VERSION UP BIBLE AND THEOLOGY OF WESTERN CHURCH. 141 



Amongst passages which have been diversely translated from 

 the very first we must number the Ke-^apirwfjievri applied by 

 the angel to the Blessed Virgin Mary in Luke i, 28. That the 

 translation there is not absolutely certain is shown by the 

 margins of our own Bible; both the A. V. and the E.V. texts 

 translate it, as I believe rightly, by "thou that art highly 

 favoured " ; but the A.V. margin gives as alternatives " thou 

 that art graciously accepted," and " thou that art much graced, 1 ' 

 while the R.Y. margin gives as an alternative " thou that art 

 endued with grace." 



The majority of the Old Latin MSS. rendered it "gratia 

 plena " = " thou that art full of grace " ; but the MSS. cited 

 as e and q (representing an early African source) have gratifi- 

 cata, a literal translation of the Greek passive participle, and 

 = " thou to whom favour is shewn"; while the famous Codex 

 Bezae paraphrazes by using " benedicte," which it has also to 

 employ immediately afterwards for evXoyr) fievrj . The Vulgate 

 therefore followed the majority of the early Latin texts in 

 rendering fcexapircofievt] " gratia plena " ; it was not an innova- 

 tion on the part of Jerome : he took the reading most current 

 at the time, and he gave it his sanction.* The Jesuit com- 

 mentator Maldonatus therefore is correct up to a point when 

 he extols the divine inspiration which has led all ancient 

 writers to render icecap a wfievr) by gratia plena ; all the Latin 

 Fathers, so far as I know 7 , use that term, but not all the Latin 

 versions. And later, Erasmus, who can hardly be accused of 

 Protestant prejudices, translated it gratiosa (which was also the 

 rendering of the Protestant Zurich version) ; and in his note 

 added " nec est gratia plena sed, ut ad verbum reddam, gratif,- 

 cata " (i.e., the reading of e and q). Here, therefore, is a case 

 where the Vulgate has one out of several possible translations 

 of a Greek word ; if anyone wishes to see the effect of this 

 translation on Eoman doctrine he need not go further than the 

 commentaries of Maldonatus and a Lapide. 



Another case of a variant translation which has affected 

 Western theology is furnished by Eoman s v, 12. Here St. Paul 

 is arguing that " as by one man sin entered into the world, and 

 death by sin, and so death passed through unto all men in that 



* Ep. 65 ad Principiam : " Nam et sancta Maria, quia conceperat 

 eum, in quo omnis plenitudo divinitatis habitat corporaliter, plent 

 gratia salutatur." 



