The delicate, rosy tint is characteristic of Hymettos at sunset. The hill in front of Hymettos is Ardettos, above the Stadion. The time of year is late in June.
the New Testament, not quite so familiar perhaps in its style as that of Mr. Pallis, had been prepared shortly before by a learned lady at the instance of the Queen of Greece, who had found that many of the inmates of the gaols and hospitals which she visited were almost destitute of Christian knowledge, and were incapable of understanding the Greek of the New Testament. This translation had been revised by a learned Commission, and had been commended by the Metropolitan, Procopius. The excitement rose to such a height that nothing but a general excommunication of all modern Greek translations of the New Testament would satisfy the public. This demand not being granted, an indignation meeting, attended by more than 30,000 people, was held around the columns of Olympian Jupiter, and the feeling of the crowd was voiced by a student, who declared that during the centuries of Turkish oppression no such deadly injury had been inflicted on the nation with the sword as that which had now been perpetrated with the pen. The meeting was followed by riots in the streets, in which a collision took place between the crowd and the military, attended with serious and in some cases fatal results. Before the night was over, the Chief of the Police and the Commander of the Garrison had resigned their posts; a similar step had to be taken even by the Archbishop, who was conducted to the King’s palace in the middle of the night by the Prime Minister and the Minister of Public Instruction; and within a few days the Ministry itself had to relinquish office.
The whole occurrence was a striking proof of the passionate pride that is latent in the Greek character in any matter that affects its reputation and self-esteem. Although the question came to assume a semi-religious, semi-political aspect, the real offence lay in the fact that the language used in the translation was the vulgar tongue, which the University authorities desired to suppress, so far as its use for literary purposes was concerned. If the translation had been allowed to get a footing at home or in school it would have acquired a place in the affections of the people. To avoid this danger the ecclesiastical authorities issued an edict forbidding the use of all translations or any departure from the original text—and this notwithstanding the fact that there were thousands of the members of their Church who could derive little or no benefit from the New Testament without the help of a translation. It is easy to understand, from the feelings with which many devout people in this country received the changes made on the English Revised Version about thirty years ago, that the Greeks would be very sensitive to any alteration on the New Testament, which had been the cherished symbol of their nationality under the dominion of the Turk. But in this case there was no alteration of the sense; and no one was compelled to use the translation unless he pleased, nor was there any attempt to supersede the reading of the original text in church. No doubt the language of Mr. Pallis’ translation was sometimes of a very homely character. But to talk of its being a “profanation of the Gospel”
Mount Hymettos behind and the dust-laden cypress trees in front of the Palace, ruddy in the last rays of a June sunset.
was quite a misrepresentation, and seems almost ridiculous in view of the fact—which the discovery of Egyptian papyri has been bringing home to us of late—that the language of the New Testament was, at the time it was written, the language in every-day use among the masses of the people for whom it was intended, which the learned men of the day would have disdained to employ for literary purposes. No such outcry was raised in this country when a Scots translation of the Psalms was issued by the late Dr. P. H. Waddell, though it might have been more reasonably objected to as serving no practical purpose. But there was no jealousy of the Scots dialect on the part of the Church or the educated classes—hence it was simply regarded as a literary curiosity.