THE SEPTUAGINT AND VULGATE

THE SEPTUAGINT AND VULGATE
It has generally been admitted that the Septuagint, which, as has been explained, is so called from the number seventy or, more properly, seventy-two interpreters, who were said to be employed in the formation of it, was the first Greek version of the Old Testament. No mention has been made of any that preceded it, and it can not be deemed probable that Ptolemy would have taken so much pains to procure a version of the Jewish law, had any other previously existed; and it is equally improbable he should have been unacquainted with it, had it existed at a time when, with the assistance of Demetrius, he was procuring Greek books from every part of the world. It is plainly affirmed by Philo, that before his time the law was not known to any language but the original. The acquaintance with Jewish customs and Jewish history, which many heathen writers, before the reign of Ptolemy, have manifested, has led many persons to conclude that they must have derived their knowledge from a Greek version of at least parts of the Old Testament. Yet we may account for the knowledge of Jewish customs, etc. which these writers display without supposing that they obtained it from any Greek version; for we have direct evidence that Aristotle, at least, had intercourse with the Jews, for the purpose of gaining information respecting their law; and as the philosophers were certainly acquainted with the doctrine of the Gymnosophists and the Druids, who had not any written law, so we may suppose they obtained their knowledge of the Jewish religion from personal intercourse with individuals of that nation.
At first, it is probable, the law only was translated, for there was no need of the other books in the public worship; no other part of the Scriptures but the law having been in early times read in the synagogues. But afterward, when the reading of the prophets also came into use in the synagogues of Judea, in the time of the persecution under Antiochus Epiphanies, and the Jews of Alexandria, who in those times conformed themselves to the usages of Judea and Jerusalem in all matters of religion, were induced hereby to do the same; this caused a translation of the prophets also to be there made into the Greek language, in like manner as the law had been before. After this, other persons translated the rest for the private use of the same people; and so that whole version was completed which we now call the Septuagint; and after it was thus made, it became of common use among all the churches of the Hellenistical Jews, wherever they were dispersed among the Grecian cities.
When the Hebrew language had ceased to be the common tongue, the version of the seventy was read in the synagogues, even in Judea itself. It is true, this was not universally done; there was a sort of division among the Jews about it; some were for having the Scripture read only in Hebrew, and were therefore called Hebrews, or Hebraizers; while others read it in Greek, and were called Hellenists, that is, Grecians, or Grecizers, as has been already observed. As the number of the latter was greater than that of the Hebrew-Jews, and the apostles preached most frequently to them, it is not to be wondered at, as St. Jerome observes, that the passages of the Old Testament which are quoted in the New, are sometimes borrowed thence. It is thus seen that this version preceded the publication of the gospel; and it has been authorized by the use which the apostles made of it, as well as the whole church. It seems very evident however, from various passages, as Parkhurst has remarked, that the writers of the New Testament, in their citations of the Old, did not intend either literally to translate the Hebrew, or to stamp their authority on the seventy translation, but only to refer us to the original Scriptures.
THE AQUILA GREEK VERSION
The Septuagint version was continued in public use among the Jews for more than three hundred years; but as it grew into use among the Christians, it went out of credit with the Jews. In the twelfth year of the emperor Adrian; A.D. 128, Aquila, a native of Sinope, a city of Pontus, published a new Greek version of the Old Testament. This man, who had been a Christian, and afterward became a Jew, is supposed to have undertaken this work in opposition to the Christians, not only that the seventy might be superseded, but that a new version might be given of those passages on which they relied most in their controversies with the Jews. The Hellenistic Jews received this version, and afterward used it everywhere instead of the Septuagint; and, therefore, this Greek translation is often made mention of in the Talmud, or Compendium of Jewish Doctrines, but the Septuagint never. The emperor Justinian published a decree, which is still extant among his institutions, whereby he ordained that the Jews might read the Scriptures in their synagogues, either in the Greek version of the seventy, or in that of Aquila, or in any other language, according to the country in which they should dwell. But the Jewish doctors having determined against this, their decrees prevailed against that of the emperor, and, within a little while after, both the Septuagint and the version of Aquila was rejected by them; and ever since, the solemn reading of the Scriptures among them, in their public assemblies, has been in the Hebrew and Chaldee languages. “The Chaldee,” says Prideaux, “is used in some of their synagogues even to this day, and particularly at Frankfort, in Germany.”
Not long after the time of Aquila, there were two other Greek versions of the Old Testament scriptures made; the first by Theodotion, who lived in the time of Commodus, the Roman emperor, and the other by Symmachus, who flourished a little after him, in the reigns of Severus and Caracalla. The former is supposed to have belonged to Ephesus, and fell into the heretical errors of Ebion and Marcion, to which sect Symmachus also belonged, being by birth a Samaritan, and by profession first a Jew, then a Christian, and, lastly, an Ebionite heretic. They both of them undertook the making their versions with the same design as Aquila did, though not entirely for the same end; for they all three entered on this work for the perverting of the Old Testament scriptures. Aquila, however, did it for the serving of the interest of the Jewish religion, the other two for promoting the interest of the heretical sect to which they belonged; and all of them wrested the original Scriptures in their versions of them, as much as they could, to make them speak for the different ends which they proposed. From the circumstances, therefore, under which these versions were made, it may be inferred that their authority can not be very great, though from the fragments of them which have been collected, we may derive considerable assistance in understanding particular portions of the Old Testament.
SYRIAC VERSION
In speaking of the ancient versions of the Bible, it must be observed, that there are two in the Syriac language: the Old, which is a translation of the Old Testament from the Hebrew, and the New, which is a translation of the New Testament from the Greek. This last is, beyond contradiction, the most ancient that ever was formed in the Christian church. It is that which the Christians in the east, called Maronites, make use of in their worship: and they, as well as the other Syrian Christians, boast very much of its antiquity; for they allege that one portion of it was made by the command of Solomon, for the use of Hiram, king of Tyre, and the other part by the command of Abgarus, king of Edessa. It is certain this version was of considerable antiquity, and was in all likelihood made within the first century after Christ, and had for its author some Christian of the Jewish nation that was thoroughly skilled in both the Hebrew and Syriac languages; and as it is among the oldest translations that we have of any part of the Scriptures, so it is the best, without any exception, that has been made of them by the ancients into one language whatsoever. This last character belongs to it in respect of the New Testament, as well as of the Old; and therefore, of all the ancient versions which are now consulted by Christians for the better understanding of the Holy Scriptures, as well of the New Testament as of the Old, none can better serve this end than this old Syriac version, when carefully consulted and well understood. To this purpose the very nature of the language gives much assistance; for, it having been the mother-tongue of those who wrote the New Testament, and a dialect of that in which the Old was first given, many things of both are more happily expressed in it through this whole version than can well be done in any other language.
The languages of princes generally become, in time, the common language of their subjects. The conquests of Alexander made the Greek tongue universal; and by the same means the Latin tongue extended itself, with the Roman empire, all over the world; so that, at length, there was scarce a nation where, by the help of this language, you might not make yourself understood.
LATIN BIBLE
It is not known who was the author of the first Latin version of the Scriptures; but St. Augustine, a celebrated bishop of the Latin church, about A.D. 400, tells us that there soon appeared a great number of them. “We know them who translated the Scriptures into Greek,” says he, “and the number of them is not great; but the number of the Latin translators is infinite. When the faith came to be established, the first man who found a Greek copy, notwithstanding the little knowledge he had of the two languages, boldly undertook a translation of it.” From another passage of his writings, it has been generally concluded that there was one particular version, called “the Italian,” in higher estimation than the rest, and which was the authorized version of the Roman churches. However this may be, it is certain the Latin church was in want of a version of the Scriptures formed directly from the Hebrew, as all the Latin translations in existence at that time had been taken from the seventy. St. Jerome, who was contemporary with St. Augustine, was in every respect best suited, of any of the learned men of that time, to the task of making a new translation, which he accordingly undertook. He began by correcting some books of the Old Testament in the Latin bible, particularly the version of the Psalms, and marked those passages wherein any difference existed between the Latin version, the Greek of the seventy, and the Hebrew original. He had early applied himself to the study of the Hebrew language, and at different periods had the assistance of five Jewish teachers; he had access also to the works of Origen, who published what is called the Hexapla, that is, the Bible in six different languages. From these he must have derived considerable assistance in the work he undertook: that of translating into Latin all the books of the Old Testament, to which he added a corrected edition of the common version of the new.
This work of St. Jerome is still used in the Roman Catholic church, and is known by the name of the Vulgate; for which some have gone so far as to claim the authority and infallibility of an inspired production. At first, however, his version was not generally received; for although many were pleased with it, because it was more consonant to the original, and a more literal translation than that of the seventy, yet others, and among the rest Augustine, considered it a rash attempt, and calculated to diminish the authority of the Greek Version. It was approved of by the Jews as conformable to their text, and was received into the church gradually and by tacit consent, rather than by the sanction of public authority.
Nevertheless, the Vulgate which we leave at present, and which the celebrated council of Trent declared to be authentic, is not the pure version of St. Jerome; it has in it a great deal of the ancient Italian; but it can not now be discovered by whom, or at what time, this mixture was made. Some think that St. Jerome has no part at all in the present Vulgate; and it is certain that the Psalms in it are not his. Nevertheless, the Latin version comes nearer to the Hebrew, and is more perspicuous, than the Septuagint. Since the time of the council of Trent, namely, in 1589 and 1592, corrected editions of the Vulgate have been published under the authority of the popes Sixtus the Fifth and Clement the Eighth.