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| Among Versions a Preference is Given to the Septuagint and the Itala.
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Chapter 15.—Among Versions a
Preference is Given to the Septuagint and the Itala.
22. Now among translations
themselves the Italian (Itala)1791
| 1791 The translation here referred to
is the Vetus Latina, as revised by the Church of Northern
Italy in the fourth century, prior to the final recension of
Jerome, commonly called the Vulgate. | is to be preferred to the others,
for it keeps closer to the words without prejudice to clearness of
expression. And to correct the Latin we must use the Greek
versions, among which the authority of the Septuagint is
pre-eminent as far as the Old Testament is concerned; for it is
reported through all the more learned churches that the seventy
translators enjoyed so much of the presence and power of the Holy
Spirit in their work of translation, that among that number of men
there was but one voice. And if, as is reported, and as many not
unworthy of confidence assert,1792
| 1792 Among these are Justin Martyr,
Irenæus, and Clemens Alexandrinus. Comp. Augustin, De Civ.
Dei, xviii. 43, and Epp. 71 and 75. | they were separated during the
work of translation, each man being in a cell by himself, and yet
nothing was found in the manuscript of any one of them that was not
found in the same words and in the same order of words in all the
rest, who dares put anything in comparison with an authority like
this, not to speak of preferring anything to it? And even if they
conferred together with the result that a unanimous agreement
sprang out of the common labor and judgment of them all; even so,
it would not be right or becoming for any one man, whatever his
experience, to aspire to correct the unanimous opinion of many
venerable and learned men. Wherefore, even if anything is found
in the original Hebrew in a different form from that in which these
men have expressed it, I think we must give way to the dispensation
of Providence which used these men to bring it about, that books
which the Jewish race were unwilling, either from religious scruple
or from jealousy, to make known to other nations, were, with the
assistance of the power of King Ptolemy, made known so long
beforehand to the nations which in the future were to believe in
the Lord. And thus it is possible that they translated in such a
way as the Holy Spirit, who worked in them and had given them all
one voice, thought most suitable for the Gentiles. But
nevertheless, as I said above, a comparison of those translators
also who have kept most closely to the words, is often not without
value as a help to the clearing up of the meaning. The Latin
texts, therefore, of the Old Testament are, as I was about to say,
to be corrected if necessary by the authority of the Greeks, and
especially by that of those who,
though they were seventy in
number, are said to have translated as with one voice. As to the
books of the New Testament, again, if any perplexity arises from
the diversities of the Latin texts, we must of course yield to the
Greek, especially those that are found in the churches of greater
learning and research.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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