kyrkohistorisk årsskrift 2006 Särtryck Josef Eskhult Latin Bible Versions in the Age of Reformation and Post-Reformation: On the development of new Latin versions of the Old Testament in Hebrew and on the Vulgate as revised and evaluated among the Protestants kyrkohistorisk årsskrift 2006 Redaktör: Anders Jarlert, professor i kyrkohistoria vid Lunds universitet. Skrifter utgivna av Svenska kyrkohistoriska föreningen 106:1 isbn 91-85582-57-3, issn 0085-2619 © Svenska kyrkohistoriska föreningen & författaren 2006. http://www.kyrkohistoriskarsskrift.se SÄRTRYCK Josef Eskhult Latin Bible Versions in the Age of Reformation and Post-Reformation: On the development of new Latin versions of the Old Testament in Hebrew and on the Vulgate as revised and evaluated among the Protestants 1. Introduction Modern research, too, has devoted little attention to the Vulgate among the Protestants in the sixteenth, 1.1 Aim and scope seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, viz. the extent to which they used it and how they evaluated it. In the age of the Reformation (1517–1580) This article is meant to help remedy the defi ciency and post-Reformation (1580–1720) many biblical in this fi eld of research. The purpose is accordingly scholars, Hebraists and Grecists alike, made new twofold: to give a survey of Latin versions of the entire Latin translations of the Old and New Testaments or complete Old Testament from the Hebrew source from Hebrew and Greek by individual enterprises. language that came into being up to the middle of the Most of the translators belonged to the Reformed eighteenth century, and, secondly, to present the most and Lutheran Churches. Some new Latin versions important revisions of the Vulgate within the Luth- enjoyed universal approval as long as Latin was the eran Church as well as to probe the opinions of the language of scholarship. Nevertheless, the Lutheran Vulgate among Protestants. I shall also touch upon an and Reformed churches continued to use the Vulgate, adjacent area, the theory behind Bible translation. although they revised and emendated it from the source languages of the Bible. The question of what Latin Bible versions were 1.2 Outline of the study developed and used in the age of Reformation and The survey is arranged as follows: First, previous post-Reformation must be considered a matter of research is presented. Then the three methods are great signifi cance in Neo-Latin philology as well as described to which the humanist Hebraists resorted church history. However, the Latin versions of the to establish a Latin Bible for the Church’s use. This whole Old Testament elaborated in the period 1500 – leads to an account of the revisions of the Vulgate by 1750 have received only limited attention in modern the Lutherans and the opinions of the Vulgate among scholarship, which has concentrated on the Bible the Protestants. Next follows a survey of the Latin versions in European vernaculars during the sixte- versions of the Old Testament from its Hebrew origi- enth century and, if Latin Bible versions have been nal in the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth cen- considered at all, scholarship has dealt with Lorenzo turies. In introductory sections there is an attempt to Valla’s criticism of the Vulgate, Erasmus’ Latin ver- describe the humanistic Latin Bible versions in their sion of the New Testament or some humanist trans- historical context, and, further, what Hebrew source lator of an individual biblical book (e.g. the Psalter).1 text the translator in question set out from, and the Kyrkohistorisk årsskrift 2006 31 SÄRTRYCK kyrkohistorisk årsskrift 2006 views on Bible interpretation as expressed by human- Christian Kortholt (1633–1694), professor of theo- ist theorists (Huet and Humphrey). The description logy at the University of Kiel (Lutheran), De variis of each Latin version of the Old Testament is arranged Scripturae Sanctae editionibus tractatus theologico- as follows: fi rst, the appearance of the different edi- historico-philologicus (1686), deals with the Vulgate tions will be accounted for. Then, the focus will fall and presents a survey of new Latin Bible translations, on the various methods of translation, as described where he above all has collected a body of information by the translators in question, and, last, the recep- about contemporary scholars’ critical judgements on tion history of the respective Bible versions will be the versions considered.3 dealt with, how they were estimated by critics in the Johann Gottlob Carpzov (1679–1767), professor sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth century. The of theology at the University of Leipzig (Lutheran) is reception history will be investigated by means of a to be credited with the most extensive exposition on selection of the opinions voiced by critics. After this the present matter among all surveys that were writ- survey the editions of the Vulgate and the Latin Bible ten in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In the versions are placed in a chronological overview. Then voluminous treatise on textual criticism of the Old follows an exposition that tries to penetrate some key Testament Critica Sacra Veteris Testamenti (1728) he concepts that the Bible translators in the sixteenth, investigates inter alia the Vulgate, its age and origin, seventeenth and eighteenth century had in mind. its genuine author, its errors of translation, the edi- The qualities of proprietas, i.e. proper signifi cation, tions of it since the Carolingian Renaissance (Alcuin, latinitas or puritas, i.e. linguistic correctness, and Beda and so on), the question of its authority and its perspicuitas, i.e. clearness, turn out to be the most use, as well as the new Latin translations of the Old important terms in the conceptual framework. The Testament from the original language, wherein he different concerns for these qualities have been evalu- accounts for the aim which the translator in question ated in the Latin versions under consideration. Finally, had in view with his translation, the methods of trans- some specimens of biblical passages are adduced in lation, the varying estimations among the critics, the order to elucidate different linguistic features in the general character of the translation and the technique Latin Bible versions considered. of translation, which is thoroughly exemplifi ed, and, fi nally, the different editions and revisions of the Bible version at issue.4 Jacque le Long (1665–1721), a French librarian 2. Earlier investigations (Catholic), wrote an extensive chronological list of editions of the Bible in all various languages, Bib- 2.1 Seventeenth- and liotheca Sacra seu syllabus omnium ferme Sacrae eighteenth-century research Scripturae editionum ac versionum (Paris 1709) (Simon, Kortholt, Carpzov, encompassing the period from the fi rst printed edi- le Long, Masch) tions of the Bible in the 1450’s up to his days. In one In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, there section he enumerates the editions of the Vulgate by appeared exhaustive surveys and critical reviews of Catholics, and in another section he lists the editions the emendated and revised editions of the Vulgate and of the Vulgate as issued and annotated by the Pro- the new Latin Bible translations. Those attracting testants. He devotes yet another entire section to the special interest and those that are of major impor- new Latin Bible versions from the Hebrew original. tance will be mentioned in the following account. Andreas Gottlieb Masch (1724–1807), a librarian Richard Simon (1638–1712), the famous French and a divine (Lutheran), considerably enlarged and exegete and biblical critic (Catholic) wrote Histoire supplemented Jacque le Long’s Bibliotheca Sacra. Critique du Vieux Testament (1685), where he deals Masch’s revision and enlargement of Bibliotheca with the history of Bible translations. On the basis of sacra is marked by systematics in minute details, his own readings, as it appears, he makes judicious apparent in the conspectus, which is to be found after remarks about the new Latin translations of the Bible the preface of the third volume. The third volume up to his time.2 (1783) and the fourth volume (1785) deal with the 32 SÄRTRYCK josef eskhult – latin bible versions Latin versions of the Bible. The fi rst chapter is on ieval exegesis to English versions, viz. Coverdale, the old Latin Bible versions. The second chapter treats Great Bible, the Geneva Bible, the Bishops’ Bible editions of the Vulgate version. The third chapter and King James Version. In another article about is occupied with versions from the original langu- Sebastian Münster’s knowledge and use of Jewish ages (1785). These chapters are divided into a great exegesis (1943) he thoroughly illustrates Münster’s number of sections and entries. Masch not only lists dependence on Jewish rabbis such as Raschi, Kimchi editions, but also in many cases includes the preface and Ibn Esra.7 by each editor, and in the case of the humanistic Latin John M. Lenhart, an American scholar specialized Bible versions he inserts a lot of critical judgements by on Franciscan libraries and the typography in the six- renowned critics.5 teenth century, in the article ‘Protestant Latin Bible of Two Swedish scholars also reviewed the Latin ver- the Reformation from 1520-1570: a bibliographical sions of the Bible in the mid eighteenth century, Pet- account’, surveys the revisions of the Vulgate in Luth- rus Ekerman (1696–1783), professor of eloquence at eran countries and pays regard to the Old Testament Uppsala University