Ξενοφών Μόσχου: Ο παραγνωρισμένος Θεσσαλονικέας Ευαγγελικός που άοκνα μετέφρασε στα Ελληνικά το Λεξικό των Liddell και Scott

«Henry G. Liddell και Robert Scott, Λεξικόν της ελληνικής γλώσσης, μετάφραση Ξενοφών Π. Μόσχου, 1η έκδ. Ανέστης Κωνσταντινίδης, 1901».

Υπήρξε άοκνος λόγιος που παρήγαγε την ελληνική μετάφραση του μνημειώδους λεξικογραφικού έργου των Liddell και Scott. Σε μια δύσκολη ιστορική περίοδο, έφυγε από την Θεσσαλονίκη και σπούδασε στα πανεπιστήμια της Αθήνας και του Εδιμβούργου.

Εντούτοις, ούτε μια γραμμή δεν του χάρισαν οι Έλληνες ειδικοί στις σελίδες των εγκυκλοπαιδειών. Κανένας από τους διάσημους ιστορικούς δεν αναρωτήθηκε αν το όνομα του ήταν εντέλει Μόσχος ή Μόσχου. Κανένας δεν έψαξε να βρει ποιος έκανε δώρο στις νεώτερες γενιές της Ελλάδας το αξεπέραστο λεξικό της ελληνικής γλώσσας. Γιατί;

Ο Ξενοφών Μόσχου (1858-1939) ήταν μέλος της Ελληνικής Ευαγγελικής Εκκλησίας. Αν και ήταν γιος παπά και ανατράφηκε ως Ορθόδοξος χριστιανός, η ευαγγελικαλιστική αμεσότητα του χριστιανικού άγγελματος άγγιξε την καρδιά του σε νεαρή ηλικία. Τα υπόλοιπα βιογραφικά στοιχεία του Μόσχου παραθέτονται εν είδει αποσπασμάτων:

«There is to-day in the employ of the American Board at Smyrna, a gifted young Greek. Xenophon Moschou, who is the pastor of the Evangelical Greek Church at Smyrna. I thank God that it was my privilege to take that boy from the street and prepare him for the work to which God, in His providence, has called him. The son of a priest in Thessalonica, he went to the University of Athens, obtained the Ph.D. degree, and is one of the most accomplished scholars among the Greek nation to-day. That young man is capable of doing the highest literary work; he is now preaching and doing what he can in Smyrna as the pastor of that church. For want of means his brilliant talents are unutilized, except that one of the largest publishing houses at Athens paid him to translate Liddell & Scott's Greek-English Lexicon into modern Greek. You know what a stupendous work that is. He gave nearly two years of his valuable time to the translation of that work. Now, I say, a man whose scholarship is recognized by his own people is now rusting, so far as his highest equipment is concerned, because God's people have not yet awakened to the responsibility which rests upon them to put into the hands of this native brother, under the guidance of missionaries for the selection of material, the means to prepare that literature which is necessary, not only for the evangelization of the unconverted, but for the edification of God's own people».
(American Tract Society, Ecumenical conference on foreign missions, 1900, τόμ. 2ος, Νέα Υόρκη 1900, σ. 57)

«There have been many obstacles in the development of the Evangelical church in Greece proper. Persecutions have not been wanting, the chief being that of 1892, when a mob attacked the church at Piraeus and the leaders of that church barely escaped with their lives. [...] In the city of Athens there are two congregations, the original one, of which Dr. M. D. Kalopothakes was pastor for many years, and one for the refugee congregation of Smyrna presided over by Dr. Xenophon Moschou who had been formerly the leader of the Greek Evangelical movement in Turkey. Dr. Moschou received his training at the National University of Greece and New College, Edinburgh. He is a preacher of no mean order, as can be seen in his published sermons, Christianikai Meletai (Christian Studies)».
(Plato Ernest Shaw, American contacts with the Eastern churches, 1937, σ. 137)

«Greek Evangelical Alliance: Dr. George Constantine. Many of these churches are members of the Greek Evangelical Alliance in Smyrna founded by Dr. George Constantine, an eloquent preacher and author of a number of standard theological works in Greek, a Commentary on the Four Gospels, and a Dictionary of the Bible. The work is now in charge of Dr. Xenophon Moschou, who is also the author of a Commentary on Galatians, a catechism and a number of tracts, hymns and addresses or sermons. He has also translated Liddel and Scott's Greek Lexicon into modern Greek. The number of all the evangelical Greeks in what was Turkey was probably several thousand. Many young men escaped to the United States owing to military oppression and deportation, thus a great blow was given to all the newly starting congregations».
(J. P. Xenides, The Greeks in America, 1922, σσ. 65, 66)

Πληρέστερο βιογραφικό σημείωμα εδώ [ανενεργό λινκ], με βάση το έργο του Γ. Α. Χατζηαντωνίου, Ξενοφών Μόσχου (εκδ. Β' Ελληνικής Ευαγγελικής Εκκλησίας Αθηνών, 1958).