![Man in prostration](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/68/Man_in_prostration.svg)
In
Christian theology
Christian theology is the theology of Christianity, Christian belief and practice. Such study concentrates primarily upon the texts of the Old Testament and of the New Testament, as well as on Christian tradition. Christian theology, theologian ...
, metanoia (from the
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
, ''metanoia'', ''changing one's mind'') is commonly understood as "a transformative change of heart; especially: a
spiritual conversion".
["Metanoia", Merriam-Webster]
/ref> The term suggests repudiation, change of mind, repentance
Repentance is reviewing one's actions and feeling contrition or regret for past wrongs, which is accompanied by commitment to and actual actions that show and prove a change for the better.
In modern times, it is generally seen as involving a co ...
, and atonement
Atonement (also atoning, to atone) is the concept of a person taking action to correct previous wrongdoing on their part, either through direct action to undo the consequences of that act, equivalent action to do good for others, or some other ex ...
; but "conversion" and "reformation" may best approximate its connotation. This theological concept is linked with Christian prayer
Christian prayer is an important activity in Christianity, and there are several different forms used for this practice.
Christian prayers are diverse: they can be completely spontaneous, or read entirely from a text, such as from a breviary, ...
, in which a prostration is called a metanoia, with "the spiritual condition of one's soul being expressed through the physical movement of falling facedown before the Lord" as seen in the biblical passages of , , and .
Christianity
New Testament
All three synoptic gospels
The gospels of Gospel of Matthew, Matthew, Gospel of Mark, Mark, and Gospel of Luke, Luke are referred to as the synoptic Gospels because they include many of the same stories, often in a similar sequence and in similar or sometimes identical ...
refer to "metanoia", as does the Acts of the Apostles
The Acts of the Apostles ( grc-koi, Πράξεις Ἀποστόλων, ''Práxeis Apostólōn''; la, Actūs Apostolōrum) is the fifth book of the New Testament; it tells of the founding of the Christian Church and the spread of its messag ...
, and there are a number of occasions in the New Testament letters where the word is used. Modern English Bible translations
Modern English Bible translations consists of translations developed and published throughout the late modern period () to present-day (). A multitude of recent attempts have been made to translate the Bible into English. Most modern translation ...
use the word "repentance" for both the Greek words ''metanoia'' and ''metamelomai''. The former term is so translated almost ten times as often as the latter.[Wilkin, Robert N. "New Testament Repentance: Lexical Considerations", Bible.org]
/ref> The noun ''metanoia''/μετάνοια, is translated "repentance", and its cognate verb ''metanoeō''/μετανοέω is translated "repent" in twenty two instances in the King James Version
The King James Version (KJV), also the King James Bible (KJB) and the Authorized Version, is an Bible translations into English, English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England, which was commissioned in 1604 and publis ...
of the New Testament
The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christ ...
. According to James Glentworth Butler, "as nearly as possible 'metamelomai''is the exact equivalent of the word Repent or Repentance."[Butler, J. Glentworth. ''Topical Analysis of the Bible'' (Butler Bible Work Co, 1897), 443. Available in Google Books.]
Abid Rogers Bhatti in his book ''A Textbook of Soteriology'' writes about the meaning of metanoia/μετάνοια. In the Bible translations into Hindi and Urdu
The modern Hindi language and Urdu language are mutually intelligible in colloquial form, but use different scripts when written, and have mutually intelligible literary forms. The history of Bible translations into Hindi and Urdu is closely linke ...
, the word for “repentance” is ''toba''. ''Toba'' means regret, grief, and sorrow over sinful deeds that lead to a change of mind and life. Abid agrees with Tertullian[Edward J Anton, ''Repentance: A Cosmic Shift of Mind and Heart'' (Discipleship Publications, 2005) 32-33.] in preferring "conversion" rather than "repentance" to translate metanoia/μετάνοια in Mark 1:4. In summary, Abid believes that "conversion" (rather than "repentance") is the best English word to express the meaning of the Greek metanoia/μετάνοια.
Early Christianity
Metanoia "... was used consistently in the literature of that time to express a fundamental change in thinking that leads to a fundamental change in behavior and/or way of living". In 2006, an ecumenical group of scholars published a study of repentance in the Bible and the Church. After "a thorough examination of Hellenistic Jewish writings", the study found that for Jews living at the time of Jesus, "repentance" meant "a fundamental change in thinking and living". For the New Testament, this change is a necessary ingredient in accomplishing God's plan for salvation and community for everyone.
The non-canonical Acts of Peter
The Acts of Peter is one of the earliest of the apocryphal Acts of the Apostles in Christianity, dating to the late 2nd century AD. The majority of the text has survived only in the Latin translation of the Codex Vercellensis, under the title ...
ties metanoia to the cross on which Peter was crucified. While Peter was being crucified, he explained parts of the cross from which he was hanging, including "the nail which holds the cross beam to the upright in the middle". This nail is "the conversion epistrophē''.html"_;"title="epistrophe.html"_;"title="'epistrophe">epistrophē''">epistrophe.html"_;"title="'epistrophe">epistrophē''and_repentance_[metanoia.html" ;"title="epistrophe">epistrophē''.html" ;"title="epistrophe.html" ;"title="'epistrophe">epistrophē''">epistrophe.html" ;"title="'epistrophe">epistrophē''and repentance [metanoia">epistrophe">epistrophē''.html" ;"title="epistrophe.html" ;"title="'epistrophe">epistrophē''">epistrophe.html" ;"title="'epistrophe">epistrophē''and repentance [metanoiaof man."
According to Robert N. Wilkin, "The Latin Fathers translated ''metanoia'' as ''paenitentia'', which came to mean "penance" or "acts of penance"."[ Tertullian protested the unsuitable translation of the Greek ''metanoeo'' into the Latin ''paenitentiam ago'' by arguing that "in Greek, metanoia is not a confession of sins but a change of mind."] "Conversion" (from the Latin ''conversiōn-em'' turning round) with its "change in character" meaning is more nearly the equivalent of metanoia than repentance.
Theological concept
The ''Merriam-Webster Dictionary'' transliterates the Greek μετάνοια into metanoia and borrowing it as an English word with a definition that matches the Greek: "a transformative change of heart; ''especially'': a spiritual conversion", augmented by an explanation of metanoia's Greek source: "from ''metanoiein'' to change one's mind, repent, from ''meta-'' + ''noein'' to think, from ''nous'' mind''".[
Synonyms for "conversion" include "change of heart" and "metanoia".
In opposition to the Church's interpretation of ''metanoia'' as comprising contrition, confession, and penances, ]Martin Luther
Martin Luther (; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, theologian, author, hymnwriter, and professor, and Order of Saint Augustine, Augustinian friar. He is the seminal figure of the Reformation, Protestant Refo ...
objected that it retained its classical sense of "a change of mind." For John Staupitz, "... metanoia can be derived, though not without violence, not only from post and mentem, but also from trans and mentem, so that metanoia signifies a changing of the mind and heart, because it seemed to indicate not only a change of the heart, but also a manner of changing it, i.e., the grace of God." Metanoia is a concept of fundamental character for Luther, as it marks the ground of the first of his 95 theses
The ''Ninety-five Theses'' or ''Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences''-The title comes from the 1517 Basel pamphlet printing. The first printings of the ''Theses'' use an incipit rather than a title which summarizes the content ...
.
John Calvin
John Calvin (; frm, Jehan Cauvin; french: link=no, Jean Calvin ; 10 July 150927 May 1564) was a French theologian, pastor and reformer in Geneva during the Protestant Reformation. He was a principal figure in the development of the system ...
pointed to the double derivation of the Hebrew and Greek words for "repentance": the Hebrew derives from conversion, or turning again, and the Greek means a change of mind and purpose. The meaning of the word, for Calvin, is appropriate to both derivations because repentance (a) involves "withdrawing from ourselves", (b) turning to God, (c) "laying aside the old", and (d) putting on "a new mind".
Gregory Martin, the translator of the Douay-Rheims, argued in chapter 13 of his work ''A Discovery of the Manifold Corruptions of Scripture'' for the translation of "penance". He based his conclusions on the writings of the church fathers and the awkward sentences that other readings lead to.
The Greek Orthodox Church in America teaches that
In his 1881 ''The Great Meaning of the Word Metanoia'', Treadwell Walden, Episcopal priest and sometime rector of St. Paul's Church, Boston, designated cathedral of the diocese in 1912, asserts that metanoia conveys the essence of the Christian gospel. Walden holds that the meaning of the Greek ''metanoia'' is very different from the meaning of the English "repentance". He describes the translation of ''metanoia'' as repentance as "an extraordinary mistranslation". Walden believed the meaning of ''metanoia'' as a "transmutation" of consciousness contrasted with classical Greek which he viewed as expressing a superficial change of mind. Walden sought to promote the proper meaning of metanoia as "change of Mind, a change in the trend and action of the whole inner nature, intellectual, affectional and moral" over against its translation as repentance.
In ''Repentance: A Cosmic Shift of Mind and Heart'', Edward J.Anton observes that in most dictionaries and in the minds of most Christians the primary meaning of "repent" is to look back on past behavior with sorrow, self-reproach, or contrition, sometimes with an amendment of life. But neither Jesus nor John the Baptist says to look back in sorrow. For St Paul, "''metanoia'' is a transfiguration for your brain" that opens a new future.
It was in its use in the New Testament and in writings grounded in the New Testament that the depth of metanoia increased until, in the words of Archbishop Richard C. Trench, it came "to express that mighty change in mind, heart, and life wrought by the Spirit of God".
Scholar J. Glentworth Butler says that, in the Greek, there is none of the sorrow or regret contained in the words repentance and repent. Repentance denotes "sorrow for what one has done or omitted to do; especially, contrition for sin." Repent primarily means "to review one's actions and feel contrition or regret for something one has done or omitted to do" Therefore, Butler asserts that translating ''metanoeō''/μετανοέω and ''metanoia''/μετάνοια as repent and repentance constitute "an utter ''mis''translation" that translators excuse by the fact that no English word can adequately convey the meaning of the Greek words.
A. T. Robertson concurs with Butler. Regarding the translation of ''metanoia'' as repentance, Robertson calls it "a linguistic and theological tragedy". Regarding John the Baptist's call to "repent" as a translation of the Greek ''metanoeite'', Robertson quotes Broadus as saying that this is "the worst translation in the New Testament". Repent means "to be sorry", but John's call was not to be sorry, but to change mental attitudes 'metanoeite''and conduct. Robertson lamented the fact that in his time there was no English word that signified the meaning of the Greek μετάνοια (''metanoia'').
Aloys H. Dirksen in his ''The New Testament Concept of Metanoia'' argues against metanoia as merely "repentance" and for metanoia as "conversion". Others have characterized the translation of metanoia/μετάνοια as "repentance" with similar negativity: Herbert George Marsh states that "repentance" is an "unsuitable" translation, and James Hastings and others consider it "totally inadequate" as a word to carry the meaning of metanoia.
Of the top ten versions of the Bible in the United States based on unit sales, seven read "baptism of repentance" in Mark 1:4 in which "repentance" translates ''metanoia''. Three of the ten top-selling versions and another in the top-ten based on dollar sales attempt to capture the meaning of ''metanoia''. None of them transliterate the Greek μετἀνοια as metanoia.
* ''New Living Translation'': "baptized to show that they had repented of their sins and turned to God"
* ''Common English Bible'': "baptized to show that they were changing their hearts and lives"
* ''New International Readers Version'': "baptized and turn away from their sins"
* ''The Message'': "a baptism of life-change"
In spite of these efforts, Robert N. Wilkin forecasts that "repentance" as a translation for ''metanoia'' will likely continue in most English translations. He, therefore, advises readers to substitute "change of mind" for the words repentance and repent.
In its Confirmation exegesis, the Minnehaha United Methodist Church of Minneapolis, Minnesota notes,Metanoia is used to refer to the change of mind which is brought about in repentance. Repentance is necessary and valuable because it brings about change of mind or metanoia. This change of mind will make the changed person hate sin and love God. The two terms (repentance and metanoia) are often used interchangeably. "Meta-" is additionally used to imply "beyond" and "outside of". E.g., ... metaphysics as outside the limits of physics. The word metanoia has taken on an in-vogue usage among interfaith dialogues as simply meaning "a change of heart". Though this is close to its Christian theological meaning, perhaps one may conclude that metanoia is "taking one's mind/thoughts beyond and outside of one's habituations." Yes, English translators of the Christian Scriptures fail to find a proper corresponding word for metanoia, so they fall back upon the comfort and ease of the word repent. Yet repent carries with it a negative tone, almost an inhibition caused by guilt; metanoia forces a positive, proactive life-affirming response. When Jesus calls people to "repent", to "metanoia", could it be that he means: "Change your thought processes and go beyond your mind's present state of limitations"? Does this not mandate self-assessment and interpersonal acceptance?
Charles Taylor defines metanoia as "to change one's mind of attitude" and builds his pastoral counseling method on the "metanoia model." In doing so, Taylor recalls that the center of Jesus' ministry was a call to metanoia. For Milton Crum, metanoia means "a change of perception with its behavioral fruit." Thus, metanoia constitutes the central thing that needs to happen in preaching. Peter Senge
Peter Michael Senge (born 1947) is an American systems scientist who is a senior lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management, co-faculty at the New England Complex Systems Institute, and the founder of the Society for Organizational Learning. ...
observes that what happens in a "learning organization
In business management, a learning organization is a company that facilitates the learning of its members and continuously transforms itself.Pedler, M., Burgogyne, J. and Boydell, T. 1997. ''The Learning Company: A strategy for sustainable develop ...
" that experiences the "deeper meaning of 'learning'" is "metanoia" which means "a shift of mind". Therefore, concludes Senge, "to grasp the meaning of 'metanoia' is to grasp the deeper meaning of 'learning'."
Ulrich Wilckens finds in Peter's sermon in Acts 2:38–40 as narrated by Luke the Evangelist
Luke the Evangelist (Latin: '' Lucas''; grc, Λουκᾶς, '' Loukâs''; he, לוקאס, ''Lūqās''; arc, /ܠܘܩܐ לוקא, ''Lūqā’; Ge'ez: ሉቃስ'') is one of the Four Evangelists—the four traditionally ascribed authors of t ...
, six steps that are required for a person's salvation. Metanoia is step number one and is essential because the other steps are contingent on a person's experiencing metanoia. Wilckens believes that this is the normative way to salvation in Luke's theology.
Christian prayer
The theological concept is linked with Christian prayer
Christian prayer is an important activity in Christianity, and there are several different forms used for this practice.
Christian prayers are diverse: they can be completely spontaneous, or read entirely from a text, such as from a breviary, ...
, in which a prostration is called a metanoia, with "the spiritual condition of one's soul being expressed through the physical movement of falling facedown before the Lord" as seen in the biblical passages of , , and .
In Oriental Orthodox Christianity
The Oriental Orthodox Churches are Eastern Christian churches adhering to Miaphysite Christology, with approximately 60 million members worldwide. The Oriental Orthodox Churches are part of the Nicene Christian tradition, and represent o ...
and Western Orthodox Christianity, believers make metanoias (prostrations) during the seven fixed prayer times; prayer rugs
Prayer is an invocation or act that seeks to activate a rapport with an object of worship through deliberate communication. In the narrow sense, the term refers to an act of supplication or intercession directed towards a deity or a deified an ...
are used by some adherents to provide a clean space for believers to offer their Christian prayer
Christian prayer is an important activity in Christianity, and there are several different forms used for this practice.
Christian prayers are diverse: they can be completely spontaneous, or read entirely from a text, such as from a breviary, ...
s to God, e.g. the canonical hours
In the practice of Christianity, canonical hours mark the divisions of the day in terms of fixed times of prayer at regular intervals. A book of hours, chiefly a breviary, normally contains a version of, or selection from, such prayers.
In ...
. Oriental Orthodox Christians, such as Copts, incorporate metanoias in their prayers that are performed facing eastward in anticipation of the Second Coming of Jesus
The Second Coming (sometimes called the Second Advent or the Parousia) is a Christian (as well as Islamic and Baha'i) belief that Jesus will return again after his ascension to heaven about two thousand years ago. The idea is based on messian ...
, making metanoias thrice in the name of the Trinity
The Christian doctrine of the Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the central dogma concerning the nature of God in most Christian churches, which defines one God existing in three coequal, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons: God the F ...
; at the conclusion of every Psalm (when saying ‘Alleluia’); and forty-one times for the Kyrie eleisons (cf. ''Agpeya
The ''Agpeya'' (Coptic: Ϯⲁⲅⲡⲓⲁ, ar, أجبية) is the Coptic Christian "Prayer Book of the Hours" or breviary, and is equivalent to the Shehimo in the Indian Orthodox Church (another Oriental Orthodox Christian denomination), as we ...
''). Syriac Orthodox
, native_name_lang = syc
, image = St_George_Syriac_orthodox_church_in_Damascus.jpg
, imagewidth = 250
, alt = Cathedral of Saint George
, caption = Cathedral of Saint George, Damascu ...
and Indian Orthodox
The Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church (MOSC) also known as the Indian Orthodox Church (IOC) or simply as the Malankara Church, is an Autocephaly, autocephalous Oriental Orthodox Churches, Oriental Orthodox church headquartered in Malankara ...
Christians, as well as Christians belonging to the Mar Thoma Syrian Church
The Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian Church, often shortened to Mar Thoma Church, and known also as the Reformed Syrian ChurchS. N. Sadasivan. A Social History of India'. APH Publishing; 2000. . p. 442. and the Mar Thoma Syrian Church of Malabar ...
(an Oriental Protestant denomination), make multiple metanoias at the seven fixed prayer times during which the canonical hours are prayed, thrice during the Qauma prayer, at the words "Crucified for us, Have mercy on us!", thrice during the recitation of the Nicene Creed at the words "And was incarnate of the Holy Spirit...", "And was crucified for us...", & "And on the third day rose again...", as well as thrice during the Prayer of the Cherubim while praying the words "Blessed is the glory of the Lord, from His place forever!" (cf. ''Shehimo
Shehimo ( syr, , ml, ഷഹീമോ; English language, English: Book of Common Prayer, also spelled Sh'himo) is the West Syriac Rite, West Syriac Christian breviary of the Syriac Orthodox Church and the West Syriac Rite, West Syriac Saint Tho ...
''). Oriental Catholic and Oriental Protestant rites also use metanoias in a similar way as the Oriental Orthodox Churches.
Among Old Ritualists
Old Believers or Old Ritualists, ''starovery'' or ''staroobryadtsy'' are Eastern Orthodox Christians who maintain the liturgical and ritual practices of the Russian Orthodox Church as they were before the reforms of Patriarch Nikon of Moscow bet ...
, a prayer rug known as the Podruchnik The Podruchnik (Russian: "подручник", literally "something under an arm") is a small prayer rug, once used in prayer by all Russian Orthodox Christians in the Tsardom of Russia
The Tsardom of Russia or Tsardom of Rus' also externally re ...
is used to keep one's face and hands clean during metanoias, as these parts of the body are used to make the sign of the cross
Making the sign of the cross ( la, signum crucis), or blessing oneself or crossing oneself, is a ritual blessing made by members of some branches of Christianity. This blessing is made by the tracing of an upright cross or + across the body with ...
.
Other religions
Judaism
Philo
Philo of Alexandria (; grc, Φίλων, Phílōn; he, יְדִידְיָה, Yəḏīḏyāh (Jedediah); ), also called Philo Judaeus, was a Hellenistic Jewish philosopher who lived in Alexandria, in the Roman province of Egypt.
Philo's deplo ...
(c. 25 BC – c. 50 AD) depicted metanoia as "in heaven, a beautiful and especially good daughter of the Most High." There, "she entreats God Most High hourly" on behalf of people.
Paganism
In Classical Greek
Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...
, ''metanoia'' meant changing one's mind about someone or something.[ When personified, Metanoia was depicted as a shadowy goddess, cloaked and sorrowful, who accompanied ]Kairos
Kairos ( grc, καιρός) is an ancient Greek word meaning 'the right, critical, or opportune moment'. In modern Greek, ''kairos'' also means 'weather' or 'time'.
It is one of two words that the ancient Greeks had for 'time'; the other bei ...
, the god of Opportunity, sowing regret and inspiring repentance for the "missed moment". This conventional portrayal continued through the Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...
. "The elements of repentance, regret, reflection, and transformation are always present in the concept of metanoia to some degree, ...".[Myers, Kelly A.]
"Metanoia and the Transformation of Opportunity"
''Rhetoric Society Quarterly'', Vol. 41, No. 1, pp. 1–18
See also
* Genuflection
Genuflection or genuflexion is the act of bending a knee to the ground, as distinguished from kneeling which more strictly involves both knees. From early times, it has been a gesture of deep respect for a superior. Today, the gesture is common ...
* Kneeling
Kneeling is a basic human position where one or both knees touch the ground. Kneeling is defined as “to position the body so that one or both knees rest on the floor,” according to Merriam-Webster. Kneeling when only composed of one knee, and ...
* Metania
The different kinds of bows one could encounter at an Eastern Orthodox service are shown in the drawing below.
Strict rules exist as to which type of a bow should be used at any particular time. The rules are very complicated, and are not alw ...
(bow)
*Metanoia (rhetoric)
Metanoia (from the Greek , ''metanoia'', ''changing one's mind'') in the context of rhetoric is a device used to retract a statement just made, and then state it in a better way.Silva Rhetoricae (2006)Metanoeia As such, metanoia is similar to corre ...
References
{{Reflist, colwidth=30em
External links
Prostrations according to the Coptic Orthodox Church Rite
The making of metanoias (prostrations) in Coptic Orthodox Christianity
New Testament Greek words and phrases