OTHER WORKS BY HIS EMINENCE CARDINAL CONNEXION TWELVE LECTURES ON THE TWEEN SCIENCE AND REVEALED RELIGION, wi& and Plates. Fifth edition, in 2 vols. small 8vo. ' LECTURES ON THE PRINCIPAL DOCTRINES^ PRACTICES OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, delivered , Mary's, Moorfields, during the Lent of 1836. Second edition, entr- -i Two volumes in on ne,' l| ' revised and corrected by the Author. price 4s. 6d. cloth. THE REAL PRESENCE OF THE BODY AND J* r OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST IN THE BLESS, sy CHARIST, proved from Scripture. In ITS <-**" ure*,^ ? in the English Collet Ttr cloti-." 4 - ' r 4- A R -0 FOU N de Ei HIST* AN PU &c. and the Mid. LETTE STU MSS. archi mary. bounu " We h valuable con Review. CER ipal ft d witfi h, 5s. N )R PI<:'L.:-' Comin : ij " *; dommiLi'.-'V'O illustr::v- . ,aw, e; tlv2 M\H 16 orififi. *s 3 pi-ino.j, ical Si indsom^ _ -.iiies to general attention, as one of the 3ver ottered to British literature by a foreign hand." Q "We never saw a more carefully edited book. More patient exactness, a praiseworthy elaborate fidelity we could not possibly have desired. We h recommend this valuable collection to the best attention of the students of history." '- Examiner. "We must injustice say that we have never seen a mass of historical dociuru - more faithfully edited, lucidly arranged, and impartially illustrated than the collet . before us." Athenaeum, PATTERSON (JAMES LAIRD, M.A.), JOURNAL OF A/ TOUR IN EGYPT, PALESTINE, SYRIA, AND GREECE; with-i Notes and Appendix on Ecclesiastical Subjects. 8vo. cloth, 12*. SICK CALLS,: from the Diary of a Missionary Priest. Ev the Rev. E. PRICE, M.A., small 8vo. 5s. Gd. cloth lettered. C. DOLMAN, 61, NEW BOND STREET. I. ESSAYS VARIOUS SUBJECTS. VOL. I. ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS. BY HIS EMINENCE CARDINAL WISEMAN. IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON: CHARLES DOLMAN, 61, NEW BOND STREET, AND 22, PATERNOSTER ROW. 1853. [The Proprietor of tit's Work notifies that lie rewteit the r Ib. p. 160. 1 Ad Sunniam et Fretel. ep. cvi. torn. i. p. 637. k Adv. Kusin. lib. ii. torn. ii. p. 518. 1 Ep. ad Lucin. ubi sup. 26 TWO LETTERS dency of these alterations would necessarily be to pro- duce certain great varieties naturally determined by greater geographical divisions, or circumscribed by the limits of different ecclesiastical jurisdictions. These varieties are well known in biblical criticism, under the name of families or recensions. In the East, the Greek text will occur to the reader as a full illustra- tion of this remark ; the Syriac version has followed the same law, and the Catholics, Nestorians, and Jacobites, have their respective texts of the Peshito. Not only the Scripture, but any other work frequently transcribed, will naturally present the same pheno- menon. Thus M. Gence, in his critical edition of the " Imitation of Christ," has clearly pointed out [Flemish, French, and Italian recensions, of which the manu- scripts of the Abbey of Moeck, of the Chartreuse of Villeneuve, and of Arona, may be considered as the types, and which embrace numbers of MSS. agreeing essentially among themselves, but exhibiting a line of critical, as well as geographical, circumscription. 111 Such, then, would be the case with the Latin ver- sion, and the texts of Gaul, Italy, and Africa, would naturally present distinct traits, characteristic of re- censions ; and these traits would be more clearly dis- cernible to those who possessed not merely fragments, but entire texts. For we may doubt whether even Griesbach or Scholz would have discovered the Greek recensions, however marked, had they been left to work merely on the dismembered quotations of the Fathers. Now, from both historical and critical evidence, it appears perfectly clear, that in the passage about the m De Imit. Christi, lib. iv. ad pervetustum exemplar, nee non ad codd. complurea ex diversa regione, variis nunc primum lectionibua subjunctis, recensiti. Par. 1826. ON 1 JOHN V. 7. 27 Itala, St. Augustine meant nothing more than to specify the preference he gave to the text in Italian codices; in other words, that the term Itala is not an appellative, but a mere relative term, adopted by him because living in Africa. 1. When an individual, whether from accident or choice, has himself adopted a certain text or edition, he will naturally continue its use and give it the pre- ference. Erom the history of St. Augustine, it is morally certain that the copy or copies of Scripture which he used must have been Italian. He informs us, that when at Carthage, before his conversion, he utterly despised and neglected the Scriptures, on account of the rudeness of their style. n He went to Milan, without the slightest religious object, and there at length began to view them in a totally different light. Prom listening to St. Ambrose, he discovered that many things in them which had appeared to him absurd and ignoble, were full of meaning and dignity. He remained for some time in a state of doubt and wavering; and strong obstacles presented themselves to his complete search after truth. One of these I must give in his own words : " Ecce jam non sunt absurda in libris ecclesiasticis quae absurda videbantur, et possunt aliter atque honeste intelligi. Eigam pedes meos in eo gradu, in quo puer a parentibus positus eram, donee inveniatur perspicua veritas. Sed ubi quaeretur? quando quseretur? Non vacat Ambrosio, non vacat legere. Ubi ipsos codices qucerimus ? unde aut quando comparamus ? a qitibus sumimus ?"^ Up to this time, therefore, he had to provide himself with a copy of Scripture. Immediately upon his miraculous conversion, he retired to Cassiciacum, the villa of Vere- n Confess, lib. iii. c. 5, torn. i. p. 91. Ib. lib. vi. c. 3, 4, pp. 118, 122. P Ib. c. 11, p. 128. 28 TWO LETTERS cundus,and thence wrote to ask St. Ambrose what hooks of Scripture he should read. This holy bishop recom. mended Isaiah, and St. Augustine read it, evidently for the first time. " Veruntainen, ego prirnam hujus lectionem non intelligens, totumque talem arbitrans, distuli repetendum, excercitatior in dominico eloquio." q Here also he began to read the Psalms. 1 After his baptism, St. Augustine proceeded to Rome. Between his conversion and his return to Africa, he wrote and published several works ; as his Soliloquies, his treatises, De Beata Yita, De Ordine, De Libero Arbitrio, De Immortalitate Animse, De Moribus Mani- chseorum, and De Moribus Ecclesia3. Several of these, especially the last, demonstrate, by his facility in quoting Scripture, that he had already completely impressed it on his memory, and studied it deeply. This brief historical sketch must prove that St. Augustine learnt the sacred books entirely from the Italian text ; and it is highly improbable that upon his return to Africa, he cast it aside and adopted another. On the contrary, it is more probable that he would give the preference, through life, to the text which he had first studied. 2. But there is a passage, in one of his polemical works, which seems completely to explain his senti- ments and expressions regarding the Itala. Writing against Faustus, he gives a critical rule for deciding among conflicting various readings. " Ubi, cum ex adverse audieris proba,' non confugias (a) ad exetnpla veriora, vel (b) plurium codicum, vel (c) antiquorum, vel (d) linguae prsecedentis, unde hoc in aliam linguam interpretatum est." 8 His order therefore is 1st, (a) to consult MSS. containing a more true or genuine text ; 2ndly, (b) to weigh the number ; 3rdly (c) to examine i Ib. lib. ix. c. 5, p. 162. * Ib. c. 4, p. 160. B Adv. Faust, lib. x. c. 2, torn. viii. p. 219. ON 1 JOHN V. 7. 29 the antiquity, of the testimonies ; and 4thly, (d) if the point still remain undecided, to recur to the originals. After a few sentences, he proceeds thus : " Quid agis ? quo te convertes ? quam libri a te prolati (a) originem, quam (c) vetustatem, quam (d) seriem successionis testem citabis ?" By comparing this text with the preceding, and remembering that number of MSS. (b) is omitted in it, because it treats of the examination of one codex, we see that the exempla veriora are to be discovered by their origin; for one is substituted for the other, in the series of critical authorities. After a few more lines, St. Augustine explains what the origin is which has to determine a manuscript to be sincere and authoritative. For he repeats the same series, with a new and important substitution, and in the form of a conclusion from his previous reasoning : " Itaque si &efide exemplarium qusestio verteretur. . . vel (a) ex aliarum regionum codicibus unde ipsa doc- trina commeavit, nostra dubitatio dijudicaretur ; vel si ibi ipsi quoque codices variarent, (b) plures pauciori- bus, aut (c) vetustiores recentioribus prseferrentur ; et si adliuc esset incerta varietas, (d) praecedens lingua, unde illud interpret atum est, consuleretur." On this passage I may be allowed a few remarks. First, St. Augustine by codices aliarum regionum, etc., certainly means Latin copies ; for he places a reference to the Greek, the pr&cedens lingua, as the last, and a distinct, resource. Secondly, this passage authorizes us to con- clude, that different churches did not use distinct ver- sions ; for it would be absurd, in a question on a difference of reading, to refer a critic to a totally different and perfectly independent translation. Thirdly, St. Augustine's critical rule is, that in a doubt regarding the correctness of a reading, recourse must be had in the first instance to the copies of that 30 TWO LETTERS country whence the faith had come. St. Augustine is writing in Africa ; we have therefore only to inquire whence did he consider the faith to have been brought into that country ; and, from my first observation, it follows that it must be from some Latin church. The belief of the African Church was undoubtedly that Italy, and particularly Borne, was the fountain of its Christianity. St. Gregory writes as follows to Domi- nicus, bishop of Carthage : " Scientes praeterea unde in Africanis partibus sumpserit ordinatio sacerdotalis exordium, laudabiliter agitis quod, sedem apostolicam diligendo, ad officii vestri originem, prudenti recorda- tione recurritis, et probabili in ejus affectu constantia permanentis." 4 And St. Augustine was manifestly of the same opinion, as will appear from the following passage : " Erat etiam (Carthago) transmarinis vicina regionibus, et fama celeberrima nobilis, unde non me- diocris utique auctoritatis habebat episcopum, qui posset non curare conspirantem multitudinem inimi- corum, cum se videret et Romanse ecclesise, in qua semper apostolicse cathedrae viguit principatus, et ceteris terris unde Evangelium in ipsam Africam venit, per communicatorias literas esse conjunctum." u " The Roman Church and other countries from which the Gospel had come to Africa," is a phrase sufficiently clear. But I may further remark, that the trans- marine countries to which Carthage is near, and those other churches, are manifestly identified in this pas- sage ; for, the bishop's reputation with the former, and his being in communion with the latter, are given as an identical motive of security. Now, there can be no doubt that by the transmarine churches he meant those of Italy. Eor, alluding to the trial of Cecilianus, * Epist. lib. viii. No. 33, ed. Maur. torn. ii. p.922. n Ad Glor. et Eleus. ep. xliii. (al. clxiii.) vol. ii. p. 91. ON 1 JOHN V. 7. 31 he says : " An forte non debuit Romance ecclesise Mel- chiades episcopus, cum collegis transmarinis episcopis, illud sibi usurpare judicium?"* But we learn from St. Optatus, that the colleagues of Pope Melchiades were all Italians, except three Galilean bishops ex- pressly petitioned for by the Donatists. y St. Augustine therefore considered the African Church as descended from the Italian. We have thus a clear critical rule laid down by this Father, that when, in Africa, any doubt should arise concerning a various reading, a reference to Italian codices, or the Italian recension, should be the first critical operation. Let us now compare with this rule the passage in which the Itala is mentioned, and see if it receives any light from it. First, St. Augustine is speaking there, just as in his work against Faustus, entirely about various readings, and the correction of the text. The sentence immediately preceding is, "Plurimum hie quoque juvat interpret um numerositas, collatis codicibus, inspectaque atque discussa, tantum absit falsitas ; nam codicibus emendandis primitus debet invigilare solertia eorum qui Scripturas nosse desiderant, ut emendati non emendatis cedant, EX UNO DUNTAXAT INTERPRETATIONS GENERE VENIENTES." 2 Secondly, after thus saying that the more correct codices must be preferred, provided they descend from the same original version, he proceeds to state which is the text to be preferred ; and this he does in the form, not of an assertion, but of a critical canon : " In ipsis autem interpretationibus Itala ceteris prce- feratur" Thirdly, he then goes on, just as in the passage of the work against Faustus, to say, that the * Ib. p. 94. y Adv. Parmen. lib. i. c. 23, ed. Dupin, Par. 1702, p. 23. z De Doctr. Christ, lib. ii. c. 14, torn. iii. pa. i. p. 27. 32 TWO LETTERS Greek is still to be considered a last appeal, even from this : " Et Latinis quibuslibet emendandis, Grseci ad- hibeantur." An impartial consideration of the two passages will, I am sure, convince any one that they are perfectly parallel ; that the preference of the Itala is only the preference of the more authentic records of the same version, preserved in the country whence the Gospel had come to Africa ; it is a question of manuscripts and recensions, and by no means of versions. 3. Nothing further seems wanting to complete the solution of the proposed difficulty regarding the Itala, but that it should be critically or practically verified. If St. Augustine brought his manuscripts from Italy, and used them in Africa, does his text present the appearances naturally consequent to such a suppo- sition ? Does he, though using essentially the same version as the African Eathers, still on some occasions depart from them in a marked manner, when they agree among themselves, and then coincide with the Italian Eathers ? The discussion of this point would involve us in a long examination of various readings, which could not possibly prove interesting to the generality of readers, even should the preceding de- tails have proved so. We must therefore be brief. Several years ago, when pursuing the critical study of Scripture with more leisure, I paid some attention to this point. Though soon interrupted, the examination satisfied me to such a degree, that the theory of the Vulgate here presented to the public, has been repeat- edly delivered in the theological courses of this esta- blishment. I will give a few examples of the various readings of the Italian and African Eathers, from some of the first Psalms ; whence it will appear, that St. Augustine departs from the African Eathers, and ON 1 JOHN V. 7. 33 classes with the Italian, wherever the writers of the two nations decidedly range themselves upon opposite sides. Ps. i. Psalt. Horn, et MedioL, Codd. Corbej., San- germ., Amb., Hil., Cassiod., etc. read " In lege Domini fuit voluntas ejus." Tert., Cyp., Opt. (opus imperf. in Mat.) omit thefuit. St. Augustine agrees with the former ; and this reading is tenacior verborum, the Greek having IO-T/, and has also greater perspicuity. ii. Tertullian and St. Optatus consider it as the first ; St. Augustine, with the Italian Fathers, treats it as the second. ii. 1. Cod. Sangerm., Amb., Hil., " Quarefremue- runt gentes." Tert., Cyp., always " tumultuatce sunt" St. Aug. with the former. 2. Sangerm., Amb., Hil., " convenerunt." Tert. (generally), Cyp., " congregati sunt" St. Aug. with the former. vi. 6. Psalt. Rom., Cod. Sang erm., Amb., Hil., Leo, Cassiod., Philast., etc. have "in inferno:" Tert., Lucif., Calar.,* " apud inferos." St. Aug. with the former. xviii. 6. Psalteria, Cod. Sangerm., Amb., Hil., Cas- siod., Maximus Taur., Philast., " sponsus procedit." Tert., Cyp., " egrediens" St. Aug. with the former. I must leave the farther prosecution of this exami- nation to some critic possessed of more leisure than falls to my lot. It is a toilsome, and often an ungrate- ful, task ; for in general, the various readings are a mass of irregularity and confusion, referable to no law, and hardly open to plausible conjecture. Still, in the portion examined, I doubt whether a single instance a I consider him an African writer, because Sardinia was really considered as forming the seventh province of Africa, and was part of its diocese. The connection, too, of the two countries is sufficiently inai-ked in ecclesiastical history. i D 34 TWO LETTERS can be produced, where the African writers stand in united opposition to those of Italy, without St. Augus- tine siding with the latter. This is sufficient to clear up all difficulties. For while the Fathers of different countries agree sufficiently to prove that they all used the same version, their occasional separation into national classes proves the existence of distinct geogra- phical recensions. And the fact that St. Augustine always agrees with the Italians, added to the histori- cal proofs already given, demonstrates that he used the Italian recension, and not the African ; and that he forms a testimony, not of the African but of the Italian Church, in all critical questions regarding Scripture. The important consequences which will be deduced from this conclusion, will justify the length of the discussion. To have given to the words of St. Augustine, on the Itala, a sense consistent with facts, with his own history and his quotations, and with the total silence of all other ancient writers, will, I trust, be also considered a sufficient apology for want of dis- cretion in the present disquisition. But, excusable as it may be, I feel that my readers have acquired a right to forget what originally led to it, and to expect to be brought back to the point whence we started. It was simply this : St. Augus- tine, in all his other works, omits the verse of the Three Witnesses ; is not the circumstance of its being found in the Santa-Croce manuscript a sufficient proof that the work was not written by that Father ? It was to answer this objection that this long discussion was primarily undertaken; and the answer which it furnishes is this : St. Augustine, in his ordinary works, used the Italian recension from which the verse had been lost at an early period. His Speculum, as we learn from Posidius, was written for the unlearned, ON 1 JOHN V. 7. 35 and hence he made use in it of the African recension, which universally contained the verse. I requested the learned monk who has undertaken the publication of the work, to pay particular attention to its various readings, with this view ; and he has assured me that they generally agree with the African Fathers in a very remarkable manner. In the next letter, we will examine the testimony of this manuscript, on the hypothesis that St. Augustine is not its author, and proceed to notice some other points connected with this celebrated controversy. I remain, &c., N. WISEMAN. ENGLISH COLLEGE, KOME, June 26, 1832. LETTEE THE SECOND. DEAR SIR, Having discussed the question, whether St. Augustine be the author of the treatise contained in the Santa-Croce manuscript, we must now proceed, according to promise, to investigate what degree of authority it possesses in the controversy of the Three "Witnesses, on the supposition that it is the production of a more obscure author. Let me premise a few words on its age and country. Perhaps a more minute examination of the treatise than it is at present in my power to make, might give more clues than have been gathered from hasty obser- vation : these, however, may prove sufficient for our purpose. The exact manner in which several proposi- tions are laid down, regarding the Trinity, shows that it was composed after the controversies upon that great dogma had arisen in the Church. The chapter from which I have quoted the verse of St. John is D2 36 TWO LETTERS headed, " De distinctione personarum" Now the word persona does not seem to have been used in the marked sense which it here hears, until the third cen- tury. Dr. Waterland has remarked, that it is applied by Tertullian to the hypostases, or persons of the Trinity. b And in fact, in the work of that writer against Praxea, the word occurs frequently, espe- cially from the eleventh to the fifteenth chapters." But still, it hardly seems to have become so early a denned theological term. Facundus Hermianensis says, that it only began to be used in the Church upon occasion of the Sabellian heresy, in 257. His words are : " Personarum autem nomen nonnisi cum Sabellius impugnaret Ecclesiam, necessario in usum prsedi- cationis assumptum est, ut qui semper tres crediti sunt . . . communi personarum nomine vocarentur." d But this assertion stands in direct opposition to that of St. Gregory Nazianzen, that Sabellianisni arose in the West from the use of this word. The Latins, he says, were compelled, " Propter egestatem linguae et reruin novitatem," to apply the word person to the B. Trinity ; .and the consequence was, that Sabellianism arose from a mis- application of the term. 6 To reconcile these conflict- ing testimonies we have only to say, that the word was indeed in use from the time of Tertullian, though it b Waterland's Works, by Van Mildert, vol. iii. p. 200. c Tert. adv. Prax. pp. 505508, ed. Eigalt. d Def. trium Capit. lib. ii. p. 19. e 'A\\' ov (Wctytfi/ote (rote 'IraXote) %ia T^V ortVHrrjTa TJjg Trap' avro'ic yXwTTr/Cj rat ovofid.TWj' TTEVIO.V, cbro rrjg ovxr/ae rr)v i/Troorao-tv, rat ia TOVTO avTEiauyovai TO. 7rpoO 78 CATHOLIC VERSIONS OF SCRIPTURE. modifications have been made in every edition which, has followed, till, at length, many may appear rather new versions, than revisions of the old. We helieve Catholic Britain to be the only country where such a laxity of attention has existed in regard to the purity of its authorized version. 11 And we should have even less reason to complain, had these systematic varia- tions been the only vicissitudes to which it has been subject. The mass of typographical errors to be found in some editions is quite frightful, from many of them falling upon important words, and not so much dis- figuring them, which would lead to suspicion and thereby to detection, as transforming them into others that give a correct grammatical, but unsound theo- logical, sense. In 1632, the king's printers, Barker and Lucas, were fined 3,000, for the omission of one monosyllable; and -the Oxford Bible of 1792 is con- sidered a curiosity because it reads (Luke xxii. 34) Philip instead of Peter. But, in the edition which we have referred to, of Dublin, 1810, revised under Dr. Troy's direction by the Rev. B. MacMahon, many worse substitutions are to be found. A table at the end gives a number of them, as Matt. xvi. 23, " thou favourest not," for "thou savourest not;" and Ro- mans vii. 18, " to accomplish that which is good I find out" instead of " I find not" The table of errata is, however, very far from complete; for instance, the following among others are omitted in it. Gal. iv. 9, " How turn you again to the work" (for weak) " and poor elements." Ib. v. 23, "modesty, ctmtinency, charity" instead of " chastity" In a note, p. 309, we read, " Sin which was asleep before, was weakened by the prohibition," instead of " awakened" b "We have not forgotten the Rev. Mr. Curtis's late Letter to the bishop of London. CATHOLIC VERSIONS OF SCRIPTURE. 79 Our principal object, however, at present, is to turn the attention of the Catholic clergy, and particularly the bishops of Ireland, and the vicars-apostolic of England and Scotland, to the want of a complete re- vision of the version itself, for the purpose of settling a standard text, from which editors in future may not be allowed to depart. In this manner, alone, will the Catholics of the empire be provided with what every other portion of the Church has long since possessed. It is far from our purpose to undertake a complete exposure of the many passages which want emenda- ' tion such a task would require a treatise. In order to confine ourselves within reasonable limits, we will only consider the necessity which a new revision would impose on those who should undertake it, of a minute and often complicated study of the original texts. We have selected this view of the matter, because we think it the point most neglected in the past, and most likely to be overlooked, and to form the great stumbling- block, in any future revision. Eor, at first sight, it must appear an almost superfluous task to proceed, in such an undertaking, beyond the accurate study of the work immediatly translated. The Vulgate is written in Latin, and it would therefore appear sufficient to possess an accurate knowledge of the Latin language, in order to translate any work written in it into our own. It is our wish to prove the fallacy of such rea- soning ; and, on the contrary, to show what varied, and often delicate, questions of philology the transla- tion may involve ; and how impossible it is to correct or discover the mistakes of our Douay version, without a constant recourse to the original Hebrew and Greek texts. The object of such reference will be, to decide the true meaning of expressions, obscure or doubtful in the Latin. In the few examples which we intend 80 CATHOLIC VERSIONS OF SCRIPTURE. to give, we shall consider the Alexandrine, or as it is commonly called, the Septuagint, version, as the original of the Psalms ; because it is well known that the Latin used by us, and inserted in the Vulgate, is made upon that version, and not on the Ilebrew original. I. Let us select, in the first instance, a very simple example. In the fiftieth Psalm,^ 14 (Heb. li. 14), the Vulgate has, " et spiritu principali confirma me." The Douay translators understood the adjective in the sense of principal, excellent, and accordingly trans- lated the sentence thus, " and strengthen me with a perfect spirit." Looking simply at the Latin, the word will certainly bear that sense ; as Cicero says, " Causarum alise sunt perfects et principales" But the question here is, did the author of the Vulgate use the word in this sense, and not rather in its other meaning, of princely ? A reference to the Greek, from which the translation of this book was made, decides the question. For there we read, Trvsupari ify*}/*- 01 '"". a-rygi^ov p.s, " strengthen me with a princely spirit." In the Hebrew, the word used is nan: which bears the same meaning, though it also derivately signifies "generous," "noble." II. Wisdom viii. 21, we have the following sentence : " And as I knew that I could not otherwise be conti- nent, except God gave it." This is a verbal transla- tion of the Latin, " Et ut scivi quoniam aliter non possem esse continens nisi Deus det." The word con- tinens corresponds to the Greek eyxparys, here as in every other passage wherein it occurs through the sapiential books, and is never, save in this passage, rendered in our version by continent. This point is 6 Perhaps the old word " lordly " would best express the double meaning, as its corresponding term herrlich would in German. CATHOLIC VERSIONS OF SCRIPTURE. 81 easily established. Eccles. vi. 28, we have the same sub- ject, the acquisition of wisdom, treated as in our text, in these words : " Investiga illam, et manifestabitur tibi, et continens factus,ne derelinquas earn." Our translators did not render these words, by "being made continent," but by "when thou hast gotten her." The Greek has xat zyxpa.Tr)$ ysvopsvog (v.27,ed.Bos). These words occur in two other places, where, however, there is no ellip- sis, but the object is expressed : xv. 1, " Q,ui continens est justitise apprehendet illam;" translated, "he that possesseth justice shall lay hold on her." And xxvii. 33, " Ira et furor utraque execrabilia sunt, et vir pec- cator continens illorum erit;" rendered, "and the sinful man shall be subject to them;" that is, shall contain or possess them. This last example proves, that continens, or e-yxpctTyg, does not signify " qui se continet," one who restrains himself, but one who contains or holds something else; and the first instance quoted proves that it is so used elliptically, with ' omission of the object so held or contained. These are the only other passages, if we mistake not, in which the Latin word occurs as an equivalent to the cited Greek one throughout these books. We may next ask, Ought a deviation to have been made from the meaning they elsewhere invariably bear, in Sap. viii. 21 ? And we answer, unhesitatingly, not. The entire passage is concerning the acquisition of wisdom. From verse 9 to verse 19, the writer gives us an account of his searches after it. In w. 19, 20, he states the causes that led him to them; first, his having been gifted with an ingenuous disposition ; and secondly, his having preserved himself from sin. The verse under consideration naturally follows : " And as I knew that I could not otherwise possess it (wisdom), i G 82 CATHOLIC VERSIONS OF SCRIPTURE. unless God gave it (for this was also a point of wisdom, to know whose gift it was), I went to the Lord," &c. But if we read with our present version, " as I knew I could not be continent" &c., we have to meet multi- plied difficulties. First, that not a word has been said about continence, but the whole antecedent matter has been concerning wisdom ; secondly, that the paren- thesis makes no sense, for the thing there mentioned as a gift cannot be continence, as it must refer to a substantive, and not an adjective, such as continent; and, moreover, its antithesis is lost, " it was a point of wisdom to know whose gift wisdom is ;" thirdly, that the prayer which follows, for the quality in question, is entirely for wisdom, and not for continence, which is never asked for. These reasons are more than suffi- cient for retaining, in this passage, the sense invariably attributed to continens in every other. III. Ps. Ixvii. 12, presents an instance in which an ambiguity of phrase compels us to recur, not only to the Greek, but, beyond this, to the original Hebrew. The Latin text runs thus : " Dominus dabit verbum evangelizantibus, virtute multa\" and is thus trans- lated in the Douay version : " The Lord shall give the word to them that preach good tidings, in great power" The word virtus is manifestly ambiguous, as it often signifies a host, or multitude. Hence the common phrase, " Dominus virtutum," is always rendered " the Lord of Hosts;" and " virtutes coelorum," "the host of heaven." It became, therefore, the translator's duty to recur to the Greek ; where he would find the words, %wa.[j.ei 7roxx>j. But here the same ambiguity exists. For the word Swapis often indeed corresponds to terms significative in Hebrew of strength, as no/ a 1 Chrou. xxix. 2 ; Es. ii. 69 ; Jer. xlviii. 45. CATHOLIC VERSIONS OF SCRIPTURE. 83 miaj, e p, f and the derivations of W; g but it almost as frequently corresponds to words of multitude, as &ff a people, 11 ?wn a multitude, 1 rune a camp, k ^n an army, 1 and, above all, to ^^', the most usual word for a collec- tion of men, or a host. As the equivalent of this word nuglie. This is a passive participle of the verb w, and means "afflicted;" though some lexicographers pre- fer the meaning of " removed," which occurs in the root, and is given by the Greek version, and some Jewish commentator s. p Now the rendering of St. Jerome strikes out a totally different signification, whether we translate it by trifles or triflers. But there is an old meaning of the word nuga, which would exactly agree with the first of those we have mentioned. In Plautus, it means a " lamentation" the ncenia or mourning song of the prceflca ; and this is allowed to be probably the oldest meaning of the ' word. Hence, by a synecdoche, it might be used for a " mourner," as it is used for a " trifler." The ques- tion, therefore, which a translator of the Vulgate would have to ask himself would be, Can St. Jerome in this passage have used the word nugas in that older See "Winer's Lexicon Manuale, p. 396. P Rosenmiiller's Prophetse Minorca. Lips. 1816, vol. iv. p. 68. CATHOLIC VERSIONS OF SCRIPTURE . 85 sense ? And we should certainly be inclined to answer it affirmatively, on the following grounds. 1. St. Jerome, in his commentary, seems indifferent which interpretation we take, his own, or Aquila' s. " Nugas, sive ut Aquila interpretatus est, translates qui a te recesserunt congregabo." q If he had used the word in the ordinary sense, the two versions could not for an instant have been compared. But the sorrowful and the banished are words whose meanings may be easily exchanged, as they are intimately connected by cause and effect. 2. Any one that has studied the version and com- mentaries of this Father must have seen their constant accordance with the traditions and opinions of the Jews ; and were it necessary for us to illustrate this point by examples, we could do it by many passages in his notes upon the very book of minor prophets now under consideration. But, in fact, he tells us himself that in difficult passages he made it a point to- follow his Jewish masters. 1 Now the Jewish inter- preters and commentators give two meanings to the word. The Targum, or Chaldaic paraphrase, and R. Solomon Jarchi, render it in the same manner as Aquila, approved by St. Jerome, "the removed;" Kimchi, and most others, give the other meaning, "the sorrowful;" and the Gemara, an old comment upon the Babylonish Talmud, shows them both to have been maintained by the ancient Jewish teachers, inasmuch as it attributes the one to R. Joshua, and the other to U. Eleazar. 8 Supposing " nugse" to have i Comment, in loc. r " Hsec dico ut noveris quos in Prophetae hujus campe-habuerim praecursores, quos tamen . . . non in omnibus sum secutus, ut judex potius operis eorum quam interpres existerem, diceremque quid mihi videretur in singulis, et quid ab Hebrceorum magistris acceperim" ' s Cod.-Berucha, cap. iv. fol. 28. 86 CATHOLIC VERSIONS OF SCRIPTURE. been used by St. Jerome in its less ordinary sense, we find him approving of exactly the two interpretations which his avowed teachers would have delivered to him, and hesitating which to choose. But if the word mean " trifles" or " triflers," it is impossible to account for the source whence he derived his inter- pretation, not deducible from the Hebrew root, unknown to every other biblical writer, and not taught him by those on whose authority in such points he relied. 3. St. Jerome, in his commentary, makes an apology, and gives a reason for having used this word : " Id quod diximus nugas sciamus in Hebraeo ipsum Latinum esse sermonem, ut propterea a nobis ita ut in Hebraeo erat positum, ut nosse possimus linguam Hebrseam omnium linguarum esse matricem." This reasoning supposes that he had gone out of his way to select this word, which certainly would not have been the case, had he used it in its ordinary acceptation. On the other hand, we cannot suspect him of having sacrificed the sense to a mere resemblance between the Hebrew and Latin words. We must, therefore, conclude, that the word nuga is here used in a rarer sense, but one which suits the meaning of the original ; and the result of these reflections seems to be, that this word in the passage is to be rendered by sorrowful or mourners, a signification at once allied to the version of Aquila, given by the Rabbins, and accounting for St. Jerome's excuses. Y. It is singular that St. Jerome should translate, on every occasion except two, the Hebrew word P^> and its derivatives, by calumniari or its substantives. Yet this Hebrew verb is admitted by all to signify oppres- sion or violence, sometimes, perhaps, with an addition of fraud. The translator of the Vulgate must, there- CATHOLIC VERSIONS OF SCRIPTURE. 87 fore, inquire, whether St. Jerome really meant the word calumniari to be taken in the sense in which it is usually taken, or whether it bears in his version the peculiar signification of violence. If the former were the case, he must translate it by calumny, however this may differ from the original, since the translator's duty is only to present a faithful transcript of the Latin version. But if St. Jerome used it in the second sense, then the word calumny cannot be used, because it never bears with us the signification of violence. It is impossible to conceive that this learned Father could have used these terms in their ordinary accepta- tion, for they are often placed where the context will not admit of any signification but that of violence or oppression. Thus they are used in apposition with terms of unjust oppression/ they are spoken of whole nations, which certainly could not well be said to be an object of calumny or false accusation. 11 The trans- lator would, therefore, decide that the word calumnia and its derivatives in the Vulgate signify oppression. Yet this is not universally the case, but only when it corresponds to the Hebrew p&w or its nouns. For example, Genes, xliii. 18, we have the words, " ut devolvat in nos calumniam ;" yet as the Hebrew verb there is not ytiy but Vsannb, we must translate the word by a, false accusation. It is only, therefore, by having the original open before us, that we could ascertain when the word was to be translated violence or oppres- sion, or when calumny oic false accusation. The Douay * Deut. xxviii. 29, 33 ; Eccles. v. 7 ; Jer. vii. 6 ; Ezech. xiii. 29 ; Amos iv. 1. Two remarkable examples are Jer. xxii. 3 : " Liberate vi oppressum de manu calumniatoris ;" and xxi. 12, where nearly the same words occur. u Jer. i. 33 ; Osee v. 11. But see particularly 1 Kings (or Sam.) xii. 4, where the people say to Samuel, upon his retiring from govern- ment, " Non es calumniatus nos." 88 CATHOLIC VERSIONS OF SCRIPTURE. translators have indeed generally been right in their rendering of this word, because the context is generally such as to force us to a correct interpretation ; but where this did not lead them, they have failed, and so have left the work unfinished. Thus, Gen. xxvi. 20 ; Levit. xix. 30 ; Prov. xxviii. 16 ; Ezech. xxii. 29 ; and Job x. 3, our version presents the word calumny* The last of these passages is remarkable, for Job is there said to upbraid God with calumniating him, when it is evident, from the circumstances of his history, as well as from the context, and the general tenor of his complaints, that harsh and oppressive treatment was what he objected to the conduct of the Almighty in his regard. Yet in all these passages the same word PBW occurs in the original ; and as we have seen already that St. Jerome understood this word of oppression, though he rendered it by calumniari, it is clear that in all these passages he meant this to have that meaning ; and so it should have been rendered by our translators. Only one thing would be wanting to make this reasoning satisfactory, and that is, to prove that the Latin word calumnia really has this meaning of op- pression, or perhaps more properly of vexation. The Lexicons do not, it is true, present a signification suffi- ciently strong ; the one, for instance, which approaches nearest in Eorcellini/ is No. 6, " Sumitur etiam latius pro quacunque vitiosa calliditate, astutia, vexatione." Craft, however, and not oppression, is here the essen- tial ingredient, and all the examples brought show that he understands it only of vexatious, petty, pro- ceedings in law. Prom this it would appear, that our translators were led only by the force of the context to * Isa. liv. 14, the first edition of our version, Douay, 1609-10, has calumny ; the modern correction, oppression. y Sub voce calumnia, torn. i. p. 450. col. i. Patav. 1827.] CATHOLIC VERSIONS OF SCRIPTURE. 89 select the extraordinary, but correct, interpretation which they have generally given. But it seems to us, that this word easily passed from its forensic use to a wider signification of oppression in acts; especially when under the sanction of law, which we apprehend to be the most ordinary use of ?vy. Hence this might be accurately rendered by calumniari in Latin. We think the following authority may justify this asser- tion. Under Domitian, and other cruel emperors, a heavy tax was imposed upon all Jews, and was exacted with peculiar rigour, and even cruelty. Suetonius thus writes of the Emperor we have named : " Prseter cseteros, Judaicus fiscus acerbissime exactus est." z Under Nerva, the odious imposition was abolished, and a medal remains to commemorate the event. It bears this legend : FISCL IVDAICI. CALVMNTA. SVBLATA.* Here the word calumnia evidently signifies " ty- ranny," or " oppression," and will fully justify the use of the word in this sense in the Vulgate, and conse- quently the translation which we suggest. We cannot take leave of this word without recalling to our reader's notice another remarkable text where it occurs. We allude to Luke iii. 14. The Baptist is there giving instructions to soldiers, on campaign, 11 what they are to do. He suggests three points to their observance : the first is, to do violence to no man ; the third, to be content with their pay. These two points are not only in accordance with the profession z Domit. c. xii. torn. ii. p. 328, edit. Burm. a Eckhel, Doctrina Num. Vet. torn. vi. p. 404. From the Imperial Cabinet of Vienna. b This circumstance is of importance for the rendering of the text. The word is orparevo^tvot. See Michaelis, Marsh's transl. torn. i. p. 51. . 90 CATHOLIC VERSIONS OF SCRIPTURE. and habits of the persons instructed, but are also in perfect harmony the one with the other. The soldiers are not to enrich themselves by rapine, but to be satis- fied with what they receive. We should expect the intermediate portion of advice to be of like character ; it is, fwjSs o-yxo in the Greek of the Septua- gint means to oppress, and is frequently put for the Hebrew Pfo d It had thus acquired that force in Jewish Greek, like so many other words, 6 and should be so rendered. This has been already noticed by writers on the Greek of the New Testament/ VI. We shall, perhaps, require still more indulgence from our readers for our observations on another passage from the Old Testament. Ps. xxxix. 9 (in the Septuagint), the Greek version has o-co^a e KOLT^TIO-M jao/, "thou hast fitted a body to me." The Latin ver- sion of the Psalms, as we have before observed, is made from this Greek translation, and yet in this passage it has " aures autem perfecisti mihi," which the Douay version no less singularly renders, " thou hast pierced ears for me." For the verb "perficio" certainly never bore this signification in any ancient writer. At first sight, it would appear as though the Vulgate, par- c The English authorized version has nearly the same, " Neither accuse any man falsely." d Job xxxv. 9 ; Psalm clxviii. 121 ; Proverbs xiv. 33 ; xxii. 16 ; xxviii. 3 ; Eccles. iv. 1. e It is an admitted principle in Hermeneutics, that the Greek of the Seventy is one of the great keys to the right interpretation of the Greek of the New Testament. See Arigler, Hermeneutica Biblica Generalis. Vienna, 1813, p. 103. f Vid. Schleusner sub voce owo^aire'w, and Kuinoel in loc. CATHOLIC VERSIONS OF SCRIPTURE. 91 ticularly if we admit the correctness of the English rendering, had in this verse been taken from the Hebrew, which has ^ ma aura " aures perforastimihi." Before, therefore, censuring the Douay rendering, and consequently showing the necessity of recourse to the original texts, we must prove that the Vulgate in this verse is not made upon the Hebrew, which it seems to resemble, but on the Septuagint, to which it bears so little affinity. A slight comparison of the entire Psalm, in the Vulgate, with the two texts, will satisfy the most superficial scholar, that every other verse is translated from the Greek ; and this affords us a strong presump- tion that this passage was derived from the same source. The principal difficulty resides in the substi- tution of aures, " ears," for o-o^a, " body." But this change is easily accounted for in two ways. First, several copies of the Septuagint read atria, " ears," instead of a-copa. In Parsons' s continuation of Holmes' s critical edition of that version, we have the following note upon the passage, " >/* 8s] tonot 8s (Cod.) 39, tora oe, 142, 156 (292 marg.)." s The same reading is given by Bos from a Greek commentary. The Vul- gate, therefore, may have been made upon a manu- script which read thus ; and in this supposition no objection exists to its having rendered this verse from the Greek. Secondly, it seems probable that originally the Latin read " corpus," and not " aures ;" and then there would be no discrepancy between it and the pre- % The MSS. here quoted are thus described in the Prolegomena to the work : " 39. Codex Dorothei, ii. Membr. soc. ix. 142. Bib. Aulier Vindob. Theol. x. ; membr. pervet. optimae notae. 156. Bib. Basil, membr. 4 adm. antiq. sine accent, cum vers. lat. interlin. 292. Cod. Bib. Medic, num. iii. Plut. vi. opt. notae membran. in fol. ssec. xi." 92 CATHOLIC VERSIONS OF SCRIPTURE. sent Greek text. The Mosarabic and Roman Psalters have it, as well as St. Augustine, Cassiodorus, St. Ambrose, and St. Hilary. 11 The Veronese Psalter, pub- lished by Bianchini, presents the same reading. 1 The use of the verb " perfecisti " leaves little room to doubt that this was the original reading. The substantive and the verb agree perfectly ; when, at a later period, the former was changed, the latter was allowed to remain, and did not suit so well. The moment this difficulty is removed, and no doubt consequently remains that the verse is translated from the Septuagint, it is plain that "perfecisti" corresponds to xaTypria-a). Now, this verb means sometimes in Scripture, "to complete, to perfect;" as for example, 1 Thess. iii. 10, where the Vulgate translates it " ut compleam;" and, therefore, no doubt, "perficio" is here used in this sense. The old Douay version has correctly " eares thou hast perfited to me," which was subsequently altered into its present reading. If this change was made in deference to the original Hebrew, a principle of translation was violated ; for the Greek should have been consulted, and the Vulgate should not have been here abandoned for the Hebrew, any more than in a thousand other places where they differ. VII. "We will now notice a case, which shows how the incautious insertion of the smallest monosyllable may totally alter the sense. It is the well-known h Ap. Sabatier, Bibliorum Sacrorum Versiones Antiquse, 1743. 1 Psalter, duplex cum Canticis, p. 63. Published in his Vin- diciae Canonicarum Scripturarum Vulgatse Latinse editionis. Rome, 1740. In a note on this passage, he adds, " Favet utrique lectioni versio Arabica." This is a mistake, which, however, does not sur- prise us, as most that has been written on the Arabic version of the Psalms is very inaccurate. This, however, is not the place to prove this point, and substitute more exact observations. CATHOLIC VERSIONS OF SCRIPTURE. 93 passage, Jo. ii. 4, "Quid mihi et tibi mulier?" The old Rhemish editors of 1582 scrupulously rendered word for word, not without a sacrifice of clearness and propriety, " WTiat is to me and to thee woman?" In a note they explain their motives, grounded on the ambiguous character of the phrase, which they did not think it proper more definitely to express. In the correction by Dr. Challoner, this ambiguity was pre- served ; and, indeed, it yet remains in many modern editions. Some, however, as that of Edinburgh, 1792, have slipped in "7," and read, "What is it to me and to thee ?" But there can be no doubt that this translation is erroneous, and that for many reasons. First, this form of expression, which occurs in our text, is very common in the Old Testament, and always means that there is no connexion between the persons thus mentioned. It may be sufficient to consult the passages below in the margin. k Secondly, it occurs very frequently in the classics, Greek and Latin, and bears invariably the same meaning. Thus Anacreon : Tt yap pa^atai * # T/ H\ld$ff Aulus Gellius quotes from Epictetus (lib. ii.) ri xa\ (Toi av^peoTrs ; apxst l/xoi rot. fe/xa xaxa. m Quintus Curtius has, in like manner, " Quid nobis tecum est;" n and Ovid, " Quid mihi cum Siculis, inter Scythiamque Getasque ?" k Jos. xxii. 24 ; Jud. xi. 12 ; 2 Sam. xvi. 10 ; 1 Keg. xvii. 18 ; 2 Eeg. iii. 13 ; Mic. ii. 2. Cf. Glassius, Philologia Sacra. Leips. 1776, torn. i. p. 491. 1 Ode xvii. 264, 276. m Noctes Atticse, ed. Gronov. lib. i. c. ii. p. 37. n Lib. viii. c. viii. 16. Trist. lib. iii. .eleg. xi. 54. 94 CATHOLIC VERSIONS OF SCRIPTURE. Martial writes thus : " Martialis Deciano suo S. Quid nobis inquis cum epistola ? parumne tibi prsestamus si legimus epigrammata?" p "We could add examples from Oriental writers. But what is most to be noted is, that the classics often fill up the ellipsis, by adding an adjective or substantive. Thus Philostratus, 3o2 Se ri xa.} HpnT(rfae