In terms of the physical
appearance of the two books, the HTM's Holy Week and Pascha is slightly bulkier than Papadeas' Holy Week - Easter – about 1/3 thicker,
880 pages to Papadeas’ 500 – but same height and width. The paper quality in
the HTM version seems better, and fonts and layout more attractive. For the
English text, Papadeas has the benefit of slightly larger font, but when it
comes to the Greek, the font used in HTM makes it easier to see and read
despite being slightly smaller.
The best argument for getting the
HTM rather than Papadeas, and also the reason this is a bulkier volume, is that
there is far more content. While Papadeas starts with the Matins of Holy Monday
on Palm Sunday evening, HTM begins two days earlier with the Vespers, Compline,
Matins and Liturgy for both Lazarus Saturday and Palm Sunday. It also provides
texts for Vespers for every day in Holy Week, while Papadeas only includes
Vespers for Holy Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and the so-called “Agape Vespers” on
the eve of Renewal Monday. What always disappointed me about Papadeas was that
it includes no services for Holy Thursday at all, providing only the text of
the Unction service on the basis that this tends to replace Holy Thursday
Matins in most North American parishes. The HTM, however, includes both the
service of Holy Unction, and the Matins and Vespers of Holy Thursday. HTM also
includes the full set of Biblical readings for the various services: for the
Vesperal Liturgy on Holy Saturday Morning, Papadeas has three readings from the
Old Testament, while the HTM has the full fifteen.
Another benefit of the HTM
version is that the English translation of Biblical material actually
corresponds to the Greek text on the adjacent page, while the readings in
Papadeas follow the Hebrew MT even where it differs significantly from the
Greek Septuagint. Compare, for example, in Papadeas the Greek and English
reading from Job in the Vespers of the Apokathelosis: the English ends with Job
dying “an old man and full of days”, while the Greek continues with another 5
verses showing Job’s genealogical connection to the Patriarch Abraham. I haven’t
yet had time to look closely at the HTM translation of the hymns to see how it
compares to Papadeas linguistically and in terms of accuracy, although I can
imagine you will find some of the awkward wording HTM are occasionally
criticised for. As with many of their other liturgical books, the HTM translation
of the Lamentations sung during the Matins of Holy Saturday is designed to fit
the Byzantine melodies – and fit it does, hand in glove – which means various
adjectives not found in the original text are added to make up for the lack of
syllables. At least when it comes to the much-loved Lamentations, where it is
not uncommon for the congregation to join in, this is a plus in my opinion.
All things considered, (if it is
the Lord’s will and we live) I will most definitely be taking the HTM version
with me to church next time Holy Week comes around. However, if I was
recommending or buying copies to distribute to parishioners, I would probably still
have to go with Papadeas, because it is a book designed to follow along with:
1) Papadeas tries to provide the entire text of each service, from the first “Blessed”
to the final “Amen”. Nothing is abbreviated. While the service of Matins for
each day is relatively complete in the HTM version, some familiarity with the
structure of services is still assumed: things such as the Great Litany, the ‘dialogue’
between the priest and choir before Scripture readings, the Trisagion prayers,
etc. are omitted or abbreviated, and there is some cross-referencing to avoid
repetition. I can therefore see people getting lost if trying to follow along. 2)
Papadeas provides detailed rubrics, such as “This Psalm is chanted in a
monotone, while the priest censes…with the…small hand-censer”, where HTM has
none. Granted, some of these rubrics are wrong and even inappropriate (telling
the congregation to sit during the reading of the Hexapsalm, for example, while
the HTM instead stresses the need for them to “listen in all silence and with compunction”),
but these are relatively few. The big exception is the prayer of St. Ephrem the
Syrian, where Papadeas says nothing about prostrations (the Greek is not even broken
up into three lines, suggesting it should be read straight through), when in
fact it is the prayer which is there to accompany the prostrations, not the
other way around. 3) Generally speaking, Papadeas presents the services as they
are commonly done in parishes, while HTM presents the services as they should be done. I am happy HTM has all
fifteen OT readings for the Vespers on Holy Saturday morning, but if most people
using the book are only ever going to hear three read in church, this is going to
cause confusion. With Papadeas, what the reader sees on the page is what s/he
is likely to see in church. 4) I am personally quite fond of “traditional
English” in liturgical texts, particularly because it retains the second person singular pronouns,
but it can take some getting used to, and if Holy Week is the only time of year
you hold a liturgical book in your hands (as is the case with many), it might
be needlessly difficult or off-putting.
To conclude, Papadeas has
certainly been surpassed by HTM’s new volume, but not necessarily superseded.
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