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| 蜈蚣 - wú gōng : centipede |
#蜈蚣 - wú gōng : centipede|
#无公 - wú gōng : without husband
#老公 - lǎo gōng : husband
We saw a gorgeous
centipede on the hiking trail. I picked it up to show it to my Wifey, and
asked, "Darling, what do you call a centipede in Chinese?"
She said, 蜈蚣.
I exclaimed, "Huh, 无公!
Why is it called 'without husband'? What a funny name! Are they all widows?
She explained,
"No, don't be silly; they are different words with the same
pronunciation."
See, how important
it is to know the sense from the sound!
Let me give you a
simple example.
"Whosoever
believeth... have everlasting life" is a DESCRIPTION of the believing
ones, they have everlasting life. But so many, afflicted by the dreadful disease of soundbytitis, understand it as a PRESCRIPTION
of what the spiritually dead must do in order to get everlasting life.
John 3:16 KJT
"For God so loved the
world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Still don't
understand? I will make it simpler still.
"Whosoever eats
has life" is a description of the eating ones, they have life. No sane
mind would understand that as a prescription for the dead, i.e. what the dead
must do to get life.
Soundbytitis is a
dreadful disease; it hinders the mind from discerning the sense of what's read
or heard.
"The most
difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not
formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to
the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already,
without a shadow of doubt, what is laid before him." - Leo Tolstoy –
