[sword-devel] A Theological Question

DM Smith dmsmith at crosswire.org
Tue Jun 9 09:37:11 MST 2009


Ted Janiszewski wrote:
> Here's a question not entirely clear in the current OSIS manual that 
> has been bothering me:
>
> Given the use of <name type="person">, <name type="nonhuman">, and 
> <divineName> elements, how should one mark up Matthew 28:16?
>
>     Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in
>     the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit . . .
>
As Peter pointed out <divineName> is used for the Hebrew words YHWH, 
which is translated into Lord, God and Yah. Not all Lord or God are such 
a translation. The SWORD engine will try to render the content as small 
caps.

The name element is used to identify names. There are a couple of 
predefined values, but none seem to be appropriate for God, Jesus, the 
Holy Spirit (the other divine names) or for the demonic.

IMHO, theologically, a single value classification is not quite 
appropriate for God, Jesus or the Holy Spirit.

Where the choice of a predefined type is not deemed appropriate, one can 
do one of two things:
1) Use no type.
<name>Father</name> and of the <name>Son</name> and of the <name>Holy 
Spirit</name>

2) Roll your own type:
<name type="x-God">Father</name> and of the <name 
type="x-Jesus">Son</name> and of the <name type="x-Spirit">Holy 
Spirit</name>

Hope this helps some.

In Him,
    DM




More information about the sword-devel mailing list