Photograph of the debating chamber of the British House of Commons in the Palace of Westminster, London, looking north-east (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
It’ll surprise no-one (and that really says something) that I just overheard someone’s phone conversation:
…and he was like, ‘what are you looking at?’ And so I was like, ‘nothing,’ but he was like ‘it looks like you’re watching that guy.’
Now, here’s the thing: in conversation this seems fine, but written down it’s a bit odd. Can you imagine reading a newspaper and reading:
In the House of Commons today the Prime Minister stood up and was like ‘here’s our new bill,’ but the Shadow Chancellor was like, ‘that’s a silly idea.’
But my prediction is that over the course of the next generation this is just going to become an accepted part of the human language; to say something ‘was like’ will somewhat replace saying ‘he said.’
Stranger things have happened.
Just a little idea, I suppose. Language just changes, but without knowing what something meant when it was written it can be difficult to understand it. The Bible was written over a very long period, a very long time ago, and some bits of it were difficult to understand even at the time (just look at 2 Peter 3:16!) – when we read the Bible we should be asking these questions in this order:
- What does the passage mean?
- What did it mean at the time?
- What should I do as a result?
I’d put no. 2 to no. 1, then a new no. 2 : ‘What does it mean when played off against the rest of the canon?’, then no.3.
That would also work…I suppose asking a question about how the passage is specifically about Jesus would get the mind working in the right way too.