Why don't we say "protestor" instead of "protestant?"

[DavidFilmer]

The word “protestant” is German (and French), from the Latin protestantem, meaning “one who protests.”

Why is the word not usually translated as “protestor” in English? That is a better more accurate. Instead, we leave it untranslated, and thus many people don’t understand what the word actually means.

Also, why do we pronounce it PROD-astant instead of protest-ent? This pronunciation further obscures the meaning of the word. (or is that the idea?)

 

[TimothyH]

Let it go.

When their Churches collapse and they come into the Church established by Christ, they will bring many gifts - a zeal for winning souls, a love of scripture, a childlike willingness to Christianize all aspects of their life - things which our Church lacks if you ask me.

Don’t argue semantics. Let it go and pray for them. Pray with them.

-Tim-

 

[grannymh]

The word “protestant” is German (and French), from the Latin protestantem, meaning “one who protests.”

Why is the word not usually translated as “protestor” in English? That is a better more accurate. Instead, we leave it untranslated, and thus many people don’t understand what the word actually means.

Also, why do we pronounce it PROD-astant instead of protest-ent? This pronunciation further obscures the meaning of the word. (or is that the idea?)

I have one Protestant friend who uses protest-ent.

 

[MarkThompson]

The word “protestant” is German (and French), from the Latin protestantem, meaning “one who protests.”

Why is the word not usually translated as “protestor” in English? That is a better more accurate. Instead, we leave it untranslated, and thus many people don’t understand what the word actually means.

Also, why do we pronounce it PROD-astant instead of protest-ent? This pronunciation further obscures the meaning of the word. (or is that the idea?)

This is simply the way the word is formed; no grand conspiracy. Compare disputant (one who disputes; pronounced DIS-pu-tant, not dis-PUT-ant), commandant (one who commands; pronounced com-man-DANT, not com-MAND-ant), confidant (likewise), etc. The word was not “translated” into English, it was adopted into English.

 

[SaintPatrick333]

I have one Protestant friend who uses protest-ent.

All the more reason to pray for your friend as they are actively denying Catholicism and not simply ignorant of it. They are not protected by ignorance. They are dragged down by arrogance.

 

[Battleaxe]

Its no good calling them "protestors". They ceased protesting, as such, before the end of the Sixteenth Century. By that time, theyd established their own totally separate, Pope-rejecting, error-embracing denominations.

They divorced the Church, as convert Steve Wood put it.

 

[Izdaari]

I’m not protesting anything. I have a church tradition. I have no problem with yours, but it isn’t mine…

 

[StrawberryJam]

All the more reason to pray for your friend as they are actively denying Catholicism and not simply ignorant of it. They are not protected by ignorance. They are dragged down by arrogance.

Are you so sure of that? Granny has her ways. They are not your ways, and they may surprise you. She is working with her friend, her friend is in no means dragged down. Not with granny right there.

 

[Mystophilus]

I’m not protesting anything. I have a church tradition. I have no problem with yours, but it isn’t mine…

I would describe myself as “protesting” against the Catholic claim that we should all unite with them, in that I will not unite with them.

Of course, on the same basis, I protest against evangelical atheists, Evangelical fundamentalist Christians, and evangelical Muslims.

 

[SaintPatrick333]

Are you so sure of that? Granny has her ways. They are not your ways, and they may surprise you. She is working with her friend, her friend is in no means dragged down. Not with granny right there.

Well if a persons ways are not God’s ways we ought to exhaust every possible means of bringing them back to Truth. We can’t force them but that doesn’t mean we should wash our hands of them either.

 

[Izdaari]

I would describe myself as “protesting” against the Catholic claim that we should all unite with them, in that I will not unite with them.

Of course, on the same basis, I protest against evangelical atheists, Evangelical fundamentalist Christians, and evangelical Muslims.

Right, I object to all those positions too. But I also object to defining myself by what I’m against instead of what I’m for… which I think is a pretty reasonable and historically defensible version of Christianity.

 

[Battleaxe]

I would describe myself as “protesting” against the Catholic claim that we should all unite with them, in that I will not unite with them.

Right, I object to all those positions too. But I also object to defining myself by what I’m against instead of what I’m for… which I think is a pretty reasonable and historically defensible version of Christianity.

God`s a God of unity, not of division.
Jesus, Himself, prayed to the Father:

I do not pray for these only, but also for those who believe in Me through their word, that they may all be one; even as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be in Us… [John 17:20-21 Revised Standard Version]

The Church says: “Separated Brethren”.

 

[Publisher]

The word “protestant” is German (and French), from the Latin protestantem, meaning “one who protests.”

Why is the word not usually translated as “protestor” in English? That is a better more accurate. Instead, we leave it untranslated, and thus many people don’t understand what the word actually means.

Also, why do we pronounce it PROD-astant instead of protest-ent? This pronunciation further obscures the meaning of the word. (or is that the idea?)

Maybe because the word came into being in Germany at the Diet of Speyer used by those German princes who “protested”…“made public declaration” and denounced the Reformation.

It was used originally as “one who publically declares”…or “one who witnesses publically”…to “pro” = for, “test”= testify/witness". It wasn’t originally used as “protesting the Catholic church”, but to those who “publically declared” their support of the Reformation. “Protest” has taken on a totally differen meaning in modern speach.

 

[RyanBlack]

All the more reason to pray for your friend as they are actively denying Catholicism and not simply ignorant of it. They are not protected by ignorance. They are dragged down by arrogance.

Arrogance can be found–and usually in excessive quantities–anywhere you go–evem among Catholics. At times I’m tempted to say especially among Catholics.

 

[benjohnson]

On balance, I would say using the word “protestor” would be inflammatory for no good reason that I can see. It would be putting up an even sharper barrier.

It also sharpens the idea that some of us split away from a singular church - Lutherans tend to view our church as a continuation so I would rather use words that imply a difference between our churches in prayer-filled hopes that they can be healed in God’s time.

 

[Mystophilus]

Right, I object to all those positions too. But I also object to defining myself by what I’m against instead of what I’m for… which I think is a pretty reasonable and historically defensible version of Christianity.

I do understand, and certainly cannot disagree with your self-description.

For me, it is not that I am “against Catholicism” but that I am against Catholicism-as-defined-by-Rome, and so, when I say that I am “Protestant”, I most particularly mean “not-Orthodox, not-Catholic”. Identity by exclusion is also something which I am given in ethnic terms, and that probably makes it easier for me to accept the same thing in religion.

 

[OriginalJS]

Quick answer: because that’s the way it has come down. It is just a generic term that encompasses non-catholic Christian churches and members.

 

[ephesians2]

All the more reason to pray for your friend as they are actively denying Catholicism and not simply ignorant of it. They are not protected by ignorance. They are dragged down by arrogance.

Dragged down where?

 

[ephesians2]

Maybe because the word came into being in Germany at the Diet of Speyer used by those German princes who “protested”…“made public declaration” and denounced the Reformation.

It was used originally as “one who publically declares”…or “one who witnesses publically”…to “pro” = for, “test”= testify/witness". It wasn’t originally used as “protesting the Catholic church”, but to those who “publically declared” their support of the Reformation. “Protest” has taken on a totally differen meaning in modern speach.

If they “publically declared” their support of the Reformation, then they were “publically declaring” they were against the Roman Catholic church.

 

[robwar]

Let it go.

When their Churches collapse and they come into the Church established by Christ, they will bring many gifts - a zeal for winning souls, a love of scripture, a childlike willingness to Christianize all aspects of their life - things which our Church lacks if you ask me.

Don’t argue semantics. Let it go and pray for them. Pray with them.

-Tim-

great answer Tim!