Friday, May 29, 2009

Traditores

During times of fierce Roman persecution, some Christians wavered and gave up their Holy Scriptures or even other Christians to the authorities. Those who did this were called traditores, from the verb "to hand over."

Andrew Carey has a commentary that suggests a new traditor clique in the church - "chilling" is Carey's word for it.

2 comments:

David Handy+ said...

Thanks for posting the incisive opinion piece by Andrew Carey. If anything, I find the analysis by the son of the former archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, to be understated, in a rather British way.

And that's why I think your choice of a title, Tim+, is very apt. We are indeed likely to see a period of actual persecution come upon the Church rather suddenly, like a thunder storm, perhaps in the not so distant future. And so your use of the term "traditores" is quite appropriate.

Alas, there are indeed many clergy in our day, in TEC and other oldline (ex-mainline) denominations, that have handed over the Bible to our mortal enemies. Not the actual copies of the Scriptures, of course, but they've handed over its authority and acknowledged Caesar (or the culture) as Lord, instead of Jesus Christ.

Lord, have mercy on us all.

TLF+ said...

Thank you, David+. I agree with your last paragraph especially, about the "handing over" of the Scriptural authority . That was one of my first reactions to Carey's piece.