apology 的词源

“辩护，辩解，”1784年，拉丁形式的 apology（参见）；由J.H.纽曼的 "Apologia pro Vita Sua"（1864年）普及。它保留了英语 apology 的较旧意义以及希腊原文的意义，特别是教父们使用的意义。

In common Greek, apologia refers to the speech that an accused person delivered in court, rejecting the charges filed against him or her. The apologists of the second century chose this term because they wanted to show that the charges filed against Christians were unjustified and that the truths of their faith could be described and defended. An apologia was dedicated to the Roman empoeror, who certainly never read it. [Max L. Stackhouse, "Apologia," 1988]

在普通希腊语中， apologia 指的是被告在法庭上发表的演讲，拒绝对他或她提出的指控。二世纪的辩护者选择这个词，因为他们想表明对基督徒提出的指控是不公正的，他们的信仰真理可以被描述和辩护。一份 apologia 是献给罗马皇帝的，他肯定从未阅读过它。[Max L. Stackhouse, "Apologia," 1988]

1580年代，“神圣的话语，基督教圣三位一体中的第二位”，来自希腊语 logos “词，言语，陈述， discours”，也有“计算，账户”的意思，还有“理性，判断，理解”，源自原始印欧语 *log-o-，是词根 *leg- (1) “收集，聚集”的后缀形式，衍生义为“说话”，基于“挑选词语”的概念。希腊词被新柏拉图主义者用于形而上学和神学意义，涉及“理性”和“词”的概念，随后被新约作家采纳。