Judeo-Christian

[James A. Landau]

In a message dated Mon, 21 Nov 2005 09:51:09 -0800, Jonathan Lighter
_wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM_ (mailto:wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM)  complains:

>As a tot in the early '50s, my received pronuciation - it could only  have
come from old B->movies on Channel 13's _Western Round-Up_  - was  "ro 'day o."
>
>  At some early date I switched over to "'ro  dee o," I think because other
kids were ridiculing >me. This was many years  before I switched from
"tomahto" to "tomayto," so the ridicule >must have  been frequent and reinforced by
other TV westerns.




I can remember in elementary school (late '50's) discussion on
"RO dee o" versus "ro DAY o".  This was in Louisville Kentucky.   I always
used "RO dee o" and I think so did most of my classmates; I have a  recollection
of somebody (probably a teacher) explaining that "ro DAY o" was a  legitimate
alternate pronunciation.  (For a long time I thought it was not  "ro DAY o"
but rather "ro DALE"). To this day "ro DAY o" (which is the  proper Spanish
pronunciation) still sounds awkward to me.

Taking a look at Volume VII of the Jewish Encyclopedia (New York: Funk and
Wagnalls, 1904) we have page 304 column 2 an entry for "Judaeo-Christians"
(that  is a ligatured a-e, which the JE puts alphabetically after "Judacaria" and
before "Judah"---looking under "Judeo-" I almost missed it).  The entry is  a
cross-reference to "Ebionites" volume V page 31 column 1 "Sect of
Judaeo-Christians [ligatured a-e] of the second to fourth century.  They  believed i the
Messianic character of Jesus, but denied his divinity and  supernatural
origin; observed all the Jewish rites, such as circumcision and the  seventh-day
Sabbath; and used a gospel according to Matthew written in Hebrew or  Aramaic,
while rejecting the writings of Paul as those of an apostate."

(Aside---does anyone else find it wierd to see "gospel" in this context as  a
common noun?)

      - James A. Landau