"Es una mentira como una catedral."

That was today's Spanish phrase from NotesinSpanish.com.
They translated it as



"That’s a massive lie..
Literally, a lie as big as a cathedral."

But the phrase "as big as" is not in the original. Literally, it is "That's a lie, like a cathedral (is a lie)."

Of course the size factor is likely inherently the origin. But is it possible that the Spanish's language's sometimes subtle, sometimes sarcastic (need some Chomsky, Sapir-Whorf study here!!) tendency and tenor of "subverting the dominant paradigm by hijacking it" is at play here.?

Obviously, a culture (Spanish) so tethered to a religion (Roman Catholic,) so steeped in literal cathedrals...must inevitably find a way to simultaneously honor and hijack the system; this is simply the Book of Revelation's apocalyptic "holy fool" approach to empire (Is government of God--Romans 13--or Satan--Revelation 13). See also the parables of Jesus..and U2 in the 1990s.

Many Christians are shocked to realize that Spanish speakers are often unare, swearing to Allah in the common phrase "Ojala"; literally 'if Allah wills," or "I hope to Allah." Is Islam, or also even a poke at Islam and the Spanish history of, embedded in a simple everyday phrase?

All translation is messianic and/or betrayal, anyway.



On to the cathedral implications and connotations.

In a sense:

All cathedrals are large. And all cathedrals are lies.

And connect to Wolfgang Simson:

Thesis 2:
- Time to change the "cathegogue system"
The historic Orthodox and Catholic Church after Constantine in the fourth century developed and adopted a religious system based on two elements: a Christian version of the Old Testament temple - the cathedral - and a worship pattern styled after the Jewish synagogue. They thus adopted, as the foundational pattern for the times to follow, a blueprint for Christian meetings and worship which was neither expressly revealed nor ever endorsed by God in New Testament times: the "cathegogue", linking the house- of-God mentality and the synagogue. Baptized with Greek pagan philosophy, separating the sacred from the secular, the cathegogue system developed into the Black Hole of Christianity, swallowing most of its society-transforming energies and inducing the church to become absorbed with itself for centuries to come. The Roman Catholic Church went on to canonize the system. Luther reformed the content of the gospel, but left the outer forms of " church" remarkably untouched. The Free Churches freed the system from the State, the Baptists then baptized it, the Quakers dry-cleaned it, the Salvation Army put it in uniform, the Pentecostals anointed it and the Charismatics renewed it, but until today nobody has really changed the system. The time to do that has now arrived.



...American veteran missionary and author Bill Beckham, in his book ”The Second Reformation,” describes a congregation- or, what he calls ”cathedral-type” church like this: ”Since the time of Constantine in the Fourth Century the church has functioned primarily as a ‘Cathedral’. At least five important elements are identified with this ”Cathedral” way of being the church:
1. A Building (a ‘Cathedral’ or ‘Church’);
2. A Special Day (Sunday);
3. A professional leadership (priest, clergyman, holy man);
4. A special service, performed for the people (ceremonies, services, interpretation of dogma, motivation) and
5. A way to maintain itself (tithes and offerings).
In spite of different types of church government, different architectural designs of buildings, different titles and clothes for leaders, different worship form, and different theologies, churches for the most part have functioned through this ‘Cathedral’ form. Whether Catholic or Baptist, Presbyterian or Pentecostal, ‘High Church’ or ‘Low Church,’ urban or rural, large or small, rich or poor, Western or Eastern, churches have been ‘Cathedral’ in nature. This ‘Cathedral’ system has survived political upheavals, rearrangement of world maps, great social changes, theological heresies, the Protestant Reformation, and numerous movements. It’s adaptability has been nothing short of amazing.
Using a combination of the Roman governmental and feudal systems, Emperor Constantine developed a church structure that has lasted for seventeen centuries. The ‘Cathedral’ structure has had the capacity to absorb all major movements into its structure without changing its own basic form.” As much as I agree, this does not notice the difference between the cathedral and the average congregational parish church. The cathedral basically reflects the temple in the Old Testament, while the congregational church reflects more the pattern of the jewish synagogue. However, it is true that later on the Church tried to squeezed as much of a cathedral-type church into our average village parish-church, the congregational model of church, as I like to call it.
link

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LATER UPDATE:
Since this post was posted, U2 has put a cathedral on the road.