Thursday, May 21, 2015

Incidentally

Since we're in the general mode of "hunt the snark and kill it",

Whatever the scribes' intentions, there has been a tiny noise (a "ping", perhaps? or a twig snapping?) that in Gaudium et Spes the Two Greatest Commandments are quoted as one single commandment of two prongs, and that since that time in various Documents of lesser weight, similar citations even-less-careful are made (for instance, omitting the Greatest); I'm quite sure this, in itself, is Not A Big Problem — firstly because there is no indication that the scribe intended to propose error as such, secondly because there is as yet no indication that anyone wishing to teach error in this matter either uses or refers to (or even reads) G et S, and lastly because to absolutely fix this it would suffice to publish an updated version of G et S using a plural, with an annotation on the earlier version. This is also, incidentally, why modern official texts are littered with footnotes: so the reader can go back and check what's up with whatever --- also one of the many indications that I'm not an official of any sort.

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