The Vulgate , of Latin Vulgata , vulgar within the meaning of “commune”, denomination which would be due to Roger Bacon, is the translation of the Bible in Latin mainly realized by Jerome de Stridon at the beginning of the 5th century, and recognized like “authentic” by the Catholic church at the time of the Concile of Thirty.

Implementation of the translation

With the IVe century, the Latin translations of the texts of the Bible, carried out starting from the Greek version and characterized, in the beginning, by their literalism (they will be indicated thereafter under the generic term of Vetus latina , old woman Latin; there are two types of alternatives: African, oldest, and European) ended up becoming extremely varied in quality and precision because of the multiplication of the manuscripts; this is why the pope Damase ordered from Jerome a more uniform and more faithful version. Jerome begins the translation of the New Testament in 382 and that of the Old Testament in 385. Facing difficulties of interpretation, Jerome went then in Palestine to consult the Jewish doctors, specialists in the Hebrew text. Its desire expensive was to find the veritas hebraica across the Greek heritage. It will be necessary for him more than fifteen years to conclude its work. It completes its work in 405.

This way of resorting to the rabbinical traditions to establish the text of the Christian Bible was disapproved at its time, for example by Rufin and Augustin d' Hippone which thought that it was necessary to follow the Seventy, according to the use of the Églises resulting from the Jewish mediums hellenized and pagan, become prevalent in Christianity after the preaching of Paul.

The work of Jerome

For the Gospels, the Vulgate takes again the revision that made Jerome of it, in Rome, between 382 and 384. The translation is made here on Greek manuscripts. All the other books of the New Testament do not owe anything with Jerome. Their Latin revision is allotted in a very probable way to contemporaries of Jerome, the Pélagien circle of Rome, of which Rufin the Syrian that it had well-known with Bethlehem.

The Psautier of the Vulgate is the psautier known as “gallican”, because very much used as a Gaulle, revision allotted to Jerome. It was carried out in Bethlehem on the basis of Greek text of the Seventy of Origène. The translation carried out on the Hebrew text by this same Jerome, certainly posterior but less used in the Carolingian liturgy, thus was not essential at the time of the edition carried out with Tours on the IXe century, by Alcuin.

Jerome generally did not translate the texts which the catholic tradition names deuterocanonic, except for the books of Tobie and Judith starting from the text of the Seventy origéenne, since these books do not form part of the Hebraic gun. Consequently, Latin translation of these other texts absent from the Hebraic Bible: Wisdom , Siracide , the two books of the Maccabées , Baruch does not owe anything with Jerome and reflects old versions of unequal value. All the other texts of the Old Testament were translated by Jerome on a Hebrew text very near to the Texte massoretic, with Bethlehem between 392 and 405.

Vulgate, text of reference

As of the VIIIe century, the handwritten copies start again to deviate from the text of Jerome. It is Alcuin, abbot of Saint Martin's day de Tours which, on the request for Charlemagne carries out a work of restoration, which will be concluded its by Théodulfe, bishop of Orleans. Gutenberg, the inventor of the mobile characters, held for the Latin Bible of Jerome the honor to be the first printed book (1456).

Confronted with the rise of the Protestant Reform which supported the diffusion of the biblical text near many people, the Catholic church feels the need for reaffirming its doctrines. On decision of the Council of Thirty (1545-1563), a statute of undeniable “authenticity” is given to the version of Jerome saint in 1546:

“the sacro-saint synod lays out and declares that this old edition of the Vulgate which was already approved in the Church by the long use of so much of centuries, must be held for authentic in the public readings, arguments, preachings and talks” (Denzinger 1506, Décret concerning the Edition & the use of the Crowned Books, IVe session of the council of Thirty).

It should be noted that the Vulgate refers only one doctrinal point of view and in the public use of the Latin Église:

“If the council of Thirty wanted that the Vulgate was the Latin version “that all must employ like authentic”, that, each one knows it, relates to only the Latin Church and its public use of the Writing, but in any way - there does not decrease is the slightest doubt on this subject - neither authority nor the value of the original texts… This eminent authority of the Vulgate or, like one says, its authenticity, was thus not issued by the council especially for critical reasons, but well rather because of its legitimate use in the Churches, prolonged during so many centuries. This use, in truth, shows that, such as it was and is still included/understood by the Church, it is absolutely free from any error with regard to the faith or manners… An authenticity of this kind should not be qualified initially criticism, but well rather of legal. ” (Pie XII, Encyclical Divino Afflante Spiritu ).

In 1593, a revised version is published, the Vulgate sixto-clementine .

The Vulgate is today still the version of reference in the Latin Église, after a revision promulgated in 1979 by Jean-Paul II: the Néo-Vulgate .

Appendices

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