Vulgata Sixtina

Prologue to the Gospel of John , Clementine Vulgate.

The Vulgate (Latin which means "disclosure") refers to the version in Latin of the Bible , translated by St. Jerome , between the end of ^Fourth and early ^fifth century directly from the Hebrew text. In this, she opposes the Vetus Latina ("Old Latin Bible"), translated from Greek. The fact of Jewish sources to tap directly into the language of Jesus, gives him the eyes of Christian Latin, a plus. It is clear, however, that the difference between the Vetus Latina and the Vulgate are relatively cosmetic styling.

Accustomed as we are strictly identical distribution of texts through printing, it should be borne in mind that a manuscript is essentially a copy, sometimes the subject of improvements to the copyist. It must be remembered that a book is then a very expensive item and the Bible in its immensity, is outside the scope of awards: an "edition" may lead to compromise ("I am but without the Apocalypse "), not theological but budget.

In 1456 , Gutenberg reserve the Vulgate the honor of being the first printed book.

The Latin translations of the Torah and New Testament

In ^the fourth century , Latin translations of texts of the Bible , made from the Greek and characterized originally by their literalism (they will be designated hereafter by the generic term Vetus latina , Old Latin; there are two types of variants: Africa, the oldest, and European) end up being very different in quality and accuracy because of the multiplication of manuscripts, so Pope Damasus control Jerome a more uniform and more loyal. In a letter to Damasus, Jerome expresses his doubts about the welcome that the review will: "you want with the materials of an old book I redo a new (...) what is the man Today, scientist or non-scientist, who, deciding to take charge of our work, and seeing discredit the text which he usually uses and where he learned to read, not protested immediately, and do me a forger, sacrilege , many fake letters, supposed to have been exchanged between Damasus and Jerome, were circulated between the sixth and eighth centuries .

Jerome began translating the New Testament in 382 and that of the Old Testament in 385. Facing difficulties in interpretation, he went to Palestine to visit the Jewish doctors, specialists of the Hebrew text. His desire is to find the Hebraica veritas across the Greek heritage. It took him over fifteen years to complete its work successfully. He completed his work in 405.

The work of Jerome Stridon

St. Jerome translated the Old Testament from a Hebrew original near the Masoretic text in Bethlehem between 392 and 405. He apparently did not translate the Deuterocanonical books , except those of Tobias and Judith , as these books are not part of the canon Hebrew. The Latin translation of the books of Wisdom, Sirach, the two books of Maccabees, and Baruch owes nothing to Jerome "then that the version of Jerome prefers "Gloria in altissimi Deo et in terra pax in Hominibus bona voluntatis. Another innovation in the Our Father : Jerome tried that God gives us our "supersubstantialem panem" ("bread supersubstantial") while the earlier text (and current) has "quotidianum panem.

The reception of the translation of Jerome at the time

This approach of using rabbinic tradition to establish the text of the Bible Christian has been deprecated in his time, for example by Rufinus of Aquileia and Augustine of Hippo who thought he had to follow the Septuagint , according to use of churches from Jewish circles Hellenized and Gentile, who became prominent in Christianity after the preaching of Paul of Tarsus. Leslie Hoppe, Ph.D. in religion teacher studies the Old Testament in Chicago, reported in the St. Anthony Messenger, the work of Jerome Stridon produced a stir in his day. His translation "irritated the ears of his contemporaries (...) because his idea of translation differed from that in force at the time (...) We waited for them to do translators translation as literal as possible (...) all world did not appreciate his efforts. His work was presented as "tinged with Judaism" . His opponents accused him of having translated texts as a profane or a forger and having "followed the Jews . "

Successive versions

Epistle of Jerome in the Gutenberg Bible

From the ^eighth century , the manuscript copies are starting to depart from the text of Jerome. Alcuin , Abbot of St. Martin of Tours , at the request of Charlemagne , performs work of restoration, which will be completed by Theodulf , Bishop of Orleans.

Faced with the rise of the Protestant Reformation that promotes translation (German, French, etc..) Latin text to be understood by every believer, the Catholic Church feels the need to reaffirm the supremacy of the original: "The sacred synod (...) and has said that this old edition of the Vulgate, which has already been approved in the Church by the long use of so many centuries, must be held true in the readings, arguments, sermons and public presentations . In 1593 , following the council, a revised version is published, the Vulgate Sixto-Clementine. A few centuries later, Pope Pius XII as simply redefines "legal" the supremacy of the Latin text: "If the Council of Trent wanted the Vulgate Latin version was" that all should use as authentic ", this, as everyone knows concerns only the Latin Church and its public use of Scripture, but does not diminish in any way - there's no doubt about it - neither the authority nor the value of the original texts ... This authority distinguished from the Vulgate or, as they say, its authenticity has not been declared by the Council especially for critical reasons, but rather because of its legitimate use in churches, extended over many centuries. This custom, indeed, shows that, as it was and is still understood by the Church, it is absolutely free from error in matters of faith or morals ... a kind of authenticity should not be qualified first criticism, but rather legal . "

The latest revision, enacted in 1979 by John Paul II , is called the Neo-Vulgate.

Notes

Related articles

• Apocrypha (Bible)
• Polyglot Bible of Alcala
• Hexapla

External Links

• Text of the Vulgate on Lexilogos
• (La) The Clementine Vulgate, electronic publishing
• Pierre Gandil, The Latin Bible: Vetus Latina of the Neo-Vulgate
• Vulgate Council of Trent, translations of Jerome in the Vulgate unsuccessful

Bibliography

• P.-M. Bogaert, The Latin Bible origins in the Middle Ages. Historical overview, matters, Journal of Theology Louvain, 19, 1988, 137-159.
• Samuel Berger, History of the Vulgate in the first centuries of the Middle Ages (Paris 1893).

References

• Christianity portal

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