Against ‘Against’: One Hymn’s Indecent Preposition

But I know Whom I have believèd,
And am persuaded that He is able
To keep that which I’ve committed
Unto Him against that day.

-I Know Whom I Have Believed

In the hundred or so times I’ve sung this hymn, I’ve wondered how you can “commit” something “against” a day. Does this preposition indicate that God is keeping/protecting the commitment against the threat of judgment day? Or is “against” an old-fashioned preposition approximating “until”? And is it the keeping that’s against that day, or the commitment?

A comparison of different versions of 2 Timothy 1:12—from which the hymn is taken—supports the “until” interpretation:

 

 

Posted by Nathan Bierma on 05/26 at 03:23 PM

  1. I wonder if “against that day” was even in use by English speakers when the hymn was written. I’m looking more closely these days at many of the hymns we sing. I’m finding that many have phrases which have little, if any, meaning for many people today. Of course, the same is true for wordings in some English Bibles, even ones produced recently. I simply cannot understand why some people prefer to write using vocabulary and grammar from a previous stage of the English language. I *thought* that the purpose of hymns and Bible translations was to communicate truth about God to people in their own language. Sigh! For more of my preaching on this topic, go to my blog.

    I wonder if any English professors teach their English Comp classes to write in English from a previous stage of our language?

    Posted by Wayne Leman  on  05/26  at  08:54 PM

  2. It seems to me that, in the OED, definition A.13 could work well, and so could A.19.  Here’s 13.a: In resistance to, in defence or protection from.; and here’s 19: esp. with some idea of preparation: In view of; in anticipation of, in preparation for, in time for.

    Both definitions were in use in the mid 19th century, and many hymns preferred to use older language instead of contemporary idioms.

    Posted by James Vanden Bosch  on  05/27  at  02:32 PM

  3. It seems to me that, in the OED, definition A.13 could work well, and so could A.19.  Here’s 13.a: In resistance to, in defence or protection from.; and here’s 19: esp. with some idea of preparation: In view of; in anticipation of, in preparation for, in time for.

    Both definitions were in use in the mid 19th century, and many hymns preferred to use older language instead of contemporary idioms.

    Ah, yes, Prof. Vanden Bosch (of Presidential fame! Can I touch you, virtually?!)

    Well, I’m glad that you mention the time frame in which those definitions were in use. Many people forget that definitions in dictionaries are in use relative to some particular time frame or even relative to some social group. I’ve seen members of English Bible version teams justify their use of obsolete language by referring to English dictionaries and pointing out that the word is in the dictionary.

    Oh for a thousand tongues to speak about using current English for current speakers! I think it is also wonderful to study older literature, but never to forget that it is older literature.

    Posted by Wayne Leman  on  05/27  at  04:17 PM

  4. Note the final line of today’s poem from the Writer’s Almanac:

    Poem: “The Enigma We Answer by Living” by Alison Hawthorne Deming from Genius Loci. © Penguin Poets. Reprinted with permission.

    The Enigma We Answer by Living

    Einstein didn’t speak as a child
    waiting till a sentence formed and
    emerged full-blown from his head.

    I do the thing, he later wrote, which
    nature drives me to do. Does a fish
    know the water in which he swims?

    This came up in conversation
    with a man I met by chance,
    friend of a friend of a friend,

    who passed through town carrying
    three specimen boxes of insects
    he’d collected in the Grand Canyon—

    one for mosquitoes, one for honeybees,
    one for butterflies and skippers,
    each lined up in a row, pinned and labeled,

    tiny morphologic differences
    revealing how adaptation
    happened over time. The deeper down

    he hiked, the older the rock
    and the younger
    the strategy for living in that place.

    And in my dining room the universe
    found its way into this man
    bent on cataloguing each innovation,

    though he knows it will all disappear—
    the labels, the skippers, the canyon.
    We agreed then, the old friends and the new,

    that it’s wrong to think people are a thing apart
    from the whole, as if we’d sprung
    from an idea out in space, rather than emerging

    from the sequenced larval mess of creation
    that binds us with the others,
    all playing the endgame of a beautiful planet

    that’s made us want to name
    each thing and try to tell
    its story against the vanishing.

    Posted by James Vanden Bosch  on  06/01  at  09:35 AM

  5. And I forgot to mention that the poem appears in a book published this year—a complicating factor, although it is poetic language.

    Jim

    Posted by James Vanden Bosch  on  06/01  at  09:40 AM

  6. That is a beautiful hymn.

    Posted by Beatles  on  03/31  at  01:00 PM

  7. This is just another reason why I like your website. I like your style of writing you tell your stories without out sending us to five other sites to complete the story.
    Disk encryption software - Powerful encryption software with pre-boot authentication secures 100% of your hard disk drive, including the OS.

    Posted by Disk encryption software  on  04/04  at  10:36 AM
Commenting is not available in this weblog entry.

Next entry: On Language 5/31: Debut of Journal of Politeness Research

Previous entry: Grammatical Agent of Renewal

<< Back to main