Thought for the Day (Nov 15)

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day (Nov 15)
From: Peter T.
Date: 15 Nov 99 - 06:07 PM

I take that as confirming (nice) evidence for the points I made. There was a book called (I think) The Passion of Jesus, many years ago, from which I stole some of the above ideas. It stuck in my head. There was a complicated discussion of the Greek original and the Latin Vulgate translation and the English retranslation, none of which I can remember. yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day (Nov 15)
From: Ringer
Date: 15 Nov 99 - 05:32 PM

If you highlight the active verbs of which Jesus is subject (J walked, J talked, J healed, etc) in Mark's Gospel, up to the point where he is handed over in the Garden of Gethsemane they come thick and fast; after this point, they're few & far between and one of these is he "gave up the ghost". Before the transition, J does; after it, he is done to. Is that significant?

Subject: Thought for the Day (Nov 15)
From: Peter T.
Date: 15 Nov 99 - 09:46 AM

One of the most powerful clusters of words in English comes from the Latin passive verb, patior, (patior, pati, passus sum), from which we get the word "passive" -- the root means to endure, to undergo, to have something done to one. Someone who goes into hospital is a patient, someone who has something done to them, and they need patience, because they are seldom in control of what is happening to them.

Passion is in the same cluster: passions are what take us over, over which we have little control (at least in Renaissance theory).Related, but different, in a famous phrase, that no one hears much any more, is "The Passion of Jesus", the last week of Jesus' life, where (as the King James Version puts it), "he suffered these things should happen to him". The phrase "Suffer little children to come unto me," is covering the same ground: Let this happen. Jesus, in the Gospels, sees what is about to happen, and in ritualized form, takes action in a passive sense: he gives himself up for the sacrifice. It is interesting that part of what endears Jesus to the poor is this last week's suffering. He deliberately backs away from taking foreceful action (to the dismay of at least one of his disciples) and so becomes a victim, is chewed up by a bureaucracy, forced to wait around, shuffled, then no one takes real responsibility for his death. Also, there must have been for such a young, active man a kind of humiliation that all active people feel when they are helpless, as when they get sick or old and must be nursed. They need to understand "patiens" -- that part of life where one must entrust oneself to others -- and that can be very hard.
Patior, pati, passus sum. An interesting ecosystem of meaning.