394 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



Field (" Origenis Hexaplorum quae supersunt," 

 Oxford, 1867-"75). 



The first origin of translations of the Chris- 

 tian Scriptures into the vernacular of non-Hel- 

 lenic churches is involved in much obscurity. 

 Apart from the probable existence of early Ara- 

 maic gospels, there is no sure trace of a Chris- 

 tian literature in any other tongue than Greek till 

 late in the second century. Even in the churches 

 of Gaul, Greek was the recognized language of 

 Christian authorship. In Rome the literary use 

 of Greek extended into the third century ; and in 

 the earliest days of the Roman Church Greek 

 was the language of public worship. Even in 

 remoter districts the demand for a vernacular 

 Bible can hardly have come from the educated 

 and reading classes, but arose rather from the 

 custom of reading lessons from Scripture in the 

 congregation. Ths earliest Christian translations 

 are the Peshito or " Simple " version in Syria, 

 and the Old Latin in Africa, monuments of the 

 early vigor of two great churches on the east- 

 ern and western outskirts of Hellenic culture. 



It is scarcely probable that either of these 

 versions is older than the middle of the second 

 century. The Syriac, which claims to be first 

 considered, was already an old version, contain- 

 ing obsolete expressions, in the time of St. 

 Ephraem, who died 373 a. d. Internal marks 

 of antiquity are found in the relation of the Old 

 Testament to a very early Jewish exegesis, and 

 especially in the omission from the New Testa- 

 ment of 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John, Jude, and Reve- 

 lation. On the other hand, there is no certain 

 reference to this version by authors earlier 

 than Ephraem; and the data afforded by the 

 history of the canon, and by a comparison of 

 the earliest remains of Syriac literature — the 

 hymns of Bardesanes, who died about 225 — are 

 not sufficient to supply the lack of direct infor- 

 mation. Some critics still date the version from 

 the beginning of the second century, while others 

 would bring it down into the third. Even the 

 close of the third century has been named, but 

 this view rests on the unlikely supposition that 

 the omission of five New r Testament books was 

 due to later theological influences, and was not 

 an original peculiarity of the version. The trans- 

 lation is, on the whole, excellent. The Old Tes- 

 tament is taken from the Hebrew, and, though 

 sometimes dependent on Hebrew exegesis, and in 

 other parts strongly influenced by the LXX„ is 

 decidedly superior to the Targums. The Peshito 

 was the received version in all branches of the 

 much-divided Syrian churches. But it did not 



stand alone. The Hexaplar version of Paul of 

 Tela, and the slavishly literal Philoxinian (508 

 a. d. — revised a century later by Thomas of 

 Hharkel) were presumably designed in the ser- 

 vice of Biblical criticism. More obscure are the 

 origin and purpose of the fragmentary version 

 of the gospels published by Cureton in 1858, and 

 by him supposed to be older than the Peshito. 



In the history of the Old Latin version almost 

 nothing is certain save that it originated in 

 Africa, before the time of Tertullian, and that it 

 assumed such protean shapes in the hands of 

 transcribers that it is to this day uncertain 

 whether several distinct versions are not included 

 in the general name of the Old Latin. Jerome, 

 indeed, speaks only of great variations between 

 copy and copy ; but Augustine tells us that the 

 " Itala " is to be preferred to the other Latin in- 

 terpretations. Hence HSS. of the Old Latin are 

 often called copies of the Itala; but in truth no 

 one knows what the Itala is, for it is mentioned 

 only by Augustine, and by him but once. 



A version which at best was a rude and over- 

 literal rendering of the Greek Bible, in an un- 

 polished provincial dialect, and which had not 

 even that fixed form which is so necessary in a 

 Bible for ecclesiastical use, could not continue 

 to serve the needs of the great Latin Church ; 

 and toward the close of the fourth century a work 

 of revision was undertaken at the instance of 

 Damasus, Bishop of Rome, by Jerome, the most 

 learned of the Western doctors. Jerome began 

 by correcting the New Testament, making only 

 such changes as seemed absolutely imperative. 

 In the Old Testament he first revised the Psalter 

 after the LXX., producing the version known as 

 the Roman Psalter, from its adoption in the Ro- 

 man liturgy. A second revision, based on the 

 Hexaplar text, forms the Gallican Psalter, long 

 used in Gaul and other churches beyond the 

 Alps. Then Jerome proceeded to revise other 

 books on the basis of the Hexaplar Greek ; but, 

 finding this half measure unsatisfactory, he finally 

 rendered the Old Testament directly from the 

 Hebrew. The work was completed 405 a. d., 

 and though often dependent on Aquila, and es- 

 pecially on Symmackus, it bears high witness to 

 the scholarship of the author, and is perhaps the 

 best of the ancient versions. In spite of its 

 merits the new version was much attacked, and 

 made way in public estimation by very slow de- 

 grees. It was not till the ninth century that the 

 Old Latin was entirely superseded in the Roman 

 Church, and the circulation of the old and new 

 versions side by side was long a fertile source of 



