Noah Webster: More Words

What do definitions of words like “truth” and “theology” reveal about a person’s beliefs? Today, Stephen Nichols revisits Noah Webster’s 1828 dictionary and its deep Christian roots.

Welcome back to another episode of 5 Minutes in Church History. A few weeks ago, we were talking about Noah Webster and his dictionary, and then I think we went way back to 401. But I want to go back to Noah Webster again and think about his dictionary a little bit more and explore some more words with you. There are 70,000 words in his 1828 dictionary, The American Dictionary of the English Language. Just for a trivial fact, there are 6,000 biblical references that he uses to illustrate those words, and he introduced many, many new words into the vocabulary and the dictionary.

But I want to look at some fun theological words. So we ended last time we were with him with conversion. How about his definition of “truth”? He starts off with “conformity to fact or reality,” and then he adds, “Jesus Christ is called the Truth.”

Or “education”? His definition of “education” includes this, “To give children a good education in manners, arts, and sciences is important. To give them a religious education is indispensable.”

And along the lines of his definition of “conversion,” here is Webster on “transformation.” Initially, his first sort of basic definition is “changing form or external appearance.” Then he adds “a spiritual or theological change, a profound change in the soul from enmity to holiness, conforming to God’s image.” And then Webster quotes Romans 12:2, “be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

Well, what does Webster think about “history”? He defines “history” as “knowing and to inquire, to explore, to learn by inspection or inquiry. History is an account of facts, particularly of facts respecting nations or states, a narration of events in the order in which they happened with their causes and their effects.” I love that definition. It’s the event, but what led into it? The cause. And what flows out of it? The effect. He says, “histories of different kinds or treats of different subjects as a history of government or political history, or [our favorite] history of the Christian Church or ecclesiastical history [even if you can do it in five minutes, I’ll add], history of war, conquests, military history, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.” At one point he says, “what is the history of nations, but a narrative of the follies, crimes, and miseries of man?” Well, that sounds like a good Calvinistic understanding of history. “The follies, the crimes, and the miseries of man.”

How about his definition of “theology”? “It is divinity,” he says, “the science of God and divine things, or the science which teaches the existence, character and attributes of God, His laws and government, the doctrines we are to believe, and the duties we are to practice.” He says, “there’s natural theology, which is the knowledge we have of God from His works by the light of nature and reason, and then there is revealed theology, and that is that which is to be learned only from revelation.” He says, “moral theology teaches us the divine laws relating to our manners and action, that is, our moral duties.”

And then his definition of the church. Webster defines the church as “a house consecrated to the worship of God, among Christians, the Lord’s house. This seems to be the original meaning of the word. The Greek ‘to call out or call together’ denotes an assembly or collection.”

In the library at a university I attended, in the lobby, there was a painting of one of the librarians who had been there for a long time and actually painted onto the painting across the bottom of the canvas, apparently was his favorite saying, “look it up.” And so that is my advice to you. Find a good dictionary, maybe like Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary, and look it up.

Well, that is Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary again. And I’m Steve Nichols. Thanks for listening to 5 Minutes in Church History.