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would be made by the chief men of the Church, who certainly could write better Latin than the text of the Vetus Itala. I believe, therefore, that in this question, which does not admit of a certain answer, the greater weight of probability stands for Italy as the place of origin of the first Latin translation. Regarding the mode of its origin, it seems quite certain that it was the work of many private individuals. St. Augustine, a most competent judge in this matter, declares the manner in which the early translations were made:

"For the translations of the Scriptures from Hebrew into Greek can be counted, but the Latin translators are out of all number. For in the early days of the faith, every man who happened to get his hands upon a Greek manuscript, and who thought he had any knowledge, were it ever so little, of the two languages, ventured upon the work of translation." (Enchirid. of Christ. Doct. Bk. II. XI.)

It is evident that the numerous translators did not translate the whole Bible, but certain books, so that there were many different translations of the several books made by different authors. Jerome complains bitterly of these numerous translators: "With the Latins there are as many different versions as there are codices, and every one arbitrarily adds or takes away what he pleases." (Hier. Praef. in Josue.)

In this multiplicity of versions of the different books it soon resulted that the whole Bible existed in Latin, with considerable diversity in the different codices. It must have been also that some of the books were more faithfully translated than others. The next step seems to have been that the churches collected these various translations of the individual books into complete catalogues of Scripture. Here, also, diversity resulted, for the different churches collected different versions, and the works of the librarii dormitantes and the imperiti emendatores, was continued. Such was the condition of the Latin text when Jerome took it up and revised it according to the Greek. Now, among the various complete versions thus brought together, Augustine designates one as the Italian version: "Now among the translations themselves the Italian is to be preferred to the others, for it keeps closer to the words, without prejudice to clearness of expression." (op. cit. 15.) It is certain, therefore, that in Augustine's time, out of the various translations of the individual books, there had resulted several complete versions, among which, in his judgment, the Vetus Itala was preeminent. It is probable that a beginning was made to translate the Scriptures into

Latin even in the Apostolic age. As in that age intense activity was manifested in all things that pertained to religion, without doubt several translations of the different books were soon in existence. It is quite probable that one of these complete versions, at a very early age, obtained a place of eminence in the churches of Italy; perhaps it was in a certain sense authorized by the authorities in those churches. Thus it came to be termed the "Itala," and as Jerome called it the old, in contradistinction to his version, it thus became known as the Old Italian Version.

Its language was ruder than the ordinary Latin of the period. It coined many new words, adopted many Greek words and idioms, and confounded genders, declinations, and conjugations.

The condition of the Latin text in the beginning of the fourth century was deplorable. Innumerable codices existed widely differing from each other. Translators, correctors, and transcribers had rendered the text in a great measure uncertain.

To remedy this evil Pope Damasus (†384), commissioned St. Jerome to revise the Latin text. Jerome began his labors at Rome in 383, and first revised the Psalter "juxta septuaginta interpretes, licet cursim, magna tamen ex parte." This emendation is called the Roman Psalter. It was immediately adopted in liturgical use at Rome, and remained in use in the churches of Italy, till the time of St. Pius V. (†1572). The same year he also corrected the Gospels, "Evangelia ad Graecam fidem revocavit." The norm of Jerome in this emendation was to depart as little as possible from the usual reading, therefore, "ita calamo temperavit ut, his tantum quae sensum videbantur mutare correctis, reliqua manere pateretur ut fuerant." (Hier. Praef. in Evang.) We find no prefaces of Jerome, relating to the other books of the New Testament, for which cause, some have doubted whether he extended this emendation beyond the Gospels. As he speaks in several places in his writings of his emendation of the New Testament, and declares that he restored the New Testament to the purity of the Greek, it is highly probable that he revised the whole New Testament.

When Damasus died in 384, Jerome returned to the East, and, happening upon the Hexaplar Text of Origen, at Caesarea, he made from that text a second emendation of the Psalter, retaining Origen's diacritic signs. This emendation was immediately received into liturgical use in the churches of Gaul;

hence, it came to be called the Gallican Psalter. It gradually came into use in other churches, and St. Pius V. authorized it for the text of the Roman Breviary. An exception was made in the case of the Psalm called the Invitatorium, XCIV. of the Vulgate, which was retained from the Roman Psalter. The Vatican Basilica, the Duomo of Milan, and the Chapel of the Doges of Venice, by special privilege, retained in their liturgy the Roman Psalter.

The Roman Psalter is also retained in the Roman Missal. The Psalterium Gallicanum is placed in the Vulgate. St. Jerome next revised Job by the Hexaplar text, which revision. was received with much favor by St. Augustine. We are certain from Jerome's prefaces, that he emended in the same manner Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Canticle of Canticles, and Chronicles.

It is probable that Jerome also corrected, at this time and in this manner, the remaining books of the Old Testament, though explicit data are wanting to prove it.

Jerome soon after entered upon the greatest work of his life, the translation of the protocanonical books of the Old Testament, from the original Hebrew.

Of this great version we shall treat in a later chapter. Suffice it to say here, that forth from the sixth century, the great translation of Jerome displaced the Vetus Itala, so that the greater part of this old version perished. Certain portions of it are preserved in the Vulgate, and in the writings of the Fathers. The New Testament of the Vetus Itala as emended by Jerome, the second emendation of the Psalter, the books of Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch, I. and II. Maccabees, and the deuterocanonical parts of Esther and Daniel, are retained from the Vetus Itala in the Vulgate.

Various collections have been made of the other fragments of the Vetus Itala from codices and works of Fathers. Flaminius Nobilius and Agellius were the first to collect and publish these fragments in 1588. Since that time, fragments have been collected and published by Martianay, Thomas Hearne, Sabatier, Blanchini; and in more recent times by Vercellone, Ranke, Haupt, and Muenter.

CHAPTER XXII.

THE TARGUMS.

The Chaldee word D TaRGUM signifies, in general, any version or explanation; but this appellation is more particularly restricted to the versions or paraphrases of the Old

Testament, executed in the East Aramæan or Chaldee dialect, as it is usually called. These Targums are termed paraphrases or expositions, because they are rather comments and explications, than literal translations of the text. They are written in the Chaldee tongue, which became familiar to the Jews after the time of their captivity in Babylon, and was more known to them than the Hebrew itself; so that, when the law was "read in the Synagogue every Sabbath day," in pure biblical Hebrew, an explanation was subjoined to it in Chaldee, in order to render it intelligible to the people, who had but an imperfect knowledge of the Hebrew language. This practice, as already observed, originated about the epoch of the Maccabees. As there are no traces of any written Targums prior to those of Onkelos and Jonathan, who are supposed to have lived about the time of our Saviour, it is highly probable that these paraphrases were at first merely oral; that subsequently, the ordinary glosses on the more difficult passages were committed to writing; and that, as the Jews were bound by an ordinance of their elders to possess a copy of the law, these glosses were either afterwards collected together and deficiencies in them supplied, or, new and connected paraphrases were formed.

There are at present extant ten paraphrases on different parts of the Old Testament, three of which comprise the Pentateuch, or five books of Moses: 1.-The Targum of Onkelos; 2.-That falsely ascribed to Jonathan, and usually cited as the Targum of the Pseudo-Jonathan; and, 3.-The Jerusalem Targum; 4.—The Targum of Jonathan Ben Uzziel (i. e., the son of Uzziel) on the Prophets; 5.—The Targum of Rabbi Joseph the blind, or one-eyed, on the Hagiographa; 6. An anonymous Targum on the five Megilloth, or books of Ruth, Esther, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, and the Lamentations of Jeremiah; 7, 8, 9.-Three Targums on the Book of Esther; and, 10.—A Targum or paraphrase on the two Books of Chronicles. These Targums, taken together, form a continued paraphrase on the Old Testament, with the exception of the Books of Daniel, Ezra, and Nehemiah (anciently reputed to be part of Ezra); which, being for the most part written in Chaldee, it has been conjectured that no paraphrases were written on them, as being unnecessary; though Prideaux is of opinion that Targums were composed on these books also, which have perished in the lapse of ages.

The language in which these paraphrases are composed varies in purity, according to the time when they were re

spectively written. Thus, the Targums of Onkelos and the Pseudo-Jonathan are much purer than the others, approximating very nearly to the Aramæan dialect, in which some parts of Daniel and Ezra are written, except, indeed, that the orthography does not always correspond; while the language of the later Targums, whence the rabbinical dialect derives its source, is far more impure, and is intermixed with barbarous and foreign words. Originally, all the Chaldee paraphrases were written without vowel-points, like all other Qriental manuscripts; but at length some persons ventured to add points to them, though very erroneously, and this irregular punctuation was retained in the Venetian and other early editions of the Hebrew Bible. Some further imperfect attempts towards regular pointing were made both in the Complutensian and in the Antwerp Polyglotts, until at length the elder Buxtorf, in his edition of the Hebrew Bible, published at Basil, undertook the thankless task of improving the punctuation of the Targums, according to such rules as he had formed from the pointing, which he had found in the Chaldee parts of the Books of Daniel and Ezra; and his method of punctuation is followed in Walton's Polyglott.

THE TARGUM OF ONKELOS.-It is not known, with certainty, at what time Onkelos flourished, nor of what nation he was. Eichorn conjectures that he was a native of Babylon, first, because he is mentioned in the Babylonian Talmud; secondly, because his dialect is not the Chaldee spoken in Palestine, but much purer, and more closely resembling the style of Daniel and Ezra; and lastly, because he has not interwoven any of those fabulous narratives, to which the Jews of Palestine were so much attached, and from which they could with difficulty refrain. Bauer and Jahn place him in the second century. The Targum of Onkelos comprises the Pentateuch, or five books of Moses, and is justly preferred to all the others, both by Jews and Christians, on account of the purity of its style, and its general freedom from idle legends. It is rather a version than a paraphrase, and renders the Hebrew text word for word, with so much accuracy and exactness that, being set to the same musical notes with the original Hebrew, it could be read or cantillated in the same tone as the latter in the public assemblies of the Jews. And this, we find, was the practice of the Jews up to the time of Rabbi Elias Levita, who flourished in the early part of the sixteenth century, and who expressly states that the Jews read the law in their synagogues, first in Hebrew and then in the Targum of Onkelos. This

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