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from the rooftops shout it out
Oct. 1st, 2007 10:31 amthe subject line is quoted from a catchy but forgettable song by the genuinely forgotten British group Republica. But the cliché that is paraphrased is one that has probably stayed in the language because of the King James translators of the Gospels, regardless of how many Elizabethan writers may have used the expression.
I bring this up because it interests me that none of my readership who commented on my previous post cross-cited the correct New Testament passages, which are indeed in the synoptic Gospels, and nobody noted that the same passage appears in the Gospel of Thomas essentially unchanged, which is particularly unusual since the admonition is to announce from the rooftops what you hear spoken into your ear. The darkness and light half of the saying is missing from Thomas.
Not surprised I garbled the lines slightly, but I am surprised that years of Sunday School memorization didn't stick with more people. If those who were forced to attend for their entire chioldhood and adolescence don't have the comparative passages leap to mind, G. Steiner's observation that the loss of generations of literary touchstones has an impact on the reading of English-language literature seems particularly apropos. (G.S., who presumably did not study the New Testament in his Jewish childhood, is of many different minds regarding The Book and its impact, but it is unfortunate that the Bible and English Literature is a topic that cannot be taught in America without the illicit importation of nineteenth century Protestant theology. Although there is a case to be made for a survey course on Protestant Theology and American Literature, so that folks who were not raised on Calvinism will have some idea what the hell it is that so many writers rebelled against.)
I bring this up because it interests me that none of my readership who commented on my previous post cross-cited the correct New Testament passages, which are indeed in the synoptic Gospels, and nobody noted that the same passage appears in the Gospel of Thomas essentially unchanged, which is particularly unusual since the admonition is to announce from the rooftops what you hear spoken into your ear. The darkness and light half of the saying is missing from Thomas.
Not surprised I garbled the lines slightly, but I am surprised that years of Sunday School memorization didn't stick with more people. If those who were forced to attend for their entire chioldhood and adolescence don't have the comparative passages leap to mind, G. Steiner's observation that the loss of generations of literary touchstones has an impact on the reading of English-language literature seems particularly apropos. (G.S., who presumably did not study the New Testament in his Jewish childhood, is of many different minds regarding The Book and its impact, but it is unfortunate that the Bible and English Literature is a topic that cannot be taught in America without the illicit importation of nineteenth century Protestant theology. Although there is a case to be made for a survey course on Protestant Theology and American Literature, so that folks who were not raised on Calvinism will have some idea what the hell it is that so many writers rebelled against.)
