经济学人82:理性的声音 The Dead Sea Scrolls

 　　Still in Books and Arts;The Dead Sea scrolls¹;Voice of reason;

　　文艺；死海古卷；理性的声音；

　　The Story of the Scrolls: The Miraculous² Discovery and True Significance of the Dead Sea Scrolls. By Geza Vermes.

　　《古卷的故事：死海古卷的神奇发现和真正意义》。格左·维尔麦希著。

　　Within a century or so of Christianity's emergence⁴, Jews and Christians⁵ were having heated disputes over certain prophetic passages in the Hebrew scriptures⁶. They were arguing not only over the meaning of those verses, but over their precise wording. Each side suspected the other of doctoring manuscripts in order to support its own interpretations⁷.

　　在基督教出现后一个世纪左右的时间里，犹太教徒和基督徒们就希伯来语圣经中某些预言性的章节进行了激烈的辩论。他们不仅就那些经节的意思，也就那些经节准确的字词进行争论。每一方都怀疑对方篡改了手稿以便支持自己的阐释。

　　At least until the late 20th century, it was almost impossible for modern scholars to throw any light on the substance of these disputes: in other words, to say which party was correct in its claims as to which wording was the oldest. There are clearly some small but significant differences between the Hebrew used by most Jews for at least 1,400 years or so—the Masoretic text—and the Septuagint, a translation into Greek made for Hellenistic Jews in Egypt about 800 years earlier, using a Hebrew original which has been lost. But nobody could really explain the source of these differences. Was it the case that the translators deliberately⁸ set out to mislead, or did later editors alter the Hebrew?

　　至少在二十世纪晚期以前，现代的学者们几乎不可能弄清这些争论的实质内容：换句话说，几乎不可能断定哪一方对于哪一个用词最为古老的看法是否正确。大部分犹太人使用了至少1400年左右的希伯来语圣经——即马所拉本圣经——和七十士希腊文圣经之间显然有一些细微但重要的不同之处。（七十士本圣经是为讲希腊语的在埃及的犹太人所作的希腊语翻译，成书时间较马所拉本圣经早大约800年，其所用的希伯来语原文现已失传。）但没人真能解释这些不同之处的来源。是翻译者们有意去误导读者，还是后来的编辑者改动了希伯来语圣经？

　　Debate about this and many other delicate matters was transformed by the discovery, starting in 1947, of nearly 900 documents, in a series of caves in the desolate⁹ landscape east of Jerusalem. The scrolls, the first of which was found by a young goatherd, are a mixture of biblical and quasi-biblical texts, plus some previously¹⁰ unknown writings, all apparently¹¹ possessed¹² by (and perhaps produced by) a dissident Jewish community just before and during the time of Jesus Christ.

　　关于这一点和其它许多微妙问题的争论因为将近900份文件从1947年开始陆续被发现而改观。发现这些文件的地点是位于耶路撒冷以东荒凉地带的一组岩洞。最先发现其中一册古卷的是一个年轻的羊倌。古卷中既有圣经上的文本也有类似圣经的文本，还有一些先前不为人所知的著作；这些卷册显然是由一个持异见的犹太人群体拥有(或许也制作)，拥有(制作)的年代略早于并贯穿耶稣基督的时代。

　　The analysis of such ultra-sensitive material requires calm judgment—and Geza Vermes, a retired¹³ Oxford¹⁴ professor, is widely credited with having the coolest head among the scholars who have devoted¹⁵ their careers to studying the scrolls and sharing their insights. Some of his writing is controversial. He has, for example, strong personal opinions on the “historical Jesus”, and like anybody who enters that field he has attracted both admirers and detractors. But in this short personal memoir¹⁶, he sticks mainly to the known facts about the scrolls, and the arguments they have caused. On this matter, he is careful and fair-minded.

　　分析这样极度敏感的材料需要心平气和的判断——而在专事研究死海古卷并与他人分享见解的学者中，格左·维尔麦希这位牛津大学的退休教授被广泛的认为是头脑最为冷静的一位。他所写的文字有的也具争议性。比如，他对“历史上的耶稣”持有强烈的个人观点；和其他任何进入该领域的人一样，他也吸引了崇拜者和诋毁他的人。但在这本短小的个人回忆录中，他基本上只讲述了关于那些古卷已知的事实和古卷所引起的争论。在这件事上，他小心谨慎，公平持正。

　　It may help that his personal story stands at the tragic¹⁷ interface¹⁸ between Christianity and Judaism in the 20th century. As the 85-year-old Mr Vermes recalls, his Hungarian Jewish parents died in the Holocaust¹⁹, even though the family, which was not religious, had converted to Catholicism in the 1930s. Young Geza was saved by the family's Catholic contacts and went on to study in western Europe. Ordained²⁰ as a Catholic priest and educated at Catholic universities, he later reverted²¹ to his Jewish roots. As a lifelong analyst²² of the scrolls, whose efforts to maximise scholarly access have been gratefully recalled by younger biblical scholars, such as Britain's Philip Davies, Mr Vermes is well placed to dissect²³ the precise significance of this unique discovery, and to assess the many theories it triggered.

　　他亲身经历了基督教和犹太教在二十世纪悲剧性的关系，这可能对他有所助益。现已85岁的维尔麦希回忆说，他匈牙利裔的犹太双亲都死于大屠杀，虽然他们一家——他们并不笃信宗教——之前在一九三十年代都皈依了天主教。年轻的格左被其家庭交往的天主教徒所救，接着去了西欧学习。他被授予了天主教神父的职务，也在不同的天主教大学受过教育，但后来他还是回归了他的犹太传统。作为一位毕生分析死海古卷的专家，他努力让尽可能多的学者能够接触这些文本——比他年轻的圣经学者们（比如英国的菲利普·戴维斯）回忆起他的这些努力时都心存感激——由他来剖析这一独特发现的精确意义和评价这一发现所引发的多个理论非常合适。

　　One popular conspiracy²⁴ theory held that the Catholic scholars who did the initial analysis of the scrolls kept their conclusion secret because it challenged the Christian³ faith. Mr Vermes, who was close to that research effort, finds good reason to criticise²⁵ it for slowness and carelessness—but no ground to assert a conspiracy. Nor does he accept oversimplified theories that directly link the community which gave rise to the scrolls with the advent²⁶ of Christianity. The manuscripts are relevant to the study of Christian beginnings, but they are not the whole story.

　　根据一个流传甚广的阴谋论的说法，对死海古卷进行了最初分析的天主教学者们对他们的结论秘而不宣，因为该结论挑战了基督教的信仰。维尔麦希先生对于那次研究有近距离的了解，他有理有据的对该次研究的缓慢和粗疏做了批评，但他不认为阴谋论的说法有根据。他也不接受那些把留下了死海古卷的群体和基督教的出现直接联系起来的过于简单化的理论。那些手稿对关于基督教起源的研究有用，但它们并非事情的全部。

　　For Mr Vermes, the Dead Sea scrolls provide both reassurance²⁷ and difficult questions for believing Christians and Jews alike. The reassuring²⁸ news for Jews is that the scrolls, comprising versions of the Hebrew scriptures in use about 2,000 years ago, are mostly pretty close to the later Masoretic version.

　　在维尔麦希先生看来，死海古卷对于虔信的基督徒和犹太教徒来说，都是既安顿了他们的信心，也提出了不易回答的问题。让犹太教徒安心的消息是这些古卷包含了大约两千年前人们所用的不同版本的希伯来语圣经，而这些版本和后来的马所拉本圣经大体上相当接近。

　　Although Mr Vermes does not spell this out in detail, there is also some intriguing²⁹ news for Christians: certain “Old Testament” passages which they hold dear—but which are mysteriously absent in the Masoretic version—do feature in the scrolls. They don't seem to have been late Christian inventions. The challenging thing for both faiths to accept is that multiple versions of the Hebrew scriptures appear to have been in circulation for a very long time—to a degree that casts doubt on the existence of one original set of words. Indeed, the very idea there was a single Ur-text from which later versions diverge³⁰ either more or less is hardly tenable, as Mr Vermes persuasively³¹ argues.

　　虽然维尔麦希先生没有细说，关于死海古卷也有对基督徒来说颇有意思的消息：“旧约”中某些他们珍视的段落——但是这些段落却神秘的没有出现在马所拉本圣经中——确实在死海古卷中就有了。它们看上去不像是基督徒后来编造的。上述两个宗教可能都难以接受的是希伯来语圣经的多个版本看来都已经流传了很长时间，以致于让人怀疑是否真的存在一个原初的文本。其实，就如维尔麦希先生让人信服的论证的那样，认为先有一个单一的原始文本，后来的版本或多或少的脱离了该个原始文本的这一想法是难以站住脚的。

　　Many believers in revealed religion, especially those who regard text as the primary medium of revelation, will find that hard. But if they do accept it, it will be much easier for believers in different religions to have civilised debates without coming to blows. As someone who has significantly advanced that cause, Mr Vermes can look back on a life well lived.

　　许多相信启示宗教的人们，尤其是那些把文字视为启示之主要媒介的信徒，会觉得这难以接受。但是如果他们真的接受了这个观点，不同宗教的信徒间将更容易进行文明的争论而不用彼此挥拳相向。作为有力的推动了这一事业的人，维尔麦希先生的生命没有虚度。

1 scrolls   

n.（常用于录写正式文件的）纸卷( scroll的名词复数 )；卷轴；涡卷形（装饰）；卷形花纹v.（电脑屏幕上）从上到下移动（资料等），卷页( scroll的第三人称单数 )；（似卷轴般）卷起；（像展开卷轴般地）将文字显示于屏幕

参考例句：

• Either turn it off or only pick up selected stuff like wands, rings and scrolls. 把他关掉然后只捡你需要的物品，像是魔杖(wand)，戒指(rings)和滚动条(scrolls)。 来自互联网
• Ancient scrolls were found in caves by the Dead Sea. 死海旁边的山洞里发现了古代的卷轴。 来自辞典例句

2 miraculous   

adj.像奇迹一样的，不可思议的

参考例句：

• The wounded man made a miraculous recovery.伤员奇迹般地痊愈了。
• They won a miraculous victory over much stronger enemy.他们战胜了远比自己强大的敌人，赢得了非凡的胜利。

3 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

4 emergence   

n.浮现，显现，出现，（植物）突出体

参考例句：

• The last decade saw the emergence of a dynamic economy.最近10年见证了经济增长的姿态。
• Language emerges and develops with the emergence and development of society.语言是随着社会的产生而产生，随着社会的发展而发展的。

5 Christians   

n.基督教徒( Christian的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Christians of all denominations attended the conference. 基督教所有教派的人都出席了这次会议。
• His novel about Jesus caused a furore among Christians. 他关于耶稣的小说激起了基督教徒的公愤。

6 scriptures   

经文，圣典( scripture的名词复数 )； 经典

参考例句：

• Here the apostle Peter affirms his belief that the Scriptures are 'inspired'. 使徒彼得在此表达了他相信《圣经》是通过默感写成的。
• You won't find this moral precept in the scriptures. 你在《圣经》中找不到这种道德规范。

7 interpretations   

n.解释( interpretation的名词复数 )；表演；演绎；理解

参考例句：

• This passage is open to a variety of interpretations. 这篇文章可以有各种不同的解释。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The involved and abstruse passage makes several interpretations possible. 这段艰涩的文字可以作出好几种解释。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

8 deliberately   

adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地

参考例句：

• The girl gave the show away deliberately.女孩故意泄露秘密。
• They deliberately shifted off the argument.他们故意回避这个论点。

9 desolate   

adj.荒凉的，荒芜的；孤独的，凄凉的；v.使荒芜，使孤寂

参考例句：

• The city was burned into a desolate waste.那座城市被烧成一片废墟。
• We all felt absolutely desolate when she left.她走后，我们都觉得万分孤寂。

10 previously   

adv.以前，先前（地）

参考例句：

• The bicycle tyre blew out at a previously damaged point.自行车胎在以前损坏过的地方又爆开了。
• Let me digress for a moment and explain what had happened previously.让我岔开一会儿，解释原先发生了什么。

11 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

12 possessed   

adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的

参考例句：

• He flew out of the room like a man possessed.他像着了魔似地猛然冲出房门。
• He behaved like someone possessed.他行为举止像是魔怔了。

13 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。

14 Oxford   

n.牛津（英国城市）

参考例句：

• At present he has become a Professor of Chemistry at Oxford.他现在已是牛津大学的化学教授了。
• This is where the road to Oxford joins the road to London.这是去牛津的路与去伦敦的路的汇合处。

15 devoted   

adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的

参考例句：

• He devoted his life to the educational cause of the motherland.他为祖国的教育事业贡献了一生。
• We devoted a lengthy and full discussion to this topic.我们对这个题目进行了长时间的充分讨论。

16 memoir   

n.[pl.]回忆录，自传；记事录

参考例句：

• He has just published a memoir in honour of his captain.他刚刚出了一本传记来纪念他的队长。
• In her memoir,the actress wrote about the bittersweet memories of her first love.在那个女演员的自传中，她写到了自己苦乐掺半的初恋。

17 tragic   

adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的

参考例句：

• The effect of the pollution on the beaches is absolutely tragic.污染海滩后果可悲。
• Charles was a man doomed to tragic issues.查理是个注定不得善终的人。

18 interface   

n.接合部位，分界面；v.(使)互相联系

参考例句：

• My computer has a network interface,which allows me to get to other computers.我的计算机有网络接口可以与其它计算机连在一起。
• This program has perspicuous interface and extensive application. 该程序界面明了，适用范围广。

19 holocaust   

n.大破坏；大屠杀

参考例句：

• The Auschwitz concentration camp always remind the world of the holocaust.奥辛威茨集中营总是让世人想起大屠杀。
• Ahmadinejad is denying the holocaust because he's as brutal as Hitler was.内贾德否认大屠杀，因为他像希特勒一样残忍。

20 ordained   

v.任命（某人）为牧师( ordain的过去式和过去分词 )；授予（某人）圣职；（上帝、法律等）命令；判定

参考例句：

• He was ordained in 1984. 他在一九八四年被任命为牧师。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He was ordained priest. 他被任命为牧师。 来自辞典例句

21 reverted   

恢复( revert的过去式和过去分词 )； 重提； 回到…上； 归还

参考例句：

• After the settlers left, the area reverted to desert. 早期移民离开之后，这个地区又变成了一片沙漠。
• After his death the house reverted to its original owner. 他死后房子归还给了原先的主人。

22 analyst   

n.分析家，化验员；心理分析学家

参考例句：

• What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务？
• The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。

23 dissect   

v.分割；解剖

参考例句：

• In biology class we had to dissect a frog.上生物课时我们得解剖青蛙。
• Not everyone can dissect and digest the public information they receive.不是每个人都可以解析和消化他们得到的公共信息的。

24 conspiracy   

n.阴谋，密谋，共谋

参考例句：

• The men were found guilty of conspiracy to murder.这些人被裁决犯有阴谋杀人罪。
• He claimed that it was all a conspiracy against him.他声称这一切都是一场针对他的阴谋。

25 criticise   

v.批评，评论；非难

参考例句：

• Right and left have much cause to criticise government.左翼和右翼有很多理由批评政府。
• It is not your place to criticise or suggest improvements!提出批评或给予改进建议并不是你的责任！

26 advent   

n.(重要事件等的)到来，来临

参考例句：

• Swallows come by groups at the advent of spring. 春天来临时燕子成群飞来。
• The advent of the Euro will redefine Europe.欧元的出现将重新定义欧洲。

27 reassurance   

n.使放心，使消除疑虑

参考例句：

• He drew reassurance from the enthusiastic applause.热烈的掌声使他获得了信心。
• Reassurance is especially critical when it comes to military activities.消除疑虑在军事活动方面尤为关键。

28 reassuring   

a.使人消除恐惧和疑虑的，使人放心的

参考例句：

• He gave her a reassuring pat on the shoulder. 他轻拍了一下她的肩膀让她放心。
• With a reassuring pat on her arm, he left. 他鼓励地拍了拍她的手臂就离开了。

29 intriguing   

adj.有趣的；迷人的v.搞阴谋诡计(intrigue的现在分词)；激起…的好奇心

参考例句：

• These discoveries raise intriguing questions. 这些发现带来了非常有趣的问题。
• It all sounds very intriguing. 这些听起来都很有趣。 来自《简明英汉词典》

30 diverge   

v.分叉，分歧，离题，使...岔开，使转向

参考例句：

• This is where our opinions diverge from each other.这就是我们意见产生分歧之处。
• Don't diverge in your speech.发言不要离题。

31 persuasively   

adv.口才好地；令人信服地

参考例句：

• Students find that all historians argue reasonably and persuasively. 学生们发现所有的历史学家都争论得有条有理，并且很有说服力。 来自辞典例句
• He spoke a very persuasively but I smelled a rat and refused his offer. 他说得头头是道，但我觉得有些可疑，于是拒绝了他的建议。 来自辞典例句