Romans loved playing with language, they loved aphoristic phrases, and took much joy in cleverness with words. The pithiness of the phrase, the expression of Roman attitudes and the wittiness of the phrase delighted them. While these two biases are important to classical education, modern sentiments fail to recognize their value. More than that, these sentiments stand as the antitheses of these areas. While God uses language as a tool for communication, ultimately the Word, Christ, to bring the Gospel to us, the modern belief is that language is more for personal expression.
Communication is less important, even unimportant.
The meaning of words is relative, and we extract what meaning we want to extract. He is self-sustaining because that which he holds relevant is always before him. This reader can never be challenged, never change by what he reads, never learn something outside of himself. Imagine reading the Bible this way. The idea is a form of the philosophies of humanism, relativism and existentialism, which also play a role in the modern attitude toward history.