"One of the ways that language is fuller and richer in liturgy is through the use of older language. In fact, from the time of Christ to the present, churches have tended to worship in language that is older than what is spoken in everyday settings. Early Christians who heard the Psalms in Hebrew would have heard a classical form of the language. Saint Augustine preached from Greek versions of the Old Testament that were hundreds of years old. Saint Jerome’s translation of the Bible into Latin, called the Vulgate, was not consciously archaic when produced. But it certainly became so during its use ov... blog.angloromanticism.org

@jonah I appreciate that. At least for me, the King James is more memorable, too.

@jonah Excellent. This is the part of me that most considers itself “conservative.” Similar, from Anna Kamiemska: “I’m slowly relinquishing my claims in linguistic matters, though, and I humbly return to faith and to humility, since these are word-vessels so saturated with content through ages of thought and use that to abandon them would be the act of a heedless parvenu.”

@ReaderJohn "archaic" language is also helpful in that it has a fixed point of meaning: readable & translatable. it resists the swift slang changes (revision every 20 years). ESV decided on rolling revisions to the text, so that there's 2001, 2007, 2011, 2016, and another forthcoming

@jonah This is the biggest issue for me. There are benefits to correcting mistranslations and changing words whose meanings have changed, but it requires a more careful restraint than anyone seems to have, and in practice the decision to allow any change just opens the floodgates.

@dwalbert The Romanian Orthodox Church, I'm told, has a good practice: every 50 years the service books are reviewed and edited as needed (No content changes, just adjustment for changes in the language). And the job is assigned to monastics NOT academics.

@JohnBrady That sounds perfect, both halves. When you wait too long to change things there’s too much pent up energy, and if monastics don’t have the discipline to make the changes with appropriate moderation, no one will.

@JohnBrady Is this the sort of thing they did with the Psalter book you recommended? Arrived in the mail the other day. Thanks again

@tinyroofnail I think it's mostly an effort to standardize usage within the OCA (Orthodox Church in America), especially in liturgical publications. There's a good intro in the book, explaining/defending their process. I've been using it regularly and like it very well.

@marmanold I am unaware of a singular good apology for it (but I am looking), but an associate forwarded me this: open.substack.com/pub/bencr...