Re: Sallust & Paul

From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Wed Sep 22 1999 - 20:24:52 EDT


<x-rich>At 5:52 PM -0600 9/22/99, John Barach wrote:

>I'm not sure if this question is entirely within the B-Greek sphere,
but

>I'll ask anyway. (You can respond off-list, if you like.)

>

>I was looking at my Penguin translation of Sallust's _Jugurthine War_

>and discovered this line at the end of the first paragraph: "If men

>pursued good things with the same ardour with which they seek what is

>unedifying and unprofitable ... they would control events instead of

>being controlled by them, and would rise to such heights of greatness

>and glory that their mortality would put on immortality."

>

>Of course, I was struck by the similarity in wording between the last

>few words and Paul's words in 1 Cor. 15:53-54. It may be that the

>similarity is due to the translator, but I was curious. Could Paul
be

>alluding to (or borrowing wording from) Sallust, as he does elsewhere

>from Greek poets? Or was this imagery common at that time?

More likely, I think, is it that the translator is drawing upon
phrasing from the KJV of Paul. The Latin phrasing for that final clause
isn't nearly so close to Paul's Greek as your translator's English is.

<color><param>0000,7777,0000</param>Quod si hominibus bonarum rerum
tanta cura esset, quanto studio aliena ac nihil profutura multaque
etiam periculosa ac perniciosa petunt, neque regerentur magis quam
regerent casus et eo magnitudinis procederent, ubi pro mortalibus
gloria aeterni fierent.
</color>

Carl W. Conrad

Department of Classics/Washington University

One Brookings Drive/St. Louis, MO, USA 63130/(314) 935-4018

Home: 7222 Colgate Ave./St. Louis, MO 63130/(314) 726-5649

cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu

WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/

</x-rich>



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