Notes on “The Story of the Bible” Class No. 5
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Index
Preliminaries
Luke Timothy Johnson, Emory University, lecturer
Introductory Discussion and Information
Jesse showed pictures and a short video of the Simchas Torah service at Congregation Shalom in North Chelmsford, where the entire scroll was unrolled so that everyone could see it. This led to discussions of Jewish customs, differences between the Reformed, Conservative, and Orthodox Jewish movements, the traditional separation of men and women in Orthodox synagogues, and other such issues.
Lecture 9: Old Latin and the Vulgate
Official outline from The Teaching Company
Definition of the The Vulgate [from the Google Dictionary]
- “the principal Latin version of the Bible, prepared mainly by St. Jerome in the late 4th century, and (as revised in 1592) adopted as the official text for the Roman Catholic Church”
- see also
Review of previous lecture: The Syriac and the Coptic Bibles
However, the Vulgate is the most important of all the ancient versions
- it had the greatest influence because of its historic role
When Constantine moved his capital to Constantinople, he continued using the Greek version, the Septuagint
- with that move, the Bishop of Rome became supreme in the West in the absence of the Emperor
- this situation continued through the Middle Ages
- the East remained Greek, while the West remained Latin
- this is one of the cultural differences that led to the schism in the 11th cent.
The Vulgate is part of Imperial history
- Latin is the ancestral language of Rome
- by the time of the Empire it had already developed a great literature
- Greek remained the language of the aristocracy
- Greek was still the 1st language, Latin was the 2nd
- Cicero saw it as his role to translate Greek into Latin
- Marcus Aurelius (121-180) wrote his Meditations in Greek
- the first Christian writings connected to Rome were in Greek
- not until 190 do we see some theological writings in Latin
- the first Latin versions of the Bible appeared in the 2nd cent.
-Bible-Latin-13th-cen.jpg)
Rome had many military colonies in North Africa
- it is more logical that Latin translations would begin there, not in Rome, because the military used Latin
- there were at least seven Christian communities in North Africa in the 2nd cent.
- by the beginning of the 3rd cent. there were over 100
The first Christian writings connected to Rome were written in Greek, not Latin
- Justin’s Apology and Dialogue with Trypho
- the writings of Hippolytus (Biblical commentaries)
Writings in Latin started to appear at the end of the 2nd cent. under Pope Victor I
- Acts of the Scillitan Martyrs was composed in Latin at the end of the 2nd cent.
- Tertullian of Carthage (155-225) wrote his Apology in Latin
- these were anti-heretical writings
- he used a Latin translation of the Bible as his basis
- Minutius Felix’s Octavius also used a Latin Bible as its basis
- there were therefore many Latin translations, which are now called Old Latin
- Augustine of Hippo (354-430) bears witness to the many versions
- this gave rise to a need for unity
Scribal changes can reflect theological conviction
- for example, changes from plural to singular or vice-versa
- likewise, changes from neuter to masculine gender
Pope Damasus or Rome (305-383) was an activist Bishop of Rome
- he assigned Jerome of Aquileia (342-420 ) the task of translating the Bible into a standard (vulgate) version
Jerome was the greatest Christian scholar of the Bible in Antiquity
- he was completely ascetic
- he thoroughly versed in Greek and Latin and learned Hebrew when he was a hermit in Syria
- he settled in Bethlehem in 386
- he consulted with rabbis in Palestine concerning the meaning of the Hebrew text
- he wrote many anti-heretical writings
- he wrote many Biblical commentaries
- there is no question that this translation was his greatest accomplishment
Jerome began with translation of the Gospels in 382-384 using an excellent Greek manuscript
- the remainder of the New Testament translation was carried out by advisees
Jerome began the translation of the Old Testament with the Psalms
- this translation of all 150 Psalms became known as the Gallican Psalter
- they were translated from Greek
- later Jerome translated them from the Hebrew
- he became convinced that Hebrew was superior to Greek in Septuagint
- thus, much of translation was based on Hebrew
- this had enormous historical consequences
- he also preferred the shorter Hebrew canon to the longer Septuagint one
- he used asterisks (*) and obelisks (daggers, † and ‡) to point out differences from Septuagint
The earliest form of the complete Vulgate is the Codex Amiatinus from the 6th cent.
All biblical translations are controversial, and Jerome’s was no exception
- letters between Augustine and Jerome were controversial
- but finally Augustine praised Jerome and his work
Augustine was concerned about the Greek vs. Hebrew base
- what happens to the Septuagint?
- which was seen as divinely inspired
- the Septuagint was the version used by the Apostles
- the New Testament and all interpretive arguments about who Jesus was were based on the Septuagint
- worry about Church unity
- East uses Greek Septuagint, so what will happen if West uses a different version?
- so few knew Hebrew, but many knew Greek
- interpretation was therefore turned over to a few
- some people would be disturbed at having their Bible changed
Nevertheless, Jerome’s version won the day, but it was corrupted through copying just as other versions were
- thus, the manuscript history of the Vulgate is at least as complex as that of the Greek
- Jerome’s version won through ecclesial approbation, but also through its intrinsic excellence
- Jerome was an amazing translator
- he had deep insight of Greek and Hebrew
- he rendered language in vigorous and idiomatic Latin
- the Vulgate had genuine literary merit
- however, Jerome was subtle in rendering key prophetic texts
- he fudged Hebrew into Greek interpretation
- for example, the translation of Isaiah 7:14 as “young woman” vs. “virgin”
- he masked the impact of translating from the Hebrew rather than the Septuagint
- his personal translations and oversight led to a seamless Scripture
Together with Augustine’s On Christian Doctrine, the Vulgate was the source and shaper of liturgy, literature, and learning during the Middle Ages
- it was the Bible of Western Christian Europe from 6th to 16th century
- Latin still remains the official language of the Roman Catholic Church to this day
Discussion
- there are so many nuances in language differences!
- there were also so many complications in getting letters from one person to another
- as discussed previously, “it’s complicated”
Lecture 10: Other Ancient Versions
Official outline from The Teaching Company
The Greek and Latin versions dominated in Imperial territories, but other versions existed in other areas
- there were many dialects in the Syria and Coptic versions
- for some, the writing of the Bible was the start of writing in those languages
- for all versions, bear in mind the difficulties of text production and copying
- while these obscure ancient versions had little impact historically, they may have had large impact on the peoples
The East had three early versions: the Armenian, Gregorian, and Ethiopean
Armenian Version
- Aremenia contains Mt. Ararat, where Noah’s ark came to rest (Genesis)
- it was the first realm to officially welcome Christianity as a kingdome
- the agent was Gregory the Illuminator (240-332)
- he grew up as an exile in present-day Turkey and had converted to Christianity
- he came back to Armenia and converted and batptized King Tiridates III around 300
- Christianity then became the State religion
- their version of Christianity tended toward monphysitism, emphasizing the divinity of Christ
- Bishop Merob (345-440)
- devised alphabet of 36 letters and oversaw translation of the Syriac Bible into Aremenia
- by 410 he had translated the New Testament and Proverbs based on the Syriac version
- in 443 he oversaw a new translation based on Greek manuscripts
- note the progression of translations: Hebrew -> Greek (Septuagint) -> Syriac -> Armenian
- thus, the Armenian version is at least three steps removed from the original Hebrew
- this obviously introduced numerous errors and interpretations
- we possess 1244 of these manuscripts
Georgian Version
- very close geographically to Armenia
- origins of Christianity go back to a slave woman, Nina
- the basis of the Georgian translation is disputed
- it could be the Armenian version or the Syriac version
- Bishop Mesrob was also involved in this translation
- if based on the Armenian version, we are now four steps removed from the original Hebrew
Ethiopean Version
- we are not clear on exactly where Ethiopia was at this time
- however, it was very geographically isolated
- Frumentius and Edesius were sent to Ethiopia as prisoners and converted that area to Christianity around 350
- again and again we see translations based on translations, so they become localized
By the 3rd cent. there were many Christian communities in Arabia
- many versions were in use
- Muhammad (570-632)
- he was very aware of both the Old and New Testament stories that find there way into the Koran
- there was a Nubian version in 3rd cent., although formal missionary work only began in the 6th cent.
- there were many Persian versions by 4th cent.
- another important area was in east Turkistan and central Asia
- important because it was a trade center
- the Sogdian language was the lingua franca
Other “minor” versions were not minor to the people who used them
In the West
- always a bit of class distinction
- languages of nobility vs. languages of lay people
- for example, Gothic was the vernacular of a large portion of Europe
- by the 3rd cent., missionary work was underway
Ulfilas = Apostle of the Goths (311-383)
- invented a Gothic alphabet out of Greek and Latin characters
- translated the entire Bible, but left out the Book of Kings (for reasons unknown)
- the best preserved manuscript of the Gothic Bible is the Codex Argenteus, which consists of 188 leaves and dates from the 6th cent.
Slavic
- the earliest work was by two brothers: Cyril and Methodius
- Cyril died in 869 and Methodius died in 885
- they were Greeks of a senatorial class in Macedonia, educated in Constantinople, and became missionaries in Moravia (present-day Czech Republic)
- Cyril invented a Slavic alphabet called Glagolitic
- Methodius oversaw translation of the entire Bible into Old Church Slavonic, omitting the Books of the Maccabees
Britain
- conquered by Romans in 43
- Christianity reached there in the 4th cent.
- early versions of the Bible appeared in Anglo-Saxon in 7th and 8th cent.
- there still exists a translation in the 10th cent.
Frankish Kingdom
- baptism of King Clovis I in 496
Johnson thinks that all these versions attest to the success of Christianity as a religion
- something in the Bible must have “spoken” to all these far-flung people
- ordinary people received the Word in their own languages
- it is a compliment that so many people found these old stories compelling and convincing
Discussion
Where are these old version that still exist?
- museums, etc. and now online, such as: