Introduction
What role does the Latin Vulgate, St. Jerome’s translation of the Sacred Scriptures into Latin, play in the Church today? And what is its role vis-à-vis the many modern translations approved by the Church and now in use?
The Vetus Latina
The earliest Christians primarily used Greek, as the New Testament itself was written in Greek, and the Koine Greek Septuagint was the inspired New Testament authors’ favored Old Testament text. The need for Latin translations arose as Christianity gained a foothold in the western regions of the Roman Empire where Latin was commonly spoken, such as North Africa, Italy, and Gaul by the late 2nd century.
The Gospels were among the first books to be translated into Latin, followed by the Pauline Epistles and Psalms. The Old Testament translations were based upon the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures (Steinmueller, S.T.D., S.Scr.L., “The Pre-Jerome Latin Version.” 1040). These translations are collectively known as the “Vetus Latina” or “Old Latin”.
The Vetus Latina translations were not produced systematically by a central authority but were the work of various translators and communities. This decentralized process resulted in numerous versions of the scriptures, often of uneven quality. Speaking of the faults of the Vetus Latina, St. Jerome said In his preface to his translation of the Gospels:
“..the text was either badly rendered by stupid translators, or awkwardly changed by meddlesome but incompetent revisers, or either interpolated or twisted by sleepy copyists.” (Steinmueller, S.T.D., S.Scr.L., “The Pre-Jerome Latin Version.” 1040)
St. Jerome and the Latin Vulgate
Recognizing the poor quality of the Vetus Latina, Pope Damasus I commissioned St. Jerome to produce a standard Latin Bible. St. Jerome’s work, informed by his deep knowledge of Hebrew and Greek, addressed the inconsistencies and provided the Church with a unified and authoritative Latin text—the Vulgate. The English word “vulgate” is derived from the Latin vulgata , the feminine past participle of vulgare, which in turn is from the Latin vulgus ‘common people’. “Vulgate” is the speech of the common people.
With respect to the New Testament, St. Jerome translated the Gospels from the original Greek and some parts from the Vetus Latina in 382-385 AD. Some surmise that the other books of the New Testament were revised by St. Jerome’s associate, Rufinas (Kselman 1320), but others say that Jerome translated them himself. (Steinmueller, D.D.,S.Scr.L. 254)
St. Jerome revised the Psalter (Psalms) from the Septuagint in 383 AD. After moving to Bethlehem around 387 AD, he began to translate the Psalter from Origen’s Greek Old Testament, called the “Hexapla”. This Psalter eventually was called the “Gallican Psalter”. (Steinmueller, D.D.,S.Scr.L. 254)
At about that time, St. Jerome became convinced of the priority of the Hebrew original texts, a principle called “Hebraica veritas” (“Hebrew truth”)(“Agricola Seminar”). He then translated the protocanonical books of the Old Testament from Hebrew from 390 AD to 405 AD (Kselman 1320).
The Deuterocanonical books of Tobias (Tobit) and Judith were translated by him from Aramaic originals, but Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus (Sirach), Baruch and Maccabees I and II were left untranslated from the Vetus Latina by St. Jerome (Steinmueller, D.D.,S.Scr.L. 256), a fact that St. John Paul would later mention when promulgating the Nova Vulgata in 1979. (Scripurarum Thesaurus | St. John Paul II)
Jerome took the additions to the Book of Daniel from Theodotian, a Hellenistic Jewish scholar who translated the Hebrew Bible into Greek in 150 AD, and additions to Esther from the Septuagint (Steinmueller, D.D.,S.Scr.L. 253-256).
The Vulgate was copied by hand from that time until the invention of the printing press by Johaness Gutenberg in 1440. As you can imagine, this introduced some typographical errors and diverse variations of the text over the thousand years since St. Jerome produced the Vulgate. Furthermore, no portions of St. Jerome’s original Vulgate have survived. As we shall see, this motivated the Council of Trent to mandate that the Vulgate be printed in “the most correct manner possible”. (Denzinger 786)
The most significant early manuscript of the Vulgate is the Codex Amiatinus, which dates to the early 8th century (716 AD) and is considered one of the oldest surviving complete copies of the Vulgate. It was produced by St. Ceolfrid (642-716), the Benedictine abbot of Wearmouth and Jarrow and a teacher of St. Bede. This work, one of three and the only one to survive, was copied from the sixth-century Codex Grandior, which is now lost. This bible was presented to Pope Gregory II by friends of St. Ceolfrid, who died on his way to Rome in 716. (“Codex Amiatinus.”) (Hind)
The Codex Fuldensis, considered the second most important witness to the text of the Latin Vulgate, was written between 541 and 546 CE at Capua, Italy by order of its bishop, Victor. It contains the whole New Testament, with the Gospels arranged in a single, consecutive narrative. (“Codex Fuldensis, the Second Most Important Witness to the Text of the Latin Vulgate”)
Lastly, in the late 8th century and early 9th century Alcuin, the abbot of the Monastery of Tours in Normandy made another attempt to rectify the varying Vulgate manuscripts by copying a version with emmendations. He was thought to have been helped by the students and monks of the monastery and worked under the direction of the Emperor Charlemagne. A copy was presented to the Emperor in 800 A.D. (Smith 322-324)
The Council of Trent, Session IV
The first decree of the fourth session of the Council of Trent in 1546 set forth an official list of the 73 books of the Bible as they were contained in St. Jerome’s Latin Vulgate and mandated that these books must be received as sacred and canonical:
But if any one receive not, as sacred and canonical, the said books entire with all their parts, as they have been used to be read in the Catholic Church, and as they are contained in the old Latin Vulgate edition; and knowingly and deliberately contemn the traditions aforesaid; let him be anathema. (Denzinger 784)
The second decree of the same session held that the Vulgate must be considered authentic and must not be rejected by the faithful:
Moreover, the same sacred and holy Synod,–considering that no small utility may accrue to the Church of God, if it be made known which out of all the Latin editions, now in circulation, of the sacred books, is to be held as authentic,–ordains and declares, that the said old and vulgate edition, which, by the lengthened usage of so many years, has been approved of in the Church, be, in public lectures, disputations, sermons and expositions, held as authentic; and that no one is to dare, or presume to reject it under any pretext whatever. (Denzinger 785)
It also mandated that the Latin Vulgate be printed in the most correct manner possible:
“…(this Synod) ordains and decrees, that, henceforth, the sacred Scripture, and especially the said old and vulgate edition, be printed in the most correct manner possible…” (Denzinger 786)
In 1941, Fr. William H. McClellan, S.J., a noted American Bible scholar wrote in the preface to the Douay Bible House’s Challoner Revision to the Douay-Rheims bible:
“The Council [Trent] well knew that the Hebrew text of the Old Testament, and the Greek of the New, were older and nearer to the original writings than even the oldest Latin translations. It had no intention to make the Vulgate supersede the older manuscripts for purposes of study.” (Douay-Rheims Bible vii)
Just one year later, in 1547, John Henten, a biblical scholar in Louvain, produced a corrected Vulgate by comparing over 30 Latin manuscripts and drawing from the work of earlier scholars. This served as the Church’s standard Vulgate until the Sixtine Vulgate of 1590 (“Louvain Vulgate”).
The Sixto-Clementine Vulgate (Vulgata Clementina)
Pope Sixtus V became Pope in 1585 and died five years later. Shortly before his death and in accordance with the mandate of the Council of Trent to print the Vulgate “in the most correct manner possible”, Pope Sixtus printed an updated edition of the Latin Vulgate (Ott).
Nine days after the death of Pope Sixtus and supposedly because it contained too many errors, the College of Cardinals ordered the suspension of the Sixtine Vulgate and destroyed as many copies as possible. Many sources assert that the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) were instrumental in the rescinding of the Sixtine Vulgate. Two years (and three Popes) later, Pope Clement VIII printed a version corrected by consulting ancient Latin, Greek and Hebrew manuscripts and which since then has been called the Latin Vulgate by the Church. (Cueto)
1582-1610 The Douay-Rheims Translation of the Vulgate into English
The College (or Seminary) of Douay was founded in 1568 by English exiles William Cardinal Allen, a fellow of Oriel College and principal of St. Mary’s College, Oxford; Dr. Gregory Martin, of St. John’s College, Oxford and some fellow scholars. The New Testament was translated from the Clementine Vulgate and published in English in 1582 while the college was in exile in Rheims. Martin translated the text and the other scholars revised it. (Newman) In 1609 and 1610, the seminary returned to Douay and the Old Testament was published (Ward).
In the preface to the Douay-Rheims bible, the translators emphasized the need for accurate translations of the Bible into common languages:
“Now since Luther and his followers have pretended that the Catholic Roman faith and doctrine should be contrary to God’s written word, and that the Scriptures were not suffered in vulgar languages, lest the people should see the truth, and withal these new masters corruptly turning the Scriptures into diverse tongues, as might best serve their own opinions, against this false suggestion and practice, Catholic pastors have, for one especial remedy, set forth true and sincere translations in most languages of the Latin Church.” (Newman)
1749-1752 The Challoner Revision of the Douay-Rheims Bible
From 1749 to 1752, the whole Douay-Rheims translation was revised and diligently compared with the Latin Vulgate by Bishop Richard Challoner (“Challoner Revision”)(Douay-Rheims Bible vii).
Cardinal John Henry Newman observed, “Looking at Dr. Challoner’s labours on the Old Testament as a whole, we may pronounce that they issue in little short of a new translation.” (Newman)
American bible scholar Fr. William H. McClellan, S.J. echoed Cardinal Newman’s assessment in the preface to an American edition of the Challoner revision to the Douay-Rheims bible:
“Although published as a revision of the Rheims-Douay, this version was really ‘little short of a new translation…” (Douay-Rheims Bible vii)
To see this, let’s compare the beginning of the Song of Moses (Exodus 15:1-4 ) in both works:
| Original Douay-Rheims | Challoner Revision |
| THᴇɴ sang Moyses and the children of Israel this song to our Lord, and said: Let vs sing to our Lord: for he is glouriously magnified, the horse and the rider he hath throwen into the sea. My strength, and my praise is our Lord, and he is made vnto me a saluation: this is my God, and I wil glorifie him: the God of my father, and I wil exalt him. Our Lord is a man of warre, omnipotent is his name. Pharaoes chariottes and his armie he hath cast into the sea: his chosen princes are drowned in the red sea. | Then Moses and the children of Israel sung this canticle to the Lord, and said: Let us sing to the Lord: for he is gloriously magnified, the horse and the rider he hath thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and my praise, and he is become salvation to me: he is my God, and I will glorify him: the God of my father, and I will exalt him. The Lord is as a man of war, Almighty is his name. Pharao’s chariots and his army he hath cast into the sea: his chosen captains are drowned in the Red Sea. |
1893 Pope Leo XIII’s Providentissimus Deus
In his 1893 encyclical, Providentissimus Deus, Pope Leo XIII proposed several ways that the Church should defend the authority of the Sacred Scriptures against the rationalists, i.e. those scholars who reject the veracity and miracles of the Sacred Scriptures:
Now, we have to meet the Rationalists, true children and inheritors of the older heretics, who, trusting in their turn to their own way of thinking, have rejected even the scraps and remnants of Christian belief which had been handed down to them. They deny that there is any such thing as revelation or inspiration, or Holy Scripture at all; they see, instead, only the forgeries and the falsehoods of men; they set down the Scripture narratives as stupid fables and lying stories: the prophecies and the oracles of God are to them either predictions made up after the event or forecasts formed by the light of nature; the miracles and the wonders of God’s power are not what they are said to be, but the startling effects of natural law, or else mere tricks and myths; (Providentissimus Deus | Pope Leo XIII 10)
People Leo XIII encouraged the study of the Bible’s original languages:
The Professor, following the tradition of antiquity, will make use of the Vulgate as his text; for the Council of Trent decreed that “in public lectures, disputations, preaching, and exposition,” the Vulgate is the “authentic” version; and this is the existing custom of the Church. At the same time, the other versions which Christian antiquity has approved, should not be neglected, more especially the more ancient MSS (manuscripts). For although the meaning of the Hebrew and Greek is substantially rendered by the Vulgate, nevertheless wherever there may be ambiguity or want of clearness, the “examination of older tongues,” to quote St. Augustine, will be useful and advantageous (Providentissimus Deus | Pope Leo XIII 13)
Notice how the Pope admitted that despite the Vulgate being “authentic”, it nevertheless contained instances of ambiguities and “want of clearness” that could be improved. Later in the encyclical he strongly encourages the study of the original languages of the Scriptures:
Hence it is most proper that Professors of Sacred Scripture and theologians should master those tongues in which the sacred Books were originally written; and it would be well that Church students also should cultivate them, more especially those who aspire to academic degrees. (Providentissimus Deus | Pope Leo XIII 17)
Pope Leo XIII also allowed the use of certain types of modern criticism in the study of the Sacred Scriptures, but with guardrails in place:
The first means is the study of the Oriental languages and of the art of criticism. These two acquirements are in these days held in high estimation, and therefore the clergy, by making themselves more or less fully acquainted with them as time and place may demand, will the better be able to discharge their office with becoming credit; for they must make themselves “all to all,” always “ready to satisfy everyone that asketh them a reason for the hope that is in them…Hence it is most proper that Professors of Sacred Scripture and theologians should master those tongues in which the sacred Books were originally written…And endeavours should be made to establish in all academic institutions – as has already been laudably done in many – chairs of the other ancient languages, especially the Semitic, and of subjects connected therewith, for the benefit principally of those who are intended to profess sacred literature. These latter, with a similar object in view, should make themselves well and thoroughly acquainted with the art of true criticism…. There has arisen, to the great detriment of religion, an inept method, dignified by the name of the “higher criticism,” which pretends to judge of the origin, integrity and authority of each Book from internal indications alone. It is clear, on the other hand, that in historical questions, such as the origin and the handing down of writings, the witness of history is of primary importance, and that historical investigation should be made with the utmost care…” (Providentissimus Deus | Pope Leo XIII 17)
Lastly, he reaffirmed the Council of Trent’s determination that the books of the Latin Vulgate were sacred and canonical:
This is the ancient and unchanging faith of the Church, solemnly defined in the Councils of Florence and of Trent, and finally confirmed and more expressly formulated by the Council of the Vatican. These are the words of the last: “The Books of the Old and New Testament, whole and entire, with all their parts, as enumerated in the decree of the same Council (Trent) and in the ancient Latin Vulgate, are to be received as sacred and canonical. And the Church holds them as sacred and canonical, not because, having been composed by human industry, they were afterwards approved by her authority; nor only because they contain revelation without error; but because, having been written under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, they have God for their author.” (Providentissimus Deus | Pope Leo XIII 20)
1907 Benedictine Vulgate
The Church recognized that in some ways the Clementine Vulgate was inferior to the Sixtine Vulgate (Gasquet, “Revision of the Vulgate.”). To remedy this the Benedictines received from Pius X in 1907 a commission to prepare a critical edition of the Latin Bible of St. Jerome.
“It is consequently the aim of the present commission to determine with all possible exactitude the Latin text of St. Jerome and not to produce any new version of the Latin Scriptures.” (Gasquet, “Revision of the Vulgate.”)
The Benedictines first step was to prepare and publish a preliminary revision of the Clementine Vulgate for use in their work. This they did in 1908. (Gasquet, “Revision of the Vulgate.”)
This project was not complete in 1920 when Pope Benedict XV wrote:
If God in His mercy grants us life, we sincerely hope to see an amended and faithfully restored edition. We have no doubt that when this arduous task – entrusted by our predecessor, Pius X, to the Benedictine Order – has been completed it will prove of great assistance in the study of the Bible. (Spiritus Paraclitus | Pope Benedict XV 32)
The first volume, the Pentateuch, was finally completed in 1926. In 1933, Pope Pius XI established the Pontifical Abbey of St Jerome-in-the-City to complete the work. (Abbatiae sancti Hieronymi de urbe | Pope Pius XI) This work, unfortunately, would not ever be completed.
1943 Pope Pius XII’s Divino afflante Spiritu
On the fiftieth anniversary of Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical, “Providentissimus Deus”, Pope Pius XII issued his encyclical, “Divino Afflante Spiritu”. In it he addressed Catholic exegetes and mentioned St. Jerome’s Vulgate:
Wherefore let him diligently apply himself so as to acquire daily a greater facility in biblical as well as in other oriental languages and to support his interpretation by the aids which all branches of philology supply. This indeed St. Jerome strove earnestly to achieve, as far as the science of his time permitted; to this also aspired with untiring zeal and no small fruit not a few of the great exegetes of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, although the knowledge of languages then was much less than at the present day. In like manner therefore ought we to explain the original text which, having been written by the inspired author himself, has more authority and greater weight than any even the very best translation, whether ancient or modern; this can be done all the more easily and fruitfully, if to the knowledge of languages be joined a real skill in literary criticism of the same text. (Divino Afflante Spiritu | Pope Pius XII 16)
This, of course, reflected something of the principle of “Hebraica veritas” mentioned above and which was embraced by St. Jerome himself.
Pope Pius XII emphasized that the Council of Trent did not freeze Catholic Biblical scholarship or translation activities:
Nor is it forbidden by the decree of the Council of Trent to make translations into the vulgar tongue, even directly from the original texts themselves, for the use and benefit of the faithful and for the better understanding of the divine word, as We know to have been already done in a laudable manner in many countries with the approval of the Ecclesiastical authority. (Divino Afflante Spiritu | Pope Pius XII 22)
He also urged that Bishops recommend suitably approved modern translations of the Scriptures to the faithful:
Let them (the Bishops) favor therefore and lend help to those pious associations whose aim it is to spread copies of the Sacred Letters, especially of the Gospels, among the faithful, and to procure by every means that in Christian families the same be read daily with piety and devotion; let them efficaciously recommend by word and example, whenever the liturgical laws permit, the Sacred Scriptures translated, with the approval of the Ecclesiastical authority, into modern languages; (Divino Afflante Spiritu | Pope Pius XII 51)
Original Language Manuscripts
At the time he wrote Divino afflante Spiritu, Pope Piux XII would not have known that in four short years a discovery would be made by a Bedouin in the caves of Qumran that would cause an explosive advance in the study of the Old Testament in its original languages of Hebrew and Aramaic (Stravinskas and Shaw 307). He was, however, undoubtedly aware of the most significant ancient biblical manuscripts currently available for study. For the Hebrew Old Testament, these included the Leningrad Codex, circa 1000 AD (Bergsma and Pitre 34) and the Aleppo Codex circa 920 AD. For the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint) which was translated from the Hebrew from 250-100 B.C., these included the Codex Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus, both from the 4th Century, as well as the Codex Alexandrinus from the 5th Century (Bergsma and Pitre 36-37) (Greenspoon).
1963 Sacrosantum Concilium
Twenty years later the Second Vatican Council’s Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium, mandated a revision of the Latin Psalter:
The work of revising the psalter, already happily begun, is to be finished as soon as possible, and is to take into account the style of Christian Latin, the liturgical use of psalms, also when sung, and the entire tradition of the Latin Church. (Sacrosanctum Concilium | 2nd Vatican Council 91)
Then, in 1965, prior to the end of the Second Vatican Council, Pope Paul VI appointed a commission to update the Vulgate in the same way that the Council mandated it be done for the Psalter. The Benedictine Vulgate would form the basis for a new Vulgate, the Nova Vulgata (Clifford 198).
1965 Dei Verbum, Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, 2nd Vatican Council
In that same year the Second Vatican Council issued its Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, Dei Verbum. In it the Council Fathers wrote:
Easy access to Sacred Scripture should be provided for all the Christian faithful. That is why the Church from the very beginning accepted as her own that very ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament which is called the septuagint; and she has always given a place of honor to other Eastern translations and Latin ones especially the Latin translation known as the vulgate. But since the word of God should be accessible at all times, the Church by her authority and with maternal concern sees to it that suitable and correct translations are made into different languages, especially from the original texts of the sacred books. (Dei Verbum | 2nd Vatican Council 22)
Note that the Council Fathers acknowledged the place of honor held by the Vulgate, but also that the Church “from the very beginning accepted as her own that very ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament which is called the septuagint”.
1966 – 1979 The Nova Vulgata
On November 29, 1965 Pope Paul VI set up “a special Pontifical Commission whose task it would be to carry out the command of the same General Council and to revise all the books of Sacred Scripture so that the Church might be enriched with a Latin edition which advancing biblical studies demanded and which might serve especially in the Liturgy.” (Scripurarum Thesaurus | St. John Paul II)
In an address on December 23, 1966 Pope Paul VI said of the Nova Vulgata:
Another discussion would be required by the ongoing work of the Commission, presided over by Cardinal Augustine Bea, for the preparation of a new Bible in the Latin language, the Neo-Vulgate, as it is already called; an edition desired by the progress of biblical studies and by the need to give the Church and the world a new and authoritative text of Sacred Scripture.
We are thinking of a text in which the text of the Vulgate of St. Jerome will be respected to the letter, where it faithfully reproduces the original text, as it results from the present scientific editions; it will be prudently corrected where it deviates from it, or does not interpret it correctly, using for this purpose the language of Christian “biblical latinitas”; so that respect for tradition and the healthy critical needs of our time are reconciled.
The Latin liturgy will thus have a unitary text, scientifically impeccable, coherent with tradition, hermeneutics and Christian language; it will also serve as a point of reference for the versions in the vernacular languages.
The revision work, as We have been informed, is proceeding at a satisfactory pace; in hoping for a good outcome to this very important work, We assure those who are awaiting it of Our trusting and benevolent attention. (Al Sacro Collegio E Alla Prelatura Romana | St. Paul VI)
On April 25, 1979 Pope John Paul II promulgated the Nova Vulgata, writing:
Our predecessor of recent memory, Paul VI, was moved by all these considerations to set up even before the end of the same Council, that is on 29 November 1965, a special Pontifical Commission whose task it would be to carry out the command of the same General Council and to revise all the books of Sacred Scripture so that the Church might be enriched with a Latin edition which advancing biblical studies demanded and which might serve especially in the Liturgy.
In realizing this revision, “the old text of the Vulgate edition was taken into consideration word for word, namely, whenever the original texts are accurately rendered, such as they are found in modern critical editions; however the text was prudently improved, whenever it departs from them or interprets them less correctly. For this reason Christian biblical Latinity was used so that a just evaluation of tradition might be properly combined with the legitimate demands of critical science prevailing in these times.
The text born out of this revision—which, indeed, was quite demanding in certain books of the Old Testament which Saint Jerome did not touch——was published in separate volumes from 1969 to 1977; but now it is being offered in a “typical” edition contained in one volume. This New Vulgate edition will also be of such a nature that vernacular translations, which are destined for liturgical and pastoral use, may be referred to it; and, to use the words of our predecessor Paul VI, “it is permissible to think that it is a certain sort of foundation on which biblical studies… may rest, especially where libraries open to special studies can be consulted only with greater difficulty, and where the diffusion of suitable research materials is more hindered”
In past times the Church considered that the old Vulgate edition was sufficient and was abundantly effective for sharing the word of God with the Christian people: something indeed which this New Vulgate edition will be able to accomplish all the more fully. (Scripurarum Thesaurus | St. John Paul II)
The Proto-Evangelium Controversy
At this point it might be wise to address, by way of example, controversy that arose when comparing the Clementine Vulgate to the Nova Vulgata (New Vulgate) and other modern translations of the Scriptures. One example in particular, the Protoevangelium (Genesis 3:15), has garnered some attention. This particular verse in the New Vulgate differs in two ways from the Clementine Vulgate.
| Clementine Vulgate | New Vulgate |
| Inimicitias ponam inter te et mulierem, et semen tuum et semen illius: ipsa conteret caput tuum, et tu insidiaberis calcaneo eius. | Inimicitias ponam inter te et mulierem et semen tuum et semen illius; ipsum conteret caput tuum, et tu conteres calcaneum eius”. |
First, you might notice the “ipsa” (“she”) in the Clementine Vulgate is rendered “ipsum” (“he”) in the New Vulgate.
Here is the same verse in the Challoner revision of the Douay-Rheims, as compared to the Revised Standard Version – Catholic edition:
| Douay-Rheims American (Challoner) | Revised Standard Version – Catholic Edition |
| “I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel.” Genesis 3:15 DRA | “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” Genesis 3:15 RSVCE |
In the Hebrew Masoretic text and the Greek Septuagint, the pronoun looks to its antecedent which is the masculine ‘seed’ and therefore, could never be translated as “she.”
St. Irenaeus, a second century bishop in Asia Minor who was a disciple of St. Polycarp who was a disciple of St. John the Apostle, confirms this rendering. Making use of the Septuagint, he wrote in his “Adversus haereses (Against Heresies, Book 3, Chapter 23, Section 7):
For this end did He put enmity between the serpent and the woman and her seed, they keeping it up mutually: He, the sole of whose foot should be bitten, having power also to tread upon the enemy’s head; but the other biting, killing, and impeding the steps of man, until the seed did come appointed to tread down his head—which was born of Mary, of whom the prophet speaks: “You shall tread upon the asp and the basilisk; you shall trample down the lion and the dragon;” — indicating that sin, which was set up and spread out against man, and which rendered him subject to death, should be deprived of its power, along with death, which rules [over men]; and that the lion, that is, antichrist, rampant against mankind in the latter days, should be trampled down by Him; (Schaff 457)
In his notes to his revision of the Douay-Rheims bible, Bishop Challoner mentioned the controversy and admitted that while some Church Fathers preferred “ipsa”, there were ancient texts that read “ipsum”. He saw the resolution to the conflict in Jesus Christ:
Ver. 15. She shall crush. Ipsa, the woman; so divers of the fathers read this place, conformably to the Latin: others read it ipsum, that is, the seed. The sense is the same: for it is by her seed, Jesus Christ, that the woman crushes the serpent’s head. (Douay-Rheims Bible 3)
Lastly, St. John Paul II, in his Apostolic Letter Mulieris Dignitatem, adopted the the “ipsum” translation, but did a marvelous job in resolving this controversy:
The Book of Genesis attests to the fact that sin is the evil at man’s “beginning” and that since then its consequences weigh upon the whole human race. At the same time it contains the first foretelling of victory over evil, over sin. This is proved by the words which we read in Genesis 3:15, usually called the “Proto-evangelium”: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel”. It is significant that the foretelling of the Redeemer contained in these words refers to “the woman”. She is assigned the first place in the Proto-evangelium as the progenitrix of him who will be the Redeemer of man.[34] And since the redemption is to be accomplished through a struggle against evil – through the “enmity” between the offspring of the woman and the offspring of him who, as “the father of lies” (Jn 8:44), is the first author of sin in human history – it is also an enmity between him and the woman. (Mulieris Dignitatem | St. John Paul II 11)
The second difference between the Clementine Vulgate and the New Vulgate with respect to Genesis 3:15 is the former’s use of insidiaberis “shall lie in wait” vs. the latter’s conteres “shall bruise”. Insidiaberis is the second-person singular future passive indicative of the Latin verb insidio meaning “to sit at or on, or to lie in ambush”, while conteres is the second-person singular future active indicative of the Latin verb contĕro, meaning “to grind, to crush, or to bruise”.
In the Clementine Vulgate, the word τηρήσει from the Septuagint is translated to insidiaberis (“shall lie in wait”) while in the New Vulgate, the word שׁוּף from the Hebrew is translated to conteres (“shall bruise or crush”). Interestingly, if the η in the Septuagint’s τηρήσει is changed to ει, we get the word τειρήσει , “he will bruise”, suggesting that a copying error early in the history of the Septuagint could have resulted in this difference. (August 20) (Lust and Eynikel 1179)
Conclusion
We can draw several conclusions from this survey of magisterial teaching and the historical record:
- St. Jerome’s Latin Vulgate and its approved revisions should be held as sacred, canonical and authentic, and any translation thereof into a vernacular language approved by the Church (e.g. the Challoner revision) should be held to be the same and Catholic faithful with affection for these translations should not be disparaged or impugned in any way.
- Beginning with the Septuagint, the Church has a long history of appreciating the translation of the Sacred Scriptures directly into vernacular languages. St. Jerome himself put a primacy on the use of the ancient Hebrew versions in translating the Old Testament into Latin, which was the vernacular of his day.
- The Council of Trent did not freeze the study of the original languages of the Sacred Scriptures in any way and in fact, the Church has since encouraged the study of the original languages of the Sacred Scriptures and the translation of the Scriptures into the vernacular from these original languages. Catholic faithful with affection for such approved translations should not be disparaged or impugned in any way.
- The New Vulgate may be used as a reference for “vernacular translations, which are destined for liturgical and pastoral use” and may be used as a “foundation on which biblical studies… may rest, especially where libraries open to special studies can be consulted only with greater difficulty, and where the diffusion of suitable research materials is more hindered.” This would seem to especially apply to the translation of the Sacred Scriptures into indigenous languages when experts in those languages have little access to the original Hebrew and Greek sources.
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