The Difficulties of Translation

I should have thought that this one statement would have been enough for my defense, even before the most hostile judges. I mean the words: ‘I have expressed nothing in my own words; I have only given back to Origen what was really Origen’s, though found in other parts of his works.’ Have I pushed myself forward in any way? Have I ever led anyone to expect that I would put in anything of my own? Where can they find the words they pretend I said, on which they ground their slanderous accusations, namely, that I removed what was bad and put good words in its place, while translating literally everything that was good? It is time, I think, for them to show some sense of shame, to stop their false charges, and to stop taking on themselves the office of the devil, who is the accuser of the brothers. Let them listen to the words, ‘I have put in no words of my own.’ Let them listen to them again, and hear them repeated over and over: ‘I have put in no words of my own; I have only given back to Origen what was really Origen’s, though found in other parts of his works.’ And let them see how God’s mercy watched over me when I set my hand to this work. Let them notice how I was led to foresee the very things they are now doing. For my preface goes on like this: [a] ‘I have put this statement in my preface for fear that my detractors might think they had found a fresh reason for accusing me.’

When I spoke of a fresh charge, I was alluding to the charge they had made earlier against the reverend Bishop John, over the letter he wrote to the reverend Bishop Theophilus on the articles of faith. They pretended that when he spoke of the human body he meant something, I do not know what, other than flesh. That is why I spoke of a fresh charge. Take note, then, I say, of how these perverse and quarrelsome men behave. [c] ‘I have taken on this great labor (which I have done only because you begged me to) not in order to shut the mouths of my slanderers, which is impossible unless God himself should do it, but to give solid information to those who are seeking to advance in knowledge.’ But to show you that I foresaw and foretold that they would falsify what I was writing, look at what I said in the following passage: ‘I solemnly warn everyone who reads or copies these books, in the sight of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. I charge him by our faith in the kingdom that is to come, by the assurance of the resurrection from the dead, and by that eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels. As he would not want for his eternal portion that place where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth, where their worm does not die and their fire is not put out, I charge him to add nothing to this writing, take away nothing, insert nothing, and change nothing.’ [d]

Yet after I had warned them with all these dreadful and terrible solemn charges, these men have not been afraid to become falsifiers and corrupters of my work, though they claim to believe that the resurrection of the flesh is a real thing still to come. Why, if they believed even the simple fact that God exists, they would never set their hands to acts so harmful and so ungodly. I ask further: what line of my preface can anyone point to in which I have, as my accuser says, praised Origen to the skies, or called him, as he once did, an apostle or a prophet, or anything of the kind? I may well ask on what other matter they find any ground for accusing me. At the very start I made a confession of my faith, in terms that I think agree in every respect with the confession of the church. I stated plainly my rules of translation, which in most respects were taken from the model set by the very man who now comes forward as my accuser. I declared the purpose I set before myself in making the translation. Whether I have proved more or less able to carry out the task is no doubt a matter for those who read the work to judge. They may be expected to praise it or to laugh at it, but not to make it a ground for accusation, when the question is only one of turning words from one language into another more or less fittingly. [e]