THE NEW TESTAMENT IN SCOTS
William Laughton Lorimer (1885–1967) was born at Strathmartine near Dundee and spent most of his life on his native East Coast as a teacher and a classical scholar. In the years before and after the Great War he lectured in Greek at St Andrews University, going on to become a Reader in Humanity at University College, Dundee (1929–53), before returning to St Andrews as Professor of Greek for three years until his retirement in 1955. Engaged with spoken Scots since his boyhood, he made many major contributions to The Scottish National Dictionary in his later years. It was also at this time that he started to translate the New Testament from Greek into Scots. He spent the last ten years of his life at this task, but he died before his final revisions could be made. It was his son Robin L. C. Lorimer who completed the revisions and prepared the manuscripts for publication.
Robin Lorimer joined the Scottish National Dictionary Association’s Executive Council in 1967, and became an Honorary Member of the School of Scottish Studies in 1979. He died in August 1996.
This updated edition published in 2012 by Canongate Books.
First published for the Trustees of the W. L. Lorimer Memorial Trust Fund by Southside (Publishers) Ltd in 1983.
First published as a Canongate Classic in 2001 by Canongate Books Ltd, 14 High Street, Edinburgh EH1 1TE.
Copyright © R. L. C. Lorimer, 1983. Introduction copyright © James Robertson, 2012.
The Greek quotations from John 12.24 and Matthew 26.73 printed on pp. ii and 1 were written by George Thomson.
The publishers gratefully acknowledge general subsidy from the Scottish Arts Council towards the Canongate Classics series and a specific grant towards the publication of this title.
Typeset by Hewer Text UK Ltd, Edinburgh.
This digital edition first published in 2012 by Canongate Books
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available on request from the British Library
ISBN 978 0 85786 285 3
eISBN 978 1 84767 543 9
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION by James Robertson
APPENDIX II: Interpretatio apocrypha
