Sacred tongues: Religion's complex relationship to traditional language

Adonai. Allah. Deus. Theos.

There are hundreds of names for God across religions and languages.

The sacred texts and liturgies of certain faith communities remain rooted in their traditional language.

In Judaism and Islam, the holy books are viewed as God’s spoken word: The first five books of the Hebrew Bible are believed to be straight from Moses, and the Qur’an is believed to be dictated by the archangel Gabriel, explained Peter Feldmeier, a religious studies professor at the University of Toledo.

However, Christianity has never historically understood the Bible as God’s literal speaking, he said, so it was more important that the text could be understood in believers’ native tongue.

“Of course, the patristic church fathers valued the original languages, since understanding the text would be potentially more precise or clear,” Feldmeier added. “But this was the job of scholars and highly educated bishops.”

Ido Rottem, an Israeli-American who teaches Hebrew to both children and adults at Temple Shomer Emunim in Sylvania, said the Torah continues to be read in Hebrew as a way to keep the tradition.

Certain words will be written differently in the Torah than they are in everyday Hebrew, he added. “We try to keep this so we have some roots to the old ways.”

Safia Ahmad, a former Arabic teacher at the Ahlul Bayt Center of Toledo, referred to Arabic as the mother tongue of Islam.

“We pray at home in Arabic, the prayers [are] in Arabic, publications [are] in Arabic, the Qur’an [is] in Arabic, our Prophet Muhammad had a lot of narrations — all of them in Arabic,” she said.

Kathy Williams, who teaches a Latin class at St. Joseph Catholic Church in downtown Toledo, which celebrates the traditional Latin Mass, explained that historically, many religions had a sacred language.

“The early Hebrews, they had a language that was set apart from the vernacular because you would never want to address the divine with common language,” she said. “All the priests had a language that the people didn't understand, even sometimes the priest didn't understand, but it was a language that was reserved solely for the purpose of worship.”

Compared to classical Latin, she said ecclesiastical Latin uses different pronunciations and sounds more beautiful.

Divine Liturgies at Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Cathedral also use an ancient form of Greek, but teaches its students modern Greek more for the culture than for the faith.

It’s easy for members to grow up hearing certain prayers and hymns in Greek but not knowing what they mean, said Joyce Anagnos, who helps her mom, Dawn Anagnos, lead Holy Trinity’s Greek school. So, it’s important to offer a way for them to learn the language.

Passing down knowledge

Dawn Anagnos has been teaching Greek to Toledo parishioners for 51 years. Since the pandemic, the class has been held over Zoom, which allows people from across the country to participate, her daughter said. With only a handful of students for each level, including an adult class, Anagnos leads interactive lessons to help people read, write, and speak Greek.

Jewish youths have the opportunity to learn Hebrew alongside religious aspects of Judaism. They start Hebrew school around fourth grade to prepare for their bar or bat mitzvahs, during which they read from the Torah at age 13.

In a recent class, Rottem led a group in a game of Hangman; students guessed Hebrew letters to uncover the four-letter Hebrew word for pizza. They then joined Rabbi Lisa Delson and other classes in the chapel to learn about and sing Jewish prayers.

Rottem began helping with Hebrew school after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel. He also launched a beginners class for adults, ranging from their 20s to their 70s.

“I came to this conclusion that I have to do something,” the native Hebrew speaker said. “I cannot do much, but I can help the Jewish community here. ... I have the language. I can teach them.”

Williams started the Latin class a few years ago to help St. Joseph parishioners better understand the language of their liturgy as well as to deepen their understanding of the Mass and history of the Catholic Church. Around two dozen attend each month, she said, adding that she hopes to offer additional classes for children and new beginners.

She teaches the language as any language would be taught, but uses them in the context of prayers of the Latin Mass.

“Latin, being a ‘dead language,’ is no longer able to change its meaning,” Williams said. “So the meaning of words that the popes through the ages have specifically chosen to teach the faithful in their encyclicals, in the different writings of the church, they have all been written with a specific doctrine in mind and the meaning of those words in the 1500s or the 1100s or even 35 A.D., they're all the same as they are today.”

Ahmad also noted that knowing the original language of the text and prayers allows for an increased and more accurate understanding of the tradition.

“The Qur’an, the holy book, is in Arabic. So if someone doesn't know how to read in Arabic, they cannot read the Qur’an. And if they don't understand Arabic, they won't understand the Qur’an,” she said. “Even if we translate them to English or another language, it won't be the same exact meaning.”