Language of Gods

The sheer ubiquity and pre-eminence of Christianity today can often deflect us from truly appreciating its humble and precarious beginnings over two millennia ago, led by just one man, who was neither a political leader nor a religious priest with any semblance of authority or organization. He was a poor, uneducated, and inconspicuous Nazarene man with a common Aramaic name of Yēšûa, meaning “Yahweh is salvation,” which has since been Hellenized, Romanized, Anglicized, and ultimately immortalized as the most ubiquitous, well-known name in the history of mankind: Jesus Christ. But the transformation of his name was a mere metaphor for what the world was about to behold – the most astonishing apotheosis of a besieged Jewish mashiach whose followers were derided as cultists and routinely persecuted as subversives and heretics by their detractors. The courageous and the passionate who dared to challenge establishments have often paid the ultimate price in the name of their faith. But the Christians were not alone in facing, and ultimately overcoming, these adversities.


All contemporary religions, divinely inspired though they may be, are artifacts of great human endeavor and sacrifice. Our heterogeneous cultures and languages wrestled, negotiated and converged to define and shape what were once assumed to be immutable canons of faith. By examining their histories, and in particular the role languages and translations have played in defining them, we can fully appreciate how these religions transcended a myriad of ancient societies and their clashing values and adapted to weather the storms. Their survival is a testament to humanity’s perseverance, tenacity and ingenuity, and just as well, a testament to divinity’s grace, providence and salvation. But regardless of their derivation, the effect of religions is widely acknowledged as one of the great pillars of human civilizations, so their historicity, as much as their spirituality, deserves our impassioned focus and devotion.