Rest in peace explained

Rest in peace (R.I.P.),[1] a phrase from the Latin Latin: requiescat in pace (pronounced as /la-x-church/), is sometimes used in traditional Christian services and prayers, such as in the Catholic,[2] Lutheran,[3] Anglican, and Methodist[4] denominations, to wish the soul of a decedent eternal rest and peace.

It became ubiquitous on headstones in the 18th century, and is widely used today when mentioning someone's death.

Description

The phrase dormit in pace (English: "[he] sleeps in peace") was found in the catacombs of the early Christians and indicated that "they died in the peace of the Church, that is, united in Christ."[5] [6] [7] The abbreviation R.I.P., meaning Requiescat in pace, "Rest in peace", continues to be engraved on the gravestones of Christians,[8] especially in the Catholic, Lutheran, and Anglican denominations.[9]

In the Tridentine Requiem Mass of the Catholic Church the phrase appears several times.

Other variations include "Requiescat in pace et in amore" for "[May they] rest in peace and love", and "In pace requiescat et in amore". The word order is variable because Latin syntactical relationships are indicated by the inflexional endings, not by word order. If "Rest in peace" is used in an imperative mood, it would be "Requiesce in pace" (acronym R.I.P.) in the second person singular, or "Requiescite in pace" in the second person plural.[10] In the common phrase "Requiescat in pace" the "-at" ending is appropriate because the verb is a third-person singular present active subjunctive used in a hortative sense: "[May they] rest in peace."

History

The phrase was first found on tombstones some time before the fifth century.[11] [12] [13] It became ubiquitous on the tombs of Christians in the 18th century,[9] and for High Church Anglicans, Methodists,[14] as well as Roman Catholics in particular, it was a prayerful request that their soul should find peace in the afterlife.[8] When the phrase became conventional, the absence of a reference to the soul led people to suppose that it was the physical body that was enjoined to lie peacefully in the grave. This is associated with the Christian doctrine of the particular judgment; that is, that the soul is parted from the body upon death, but that the soul and body will be reunited on Judgment Day.

Use in various religions

Irish Protestantism

In 2017, members of the Orange Order in Northern Ireland called on Protestants to stop using the phrase "RIP" or "Rest in Peace".[15] Wallace Thompson, the secretary of the Evangelical Protestant Society, said on a BBC Radio Ulster programme that he would encourage Protestants to refrain from using the term "RIP".[16] Thompson said that he regards "RIP" as a prayer for the dead, which he believes contradicts biblical doctrine.[17] In the same radio programme, Presbyterian Ken Newell disagreed that people are praying for the dead when they use the phrase.

Judaism

See main article: Honorifics for the dead in Judaism. The expression "rest in peace" is "not commonly used in Jewish contexts", though some commentators say that it is "consistent with Jewish practice".[18] The traditional Hebrew expression Hebrew: עליו השלום, literally 'may peace be upon him', is sometimes rendered in English as 'may he rest in peace'.[19] [20]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: RIP Full Form - What Is RIP?. 2021-05-29. Full Form Dunia. 15 May 2021 . en-US.
  2. Book: Catholic Prayers in Spanish and English. 1900. Harvard University Press. en . 45.
  3. Book: Kurtz, Benjamin. Lutheran Prayer Book. 1860. T. Newton Kurtz. en. 124.
  4. Book: Langford, Andy. Christian Funerals. 1 December 2010. Abingdon Press. en. 9781426730146. 56.
  5. Book: Yaggy. Levi W.. Haines. Thomas Louis. Museum of Antiquity: A Description of Ancient Life—the Employments, Amusements, Customs and Habits, the Cities, Places, Monuments and Tombs, the Literature and Fine Arts of 3,000 Years Ago. 1886. Law, King & Law. 885.
  6. Book: Tuker. Mildred Anna Rosalie. Malleson. Hope. Handbook to Christian and Ecclesiastical Rome: The Christian monuments of Rome. 1900. A. and C. Black. 411. Introduction to the Catacombs. Dormit, he sleeps, as an expression for death is proper to Christianity. Dormitio, in somno pacis, dormivit are therefore very frequently found. These and the expression Dormierit in Domino (may he sleep in the Lord) are to be seen especially in loculi of the II. and II. centuries, and occur in S. Agnese..
  7. Book: Leahy, Brendan. His Mass and Ours: Meditations on Living Eucharistically. 2012. New City Press. 9781565484481. 53. Signs such as "RIP" (Rest in Peace) on the tombs of the early Christians did not just mean they died "peacefully" but that they died in the peace of the Church, that is, united in Christ in the Church and not apart from it. .
  8. Book: Mytum, H. C.. Mortuary Monuments and Burial Grounds of the Historic Period. 31 December 2003. Springer Science & Business Media. 9780306480768. 139. Christian Denominations.
  9. Book: Tarling, Nicholas. Choral Masterpieces: Major and Minor. 16 May 2014. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. 9781442234536. 87.
  10. Web site: Expert: Maria – 7/31/2009 . Experts on Latin phrase . https://archive.today/20120713050210/http://en.allexperts.com/q/Latin-2145/2009/7/Quote-requiescat-etc.htm . dead . 2012-07-13 . En.allexperts.com . 2009-07-31 . 2014-04-17 .
  11. Book: Epitaphs of the Catacombs During the First Four Centuries . 79 . 1878 . London: Longmans, Green . Spencer Northcote.
  12. Book: The Church of England magazine . 208 . 1842 . Church Pastoral-aid Society.
  13. Book: https://books.google.com/books?id=xtQRAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA206 . 206 . The Baltimore literary and religious magazine . 3 . Robert Jefferson Breckinridge, Andrew Boyd Cross . Antiquity of the Religion. 1837 .
  14. Book: Gould, James B.. Understanding Prayer for the Dead: Its Foundation in History and Logic . 2016-08-04 . 2017-07-25 . . 9781620329887. 58 .
  15. News: Edwards . Rodney . Orangemen warned to 'reject Rome' and not use RIP on social media . 2017-07-20 . 2017-07-25 . .
  16. . Protestants should not use the phrase 'RIP', Orange Order says . . . 2017-07-24 . 2017-07-24. Segment begins at 42:20 into the podcast, and ends at 1:00:11.
  17. News: Orange Order calls on Protestants not to use the phrase 'RIP' . 2017-07-24 . 2017-07-24 . .
  18. Rabbi Julie Zupan, "What is the Jewish expression to refer to someone who has died?", ReformJudaism.org https://reformjudaism.org/learning/answers-jewish-questions/what-jewish-expression-refer-someone-who-has-died
  19. Lewis Glinert, The Joys of Hebrew,, 1993, s.v. 'Aláv/aléha ha-shalóm'
  20. David Ian Klein, "Jewish Twitter claps back at Christian-inflected condolences for RBG", Forward, September 21, 2020
  21. Shlomo Zuckier, "What Ruth Bader Ginsburg's Online Mourners Got Right and Wrong about Jews, Death, and the Afterlife", Mosaic: Advancing Jewish Thought, September 25, 2020
  22. Jewish Language Project, Jewish English Lexicon, s.v. 'olav ha-sholom' On the other hand, some Jews object to using the phrase for Jews, considering it to reflect a Christian perspective.[20] [21]

    See also

    External links

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