Remarks by podcaster Jason Staples have led me to ponder the notion of “original” language relative to scriptures widely known via translation. My attention was drawn to Staples’s comment that the Book of Revelations “has mixed metaphors all over the place.”
… The Greek of Revelations comes off as very clumsy, reads like someone who is not exactly a native Greek speaker, or… well trained… Greek writer. This is someone who probably is multilingual and probably a Semitic speaker of some sort who is writing in this way.
Where Staples gooses the matter to the throaty pitch of a hermeneutical Harley is in asserting that “the messiness of it is also part of the design.”
And I think there are certain places where the grammar and so on is clumsy in ways that force you to kind of have to grapple with that aspect of it. I think the messiness of it is also part of the design, even, that forced you to deal with those mixed metaphors…
The rhetoricians will have a Greek term filtered through Latin for argument premised on convictedness drawing foreordained conclusion qualified by contingent disclaiming. Still, I’m attracted to the venture of tilting with refractory text through a grammatical lens as a discipline that courts illumination.
There’s that moment where the thunder — he hears “the thunders” — and he’s told, “Don’t write that down! Seal that up!” And that in some ways is I think the book communicating that, like, look, there’s a lot about this stuff that you’re just not going to be able to get, and that’s okay. There is a mystery that from the earthly perspective, from this side of heaven, you’re just, you’re not going to really fully understand, you have to get the angle from, you know, from heaven down, you have to get the God’s eye view to understand, to hear what’s going on, and you don’t have that luxury, but don’t worry, it’s under control.
This sort of language stymies communicative logic, but poetically and confessionally it has a grappling aspect not easily discounted.
I live in Texas and devote much of my time to easel painting on an amateur basis. I stream a lot of music, mostly jazz, throughout the day. I like to read and memorize poetry.
EthicalDative 
And That’s Okay, But Don’t Worry, It’s Under Control’
Remarks by podcaster Jason Staples have led me to ponder the notion of “original” language relative to scriptures widely known via translation. My attention was drawn to Staples’s comment that the Book of Revelations “has mixed metaphors all over the place.”
… The Greek of Revelations comes off as very clumsy, reads like someone who is not exactly a native Greek speaker, or… well trained… Greek writer. This is someone who probably is multilingual and probably a Semitic speaker of some sort who is writing in this way.
Where Staples gooses the matter to the throaty pitch of a hermeneutical Harley is in asserting that “the messiness of it is also part of the design.”
And I think there are certain places where the grammar and so on is clumsy in ways that force you to kind of have to grapple with that aspect of it. I think the messiness of it is also part of the design, even, that forced you to deal with those mixed metaphors…
The rhetoricians will have a Greek term filtered through Latin for argument premised on convictedness drawing foreordained conclusion qualified by contingent disclaiming. Still, I’m attracted to the venture of tilting with refractory text through a grammatical lens as a discipline that courts illumination.
There’s that moment where the thunder — he hears “the thunders” — and he’s told, “Don’t write that down! Seal that up!” And that in some ways is I think the book communicating that, like, look, there’s a lot about this stuff that you’re just not going to be able to get, and that’s okay. There is a mystery that from the earthly perspective, from this side of heaven, you’re just, you’re not going to really fully understand, you have to get the angle from, you know, from heaven down, you have to get the God’s eye view to understand, to hear what’s going on, and you don’t have that luxury, but don’t worry, it’s under control.
This sort of language stymies communicative logic, but poetically and confessionally it has a grappling aspect not easily discounted.
(c) 2025 JMN — EthicalDative. All rights reserved
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About JMN
I live in Texas and devote much of my time to easel painting on an amateur basis. I stream a lot of music, mostly jazz, throughout the day. I like to read and memorize poetry.