The Pepys MS

I’ve been looking at the text of the Pepys ms. to try to work out how far it might be from the original Syriac or Western Aramaic or Hebrew. It seems to be very close. Some condensing has been done, but nothing has been lost. What I mean by this is that the extent of the condensing is in proportion to the agreement with the Set of Four. Details that are not in the Set of Four are preserved, and whatever is in the Set of Four is summarised unless specially important. For instance, the whole of the Song of Mary is reduced to something like “Upon which, she sang the Magnificat”. You can reconstruct the content of the first pericope, corresponding to the first chapter of John, with nearly all the detail of the original on this principle. On the other hand, pericopes that are different are kept in full, preserving all the detail, some of it surprising. I don’t know at what stage this sophisticated and careful condensing was done. I get the impression that it was done at the same time as the translation from Latin into French or French into English. You might have noticed that the translator, either into French or into English, brings his text up to date in terms of realia. Joseph of Arimathaea is “a rich baron”. As I remember without looking it up, the High Priest sends his knights to seize Jesus.