Mr. Sawyer's translation of such words as we
have noted above conveys no idea to the mind of the common reader, and
requires a glossary to make it intelligible. There is in his choice of
words a pedantry and affectation of learning that are in bad taste.
But in this, as in his other strictly literal renderings, he is
inconsistent, and does not adhere to his own rule. He translates Matt.
vi. 30,--"And if God so clothes the grass of the field, which to-day is,
and tomorrow is cast into the _oven_," etc. If he were consistent in his
practice, he would have rendered the word "oven" _klibanon_, and then,
in parenthesis, explained that it signifies "a large round pot, of
earthen or other material, two or three feet high, narrowing towards
the top, on the sides of which the dough was spread to be baked in thin
cakes." Probably Mr. Sawyer was deterred from following his rule in this
case by the formidableness of the necessary parenthesis; but there is as
much reason why he should have written _klibanon_ instead of "oven,"
as there is for substituting _lepton_ for "farthing," or _modius_ for
"bushel," or _carob pods_ for "husks,"--and in fact more reason,
because the word "oven," which he indorses and uses, conveys a far more
imperfect idea of the original, [Greek: _klibanon_], than those words of
the common version which he has rejected do of their originals.
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