Friday 26 June 2009

Biblical Illiteracy Is Not Just About Big Words


I have a son who thinks he is the world's best speller. It's actually become a family joke just how bad his spelling is though. In his 5th year of Elementary School, he couldn't see the irony of how he had labelled his Spelling Workbook - "Speeling". Even now, at pre-tertiary level, Tiger (my son) still can't spell. I have to read and re-read what he has written in order to figure out what the correct spelling should be and this discover what he is actually trying to say.

Every good English teacher will tell his students, "Don't use a big word when a small word will do." Similarly, they will teach their students to write concisely - don't use a lot of words when you can say the same thing with just a few.* But sometimes it is a big word that is both simple and concise. This is especially so if the big word is unequivocal (it can only mean one thing). Scripture very carefully uses such big words. Let's look at four of these and then we'll conclude with Christianity's biggest word...[more]

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