A Year Of Humility (III): Definitions The Second

 Last week, as you might remember, we traced the Old English roots of the word we do not use for humility:

"For-ðam aelc þem hine up-ahefð byð genyðerud (ond) se þe hine niðereð se beoð up-ahafen."

- the word in question being genyðerud or niðereð , literally "to make one's self lower".  Yet somehow, this was not the word that made it into English.

For us, luckily, we know from which language the Scriptures were translated in Anglo-Saxon:  Latin.  And we have the Latin original:  "Quia omnis qui sé exaltat humiliabitur et qui sé humiliat exaltabitur." - Literally whoever raises himself up will be brought low, and whoever lowers himself will be lifted up.

The word in question is "humilitas", literally "to humble".  That is the definition in ecclesiastical Latin, and is generally meant in a positive sense, in opposition to pride.  The original definition in Classical Latin - the Latin in which the Scripture was translated - had a much more negative connotation.  It meant "lowness of mind, baseness, meanness".  One who was "humilitas" in Early or Middle Rome would not have been someone that anyone else of class or culture would wanted to emulate.  It was used of slaves or clients or less than desirable people.

But the Latin translation, of course, is based on the Greek.

Again, from Luke 14:11:  "For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted".  In the Greek:“ὅτι πᾶς ὁ ὑψῶν ἑαυτὸν ταπεινωθήσεται καὶ ὁ ταπεινῶν ἑαυτὸν ὑψωθήσεται.“

The keyword here is ταπεινωθήσετα (tapeinotheseta), drawn from the Greek "tapeinophrosunē", which literally means "lowness of mind, humility of mind".  The verb (tapeinoo)  means "to make low" and the adjective (tapeinos) means "of low degree; to be brought low".  

So in a way, the Anglo-Saxons got it right via the Latin.  In each and every case the meaning of the word "Humility" was much more of a physical or mental state that it was a manner of living.

(In case you were wondering, the Hebrew does not get one off the hook either.  There were a couple of words that were used in the Old Testament:

 “kāna’” – To humble to subdue one’s self or enemies (appears 35 times in the OT

“sāpēl” - To be low, to become low (figuratively) (appears 25 times in the OT)

Noun:
“sēpēl” – Low condition, low estate (appears twice in the OT)

Adjective:

“sāpāl” – Low, humble (Isaiah 57:15: “I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble (sāpāl) spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble ( sāpāl), and to revive the heart of the contrite.”)

What is most useful to be emphasized at this point was that humility pre-Christian was not a thing that would have been desired in the Greco-Roman or early Anglo-Saxon society or really in many societies of the day.  Somehow, an undesirable trait - to be low, mean of mind or spirit -somehow went from an undesirable to a desirable.  In a way, that demonstrates the very nature of Christianity:  turning things on their head and making that which was despised glorious.