What's In A Name?

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose

By any other name would smell as sweet." 

--Juliet, from Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, Act II, Scene ii, verses 1-2

This morning I read a short blurb on the NPR website entitled New Bible Updates Language; 'Booty' Falls By Wayside. Apparently the Old Testament is getting a language upgrade in the next edition of the New American Bible: "booty" and "virgin" are falling by the wayside in favor of "spoils of war" and "young woman." Other old-time-religion favorites didn't fall victim to the editor's red pen, however--"he" will still be the preferred pronoun reference for God, traditional die-hards will no doubt be pleased to know. 

Does it make a difference whether we use "booty" or "spoils of war" to describe plunder (which is that to which both terms refer)? I suppose it depends on the reader. 

This reader thinks language is important, but for different reasons. I still prefer my New Jerusalem Bible translation, as well as my New King James Version (NKJV) to the more modern translations, because there is a kind of poetry in those books that gets at the original writers'/translators' interpretation, from the points of view within the times and locales in which they did the writing. 

This is important to me, because I do not read the Bible from a "this is God's word, delivered point-to-point directly from Heaven, conveniently shrink-wrapped, to bookstores everywhere on Earth" point of view. I read the Bible as a collection of sacred stories passed down from generation to generation of ancient humans, no doubt orally at first, until it was finally written down (at which point it ceased to evolve and keep up with the Universe as we understand it today).

These stories are important to me, because they help me to understand where we humans have been, and that the same questions and problems which confront me every day are not as insurmountable as I can sometimes make them out to be. Reading the Bible reminds me that others who have gone before me were faced with the same moral and ethical dilemmas, and questions of identity which I am continuously sorting out. This is a great comfort to me because the stories remind me that I am not alone in the Universe; there are forces at work greater than me which have guided humankind and all living things through millions of years of evolution. It is also a comfort to me to know that I am not the first person to make the kinds of mistakes that humans are so particularly prone to making, and that others have made those same mistakes, learned from them, and gotten on with their lives, which reminds me that redemption is possible for me, too. 

So, for whatever reason you may read the Bible, if "spoils of war" works better for you than "booty," and if "young woman" works better for you than "virgin," then good for you--the The New American Bible is probably the right book for you. But I'll stick with my antiquated New Jerusalem Bible and New King James Version for the poetry of the human experience. It's all the same to the Universe, anyhow.