LIFE OF CHRIST
TRANSLATOR’S NOTE
The King James English version has been followed in the Biblequotations of this translation, except in a few cases where an alterationin the Revised Version was evidently the result of a betterunderstanding of the original Greek or Hebrew text.
For the form of proper names, the spelling of the Century Dictionaryhas been used as a rule; for names not given in the Century,the form current in the usual standard works. Since this book isintended to be popular rather than either scholarly or archæological,it was thought best to use the name-forms best known to mostreaders.
It will be noted that a number of the quotations are mosaics madeup of phrases taken from different parts of the Bible and put togetherto make one passage. This not being the English usage insuch matters, it seems desirable to call the reader’s attention to thecharacter of such quotations.
The only other explanation which may be necessary is in connectionwith the omission of occasional sentences, paragraphs and ofone or two chapters. In the case of individual sentences or phrases,they were usually omitted because they contained an allusion sureto be obscure to non-Italian readers. A characteristic example ofsuch omissions is in the scene of the crucifixion where Christ isdescribed as being nailed to the cross with outstretched arms likean owl nailed with outstretched wings to a barn-door. This revoltingcountry-side custom being unknown to American readers, a referenceto it could only cloud the passage.
Since translators into English who omit passages are usuallyaccused of suppressing valuable material which might displease too-narrowAnglo-Saxon readers, it is perhaps as well to explain thatthe excision of paragraphs here and there, and of a few chapters,is in no sense an expurgation, because this Life of Christ is verymuch of the same quality throughout. It simply seemed to me thatsuch occasional lightening of the text would make it more acceptableto English-speaking readers, so much less tolerant of long descriptionsand minute discussions than Italians.
I quite realize that this may seem a slight and arbitrary basis formaking actual excisions in an author’s work, and I understand thatthe translator is not at all responsible for the matter which hetranslates, but only for the truthfulness with which he presents thetext given him to set into another language. I was moved first bythe fact that the passages omitted are of no more importance thanany other passages in t