Didache 12:5

Alex / Ali alexali at surf.net.au
Tue Feb 22 07:36:41 EST 2000


Bart D. Ehrman  asked "What do you think of "Christmonger" for XRISTEMPOROS?
Too unusual?  (the Greek too is a neologism)  Will people get it?"

Bart's question and the various responses made for interesting reading when
I looked through my daily digest.  As another suggestion, perhaps gloss as
'he is merely/dishonestly/fraudulently trading on Christ's name'.  But I
don't think 'Christmonger' would be too unusual or obscure for those of us
over here in Australia.  On the other hand, to my mind the immediate
resonance is with 'war-monger' which now seems rather cliched,  and the
sound of 'fish-monger' and the like is somewhat archaic (as Maurice
O'Sullivan noted with regard to "ironmonger");  so I agree with Jeffrey
Gibson that it may not have as strong a pejorative tone as might be desired.

Alex Hopkins (Melbourne, Australia)




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