Page:Early Christianity outside the Roman empire.djvu/84

74 take up the burden that we may be worthy of this name." The Greek translator misunderstood the phrase, and in his version he brought in the wholly foreign conception of submitting to the yoke of the law. Similarly, the odd introduction of in the latter part of the sentence comes from the fact that the Syriac word for punishment (not necessarily capital) is literally "a putting on the head." It would be a miracle indeed if the Greek were original here and the Syriac with its characteristic and perfectly natural idioms a translation.

One example more. You will remember that the daughter of the King of Sandarûk was converted with her husband to a life of Christian virginity on her bridal night. The next morning her mother expostulates with her. In the girl's reply she says among other things, according to the Greek (Bonnet 1219), I have despised this man, i.e. her husband. This is, to say the least, surprising. The young man had just been converted along with herself, and to despise one's fellow-believers has never been a Christian virtue,