What’s in a name?
30-Jan-2010

One thing is sure in the Judeo-Christian tradition: we are not at
liberty to call God by whatever name we choose. God has names which he
has revealed to us, names by which he is to be designated. None of
those names include ‘sharp God’ or ‘snake God’ which are the two
possible translations of ‘kalougata’ - the Fijian name for God in
extant translations of the Fijian Bible.

Sir James Ah Koy has forcefully argued that kalougata means ‘snake
god’ and this is an insult to God and a curse to the Fijian people
since it is the enemy of God, the Serpent, the Devil, Satan, who is a
snake god, not God himself.

Apologists have attempted to refute Sir James by asserting that
kalougata has actually come to mean ‘sharp god’ and therefore no curse
on the Fijian people applies.

But we would assert that nowhere in the ancient Hebrew is God referred
to as a ‘sharp God’, nowhere does he call himself by that name.

God is described as strong God, a powerful, God, a mighty God, but
never a sharp God. He may be qualified further as a merciful God, a
loving or compassionate God, even a jealous God, but never a sharp
God.

Sharp, in the Bible, describes arrows, swords, mouths and knives, but
never God.

Sharp is also Biblically descriptive of stones, razors, teeth, iron,
sickles, and even eyes, but never God.

It may also refer to axes, tongues and anger, but never God.

In other words, there is no Biblical warrant for calling God a ‘sharp
God’, neither do we have Biblical permission or rights to give him
that name.

Indeed, we are expressly ordained by God to worship him by his true
names or else we violate the third of the big Ten Commandments which
forbids taking his name ‘in vain’. The fifth of the Ten Commandments
more positively orders us to ‘honour’ our father and mother.

Sir James Ah Koy not only takes those commandments especially
seriously, he has put his mind and money behind his mouth by
commissioning the publication of an altered version of the Bible – the
first wholly Bauan translation and interpretation of the Bible – that
gives God, our heavenly Father his proper honour by referring to him
as he is to be referred to.

Hence, there is no more kalougata or its derivatives in the Ah Koy
funded, New Fijian Bible which has come to completion and will soon be
published online for readers to judge and appreciate.

There is no reference to God as sharp or snake. Rather he is given his
proper titles.

We applaud this revisionism. It seeks to correct a historical gloss.

It is an alteration for accuracy and respect.

Sir James goes further and asserts that the effect of this linguistic
revision will be the lifting of a curse placed upon the Fijian people
by their inadvertent dereliction of duty in regard to calling God what
he has chosen to be called, and Fijian worshippers ignoring what God
orders us to call him.

Sir James may well be right; at the very least he is entitled to this
point of view.

Whether we agree with his corollary to the thesis or not, one thing is
for sure – we are no more entitled to call God what we like any more
than we are entitled to call each other what we like.

Names are sacred self-disclosures. To unilaterally call others, and
God, whatever we choose is a form of swearing.

In the ancient world, names were a blessing – we were blessed by being
given a name.

To expect God’s blessing while we call him something other than what
he has called himself is hardly blessing God. In fact, it renders
hollow our petitions for his blessing.

The New Fijian Bible is a Christian contrition whose time has come.