DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14722#0056
GBJECO-LATIN ANTE-HIERONYMIAN MANUSCRIPTS.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATE.
1. Acts, ch. ix., v. 31, from Archbishop Laud's MS. of the Acts of the 3. Micah, ch. iv., v. 5; ch. v., v. 2. Genesis, ch. i., v. 1,2; and
Apostles. Deuter., ch. xxxii., v. 1, 2, from the Bodleian Codex, N, E, D.
2. Luke, ch. vi., v. 3, and the interpolated passage, from the Codex 2. 19.
Bezse, with the Autograph of Beza. 4. Psalm xcvi., v. i., from the Psalter of Verona.
^J^HE very widely-extended usage of the Greek language1 at, and for some time preceding, the period of the
promulgation of the New Testament, led not only to the execution of the Septuagint Greek version of the
Old Testament, about 300 years before Christ, but also to the original composition of the New Testament in
the Greek language. Within a very short period after the latter eventj the Scriptures were, however,
translated into the Latin language; sufficiently proving that the latter was gradually supplanting the Greek as
an almost universal tongue.
We have the authority of Sts. Augustine and Jerome in support of the assertion, that numerous translations
of the Scriptures into Latin were made in the primitive era of the Church. Thus the former2 says :—
" Qui enim Scripturas ex Hebrsea lingua in Grsecam verterunt numerari possunt. Latini autem interpretes
nullo modo, ut enim cuique primis fidei temporibus in manus venit codex Gra^cus et aliquantulum facultatis
sibi utriusque linguee habere videbatur ausus est interpretari." And St. Jerome himself states/that " SiLatinis
exemplaribus fides est adhibenda, respondeunt quibus; tot enim sunt exemplaria poene quot codices. Sin autem
veritas est quserenda de pluribus; cur non ad Grajcam originem revertentes ; ea quse vel a vitiosis interpretibus
male edita vel a prsesumtoribus imperitis emendata perversius vel a librariis dormantibus aut addita sunt aut
mutata corrigimus ?"
It will easily be conceived that these versions are of much importance as aids to Biblical criticism, leading
to the discovery of the true readings in very ancient Greek MSS. which existed even prior to the date of
any now extant.
Amongst these various interpretations, one appears to have acquired a more extensive circulation than the
others, and was known in the time of St. Augustine by the name of the " Vetus Itala," or old Italic, on account
of its clearness and fidelity.3 This version, which Jerome mentions sometimes as the Vulgate, and sometimes
as the Old, has been supposed to have been made in the first century; at all events, it was quoted by TertuLLian,
before the close of the second century.4
The MSS. of these Ante-Hieronymian Versions (or those made before the days of Jerome) are, as may
easily be supposed, of the greatest rarity, from their great age (the Vulgate Version of Jerome having been
almost exclusively adopted since the days of Pope Gregory the Great, in the sixth century) .5 In the character
of their writing, they also betray the highest antiquity; and whilst we notice the discrepancies which occur in
the pages of these versions, we are led at once to the conclusion, that the statement of St. Augustine is
precisely confirmed, and also to the more important truth, that the various authors of these Versions must
have gone to one common source for the origin of these translations.
In the year 1588, Elaminto Nobili, having collected, with infinite care, all the fragments of the Ante-
Hieronymian versions of the Old Testament, quoted in the writings of the Latin Fathers, published the
whole in the "Vetus Testamentum secundum LXX., Latine redditum/3 at Rome.
Subsequently, Sabatier published all the parts of the old Italic Version of both Testaments, which have
survived to our times, in his splendid edition of the " Bibliorum Sacrorum, Latinse versionis antiquse seu Vetus
Italica/' &cv at Rheims, in 1743—49, in three folio volumes, chiefly employing for the text of the Versio
Antiqua, the MS. Colbert, 4051.
1 Cicero says, " Graeca leguntur in omnibvs fere yentibus; Latina
suis finibus, exiguis sane, continentur." Orat. pro Archia Poeta,
c. x.; and Julius Csesar notices the prevalence of the Greek language
even in Gaul. De Bell. Gall. i., 29 ; vi., 14.
2 De Doctrina Christiana, lib. ii, cap. 2.
3 Augustine, Op. cit. 1. 2 e, 15, quoted by Horne, Introd. 2, 234.
1
The term Itala has, by Casley, Bentley, Bishop Marsh, and some other
critics, been considered as misemployed instead of illa, but Breyther,
Sabatier, and Hug-, fully prove the correctness of the former epithet.
4 Bishop Marsh's Divinity Lectures, Part i., p. 66.
5 N. Tr. de Dipl. 2, p. 395.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATE.
1. Acts, ch. ix., v. 31, from Archbishop Laud's MS. of the Acts of the 3. Micah, ch. iv., v. 5; ch. v., v. 2. Genesis, ch. i., v. 1,2; and
Apostles. Deuter., ch. xxxii., v. 1, 2, from the Bodleian Codex, N, E, D.
2. Luke, ch. vi., v. 3, and the interpolated passage, from the Codex 2. 19.
Bezse, with the Autograph of Beza. 4. Psalm xcvi., v. i., from the Psalter of Verona.
^J^HE very widely-extended usage of the Greek language1 at, and for some time preceding, the period of the
promulgation of the New Testament, led not only to the execution of the Septuagint Greek version of the
Old Testament, about 300 years before Christ, but also to the original composition of the New Testament in
the Greek language. Within a very short period after the latter eventj the Scriptures were, however,
translated into the Latin language; sufficiently proving that the latter was gradually supplanting the Greek as
an almost universal tongue.
We have the authority of Sts. Augustine and Jerome in support of the assertion, that numerous translations
of the Scriptures into Latin were made in the primitive era of the Church. Thus the former2 says :—
" Qui enim Scripturas ex Hebrsea lingua in Grsecam verterunt numerari possunt. Latini autem interpretes
nullo modo, ut enim cuique primis fidei temporibus in manus venit codex Gra^cus et aliquantulum facultatis
sibi utriusque linguee habere videbatur ausus est interpretari." And St. Jerome himself states/that " SiLatinis
exemplaribus fides est adhibenda, respondeunt quibus; tot enim sunt exemplaria poene quot codices. Sin autem
veritas est quserenda de pluribus; cur non ad Grajcam originem revertentes ; ea quse vel a vitiosis interpretibus
male edita vel a prsesumtoribus imperitis emendata perversius vel a librariis dormantibus aut addita sunt aut
mutata corrigimus ?"
It will easily be conceived that these versions are of much importance as aids to Biblical criticism, leading
to the discovery of the true readings in very ancient Greek MSS. which existed even prior to the date of
any now extant.
Amongst these various interpretations, one appears to have acquired a more extensive circulation than the
others, and was known in the time of St. Augustine by the name of the " Vetus Itala," or old Italic, on account
of its clearness and fidelity.3 This version, which Jerome mentions sometimes as the Vulgate, and sometimes
as the Old, has been supposed to have been made in the first century; at all events, it was quoted by TertuLLian,
before the close of the second century.4
The MSS. of these Ante-Hieronymian Versions (or those made before the days of Jerome) are, as may
easily be supposed, of the greatest rarity, from their great age (the Vulgate Version of Jerome having been
almost exclusively adopted since the days of Pope Gregory the Great, in the sixth century) .5 In the character
of their writing, they also betray the highest antiquity; and whilst we notice the discrepancies which occur in
the pages of these versions, we are led at once to the conclusion, that the statement of St. Augustine is
precisely confirmed, and also to the more important truth, that the various authors of these Versions must
have gone to one common source for the origin of these translations.
In the year 1588, Elaminto Nobili, having collected, with infinite care, all the fragments of the Ante-
Hieronymian versions of the Old Testament, quoted in the writings of the Latin Fathers, published the
whole in the "Vetus Testamentum secundum LXX., Latine redditum/3 at Rome.
Subsequently, Sabatier published all the parts of the old Italic Version of both Testaments, which have
survived to our times, in his splendid edition of the " Bibliorum Sacrorum, Latinse versionis antiquse seu Vetus
Italica/' &cv at Rheims, in 1743—49, in three folio volumes, chiefly employing for the text of the Versio
Antiqua, the MS. Colbert, 4051.
1 Cicero says, " Graeca leguntur in omnibvs fere yentibus; Latina
suis finibus, exiguis sane, continentur." Orat. pro Archia Poeta,
c. x.; and Julius Csesar notices the prevalence of the Greek language
even in Gaul. De Bell. Gall. i., 29 ; vi., 14.
2 De Doctrina Christiana, lib. ii, cap. 2.
3 Augustine, Op. cit. 1. 2 e, 15, quoted by Horne, Introd. 2, 234.
1
The term Itala has, by Casley, Bentley, Bishop Marsh, and some other
critics, been considered as misemployed instead of illa, but Breyther,
Sabatier, and Hug-, fully prove the correctness of the former epithet.
4 Bishop Marsh's Divinity Lectures, Part i., p. 66.
5 N. Tr. de Dipl. 2, p. 395.