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CHAPTER III.

THE PRESENT LATIN VULGATE.

§ 69.

1. JEROME'S VERSION FROM THE HEBREW.

WHILE Jerome was engaged in amending the ancient Vulgate, at the request of his friend he undertook a new translation from the Hebrew, which he commenced after the year A. C. 385, and completed in 405."

[Some of his friends, it seems, found they were not adequate to contend with the Jews, since the latter appealed to the original, which the Christian writers could not use, and were therefore obliged to resort to the poor substitutes of the Alexandrian and the old Latin version. He began with the books of Samuel, for his friends needed them at the time. He then translated the Prophets, next the Psalms, then the writings of Solomon, Ezra, and Nehemiah, then the Pentateuch, Joshua, Ruth, Judges, and Chronicles; - then Tobit and Judith from the Chaldee. He concluded with Daniel, Esther, and Jeremiah. He translated the apocryphal additions to these three last books, but expressly declared they were not genuine.]'

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He thus speaks of his undertaking: "I have received

Martianay, Proleg. ii. § 1. Hody, 1. c. p. 536. Carpzov, Crit. sac. p. 667-675.

[See his Prefaces in Paralip., in Neemia, Pentat., and Psalmos. See, also, Martianay, 1. c. See Eichhorn, § 332-334. He says, Præf. in Lib. Salom. and Lib. Tobiæ, that he translated the Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Solomon's Song, in three days, and Tobit in a single day.]

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the wished-for letters of my Desiderius, entreating me to furnish our friends with a translation of the Pentateuch from the Hebrew into the Latin.

"If the edition of the Seventy translators had remained pure and as they left it when they translated it into Greek, it would have been superfluous for you, Chromati, most learned and holy bishop, to incite me to render the Hebrew volumes into Latin." Again he writes,

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Recently, you brought forward from the Psalms some testimonics concerning our Lord, the Savior, as you were disputing with a Hebrew; and he, willing to delude you, asserted of almost every sentence, that it was not in the Hebrew, as you quoted against him, from the Seventy. You then earnestly demanded that I should make a new version into the Latin tongue, following Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion."

Still further he says, "It is now three years that you have been perpetually writing to urge me to translate the book of Ezra and Esther out of the Hebrew for you."

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Jerome, Præf. ad Pentat.: Desiderii mei desideratas accepi epistolas obsecrantis, ut translatum in Latinam linguam de Hebræo sermone Pentateuchum nostrorum auribus traderem. Præf. in Paralip.: Si LXX. interpretum pura et ut ab eis in Græcum versa est, editio permaneret, superflue me, Chromati, Episcoporum sanctissime atque doctissime, impelleres, ut Hebræa volumina Latino sermone transferrem.

Ad Sophron. Præf. in Psalm. Opp. i. p. 835: Quia nuper cum Hebræo disputans quædam pro Domino salvatore de Psalmis protulisti testimonia, volensque ille te illudere per sermones pene singulos asserebat, non ita haberi in Hebræo, ut tu de LXX. interpretibus opponebas: studiosissime postulasti, ut post Aquilam, Symmachum et Theodotionem novam editionem Latino sermone transferrem. Ad Domnium et Rogatian. Præf. in Esd. et Neem. Tertius annus est, quod semper scribitis atque rescribitis, ut Esdræ librum et Hester vobis de Hebræo transferam. See, also, Ep. ad Cromatium et Heliodorum, Præf. in Tobiam. Hody, p. 356. Martianay, Prol. i. § 4.

He avows a polemic design. "...... He knows that I have sweat in learning a foreign tongue, only for this reason, that the Jews might no longer insult the churches by charging them with the falsity of their [copies of the] Scriptures."

Again he says, "That our friends may know what the Hebrew truth contains, we have not forged our words, but have translated them as we found them the Hebrews."a

among

By means of his diligence, his knowledge of the Hebrew language, acquired with the assistance of some rabbins; by his use of the exegetic reception of the Jews, and the earlier versions; and by the sound principles which he observed, he produced, perhaps, the best work of the kind which all antiquity can boast. The following extracts shed light on his work:

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"Suddenly a Jew appeared, bringing out a few volumes, which he had received from the synagogue as if to read, and Now,' said he, 'you have what you called for; and he so startled me, by his suddenness, as I was doubtful and not knowing what I should do,-that, leaving every thing else, I flew to writing, which I continue to follow to this time."

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I gave myself, to be taught, to a certain brother, who from a Jew had become a Christian."

• Præf. in Jes.: Qui scit, me ob hoc in peregrinæ linguæ eruditione sudasse, ne Judæi falsitate scripturarum ecclesiis ejus diutius insultarent. Ep. 89, ad Augustin. iv. 2, 627: Ut scirent nostri, quid Hebraica veritas contineret, non nostra confinximus, sed ut apud Hebræos invenimus, transtulimus. [Jahn, vol. i. p. 222.]

Epist. 125, ad Damas. Opp. ii. p. 563: Subito Hebræus intervenit, deferens non pauca volumina, quæ de Synagoga quasi lecturus acceperat. Et illico, habes, inquit, quod postulaveras, meque dubium et quid facerem nescientem ita festinus exterruit, ut omnibus prætermissis ad scribendum transvolarem, quod quidem usque in præsens facio.

"When but a youth, after reading Quintilian, and Tully, and the best of the rhetoricians, I shut myself up in the mill of this language; and after long time, and much ado, I scarcely began to pronounce these panting and creaking words; and, like one walking in a dungeon, discovered a thin, faint light falling from above; and very lately I stumbled upon Daniel."

"There is a certain man, from whom I rejoice that I have learned many things, and who is such a master of the Hebrew language that he is esteemed a Chaldee among their scribes."

"I remember that I, for the sake of understanding this book, [Job,] hired, at no small price, a certain Lydian teacher, who was esteemed the first among the Hebrews. I do not know whether I profited at all by his instructions. I only know this, that I could not have made this translation except I had known him before."

Again: "Since the Chaldee language is very much like the Hebrew, finding a ready speaker, who was well skilled in both languages, I made one day's work of it, and whatever he translated to me into Hebrew words, I explained in Latin to a scribe, summoned for the purpose."

"Very lately I have fallen upon Daniel, and have taken so great a disgust to him, that, with a sudden despair, I could wish to condemn all my old labor. But a certain Jew encouraged me, and translated it to me in his own language. Labor conquers all things; and I, who lately seemed to be a sciolist among the Hebrews, began again to be a learner of the Chaldee." "I hear that you. make a jest of me with Plau

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tinus's wit, because I said that Barrabas, a Jew, was my teacher." Nor is it to be wondered at that you should mistake Barrabas for Barhanina, when there is some likeness between the words."

"I will very briefly admonish the reader that I have followed the authority of no man, but, translating from the Hebrew, I have rather conformed to the usage of the Seventy, but only in those parts of it which do not differ much from the Hebrew. Sometimes, also, I have remembered Aquila, and Theodotion, and Symmachus, that [on the one hand] I might not alarm the zeal of the reader by too great novelty, nor, on the other, con

See Rufin. adv. Hieron.

Jerome, Ep. 4, ad Rusticum, Opp. iv. pt. ii. p. 774:................ Cuidam fratri, qui ex Hebræis crediderat, me in disciplinam dedi. Præf. in Dan.: Denique et ego adolescentulus post Quintiliani et Tullii lectionem ac flores rhetoricos cum me in linguæ hujus pistrinum reclusissem, et multo sudore multoque tempore vix cœpissem anhelantia stridentiaque verba resonare et quasi per cryptam ambulans rarum desuper lumen aspicerem, impegi novissime in Danielem, etc. (Comp. Hody, p. 359. Morinus, Ex. Bibl. lib. i. ex. iii. ch. 2.) Ep. 142, ad Damas. Opp. iii. p. 520: Est vir quidam, a quo ego plura didicisse gaudeo, et qui Hebræum sermonem ita elimavit, ut inter scribas eorum Chaldæus existimetur. Præf. in Job.: Memini me ob intelligentiam hujus voluminis Lyddæum quendam præceptorem, qui apud Hebræos primus haberi putabatur, non parvis redemisse nummis, cujus doctrina an aliquid profecerim nescio. Hoc unum scio, non potuisse me interpretari, nisi quod ante intellexeram. (Comp. Comment. in Habac. ii.) Præf. in Tobiam: Quia vicina est Chaldæorum lingua sermoni Hebraico, utriusque linguæ peritissimum loquacem reperiens, unius diei laborem arripui, et quicquid ille mihi Hebraicis verbis expressit, hoc ego, accito Notario, sermonibus Latinis exposui. Præf. in Dan.: Impegi novissime in Danielem et tanto tædio affectus sum, ut desperatione subita omnem laborem veterem voluerim contemnere. Verum adhortante me quodam Hebræo et illud mihi in sua lingua ingerente: Labor omnia vincit, qui mihi videbar sciolus inter Hebræos, cœpi rursus esse discipulus Chaldaicus. Apol. cont. Rufin. i. 12: Audio te ...... Plautino in me sale ludere, eo quod Barrabam Judæum dixerim præceptorem meum. (Rufin. adv. Hieron.) Nec mirum, si pro Barhanina, ubi est aliqua vocabulorum similitudo, scripseris Barrabam. Martianay, Prol. iii. ad Hieron. Opp. vol. ii., prizes his learning too high. But Leclerc rates him too low. Quæst. Hieronym. iv. vii.

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