In 1662, the Armenian Patriarch James IV. sent Bishop Uscan to Europe to manage the publication of an Armenian Bible. He came to Rome, and sojourned five months.

As the Propaganda was not certain of his orthodoxy, he was unable to realize his project at Rome; whereupon, he withdrew to Amsterdam, where he published a complete Old Testament in 1666, and the New Testament complete in 1668. The edition of Uscan was not approved by Rome. It is very imperfect. In many things he brought it in accord with the Vulgate. M. Hyvernat, from whom we have taken most of these data, believes that the passage relating to the three heavenly witnesses, I. John V. 7, was inserted from the Vulgate, and that the Fourth book of Ezra, Ecclesiasticus, and the Apocalypse were translated from the Vulgate. The edition has been much praised by Richard Simon. Certainly the man was to be commended for having come to the authentic Latin text for the books that were lost in Armenian, and although such fact diminishes the texts' critical value, it is not an evidence of ignorance in Uscan.

The work of Uscan was perfected by the Armenian religious, called the Mekhitarists at Venice.

In 1805 appeared the complete edition of the Scriptures by Zohrab, one of the Mekhitarists. At first, the book of Ecclesiasticus was placed in the appendix with certain apocryphal books. They discovered later a Codex of Ecclesiasticus of the V. century, and in a later edition in 1859, restored Ecclesiasticus to its proper place. The verse of I. John V. 7, is omitted in this edition.

Many editions have been published since that time of which there is no need to speak.

The people living about Iberia and the region about Mt. Caucasus, who are termed Georgians, or Grusians, are said to have been converted in the IV. century by Armenians. In the life of St. Mesrob, it is stated that he also gave an alphabet to this people. They received their Scriptures from the Armenians, and it is uncertain whether the translation into their proper tongue was made in the sixth or eighth century. It is also uncertain whether it was made from the Greek or Armenian text. The Georgian tongue is but little known, and no scholar has given us the resources of the aforesaid version of Scripture.

There was printed at Moscow, in 1743, an edition of Georgian Scripture, based upon the Russian text, whence it is evident that it is of no critical worth.

The other Eastern versions are late and unimportant. In the ninth century, SS. Methodius and Cyrill gave to the Slavs a Slavonic translation of Scripture, most probably made from the Greek text.

The Arabic translations, some of which appear in Walton's Polyglott, were made in the tenth and twelfth centuries, and are of no critical worth.

The Persian text of the Gospels which appears in Walton's Polyglott, was made from the Syriac Peschito. Its date is uncertain, but it is later than the eighth century.

Saadias Haggaon, a Jew living in Egypt in the X. century, translated the Pentateuch from the Massoretic text into Arabic. In many places the work assumes the nature of a paraphrase. Translations by Saadias also exist of Isaiah, the Minor Prophets, the Psalter and Job.

The Arabic text of the Pentateuch by Saadias is published in Walton's Polyglott.

In 1662, Erpenius published an Arabic translation of the Pentateuch from a MS. belonging to Joseph Scaliger. This is called the Arabs Erpenii. It was made from the Massoretic text by a Jew in the VIII. century, and is of no critical value. We know not the date or the author of the Arabic text of Joshua published by Walton. There are also Arabic fragments of Kings, and of Ezra whose origin is uncertain.

There is also a version of the Pentateuch made by Abou Said, a Samaritan at an uncertain date ranging between the X. and XIII. centuries. It was made from the Hebrew text in Samaritan characters of the Samaritan Codex.

The Arabic text of the Prophets which appears in Walton's Polyglott, was made from the Septuagint, and Theodotion's version of Daniel. The Arabic text of the other books which appears therein was made also from the Greek at uncertain dates, but all later than the X. century.

The Arabic text of the New Testament was made directly from the Greek. Its date is unknown, but the eighth century would be the earliest possible date.

The Persian Pentateuch of Walton was made by a Jew of the XVI. century. It follows the Massoretic text servilely, and is of small critical worth. The Persian text of the Gospels which was made from the Greek, is assigned to the XIV. century. Other versions may exist, but they have not been studied.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

JEROME AND THE VULGATE.

We have sufficiently discoursed of the causes and movements which led up to Jerome's great translation, which, from its constant and universal use in the Church of God, has been aptly called the VULGATE.

It was in his cell at Bethlehem, about the year 389, that Jerome began his great work. His design was not favored by the clergy of Rome, who accused him of endeavoring to set aside the Septuagint and the Vetus Itala. He declares that such was not his intent, but only to furnish a translation that the Jews could not reject in controversy with the Christians. Jerome never foresaw the great results that were to follow from his labors. He began with the books of Samuel and Kings. In 393 he had completed these, together with the sixteen Prophets, the Psalter and Job. The work was then intermitted for some time. In 395 he translated Ezra and Chronicles. These were followed by a translation of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and the Canticle of Canticles. The work of translating the Pentateuch, Joshua, Judges and Ruth was begun in 398 and terminated in 404. Some time in this period, Jerome translated Tobias and Judith from the Chaldaic

text.

This translation of the Psalter was never received into common use by the Church. The probable cause was, the danger of scandal to the common people, who committed much of the Psalter to memory. Had Jerome's translation been substituted for the old text, the simple people would have been unable to reconcile the wide divergency of the two texts with their reverence for Holy Scripture.

What we have written of Jerome's life and labors, places in clear light his relation to our approved Vulgate.

Jerome was guided in his method of translation by two norms. 1. The great and principal norm was to reproduce the sense, not binding himself to text, word for word. Whatever may be Jerome's declaration concerning his work, an examination of the Vulgate will reveal this general design running all through it. Thus, at times, he changes completely the order and form of the Hebrew sentence; again, he avoids the excessive minuteness of description and frequent repetitions of the same text. The following two examples will illustrate this:

Supra p270

Genesis XXXIX. 19-20. (Lit

eral Hebrew).

"And it came to pass, when his master heard the words of his wife, which she spake unto him, saying: after this manner did thy servant to me; that his wrath was kindled. And Joseph's master took him, and put him into the prison, a place where the King's prisoners were bound: and he was there in the prison." Exodus XL. 12—15. (Hebrew).

"And thou shalt bring Aaron and his sons unto the door of the tabernacle of the covenant, and wash them with water. And thou shalt put upon Aaron the holy garments, and anoint him, and sanctify him, that he may minister unto me in the priest's office. And thou shalt bring his sons, and clothe them with coats : And thou shalt anoint them, as thou didst anoint their father, that they may minister unto me in the priests office: for their anointing shall surely be an everlasting priesthood throughout their generations."

Genesis XXXIX. 19-20. (Vulgate).

"His master hearing these things, and giving too much credit to his wife's words, was very angry, and cast Joseph into the prison, where the King's prisoners were kept, and he was there shut up."

Exodus XL. 12-13. (Vulgate). "And thou shalt bring Aaron and his sons to the door of the tabernacle of the covenant, and having washed them with water, thou shalt put on them the holy vestments, that they may minister to me, and that the unction of them may prosper to an everlasting priesthood."

Jerome omits two whole verses, and condenses their import in the other two.

This is praised by some as a certain elegance in Latin diction, but I must confess I would prefer the quaint simplicity of the old text with no abridgment.

At times Jerome has failed to apprehend the sense of the Hebrew. The following is a notable example:

Gen. XLIX. 22. (Hebrew). "Joseph is a fruitful. son (bough), a fruitful son (planted) by the fountain whose branches run over the wall."

Gen. XLIX. 22. (Vulgate).

"Joseph is a growing son, a growing son and comely to behold: the daughters run to and fro upon the wall."

It is evident that the holy text likens Joseph to a vine planted in well irrigated soil; and Joseph's prosperity is likened to the healthy growth of this vine which sends forth its shoots upon the wall. It is easy to see that this is more congruous to the grave sense of Scripture, than the picture of maidens running about on an eminence to see the beautiful Joseph.

Again when Jerome essays to translate proper names into their supposed signification, he also errs.

The following text will illustrate this assertion:

Joshua XIV. 15. (Hebrew.)

"And the name of Hebron before was Kirjath-Arba (the city of Arba) who was a great man among the Anakim. And the land had rest from war."

Joshua XIV. 15. (Vulgate).

"The name of Hebron before was called Cariath-Arbe; Adam, the greatest among the Enacim was laid there; and the land rested from wars."

The sense is simply that Hebron was called the city of Arba, who had been a great hero of the Anakim. How far Jerome has departed from this sense, we leave the reader to judge. Again :

It is plain that the inspired text wishes to state, that Abram was called by God out of the Chaldean city Ur. Jerome's love for Hebrew led him to accept much from the rabbis, and here they have deceived him.

Sometimes, in things relating to the substantial sense, he has failed to catch the meaning. An example of this is the following passage:

The precept is against idolatry, not against profanity. A similar serious defect occurs in the well known passage of Isaiah XI. 10, wherein Jerome translates the close of the verse: "-and his peace will be glorious," by: "—and his