Quick question. How do you pronounce the New Testament name Didymus, John 20:24? My dad has a reading coming up Sunday and neither of us knows how to pronounce the name.
I'm guessing (hahahahaha!) that it's DID - ih - muss.
Thanks for your elucidation.
Good Book regards,
WordWondering
I'm guessing that it's DID - ih - muss.
Sounds about right to me. But, in any case, as long as your dad says it with authority and conviction, most everybody will believe he's saying it correctly.
"Oh, so that's how you pronounce it!"
I've got a pair of epididymides, sadly atrophic now. Never heard of Didymus. But without the 'epi' he could not have been "on the ball".
I've got a pair of epididymides, sadly atrophic now.
Bill, only you!
Balls regards,
WildWind
Whether it's DID-ih-mus or did-EYE-mus doesn't make a vas deferens to most people.
di-de-mus
Dear Wordwind: You will get much better advice on how to pronounce this name than poor Moss can ever provide (in a month full of Sunday readings), but, pray tell, Wordwind, who is Didymus and why should we remember him?
Dear Moss,
I'm taking a blind stab and will look it up in the scripture, but I think Didymus is one of the Twelve. I'll come back later and let you know whether my failing memory is correct this time!
Good Book regards,
WordWeird
Didymus is one of the Twelve.
Not as Didymus.. but he might have had two name, (St Peter was Simon Peter, and called Peter to distingish him for St Simon.) just as there were 2 James, (one being the lessor son of(????)senior moment-- of Zebedi?)
i can't name all twelve all the top of my head--I bet WOW could!-- but i'd recognize the names and didymus isn't one of them.
Didymus might be one of the Thomases. Why don't I just go look this up!!!!????
DubDidymus
FWIW: I can't find the name Didymus in the passage listed anywhere.
I just got off my duff and looked it up. Here's the passage (John 20:24):
But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came.
Well, how do you like that! Didymus is the name of Doubting Thomas! Doubting Didymus Thomas or Didymus Doubting Thomas, take your pick!
Best regards,
WordWonders
Dear Wordwind: Here is a URL about your boy. It confuses me, see what you make of it.
http://members.aol.com/didymus5/
But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came.
Well, my version reads almost the same:
But Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came.
Does this mean that Thomas = Didymus but Didymus = Twin ?
Dear wwh and Angel,
In Bill's link, there's the term "Twin" again--but this is the first time I've heard of his forbidden writings--or of the three wicked disciples. The Mani???
But it appears that the name Didymus means "twin"--at least that--and this Thomas Didymus (the twin) has been attributed with some writings. I wonder where his writings are taught???
The plot thickens...
Best regards,
DubDub
First there's Thomas the Tank Engine, now Thomas the Twin. Didymus does mean "The Twin". I used to see the name written as "Thomas Adidymus", but perhaps it was put that way just because of the euphony.
There is some doubt over why he was called the twin, and who the twin in the frame actually was. Some said it was Jesus, that they were like brothers. Others say that he was Matthew's twin brother. I guess record-keeping and organisation wasn't one of the main preoccupations of the leaders of the early Christian church. Most of them were too busy dodging Nero's pogrom.
Myself I don't believe any of them actually existed and that they are rather allegorical figures, so I'm not taking sides!
neither of us knows how to pronounce the name.
Your guess is correct (IL'dIU).
DID-ih-muss.
And guess who the twins are that are capped with epididymides.
Thanks, Faldage. I'll pass on your authority to my dad.
WW
Isn't "didymus" what one calls little mice in baby talk?
stales
What about the possibility that it was simply his customary designation, that he had a twin, not of The Twelve, and had acquired "Didymus" as a distinguishing appellation before running into Jesus? After all, it seems like most of the twelve had designations other than their given names, and I imagine such distinguishing tags were very necessary in the days before family names became commonplace.
Your guess is literally as good as mine, Max. It's a translation from the Hebrew or Aramaic or whatever damned language they used to write the original gospels anyway. You'd need to go back to the original manuscript to confirm that "Didymus" is actually the correct translation into Greek of whatever vowel-less Hebrew/Aramaic adjective was used in the first place. It could have been the Hebrew word for "plonker" for all we know now.
In reply to:
And guess who the twins are that are capped with epididymides.
From http://www.bartleby.com/61/73/E0177300.htm:
Greek epididumis : epi-, epi- + didumoi, twins, testicles, pl. of didumos, double; see dwo- in Appendix I.
So, the epididymides sit "upon the twins." Quite pithy, although my favorite translation of anatomical Latin remains the august-sounding "foramen magnum," which in English is merely "big hole." "Dura mater" is a funny one, too. I think it must have been originally described by somebody who lived in the projects: "tough mother."
years ago, a Metropolitan diary comment in the NY times, mentioned a couple with opposite tastes, he like sports, she the arts.. but the settle on an name for their dog in no time Joe Green-- the friend could understand why he liked it.. (Joe Green played football at the time) but why did she like it? -- easy, Guissepe Verdi!
Dear of troy: it was so long ago that I hesitate to assert it as fact, but my recollection is that Jesus gave Peter that name, joking "On this rock I will found my church."
Now, now Cap. The New Testament is not as much of a fairy tale, or collection of myths, or exemplar of ancient propaganda as the atheists and agnostics of the world would make it out to be. Indeed, as scholarship keep working away, more and more evidence of the historical reliability of the Gospels and the book of Acts comes to light. Not, of course, that the writers did not employ some practices which were standard at the time but that modern historians deplore.
Anyway, may I politely and unjudgmentally suggest that you would do well to inform yourself better about a subject or a text before you knock it in casual dismissiveness?
Even a cursory study of the Gospels and Acts, the historical books of the NT, would inform you that there were two sets of brothers among the 12 disciples -- Andrew and Simon, called Peter; and James and John the sons of Zebedee. Thomas was nicknamed 'Didymus' presumably because he was a twin, but nothing is said about this sibling, not even if his twin was a brother or a sister. Thomas obtained the nickname 'Doubting Thomas' from the scripture passage cited in the first post in this thread and this became a byword for one who unreasonably refuses to believe what he is told until confronted by unassailable evidence.
An interesting point for you, Jazzo -- on the roof of the cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris, there are statues of the Apostles. All are looking at Jesus except Thomas.
Anyway, may I politely and unjudgmentally suggest that you would do well to inform yourself better about a subject or a text before you knock it in casual dismissiveness?
In the 20 years-odd since I studied Phenomenology of Religion I've seen little to suggest that the "scholars" have managed to find the original texts. I must admit an interest in the contents of the Dead Sea scrolls, but the gospels? You would only convince me of their authenticity and accuracy if you presented them to me with the ink still wet and the wretch who wrote them attached!
I'm not saying that some - or even most - of the events didn't happen in some form or other. I just don't believe that the characters named were ever extant in the forms described. Or even that the ascribed authors were, in fact, the actual authors.
Scholarship has its limits. Beyond that it's a matter of belief.