Revelations

Richmond Lattimore is already the distinguished translator of Homer and Hesiod, of Aeschylus and Aristophanes, of Greek classics that speak with different voices. In this latest venture, he has attempted something quite unusual: not only to reproduce as far as possible the word-order and syntax of the Greek gospels, but thereby to let Mark and Matthew, Luke and John speak with their individual voices.

The first three gospels are the most difficult to differentiate in this way, since Matthew and Luke utilize a great deal of Mark. But Lattimore does manage to convey the abruptness of Mark, the studied arrangement by Matthew, and the striking employment by Luke of both elevated and plebeian Greek. Moreover, he does make un-Greek concessions to English idiom; thus, "Our Father" at the opening of the Lord's Prayer does not become "Father Our" or "Father of Us."

We are also provided with valuable references to the Pelican Gospel Commentaries. These bring into the open what Lattimore rather underplays; for they make clear that behind the Greek masks through which the evangelists speak lies the voice of the Man of Galilee, who normally spoke not Greek but the Semitic dialect known as Aramaic. The final result is somewhat paradoxical; for the closer we are brought by Lattimore to the Greek of the gospels, the further we are removed from the Aramaic Gospel which they preserve but also distort. It is as if the restorer of the famous fresco in SS. Annunciata, depicting "The Trinity and Saint Jerome with Saints Paula and Eustochium," had not brought to light the simple and beautiful sketch (or sinopia) with which it all started.

One example must suffice — the important passage at Matt. 5, 21-22, in which an angry disposition and angry words are equated with the crime of murder. The translation in the King James Version had always bemused and even terrified me:

"Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment.

"But I say unto you, that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment; and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire."

The Lattimore version is somewhat reassuring but still rather mystifying:

"You have heard that it was said to the ancients: You shall not murder. He who murders shall be liable to judgment. I say to you that any man who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment; and he who says to his brother, fool, shall be liable before the council; and he who says to his brother, Sinner, shall be liable to Gehenna."

It is to be noted that the King James Version preserves the Aramaic term of abuse, "Raca," but translates the other insulting term,

"Mōrs," as "Fool." Lattimore soundly enough prefers "Fool" and "Sinner"; but the original flavor is lost unless it is brought out that the "Mōros" is not a Greek "moron" but an Aramaic "Mōros," a rebel. And the place to which the worst of the angry name-callers is consigned - the hell fire of King James and the transliterated Gehenna of Lattimore - is quite simply (in Aramaic or Hebrew) the fires in Ge Hinnom, that valley (outside the walls of the Holy City) where the trash was incinerated.

All of this indicates only that, as Professor Lattimore rightly observes, "There is room for a number of modern translations." Happily this now includes his own.

THE FOUR GOSPELSAND THE REVELATIONby Richmond Lattimore '26Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1979. 301 pp. $10.95.

Emeritus Professor Scott-Craig holds a theological degree as well as the Ph.D.