Architexture

One intriguing aspect of studying the translations of the Gospels from Greek into Latin concerns the rendering of technical architectural vocabulary. Many instances illustrate the multiplicity of strategies Latin translators employed to find terms, concepts and descriptions for building types, construction materials and methods, architectural components, or their role in the narrative. This article presents important variant readings to better understand how sacred spaces are represented in the Latin Gospels. Our attention is specially drawn to the Temple in Jerusalem, its surroundings and individual structures, and how different textual traditions portrayed their meaning and function. The focus will be on the Gospel of Luke, as transmitted in the Codex Vercellensis (a, 3), the oldest manuscript of the Latin Bible.