Nov 1, 2023
You know how, when someone thanks you for doing extra work, often rather than saying "You're welcome!" (which feels like agreeing that they're an inconvenience) you say "No problem!" (because you don't want them to feel like they're a burden)?
Just found a spot in the book of Philippians 3:1 where Paul repeats an earlier exhortation to rejoice in the Lord. Then he says that writing the same thing again "grieueth mee not" (1599 Geneva Bible), or "to me indeed is not grievous" (KJV), or as the ESV puts it in 2016, "is no trouble to me."
So if you see someone whining about the death of the phrase "You're welcome," well, precursors to the phrase "No problem" have been around in English for at least 400 years.
#i am not a linguist#just was reading my Bible and got sidetracked by the phrase.#then went off on an itty bitty research tangent.#tangentially it's also a comfort to me that Paul didn't find it onerous to repeat things.#obviously neither did God#given how much repetition Scripture had.#it's ok then when I need to hear some lessons over and over.#modern-day hot-take culture of tweets and clickbait and 'I'm only gonna say this once' doesn't apply to God.#therefore shouldn't apply to me either. i need to show patience when i repeat instructions.#after all#it's no problem.