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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comVincent Word Studies - Romans 1:31 - 1:31
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Without understanding, covenant-breakers (ἀσυνέτους ἀσυνθέτους)
Another paronomasia: asynetous, asynthetous. This feature of style is largely due to the pleasure which all people, and especially Orientals, derive from the assonance of a sentence. Archdeacon Farrar gives a number of illustrations: the Arabic Abel and Kabel (Abel and Cain); Dalut and G'ialut (David and Goliath). A Hindoo constantly adds meaningless rhymes, even to English words, as button-bitten; kettley-bittley. Compare the Prayer-book, holy and wholly; giving and forgiving; changes and chances. Shakespeare, sorted and consorted; in every breath a death. He goes on to argue that these alliterations, in the earliest stages of language, are partly due to a vague belief in the inherent affinities of words (“Language and Languages,” 227).