The New Testament

451 Pages·1997·1.69 MB·English

by  Richmond A. Lattimore

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Contents
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Preface
MARK
MATTHEW
LUKE
JOHN
ACTS
The Acts of the Apostles
LETTERS
The Letters of Saint Paul
Romans
1 Corinthians
2 Corinthians
Galatians
Ephesians
Philippians
Colossians
1 Thessalonians
2 Thessalonians
1 Timothy
2 Timothy
Titus
Philemon
The Letter to the Hebrews
The General Letters
James
1 Peter
2 Peter
1 John
2 John
3 John
Jude
THE REVELATION OF JOHN
Notes
Books by Richmond Lattimore
Copyright
Preface
It was while I was teaching various Greek texts to beginning students that I was
struck by the natural ease with which Revelation turned itself into English. I
undertook the translation, and The Revelation of John appeared as a separate
volume in 1962. I continued with the Four Gospels, but with many interruptions
for other tasks.
I have held throughout to the principle of keeping as close to the Greek as
possible, not only for sense and for individual words, but in the belief that
fidelity to the original word order and syntax may yield an English prose that to
some extent reflects the style of the original. The aim of at least some other
contemporary translators has been, avowedly, just the opposite: to be faithful to
the sense but to render it in contemporary idiom. This is, of course, a perfectly
legitimate aim, and is part of the reason why there is room for a number of
modern translations.
Let me illustrate. I have translated Mark 10.27: “For men it is impossible, but
not for God, since for God all things are possible.” I could have written: “Men
cannot do it, but God can do anything.” That says the same thing, but does not
reflect the way Mark wrote. At John 11.21 and 32, first Martha, then Mary says:
“Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” So I translated,
and cannot claim originality, for the words are identical with those of the
Revised Standard Version. I had thought that so simple a statement could be
translated only in this one way. But I have not found it in any other translation
that I have consulted.
Consider a more extended passage. For Mark 7.1–5 I have written: “Then the
Pharisees gathered to him, and some of the scribes who had come from
Jerusalem, seeing that some of the disciples were eating their bread with profane,
that is, unwashed, hands: for the Pharisees, and all the Jews, will not eat unless
they have washed hand against fist, thus keeping the tradition of their elders; and
when they come from the marketplace they will not eat unless they have purified
themselves, and there are many other observances that are traditional with them,
the washing of cups and vessels both wooden and bronze: the Pharisees and the
scribes asked him: Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of
our elders, but eat their bread with profane hands?” Let me try to put this into
what is more like a contemporary idiom: “The Pharisees, with some of the
scribes, went out from Jerusalem to visit him. They noticed that some of his
disciples ate without first washing their hands, which made their hands profane.
The Pharisees and the Jews in general observe a tradition handed down from
their ancestors not to eat without first washing their hands thoroughly. When
they come in from the marketplace they will not eat until they have purified
themselves. They have many other such traditions, like washing their cups,
whether these are made of wood or bronze. Because of all this the Pharisees and
the scribes asked Jesus: Why do your disciples disobey our ancestral tradition by
eating with profane hands?”
Now, other modern translators have modernized this passage much more
successfully than I have. My heart is not in this kind of rearrangement of the
syntax. Still, all the essential meaning is there. But to me it reads much less like
Mark than the version which stands in my translation.
It will follow, or should, that since each of the Gospels, and Revelation, is the
work of a different author with a different style, they should read differently in
English. I noted that Revelation seemed to translate itself, and my aim has been
to let all of my texts translate themselves with as little interference as possible.
But it is not always so easy. To go from Revelation to Matthew is like going
from Ruskin to Carlyle. Mark in particular offers problems. Since Mark is, by
general if not universal consent, the earliest evangelist, we start with his gospel.
Matthew and Luke drew on him extensively, but constantly saw fit to rewrite
him after their own manners. He can, as illustrated above, be abrupt and crabbed.
Also, the nature of the language itself produces difficulties. There are some
terms, such as the various forms of skandalon (see note on Matthew 5.29), which
cannot always be translated in the same way, which really cannot be translated at
all, but for which the translator will have to devise some kind of paraphrase
which will convey the essential sense.
*
The Four Gospels are followed in the New Testament by the Acts of the
Apostles, which, though far from being a complete account, is the earliest
consecutive story of early Christianity that we have. It can be regarded as a
continuation of The Gospel According to Luke. This is implied in the opening
sentence, addressed, as is the Gospel, to Theophilus; and there is little or no
doubt among scholars that the author is the Luke of the Gospel.
Acts begins with the ascension of Jesus Christ to heaven and the formation of
the church in Jerusalem. From there, Christianity is preached abroad by various
ministers. In the early part of the story the dominant figure is Saint Peter. The
second half of the work, however, becomes almost exclusively the tale of Saint
Paul: his missions to the Greek cities of the Roman Empire (the Gentiles), the
oppositions he encountered, his arrest in Jerusalem, and his arrival in Rome. Not
long after that arrival, Luke somewhat abruptly (as it seems to me) ends his
story. Paul spent some time as a prisoner in Rome. He is usually thought to have
been martyred during the persecutions of Christians when Nero was Emperor,
perhaps in A.D. 64, or on an individual charge before that, but the evidence is not
conclusive.
Acts is usually dated with and immediately after Luke, about A.D. 85. That
would put it considerably later than Paul’s own writings. Still, it is useful to read
it first, so as to have a more or less continuous background for Paul’s letters.
These, the Epistles of Paul as they are canonically called, are his letters to
various Christian communities or churches. They sometimes address themselves
to particular problems, but also set forth, again and again, Paul’s own theological
doctrines and his principles for Christian behavior. There are also four letters to
individuals.
For the letters of Paul I have followed a traditional order, but a better sense
of time would be gained by reading them in some such order as this: First, letters
written before the journey to Rome: First and Second Thessalonians, Galatians,
First and Second Corinthians, Romans; and then the letters from Rome:
Colossians (with Philemon, to a member of that community), Ephesians, and
Philippians.
The two letters to Timothy and the one to Titus are commonly grouped
together and known as the Pastoral Letters. Timothy and Titus are well known
as associates of Paul, and the letters bear his characteristic self-identification at
the beginning. But their authenticity has been seriously questioned. The style
and language differ in places from what is characteristic of Paul’s other writing,
while the three do resemble one another in those respects. First Timothy and
Titus speak of the institution of bishops and elders, which seems to point to a
later stage in the development of the Church.
The Letter to the Hebrews is included with the letters of Paul, but the name
of Paul does not appear in the text. There have been many speculations about
date and authorship, but no final answer (except, perhaps, that it is not by Paul).
Next comes the group known as The General Letters (or Catholic Epistles,
Epistoloi Katholikoi). The name signifies that they are addressed (most of them
at least) to the whole Christian community rather than to separate churches, as
Paul’s letters were. The Letter of James is believed by some to be the work of
James the brother of Jesus Christ, one of the chief men in the original church in
Jerusalem. The First Letter of Peter is often credited to the great apostle himself.
Not so The Second Letter of Peter, which has close affinities with The Letter of
Jude. This, in turn, may just possibly be from the hand of the Jude (Judah, Judas)
who was also a brother of Jesus Christ. As for the three letters ascribed to John,
the second two are brief real letters apparently by the same writer. The First
Letter of John, though it, too, may be by the same author, is quite different. It is
a tract or homily, which shows strong resemblances to the Fourth Gospel, and is
thought by some to be the work of the same John. Not one of these attributions
can be called certain.
In general, I have translated Acts and Letters as a companion piece to The
Four Gospels, following the same principle of trying to let the authors of the
Greek speak for themselves in English. In the case of Saint Paul, that has not
always been so easy.
I have written some simple notes, to explain my translations or give
alternative interpretations. Without competence to comment on the manuscript
tradition, I have simply followed the text of Westcott and Hort, The New
Testament in Greek (New York: Macmillan, 1957). The rare exceptions have
been noted. Words enclosed in square brackets are of doubtful authenticity. I
have also regularly consulted The Pelican Gospel Commentaries, namely, D. E.
Nineham, Saint Mark; J. C. Fenton, Saint Matthew; G. B. Caird, Saint Luke; and
John Marsh, Saint John.
I have also made far greater use of the great dictionary which can be cited,
briefly, as W. F. Arndt and F. W. Gingrich (and now F. W. Danker), A Greek-
English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 2nd
edition (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1958).
It is a pleasure to record my obligations and thanks: to my publishers; to
Alice Lattimore for help in preparing the manuscript; to Frederick Morgan for
recommending publication, and to the memory of Fred Wieck, the earliest editor
of my poems and translations.