The cacophony of  “empty talk” (kenophōnia) and  “newspeak” (kainophōnia)

Vincent (c. 380-c. 450), from Gallo-Roman aristocratic circles, lived for some time as a monk on the southern French island of Lérins. His important maxim, that "in the Church we must hold to what has been believed everywhere, always and by all," is best understood against the background of the then current discussion of Christology. Vincent demonstrates a sense of responsibility by providing an explanation of Christology in his Commonitorium ("Memory Aid") and supplementing it with Excerpta ("Excerpts") from writings of Augustine. Vincent also strived for unity between the Greek-speaking and Latin-speaking churches by authorizing new doctrinal formulations. Specifically, in Christology this concerns the Greek term homoousios ("of the same essence"), which Vincent explains and provides with a Latin translation. Furthermore, Vincent emphasizes the importance of preserving tradition, using 1 Timothy 6:20 as an argument, “Guard what has been deposited with you, while avoiding profane newspeak.” However, this text was originally directed not against newspeak but against empty talk, referring to the decorative speech of the rhetorical movement of “Second Sophistic”. In the Greek of that time, the (differently written) words “newspeak”, kainophōnia, and “empty talk”, kenophōnia, sound the same. The Latin Bible manuscripts unanimously translate kenophōnia (empty talk) as vocum novitates (newspeak). This translation used by Vincent gave him an argument for discouraging the introduction of innovations in the church, which also shows his Roman conservative mentality. Combining this with his Christian identity, he used it to preserve the Nicene theology, articulated at the Council of Nicaea in AD 325.

Dissertation: https://hdl.handle.net/11370/1d515a9f-73ee-45c1-ae70-d7877c8e9c46