medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
After reading Dennis Martin's remarks on the use of Greek for part of
the papal mass, I wrote a friend, John Williams, professor emeritus
of religious studies at the College of William and Mary and frequent
participant in Islamic/Christian dialogue for his take on the
question. I send his reply below since it may be as useful for
others as it was for me.
Susan Kerr
"There was a reason why Greek at the funeral of the "Ecumenical Patriarch"
was profoundly appropriate, even beyond the good reason advanced by Dennis
Martin.
"Christianity was revealed in Greek. It was preached in Greek. It was
liturgized in Greek, all over the Mediterranean world. It is recently even
questioned whether Jesus knew only Aramaic: Nazareth was almost the suburb
of a Greek speaking city, Sepphoris, built by the Herods and uncovered only
in recent times. Greeks and Semites lived in symbiosis in this area, and
surely learned something of each other's languages. Greek, not Latin, was
the language of the Roman empire everywhere but in North Africa, Gaul, and
other but not all parts of western Europe. Paul and Peter travelled in the
Mediterranean world preaching in Greek. The Christian scriptures were read
in Greek. It was the only liturgical language in Rome for over a century,
and the Latin vernacular began to be used in some churches only well into
the 2cd C. As late as Gregory the Great (590-604),whose liturgy is well
documented, Greek was a strong component of the Roman mass. As the first
missionary pope, he probably expanded the use of Latin in the West,
especially in Britain. Our vestige from those Hellenophone times in the
Roman liturgy is the Kyrie eleison. There was once much more Greek, but by
the 7th C knowledge of Greek, and even of decent Latin, was breaking down.
Church authorities had to have a "universal" tongue, and during the 7th C,
Greek was no longer the best candidate: Dark Ages.
"Elsewhere in the Patriarchates, it was the same story. There is a big Greek
component in the Coptic liturgy, the Syriac liturgy, and originally in the
Armenian liturgy. In Jerusalem, Antioch, and the cities of the Near East,
Greek liturgies prevailed. The vernacular began to be used only in
villages, and quite late. It wasn't until the 3rd C. in many areas that
people thought it necessary to begin translating protions of the New
Testament into native languages (it began a bit earlier in North Africa,
where Greek had never had a very strong foothold).
"So you see, Christianity really started out with a Greek revelation, and a
Greek preaching. The Latin Church in the middle ages hated to remember
that, I think, but elsewhere in the Christian world, the memory was strong.
Altogether fitting and proper for the papal funeral to include a Greek
component. No other Eastern language, or Slavic, could claim such priority.
"(Parenthetically, our big Latin parish here was so impressed by the Greek
part of the liturgy, which took place at the incensing of the coffin, that
the pastor had our Fr Ron and Deacon come to do the same at the parish
funeral liturgy for the pope.) I did not see it, but am told it was done by
the Greek Catholic patriarch of Antioch--Patriarch Grigorios, I believe he
prefers to be called. By right, he take precedence over the other eastern
patriarchs if pushing comes to shoving.
"If al-Jazeera was broadcasting the funeral, be quite sure that plenty of
Arabs saw it and heard. I hope the prayers were translated, but I don't
know."
John Williams of Williamsburg, VA, writing Susan Kerr on 4/10/2005
quoted with permission
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