Folia Theologica 17. (2006)

Uwe Michael Lang: Early Christian Latin as a Liturgical Language

EARLY CHRISTIAN LATIN AS A LITURGICAL LANGUAGE 131

ing Christians coined the neologism salvator. Salvator became a current term only by the late fourth century, and even then, Christian authors showed some reserve towards it. Augustine, in his early Cassiciacum dialogue De beata vita, uses liberator, a classical term sometimes applied to Jupiter.12 In his treatise De fide et symbolo, dating from the year 392, we find the term reparator, a word with a pagan connotation.13 It obviously took a while for the educated rhetorician Augustine to accept the Christian neologism. He probably remembered the advice of Julius Caesar, as transmitted by Aulus Gellius: 'avoid a strange and unfamiliar word as you would a dangerous reef'.14 In one of his later sermons, Augustine explains the expression 'Christ Jesus', which is so often found in the letters of the Apostle Paul, as follows:

'Christ Jesus', he says, that is, 'Christ the Saviour' (salvator). For this is Jesus in Latin. Let not grammarians seek for what is proper Latin, but let Christians seek for what is true. For 'salus' is a Latin word. 'Salvare' and 'salvator' were not Latin (words) until the Saviour (salvator) came; when he came to the Latins he made those (words) Latin too.15 16

By then, Augustine had obviously made his peace with the neologisms, but it is worth noting that he still feels the need to explain them; he gives a similar explanation in book thirteen of his De

Trinitate,u

12 Augustine, De beala vita, 36; see also Contra Fortunatum 2 (dated 392); however, here one could argue that it is actually his adversary who uses the term.

13 Augustine, De fide et symbolo, 6.

14 Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae 1,10,4: habe semper in memoria atque in pectore, ut tanquam scopulum sic fugias inauditum atque insolens verbum.

15 Augustine, Sermo 299,6: Christus inquit Jesus, id est Christus salvator, Hoc est enim latine Jesus. Nec quaerant grammatici quam sit latinam, sed Christiani quam verum. Salus enim latinum nomen est. Salvare et Salvator non fuerunt haec latina antequam veniret Salvator : quando ad latinos venit, et haec latina fecit.

16 Augustine, De Trinitate 13,10,34: qui est hebraice Jesus, graece atOTrip, nostra autem locutione salvator: quod verbum latina lingua antea non habebat, sed habere poterat, sicut potuit, quando voluit. Cf. C. MOHRMANN, ‘Comment saint Augustin s’est familiarisé avec le latin des chrétiens’, Tome /, pp. 383-389 (originally published in: Augustinus Magister I. Congrès Interna-