Categories: christianity, germany, translation
Date: 25 August 2007 15:57:19
The Lödgerin has popped over to visit the Vaterland for the weekend to celebrate a family baptism. This reminded me in a roundabout sort of way of an event which happened many years ago.
My grasp of the German language back then was somewhat tenuous but, undeterred, I opted to go to church in the village in which I was living at the time. I managed to stand and sit in all the right places (not as easy as it sounds because the Germans leap to their feet to pray and stay firmly rooted to the pew to sing. I still can't help but feel this is all wrong). When it came to the sermon, the preacher started talking about John. John the Devil. Who?! I hear you cry. I spent the next ten minutes trying to work out who this character was. Why did the Germans give him a name? Why had they chosen to call him John? Did we have a name for the devil which I had somehow managed to miss? Was it all part of the German Reformation? Was Luther involved? What about German Catholics - did they call the devil John as well?
You can imagine, gentle reader, my mind was a-whirl and by the time I re-tuned into the preacher, I was entirely lost. I couldn't pick up his line of thought or work out what was going on. Until the very end. When all became clear. Lights went on; bells started ringing; verily, I say unto you, darkness became light.
He was in fact talking about John the Baptist. The word for baptist in German is “Täufer”. The word for devil is “Teufel”. The words look different, but those vowels in the middle in both cases are pronounced as a sort of “oy” sound. Say the words quickly without enunciating the final consonant clearly - and you could create a whole new doctrine. Here endeth the lesson. Amen.