TOPICS OF THE DAY (From Our London Correspondent.)

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue 7377, 1 February 1902, Page 3 (Supplement)

TOPICS OF THE DAY (From Our London Correspondent.)

LONDON, December 6. WHEN GREEKS JOINED GREEKS.

The man in the street finds it hard t;o understand why the Greeks should make such a bother over the translation of the Gospels into the vulgar tongue. He does not distress himself over fin de siecle versions of the Bible in up-to-date English, for he knows that the old version, with its simple and dignified language, will hold the field against all Chica-gos-pels. But although probably in no other country in the world but Greece could a purely literary question lead to a riot, it is not difficult tjb realise the position of all the parties to the quarrel, especially when one recalls the fact that the first printed version of the Bible in English, Tindall's, with its noble simplicity of idiom, ,vas burned by the Bishop of London. Classical Greek appears to differ as much from modern Greek as Chaucerian does from modern English. Hence the trouble. Queen Olga, painfully impressed with the fact that the wounded soldiers at whose bedside during the Turkish war she was a constant and kindly visitor, had confessed to her that they could not understand the Gospel in the ancient Greek, three years ..ago approached the Holy Synod with a proposal for the translation of the Gospel into the common modern tongue. Though explaining the difficulties which prevented them from sanctioning such a step, the Synod do not appear to have put any actual veto upon it. At any rate, the Queen published a translation of the Gos- ] pels. This translation was in purest modern Greek, but at the same time the "Akropolis" was publishing a translation of the Gospel according to St. Matthew, in language which may be understood by even the least literary of Greeks. The result is that the Gospel appears to the learned in a vulgar and coarse guise, and | this has given great offence v to the theological students. The Asty also upheld the promoters of the translation. This led to a, heated discussion in the press, in which it was suggested that the translation is a subtle Russian move to weaken Greek national feeling, and to deprive Greece of the power which she possesses by reason of the fact that the Greek Church alone, "by the hallowed tradition of twenty centuries and the free consent of her children, still reads the Word of God in the very text composed by the Evangelists." The fact that the Queen is a Russian by birth, and the Metropolitan one •by education, seemed to give some colour to the suspicion entertained by the excited populace that the Hellenic idea was being deliberately weakened by the pan-Slavich element in the State. Students of all countries are apt to get excited on the slightest provocation, and Orientals far more so than cooler-blooded Anglo-Saxons. When the Greek students imagined that their religious heritage and their national independence -were being insidiously undermined, the fat was in the fire. They demanded the ex-communication of the translators, summoned a mass meeting at the Temple of Jupiter Olympus, smashed up the offices of the offending newspapers, fired several shots without effect at the Premier, and finally came into collision with the police, with the restilt that seven persons were killed and thirty injured. The riot has led to the resignation of the Metropolitan and of the Government, and to the suspension of the deliberations of the Chambers for forty days. Meanwhile there is a lull in the storm. It is a pity that the anti-translators did not display in their late war with Turkey more of the determination that they are now showing over a purely literary question. It would have been more to the purpose to kill their enemies than their own people. After their rank cowardice in the war one can feel little sympathy for the descendants .of the gallant Leonidas, who level the most vulgar insults against their Queen, jand try to secure reform by the assassination of their Premier. If the Gospels are something more than mere literary classics, then there must be versions of them that can be understood of the people. Sooner or later the students will have to stomach that fact.