffe in se,eral consecuti,e ,ersions, though, it is un-nown how #uch
>ycliffe participated at this wor-. Bac- in >ycliffe?s days the Ro#an Catholic Church was ,ery
powerful and it did not want that si#ple people would ha,e access to the oly >ord, because they
ha,e learned to #anipulate with #asses, thus, >ycliffe had confrontations with the church during his
life and after his death he was declared heretic and his body was exhu#ed and destroyed.
6owadays, there are se,eral English translations of the Bible, li-e@ Aing *a#es 9ersion, 4#plified
,ersion, 6ew 5i,ing 9ersion, English Standard 9ersion, etc. 4ccording to the infor#ation gi,en on
www.wiki.answers.com there are )00 ,ersions of the English Bible.
/n this report we cannot a,oid the proble# that appears to #odern philosophers about the religious
language. They consider that God cannot be described with the words that we use, because they are
referred to other creatures, for instance@ is God good as Aofi 4nnan is goodB /s it possible to use the
sa#e attributes to God as to peopleB Such philosophers as 4yer, Carnap and Swinburne consider this
language #eaningless because they rely on 9erificationis# which basically has the idea@ %/f you
cannot ,erify it then it?s false&, this is the e#pirical principle. Swinburne said@ It is claimed that a
man could not understand a factual claim unless he knew what it would be like to observe it to hold
or knew which observations would count for or against it; from which it follows that a statement
could not be factually meaningful unless there could be observational evidence which would count
for or against it. 4.*. 4yer also clai#ed that the Cualities of God can not be ,erified as well, so, by
his concept using religious language is #eaningless. But all this philosophers that spea- against
religious ter#s and attributes of God are de#onstrating nothing but pro,e only their lac- of
-nowledge of the Bible and God. /n the Bible there are enough proofs to %,erify& is existence and
Cualities.
Religious English possesses a lot of words that are specific for this do#ain. ere are so#e of the#@
= Christian ' 1. a person who belie,es in and follows *esus Christ, the origin of the English word
appears by ;)<1';011: D 5atin ChrEstiFnus D Gree- ChrEstiFnGs, eCui,alent to ChrEst ! Gs $
Christ H =iFnos D 5atin =iFnus -ian: replacing 8iddle English, "ld English cristen D 5atin:
= Prophet ' 1. a person who spea-s for God or a deity, or by di,ine inspiration, a. one of the#
was 8oses, who led the /srael out of Egypt, 4. the .rophet, 8uha##ad, the founder of /sla#: this
word appears in English by ;;<1';)11: 8iddle English prophete D 5ate 5atin prophIta D Gree-
prophtIs, eCui,alent to pro= pro-

H =phItIs spea-er, deri,ati,e of phJnai to spea-:
= Apostle ' 1. any of the early followers of Jesus who carried the Christian message into the
world !. any of the original 1! disciples called by Jesus to preach the gospel" #imon Peter the
brothers James and John Andrew Philip $artholomew %atthew &homas James the son of
Alpheus &haddaeus #imon the 'ealot Judas (scariot the origin starts before )*+, %iddle
-nglish .ariant of apostel apostol /ld -nglish apostol 0compare /ld 1risian apostol /ld
2igh 3erman apostol ! o $, 3erman Apostel $ D 4ate 4atin apostolus D 3reek ap5stolos
literally one who is sent out, akin to apost6llein to send off, see apo-. Compare with loss of
initial unstressed a- %iddle -nglish postle postel /ld -nglish postol !K /ld 7orse postuli $
/ld 2igh 3erman postul,
= 3ospel = 1. the teachings of Jesus and the apostles, the Christian re.elation. !. the story of
Christ8s life and teachings especially as contained in the first four books of the new testament,
namely %atthew %ark 4uke and John. The word in English appears before )*+, %iddle
-nglish go ! d $ spell /ld -nglish g9dspell 0see good, spell

$: translation of 3reek euang6lion
%good news:, a word of Anglo-#a;on origin and meaning <3od8s spell< i.e. word of 3od or
rather according to others <good spell< i.e. good news. (t is the rendering of the 3reek
=e.angelion= i.e. <good message.<
There are, as well, words fro# other world religions, li-e /sla#, Buddhis#, but they nowadays do
not represent a part of English ,ocabulary, they only represent ter#s of a particular religion and ha,e
no translation into English, li-e@ Allah, Torah, Ramadan, ukkot, etc.
/n the religious English as in any other language, are so called %taboos& !these words are considered
to be i#proper, unacceptable, prohibited, abusi,e or e,en blasphe#ous$. The appearance of so#e of
the# has a reasonable bac-ground, for exa#ple the word %God&, this word is not to be used as a
swearing or curse, or where it is not necessary, or e,en in phrases li-e@ %"h, #y God& or %For God?s
sa-e& or %God forbidL&, because in the Bible it is said@ >?ou shall not use or repeat the 7ame of the
4ord your 3od in .ain @that is lightly or fri.olously in false affirmations or profanelyA, for the
4ord will not hold him guiltless who takes 2is 7ame in .ain.:0A%PB. /ther taboos seem to
appear because of fear the word >hell: for e;ample is not pronounced because people fear
that if they say it they put their li.es in danger or they might get there. Also there are words
that seem to be inappropriate to be used in public places and of course before different types of
listeners like elder generation because they e.en might not understand some of these words. (n
the church should not sound improper words not Cust from the pulpit but from any other
member. 7owadays religious taboos almost do not e;ist it depends on e.ery indi.idual
whether he or she decides to use different terms which for some are considered taboos
regarding their religion .iew but for others not. (n other religions like (slam the word for
>god: as >Allah: is also counted as a taboo.
Religious English has de,eloped due to different religions that entered 4nglo=Saxon territories
during the historical ti#es. 4t the beginning of the first centuries 47, Christian religious ter#s
started to spread on the British /slands, and as #entioned earlier a lot of these ter#s ca#e fro# Gree-
and later on fro# 5atin. Religious English is to be considered as an i#portant register as any other
register of this language. /t also has its specific proble#s but has of course, its specific answers.
The State Mni,ersity of 8oldo,a
Faculty of Foreign 5anguages and 5iterature
Re!ort
>Deligious -nglish:
Teacher@ Ta#ara 8atei
Student@ Fascian 4na
Chisinau )1;3
$ibliography"
www.britannica.com
www.dictionary.babylon.com
www.e;amples.yourdictionary.com
www.wikipedia.org
www.wiki.answers.com
www.iep.utm.edu
www.dictionary.reference.com
www.biblegateway.com