{"id":2835,"date":"2013-11-19T15:03:09","date_gmt":"2013-11-19T23:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/?p=2835"},"modified":"2013-11-19T15:05:02","modified_gmt":"2013-11-19T23:05:02","slug":"have-you-heard-railings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/2013\/have-you-heard-railings\/","title":{"rendered":"Have You Heard Railings Recently?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-content\/listening-to-railing.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-content\/hearing-railing.jpg\" alt=\"ear up to a stair railing\" style=\"width:500px; height:375px; border:2px solid black\" class=\"aligncenter\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:center; margin-top:-1.2em\"><em>No, not that kind of railing!<\/em><\/p>\n<p>My general impression of the term <i>railing<\/i> has been one that has to do as much with <strong>content<\/strong> as with the <strong>tone and demeanor<\/strong> of the speaker.<\/p>\n<p>The very day after hearing a definition that was milder than the one I&#8217;ve had, I had work-related occasion to check some book sources. Let me show you some of what I found.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-content\/rail-definition.jpg\" alt=\"dictionary defines the verb rail\" style=\"width:500px; height:258px\" class=\"aligncenter\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:center; margin-top:-1.2em\"><em>OK, so it&#8217;s hard to read. See below.<\/em> <!--more--><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Rail<\/strong> (verb)<\/p>\n<ul style=\"margin-top:-1.2em\">\n<li>to complain vehemently about someone or something [<i>McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs<\/i>; copyright 2002]<\/li>\n<li>to utter bitter complaint or vehement denunciation [<i>Dictionary.com Unabridged<\/i>; based on the <i>Random House Dictionary<\/i>; copyright Random House, Inc. 2013]<\/li>\n<li>to express objections or criticisms in bitter, harsh, or abusive language. [<i>The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition<\/i>; copyright 2000 Houghton Mifflin Company; updated 2009]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>To rail isn&#8217;t just to express disagreement or correction. It isn&#8217;t even merely to complain or accuse. To rail <i>can<\/i> be those, <i>if<\/i> they are driven home with <strong>certain tones, attitudes, and dispositions<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>In my research, I came to a milder definition for the noun <i>railing<\/i> in a 1913 Webster&#8217;s dictionary &#8212; &#8220;Expressing reproach; insulting.&#8221; Even it seems to require <strong>a desire and an intent to insult and demean<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>But let&#8217;s go even further back by consulting <i>Strong&#8217;s Concordance<\/i> and its Greek dictionary. (But first, a look at an English definition of <i>vilify<\/i> &#8212; &#8220;To defame; denigrate.&#8221;)<\/p>\n<p>The Greek verb translated <i>railed on<\/i> in Mark 15:29 and Luke 23:39 means &#8220;to vilify&#8221; (and especially &#8220;to speak impiously&#8221;). Here are three other facts about that Greek word<\/p>\n<ul style=\"margin-top:-1.2em\">\n<li>Those two verses in the Gospels are the only verses where it is translated <i>railed on<\/i>.<\/li>\n<li>In ten other places it is translated with some rendition of <i>speak evil of<\/i>.<\/li>\n<li>The other twenty times it&#8217;s used, it is translated using <i>blaspheme<\/i> or a derivative (for example, 1 Timothy 6:1).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>That Greek verb is <i>blasphemeo<\/i>, a very &#8220;sturdy&#8221; word. (See entry 987 in <i>Strong&#8217;s<\/i> Greek dictionary.)<\/p>\n<p>The Greek noun translated <i>railings<\/i> in 1 Timothy 6:4 and <i>railing<\/i> in Jude 9 means &#8220;vilification.&#8221; Here are three additional facts about it:<\/p>\n<ul style=\"margin-top:-1.2em\">\n<li>Those two verses in the Epistles are the only verses where it is translated <i>railing(s)<\/i>.<\/li>\n<li>In one other place (Ephesians 4:31) it is translated <i>evil speaking<\/i>.<\/li>\n<li>The other sixteen times it&#8217;s used, it is translated <i>blasphemy<\/i> or some derivative (for example, Matthew 12:31 and Colossians 3:8).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>That Greek noun is <i>blasphemia<\/i> and, like its verb above, it is very &#8220;sturdy&#8221; word. (See <i>Strong&#8217;s<\/i> 988.)<\/p>\n<p><strong><i>Railing<\/i> is a banned speech pattern for Christians.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I want to be careful that I not speak that way. (I also want to <strong>avoid mislabeling<\/strong> another&#8217;s speech with it.)<\/p>\n<p>Instead of having a harsh, abusive, disrespectful, bitter spirit that froths forth similar words, I want to be&#8230;<\/p>\n<ul style=\"margin-top:-1.2em\">\n<li>compassionate<\/li>\n<li>loving<\/li>\n<li>tenderhearted<\/li>\n<li>courteous<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I want to be a Christian who is true to his calling &#8212; <strong>to be and render blessing<\/strong>. Like this:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous: Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing&#8221; (1 Peter 3:8,9).<\/p>\n<p>I cannot be that and do that, except by <strong>the indwelling Spirit of Christ<\/strong>. My brother and I cannot be &#8220;of one mind&#8221; until we both have the mind of Christ. (Do you think this is a tacked-on paragraph?)<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A banned speech pattern for Christians<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,12],"tags":[993,880,800],"class_list":["post-2835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity-101","category-lessons-for-living","tag-blogging","tag-life-lessons","tag-relationships"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/prJUJ-JJ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2835\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}