When
I was an English teacher I pushed my adolescent writers to expand their
vocabularies, but sometimes, while trying to impress me, my students would stretch
their word choices beyond their grasp of definitions. They’d use big words, but the wrong big
words.
For
example, sometimes students would confuse the words epithet and epitaph.
An epitaph is “something written or said in
memory of a dead person; especially :
words written on a gravestone.” (Merriam Webster online)
An epithet is a word or phrase, often “an
offensive word or name that is used as a way of abusing or insulting someone” (Merriam Webster online),
as in “a racial epithet.”
In
the Bible, when a prominent character died, Scripture often gave a one verse
summary of his/her life --- an epitaph. Epitaph
not epithet.
But
then, there was King Jehoram of Jerusalem.
The summary of his life is in 2 Chronicles 21:20.
He was
thirty-two years old when he became king. He reigned in Jerusalem eight years
and, to no one’s sorrow, departed.
The
King James Version says that Jehoram died without
being desired. That English phrase
is a single Hebrew word.
Jehoram’s
epitaph is kind of an epithet.
How
sad.
Remember
that other people will bury you. Someone
else will decide what your tombstone says.
Even if you have the stone carved while you’re living, someone else will
still decide.
How
sad it would be for you or I to attain great titles, to gain positions of power
and personal prosperity, and then die “to no one’s sorrow.” To be remembered as an epithet.
Live
daily the verse you want carved on your grave.
Be now the person you want preached in your eulogy.
By
your actions, choose an epitaph that is not an epithet.
Rev.
Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield,
Alabama; executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking
Organization (SAYNO); and director of
rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).
Email atgravestwo2@aol.com
You
can help support Rev. Graves’ work by visiting his personal blog and clicking the DONATE button
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Support
by check or money order may be mailed to
Miles
Chapel CME Church
P O
Box 132
Fairfield,
Al 35064
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