Slouching Toward Babylon

I thought a comparison of Jesus images would be interesting. (It was interesting to me, anyway.)

Immediately below is the Jesus I grew up with. It's okay if you don't recognize him. He appears this way mostly in Baptist Sunday school lessons, church bulletins, that sort of thing. Jesus is rarely on a cross in Baptist church (and only around Easter), because Baptists prefer to depict him as ministering or risen. He's also never shown with a halo, though sometimes there is some brightness or a halo-effect.

These Jesuses are especially Orthodox or Catholic-looking to me, but I like them. I show them to demonstrate the large gulf between the two. If you are limited to one tradition, any other is very foreign, and can be frightening or confusing.

Of course there’s a lot of cross over. Many Christian traditions depict Jesus as tender and fatherly. However, fundamentalist often retain that approach in most contexts.

¶ If there were no other expression of our capacity to love our children, the of love of Jesus for children would be sufficient.

¶ An aside for Capstone friends that may find me: The etymology of "Babylon" can be found here .

The Hebrew name for Babylon, , Babel, does mean "confusion," but the original name was Akkadian Babili and meant “Gate of God.” It appears itself to be an adaptation of a non-Semitic and unknown name.

Some languages, like English, use a close approximation when encountering a new place or thing; English speakers like to try to get close to the original sound when possible. Some cultures, like the Chinese and French, purposely create entirely new words, preferring to retain familiar sounds. This is a common linguistics phenomena rooted as much in cultural personality as language, which can't be separated in any case.

(My own opinion is that it's a reflection of a culture's desire to incorporate new ideas and accommodate change; you can see edges of it in political systems and immigration patterns.)

It appears (to my untrained ear) that the Hebrew was an approximation for Akkadian, which was also conveniently xenophobic, and that is also not uncommon. Think of all the names white people have for other races. Most are not very complimentary. Every culture does this.

An interesting etymology is just an interesting etymology. It doesn't have any spiritual significance. It may however tell you a lot about those that spoke the language.

Started: 2012-04-19