Sallust & Paul

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Wed Sep 22 20:24:52 EDT 1999


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.

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.


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