Matthaean

MATTHAEAN

Mon. October 10th, 2022

I like the phrases in the left-hand column.  I do not like the phrases in the right-hand column.

            I  LIKE                                               I  DON'T  LIKE

            Matthew's story                                  the Matthaean story

            Mark's story                                        the Marcan story

            Luke's story                                        the Lucan story

            John's story                                         the Johannine story

            Paul's story                                          the Pauline story

The words in the right-hand column ending in -an and -ine are borrowed (taken) from Latin and Greek.  I do not object to words borrowed from Latin and Greek.  But . . . I'll try to explain.

Somewhat similar words are derived from the names of some other famous people.  Newtonian physics is a set of principles first expressed by Sir Isaac Newton.  Jeffersonian democracy is democracy as President Thomas Jefferson defined it.  The Elizabethan Age is the time when Queen Elizabeth the First was queen of England.  The Augustan Age is the time when Augustus was the emperor of the Roman Empire.

All of these words are derived from the names of people by adding suffixes, which turn the name into an adjective.  And they imply that the person, although dead in most cases, is important.

The way I see it, though, there is an important difference with the words derived from the New Testament writers and the words derived from the other people's names, in the examples given above.  The difference is this: no one is trying to explain Newtonian physics to children.  No one is trying to explain Jeffer­sonian democracy to children.  No one is trying to explain the Elizabethan Age to children; although many people are involved in explaining the Elizabethan Age to teenagers.

But people are trying to introduce children to Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Paul.

The best I can figure out, the reason I don't like Matthaean, Marcan, Lucan, Johannine, and Pauline is that, when adult Christians are talking to each other and using these words, they are using learned ways of talking which are quite sensibly avoided by Sunday School teachers when they are talking to children.

What stands out for me, is the question of whether adult Christian beliefs about the New Testament writers, and aspects of Christian religion in general, are a deeper and maturer version of the teaching which children receive about Christianity, or a mutation of the teaching which children receive about Christianity.

To me, there is a feeling or connotation which attaches to the words Matthaean, Marcan, Lucan, Johannine, and Pauline -- a feeling or connotation that the users of these longer words have experienced a mutation, rather than a deepening, of their faith.

My own instinct and hope is that there is a continuity and connectedness and cooperation be­tween the work of Sunday School teachers on the one hand, and the work of theologians on the other hand.  That is, perhaps, a leap of faith on my part.

Conclusion.  It seems to me that using phrases like the ones in the left-hand column above are a way for adult Christians who are not teaching Sunday School to children to express solidarity with Sunday School teachers.

Chasing a Rabbit.  I cut out a few paragraphs, but I decided to keep one point I made in them.  I observed that when people use the word Pauline in writing -- meaning of, by, from, or pertaining to Saint Paul -- they usually don't tell you how they pronounce it.  Do they make it rhyme with machine, so it is pronounced like the woman's name Pauline, or do they make it rhyme with canine?  I will say that if I did decide to make an exception and use one of these words, I would make Matthaean rhyme with Ian, and make Pauline rhyme with canine.  (I like to be ready to pronounce rare words, even if the chances of me using them are slim.)

Frank Newton