VERSION OF BIBLE AND THEOLOGY OF WESTERN CHURCH. 139 



et iu ecclesia " ; and quite naturally, as sacramentum gradually 

 acquired a restricted meaning in ecclesiastical Latin, this text 

 also altered its meaning and was claimed in defence of the 

 position that marriage was a sacrament. Dr. Abbott, in his note 

 on the passage * says that though this reading undoubtedly led 

 to matrimony being regarded as a sacrament, the best scholars 

 in the Roman Church, Erasmus, Caietan, and Estius, reject the 

 view. On behalf of it he only quotes, and that at second-hand, 

 an Encyclical of 1832. But he might have quoted more. The 

 Council of Trent (Sess. 24 de sacramento matrimonii) quotes 

 this text as implying that the grace which sanctifies the 

 marriage state was brought in by Christ. The Gatechismus 

 Bomanus goes further (Pars ii. c. viii, qu. xv), and says that 

 the Church holds for certain that marriage is a sacrament, on 

 the words of St. Paul — though it goes on to explain that by 

 " sacramentum " is meant " sacrum signum." It also affirms 

 that this is the teaching of the Council of Trent, and that the 

 ancient Fathers so interpreted the passage. Aquinas gives 

 the passage as one that may be quoted on behalf of marriage 

 being a sacrament (Summa : Suppl. Ill ae partis : qu. xlii, 

 art. i). Perrone clearly thinks that the passage teaches that 

 marriage is a sacrament, though he frankly says that he 

 prefers to be on the safe side and not to go beyond the 

 language of Trent. Gury quotes it unhesitatingly ; a Lapicle 

 quotes it but explains sacramentum as " the most perfect 

 sign of that union once formed" between Christ and His 

 Church. 



Our next class is that of variant translations of the same 

 passage in the original. The first instance is of a translation 

 adopted by the Vulgate from the LXX ; it cannot, therefore, 

 be included among peculiarly Vulgate readings, nor was the 

 doctrinal use made of the text peculiar to the Western Church ; 

 but as an interesting case of a wrong interpretation of Scripture 

 being employed to support doctrine, I venture to put it before 

 you. In Hebrews xi, 21, it is said that Jacob when dying 

 eKaarov Twv vlcov 'I&xW/^ evXoyjjae, Kal it pocrefcvvijaev eVt to 

 aKpov r% pdfiBov avrov. The quotation is from the LXX 

 version of Genesis xlvii, 31, the Hebrew being 7^"ML^ Ml ft IL^l 



ntSttn ttffcTrSy. When Jerome came to that place in his 

 translation of the Old Testament from the Hebrew, he rendered 



* " Ephesians," in Intern. Crit. Comm., p. 175. 



