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The Four Gospels.
Addressed to Pope5386
5386 Made pope
366, died 384. Jerome had been his secretary at the Council held at
Rome in 382, and continued is literary services till the pope’s
death, in 385. | Damasus, a.d. 383.
You urge me to revise the old Latin version, and, as it
were, to sit in judgment on the copies of the Scriptures which are now
scattered throughout the whole world; and, inasmuch as they differ from
one another, you would have me decide which of them agree with the
Greek original. The labour is one of love, but at the same time both
perilous and presumptuous; for in judging others I must be content to
be judged by all; and how can I dare to change the language of the
world in its hoary old age, and carry it back to the early days of its
infancy? Is there a man, learned or unlearned, who will not, when he
takes the volume into his hands,
and perceives that what he reads does not suit his settled tastes,
break out immediately into violent language, and call me a forger and a
profane person for having the audacity to add anything to the ancient
books, or to make any changes or corrections therein? Now there are two
consoling reflections which enable me to bear the odium—in the
first place, the command is given by you who are the supreme bishop;
and secondly, even on the showing of those who revile us, readings at
variance with the early copies cannot be right. For if we are to pin
our faith to the Latin texts, it is for our opponents to tell us
which; for there are almost as many forms of texts as there are
copies. If, on the other hand, we are to glean the truth from a
comparison of many, why not go back to the original Greek and
correct the mistakes introduced by inaccurate translators, and the
blundering alterations of confident but ignorant critics, and, further,
all that has been inserted or changed by copyists more asleep than
awake? I am not discussing the Old Testament, which was turned into
Greek by the Seventy elders, and5387
5387 That is,
after being translated from Hebrew into Greek, and from Greek into
Latin. | has
reached us by a descent of three steps. I do not ask what5388
5388 Aquila
belonged to the second century, but whether to the first half, or to
the early part of the second half, cannot be determined. He was a
Jewish proselyte, of Sinope in Pontus, and is supposed to have
translated the books of the Old Testament into Greek in order to assist
the Hellenistic Jews in their controversies with Christians.
Jerome’s estimate of him varied from time to time. In his
commentary on Hos. ii., Is. xlix., and Letter XXVIII., etc., he treats
him as worthy of credit. On the other hand, in the letter to
Pammachius, De Opt. Gen. Interp. (LVII. 11), he describes him as
contentiosus; but in Letter XXXVI. 12, he denies that he is
such. In the preface to Job he speaks of Aquila, Symmachus, and
Theodotion as “Judaising heretics, who by their deceitful
translation have concealed many mysteries of salvation.” The
second edition of Aquila’s version, which was extremely literal,
was highly esteemed by the Jews, and was called by them the Hebrew
verity. See Davidson’s “Biblical Criticism,” p.
215, etc. | Aquila and5389
5389 Symmachus
was the author of the third Greek version. He is said to have been a
Samaritan by birth. The date of his version cannot be accurately fixed;
but, apparently, it appeared after Theodotion’s. “He does
not adhere to the text so closely as to render it verbatim into Greek;
but chooses to express the same in perspicuous and intelligible
language.”—Davidson. | Symmachus think, or why5390
5390 Theodotion, the
author of the second Greek version, was a native of Ephesus. His
version is thought to have been made before 160. “The mode of
translation adopted by him holds an intermediate place between the
scrupulous literality of Aquila and the free interpretation of
Symmachus,” and his work was more highly valued by Christians
than that of either Aquila or Symmachus. Daniel was read in his version
in the churches (Pref. to Joshua). | Theodotion takes a middle course
between the ancients and the moderns. I am willing to let that be the
true translation which had apostolic approval. I am now speaking of the
New Testament. This was undoubtedly composed in Greek, with the
exception of the work of Matthew the Apostle, who was the first to
commit to writing the Gospel of Christ, and who published his work in
Judæa in Hebrew characters. We must confess that as we have it in
our language it is marked by discrepancies, and now that the stream is
distributed into different channels we must go back to the
fountainhead. I pass over those manuscripts which are associated with
the names of5391
5391 Lucian in Syria
and Hesychius in Egypt attempted their recensions about the middle of
the third century, the time when Origen also began to labour in the
same direction. Lucian’s recension, also called the
Constantinopolitan, and to which the Slavonian and Gothic versions
belong, spread over Asia Minor and Thrace. See the Preface to the
Chronicles. It was decreed by a council held under Pope Gelasius, a.d. 494, that “the Gospels which Lucian and
Hesychius falsified are apocryphal.” | Lucian and
Hesychius, and the authority of which is perversely maintained by a
handful of disputatious persons. It is obvious that these writers could
not amend anything in the Old Testament after the labours of the
Seventy; and it was useless to correct the New, for versions of
Scripture which already exist in the languages of many nations show
that their additions are false. I therefore promise in this short
Preface the four Gospels only, which are to be taken in the following
order, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, as they have been revised by a
comparison of the Greek manuscripts. Only early ones have been used.
But to avoid any great divergences from the Latin which we are
accustomed to read, I have used my pen with some restraint, and while I
have corrected only such passages as seemed to convey a different
meaning, I have allowed the rest to remain as they are.
The Preface concludes with a description of lists of
words made by Eusebius and translated by Jerome, designed to show what
passages occur in two or more of the Gospels.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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