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To: MarMema; pseudo-justin; OrthodoxPresbyterian; katnip
These are extemely interesting posts. I wish I had more time to read and repsond to them (maybe this weekend), and my time difference doesn't help.

Let me just touch on Marmema's statement:

I think that English is simply a poor language for conveying spiritual things. Russian, Greek, and even Serbian offer us a far greater spiritual treasure.

There were only three liturgical languages in Christianity, as still are, as far as I know: Greek, Latin (which was developed from Greek) and Church Slavonic (constructed from Greek grammatically and alphabetically in the 9th century). These languages have corresponding constructs that are exact equivalents of each other.

Other languages have to use similar words, or words with approximate meaning, they have to qualify the sentences or express concepts in using several less precise expressions together.

As far as Marmema's comment is concerned, Russian and "even" Serbian are one language in the Church (Church Slavonic is the official language). Modern vernacular Serbian is a poor medium for conveying spiritual concepts. Russian, because it has deviated less from the original language, has advantage there, but is still lacking the sophistication of the Church Slavonic.

87 posted on 02/26/2004 1:31:52 PM PST by kosta50
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To: kosta50
Other languages have to use similar words, or words with approximate meaning, they have to qualify the sentences or express concepts in using several less precise expressions together.

And this is what happens when you attempt to translate many beautiful Russian spiritual concepts into English.
Oh and I wasn't referring to the liturgy. I do love Slavonic though. I think the Trisagion in particular is much prettier in Slavonic. I suppose that is only because it flows so much more easily in Slavonic, not because the translation is lacking.

90 posted on 02/26/2004 5:03:01 PM PST by MarMema
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