QUARTERLY RECORD - Issue Number 579 - April to June 2007 The Magazine of the Trinitarian Bible Society in general use, though not nec- THE essarily with every book now included in the canon. Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, martyred in 258, quotes abun- Latin dantly from a Latin text which must have been a complete Bible, considering the range of the quotes. Old Latin versions began to circulate through North Africa, Italy, Gaul and ulgate Spain—most of them quite V distinct and divergent from by C.P. Hallihan each other, leading later to This material is intended to supply a gen- Jerome’s much quoted remark eral historical background, and not to to the effect that there were as many ver- A monk at work in a scriptorium enter into the realm of evaluation, textual sion was not evident in Rome, or in Italy sions as there were manuscripts of the 2 criticism, or discussion of the Canon. generally. Old Latin. Not so in Italy, where the ‘provincial’ In the various regions there would be a awkwardness of the version was Greek First popular Latin version of the Bible, or inevitably more apparent and offensive. he Latin language, though pre- Africa and Old Latin The Italian bishops were also familiar It was in Africa, not Rome, that Latin was more particularly of the Gospels and dominant in the Western New Testament, current from the begin- with the Greek texts, and saw the need Churches from mid-3rd century the primary literary language of for revision of the Latin for more accept- Christianity. This Roman province cov- ning of the 3rd century. From that time a to the Reformation, was not so distinctive of the Latin Scriptures also able use in their congregations. By this Tbefore about AD 250. The Gospel was ered what we now know as Tunisia, time Latin was in general, though not begins to appear: words which are either first proclaimed through the Roman Algeria and Morocco, and Latin was the exclusive, use in Christian writings, and official, but never indigenous, language.1 plain transliterations of Greek words or Empire by preachers whose language was gratingly literal translations of Greek in the 4th century a definite revision of Greek, and who continued to use Greek Augustine gives the impression that the the Old Latin appears to have been made Gospel was relatively late in coming to forms are scattered throughout. The pic- in their writings. At Lyons Irenaeus ture for the Latin Old Testament is even in North Italy, with church needs in view, (c. AD 130-200) preached in Latin and in North Africa, but certainly by the end of using Greek manuscripts. This attracted the 2nd century Christians were found less clear, and the one plain fact would be some local Celtic vernacular, but he that all such efforts had been derived the name Itala. Augustine recommended argued about heresies in Greek, and the throughout that region and throughout it strongly as being accurate and clear, that society. from the Septuagint, the Greek transla- Letter of the Church of Lyons about its tion of the Old Testament. No surprise but other revisions were made for indi- martyrs is in Greek. When Clement The history of the earliest Latin then that the Latin contained the vidual and local use, and more changes wrote from Rome to the Corinthians version of the Bible is lost in Apocryphal books usually found in were introduced. Perhaps this was what (AD 95), he did so in Greek. The obscurity, but Carthage, caught the Septuagint, and added to these was caused Augustine to say, ‘any one in the Shepherd of Hermas was written in up in Roman Latin culture, was 2 Esdras. In the New Testament it seems first ages of Christianity who gained pos- Greek. Justin and Tatian wrote in Greek perhaps where the first crude certain that the Epistle to the Hebrews, session of a Greek manuscript, and fan- at Rome in the 3rd century. Greek is the renderings of the Gospels James, and 2 Peter did not form part of cied that he had a fair knowledge of language of Roman Christian inscrip- into a stilted Latin were the original African (Latin) version. Greek and Latin, ventured to translate tions down to the 3rd century—even made. Tertullian of it’.3 Scribes also inserted additional details the original epitaphs of the bishops! Carthage, the first of the in the narrative from parallel passages, The few remains of the early Christian Latin fathers, distinctly Italy and changed forms of expression back to literature of Rome are in Greek, and for recognises a Latin ver- The early Latin version continued in use those with which they had first been two centuries the need for a Latin ver- sion of the New Testament generally unchanged in North Africa. familiar. Next came the mingling of these 8 9 QUARTERLY RECORD - Issue Number 579 - April to June 2007 The Magazine of the Trinitarian Bible Society various revisions, with further was held to be almost unforgivable. Even deterioration of the text. At the close of Jerome’s Latin Bible Augustine struggled to come to terms the 4th century the Latin Scriptures, Inevitably the work was begun in the with this, but, as the younger man, he Gospels particularly, were in such a state Gospels, and between 382–4 Jerome pro- conducted himself with humility under as to call for serious attention to this duced a new Latin version of the four the scorching and abusive reproofs of the version of the Scripture. Gospels,5 and also a revision of the older scholar. Nevertheless Augustine, Psalms styled the ‘Roman Psalter’ and whilst acknowledging and commending Jerome reputedly still in use in St. Peter’s, Rome. the value of the new work (as did When Damasus died in 384 Jerome left Pelagius!), seems to have kept to the Italic In 382 the bishop of Rome, already Rome for good, but not the charge that Text. Jerome himself admitted haste, styled pope, was Damasus, and his secre- he had received. After two years’ pilgrim even errors in his work, and in later writ- tary was Eusebius Sofronis Hieronymus, wanderings he founded a monastery in ings quoted portions differently. usually referred to as Jerome. This name Bethlehem, and settled there for the rest This was to be the Bible of Western more than any other is associated with of his life. Planning to go on revising the Christianity for almost 1,000 years, and the Latin Bible, and particularly the title Jerome in his study Old Testament he produced another ver- most attempts to produce versions in Latin Vulgate. The word vulgate is simply sion of the Psalms, using the Septuagint other languages were derived from this the Latin word vulgatus, meaning com- ing, and committed himself to a rigor- and Origen’s Hexapla. This ‘Gallican uneven version, making them at best ‘a mon or generally known, and in reference ously ascetic life. Damasus, distressed at Psalter’ is still used in the Vulgate of version of a version’. In itself though, it to the Scriptures always referred to the the confused and uncertain state of the today. In doing this Jerome became con- was a rendering from the original, and generally received or accepted text. The Latin Scriptures, commissioned Jerome vinced that he must turn aside from the affords a glimpse, for careful and princi- phrase Latin Vulgate is locked in historic to the task of revising and editing the Septuagint version and work from the pled use, into the witness of textual and usage, but I find it ironic that whenever manuscripts. It was always going to be a Hebrew texts. He may have been the first canonical history. Jerome used the word vulgate he referred thankless task, with much opposition, to use the expression ‘Hebrew Verity’ for to the Greek Old Testament, the some informed, more not so. In some this return to the original language. Septuagint, and that it was the Council of ways Jerome with his learning and dedi- From Jerome to Trent 1,200 years later which, mistaking cation might seem the ideal man for the Jerome’s complete Hebrew- and Greek- Jerome’s usage, attached the word inextri- work; his abrasive and virulent nature, his based Latin Bible was completed in 405, Printing cably to the Latin Bible. hostility to all that was not of Rome,4 his including another Psalter, this one always Acceptance of Jerome’s work was very referred to as the ‘Hebrew Psalter’. His Opinions of and attitudes to Jerome were zeal for and ardent promulgation of slow, and the old and the new Latin were enlargement of his Hebrew fluency with as different and difficult for those in his monasticism, mariolatry, relics and together in the Western Churches for 300 the help of Jewish scholars aroused an own days as for all later writers. He was departed saints, give a different view. years. In the east other things were hap- unease, amounting at times to downright born in Dalmatia of a Christian family in pening. Jerome’s work was adopted in hostility and accusation of being a 347 (some say 329) and educated at Gaul by the 5th century, but the Old Judaizer, and his turning from the Greek Rome. Extensive travelling and dili- Latin prevailed in Britain and Africa. By Septuagint as the Old Testament source gent classical learning followed, prob- the 6th century only Africa held plainly ably the beginnings of a knowledge The Ashburnham Pentateuch: A fine example of an illumintated Latin manuscript dating from around the of Hebrew and Aramaic, too.