The phrasedormit in pace (English: '[he] sleeps in peace') was found in thecatacombs of theearly Christians and indicated that "they died in the peace of the Church, that is, united in Christ."[6][7][8] The abbreviation R.I.P., meaningrequiescat in pace, 'may he/she rest in peace' (present/subjunctive/active/3rd person/singular), continues to be engraved on the gravestones of Christians,[9] especially in theCatholic,Lutheran, andAnglicandenominations.[10]
Other variations include "Requiescat in pace et in amore" for "May he/she 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.[12]
A 7th-century gravestone fromNarbonne beginning withrequiescunt in pace and includes the Hebrew phrase "שלום על שראל" (peace be upon Israel). It has been interpreted variously as an "inscription relating to the Jews of France",[13] or as a Jewish inscription.[14]
Funerary texts with wishes for the deceased in the afterlife are as old as writing itself – the first known phonetic inscriptions were funerary texts fromUr thought to be wishes for an eternal life.[15] The phrasedormit in pace was first found on tombstones some time before the fifth century.[16][17][18] It became ubiquitous on the tombs of Christians in the 18th century,[10] and forHigh Church Anglicans,Methodists,[19] as well as Roman Catholics in particular, it was aprayerful request that theirsoul should find peace in theafterlife.[9] 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 thegrave.[20] This is associated with the Christian doctrine of theparticular judgment; that is, that the soul is parted from the body upon death, but that thesoul and body will be reunited onJudgment Day.[21]
In 2017, members of theOrange Order in Northern Ireland called onProtestants to stop using the phrase "RIP" or "Rest in Peace".[22] Wallace Thompson, the secretary of theEvangelical Protestant Society, said on aBBC Radio Ulster programme that he would encourage Protestants to refrain from using the term "RIP".[23] Thompson said that he regards "RIP" as aprayer for the dead, which he believes contradicts biblical doctrine.[24] In the same radio programme,PresbyterianKen Newell disagreed that people are praying for the dead when they use the phrase.
The expression "rest in peace" is "not commonly used in Jewish contexts", though some commentators say that it is "consistent with Jewish practice".[25] The traditional Hebrew expressionעליו השלום, literally 'may peace be upon him', is sometimes rendered in English as 'may he rest in peace'.[26][27] On the other hand, some Jews object to using the phrase for Jews, considering it to reflect a Christian perspective.[28][29]
^Yaggy, Levi W.; Haines, Thomas Louis (1886).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. Law, King & Law. p. 885.
^Tuker, Mildred Anna Rosalie; Malleson, Hope (1900). "Introduction to the Catacombs".Handbook to Christian and Ecclesiastical Rome: The Christian monuments of Rome. A. and C. Black. p. 411.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 expressionDormierit 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.
^Leahy, Brendan (2012).His Mass and Ours: Meditations on Living Eucharistically. New City Press. p. 53.ISBN9781565484481.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.
^abMytum, H. C. (31 December 2003). "Christian Denominations".Mortuary Monuments and Burial Grounds of the Historic Period. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 139.ISBN9780306480768.
^abTarling, Nicholas (16 May 2014).Choral Masterpieces: Major and Minor. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. p. 87.ISBN9781442234536.
^Expert: Maria – 7/31/2009 (2009-07-31)."Experts on Latin phrase". En.allexperts.com. Archived fromthe original on 2012-07-13. Retrieved2014-04-17.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
^David Ian Klein, "Jewish Twitter claps back at Christian-inflected condolences for RBG",Forward,September 21, 2020
^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
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