Re: Recovery, just not the normal sort

in Sun, 18 Mar 2007 10:49:09 -0500, Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz in hic locum
scripsit:

In
<87lkhw25g3.fsf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
on 03/16/2007
at 11:14 PM, Eric Schwartz <emschwar@xxxxxxxxx> said:

Nah, if you could read Latin it was, AFAIK, pretty much fine for you
to have and read a Bible on your own; the tricky bit was translating
it into English, for which you were supposed to rely on the word of a
priest.

I was under the impression that the term "Vulgate" for the Latin
translation was intended as a pejorative.


Not as far as I was aware. It was called 'Vulgate' because Jerome
translated it into 'vulgar' Latin, ie, Latin as she was spoke, as opposed
to Ciceronean prose. It was the first translation into the vernacular
(being translated from works which were in the vernacular to begin with).

Was it used in services, or just as a handy copy for the locals
whose Hebrew was maybe a bit weaker than they'd have liked?

I'm not sure; I suspect that there are others in this froup better
educated than me in the history and usage of the Targum.


Before Jerome, you had to be fluent in Greek to read the New
Testament and Septuagint (the translation of the OT into Koiné Greek for
Hellenised Jews). This wasn't uncommon, as Greek was the Latin of its day,
but it did mean that the hoi polloi had to rely on someone to translate.
Jerome put the whole thing into Latin, and reportedly used his
knowledge of Hebrew to make sure he was using the right meaning when he
translated from the Septuagint. He figured, we think, that the uptake of
Christianity would be sped if people could actually understand what was
going on, instead of relying on someone translating on the fly and
possibly getting it wrong.

There was a period of evangelism when there were translations of the Bible
into all sorts of languages, the better to convince the locals. Wulfila's
translation into Gothic is the only extended text remaining in that
language, and he had to invent a new script to write it in. (He left out
the Book of Kings, as he reasoned that the Goths didn't need any more
encouragement in the direction of warfare, thankyouverymuch.)

After the evangelical period tailed off, and the Church in Rome started
consolidating its power, Jerome was sainted and, in a touch of irony, his
translation was used as the definitive version, any subsequent
translations being punished.

--
David Cameron Staples | staples AT cs DOT mu DOT oz DOT au
Melbourne University | Computer Science | Technical Services
I cut my tongue shaving -- bash.org/?400
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