Thursday, December 1, 2011

Know Your Nomenclature

Some commonly mistaken terminology in theological statements and discussions:

Tenets are beliefs. Tenants are people who live in a building.

Armenians are people from Armenia. Arminians are people who somehow identify with the free-will theology of Jacobus Arminius.

Calvin is the man's name, so it's Calvinist or Calvinism. No idea who Calvan is or what Calvanism is.

Crucifixion, not crucifiction. That's a not unimportant distinction.

It's the book of Revelation singular, not Revelations plural.

When I started this post, I knew there were a bunch more but now I can't remember them. What more am I missing?

13 comments:

Gabe said...

Calvary is where Jesus died. Cavalry were horsemen.

Jesus didn't ride with Custer.

Anonymous said...

These are good.

Another one, when referring to one of the Psalms it is Psalm 23, not Psalms 23.

Jared said...

Yes! Good one I had forgotten.

Also:
prostrate = flat
prostate = er, ask your doctor

Jason Kanz said...

When referring to a single psalm (e.g., 51) it is Psalm 51, not Psalms 51.

The word biblical is not capitalized, unless it is at the beginning of a sentence. Bible is capitalized, however.

Reformed theology and Calvinism share significant overlap with one another, but they are not identical entities.

Matthew Johnson said...

There is no "t" at the end of "hearse". If I've heard that at one funeral, I've heard it at a thousand.

For paedobaptists: Christening and baptizing are not the same.

Shauna said...

I see a surprising number of people who say defiantly when they mean definitely. Also peak when they mean pique.

Jason Kanz said...

How about when people say, "that's the gospel" or "that's the gospel truth", when it actually has nothing to do with the Gospel.

I will admit one of my pet-peeves (on a side note, I've always wanted to name a dog "peeve" so I could say "this is my pet peeve") is how people have minimized the word "awesome". We describe cheeseburgers and television shows as awesome so that when we refer to God as "awesome", the word is stripped of it's meaning. I wrote about this a couple of years ago on my blog.

http://docsdining.blogspot.com/2009/10/choose-your-words-carefully.html

Bill Kinnon said...

"somehow identify"?? Why, it's by our free will, of course. :-)

Wenatchee the Hatchet said...

There is no "Book of Revelations", there's the revelation from Jesus Christ given to John.

Matt S. said...

"I'm a complimentarian." It should be "complementarian."

"Complement" refers to balancing something out (hence "complementarianism"). A "compliment," on the other hand, is something nice you say to someone.

Keith said...

Here's one associated with this season:
The Bible does not say how many wise men visited the young Jesus, only that there were three gifts.

And my pet peeve: "Comprise" is not synonymous to "compose."

G. Cobb said...

How about this? "She poured over the book." (wrong) instead of "She pored over the book." Unfortunately, that's an error I've seen exclusively in Christian books & publications.

Or saying, "That begs the question…" when what is really meant is "That raises the question…"

David said...

"It's a mute point." "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

Mute (adj)
unable to speak : lacking the power of speech

Moot (adj)
deprived of practical significance : made abstract or purely academic

I probably see "begs the question" (already mentioned) more often than any other. To beg the question is to argue from the conclusion.