literature

Neither Greek nor Jew

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Nordica93's avatar
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Literature Text

I heard St Paul proclaim
In good King James' tongue
How in faith we all are saved
Through the Lord's Anointed One.

And he said there was no
Distinction between the Greek or Jew,
A bondsman or a freeman,
Even male and female too.

And St Paul, he was a wise man.
That I cannot deny,
But the words would write much
Differently, if St Paul were I.

'There is neither black nor white,
Or whatever colour of skin.
Neither is there tall nor short,
Neither fat nor thin.

There is neither Left nor Right.
Straight nor bi nor gay.
Those who believe in God or not,
Those who cannot say.

There is neither Us nor Them,
But only Sister and Brother.
Verily isn't this the way
We ought to see each other?'

Oh St Paul, he was a wise man,
That I still cannot deny.
But I wish the words were different.
I wish St Paul were I.
Because I'm in the mood for more controversy. And yes, I do know that the King James Bible has certain agendas.

Constructive critique plz.
© 2011 - 2024 Nordica93
Comments21
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Silsky101's avatar
I love the poetic flow of this, and agree with what you say. Now, I don't know much about St. Paul, but from what I've read in the comments, I have to agree with Nordica while noting that this is an interesting debate. Should things be taken as written, implying eternal truth? Or should something be taken as a product of its time, and a gist or general message accepted from it? Now, I've translated Latin, and can sight-read some, and I know that direct translations are often jibberish, and that the general meaning is the real result you receive. Anyone who disagrees might find my point more valid with the note that Latin has no word order outside of convention. I take this as good evidence of reason to take the message, but not the direct sentence. I understand the drive to believe that a valid statement remains valid, but as the meanings of words (or their connotations) shift, the sentence does too. So the gist is probably the most intact part.
The other problem tied to saying that things must relate to our time exactly, is that were that the case, what time would it apply to? Since the pattern and flow of dialogue is always shifting, and a text is largely static, it cannot, by its very nature, remain innately accurate.
If I've made any circular arguments or logical fallacies, please let me know.