Augustine in His Own Words (continued)
The Exegete 185 of the Old Testament should be corrected, if need be, by authoritative Greek ones, and especially the version of those who, though seventy in number, are held to have translated in unanimous agreement.54
Correspondence with Jerome
Translating the Old Testament
Around 394 or 395, Augustine embarked on a long-running correspondence with Jerome, the greatest biblical scholar of his day.55 Their correspondence got off to a rough start. Augustine's first letter never reached Jerome, while the second did so only by a roundabout route, and both letters stoked Rome's gossip-mill. Jerome was a notoriously prickly and cantankerous personality and was deeply offended by Augustine's challenges. Two issues came to the fore. The first was whether one should use the Septuagint as the basis for any translation of the Old Testament (Augustine's view) or the Hebrew original (Jerome's preference as of the early 390s).56 In the following letter, written around 403, Augustine apologizes about earlier letters going astray and commends Jerome's scholarly work. He then recounts a humorous incident: a colleague of his faced a near-riot in his congregation after using Jerome's Vulgate. From Letter 71:
(2.3) I have learned that you have translated the Book of Job from the Hebrew, although we have had for some time your translation of that Prophet, rendered into Latin from the Greek tongue, in which you marked by asterisks what is found in the Hebrew version but not in the Greek, and by obelisks what is found in the Greek but not in the Hebrew, with such extraordinary care that in some places we see stars appended to single words, indicating that these words are in the Hebrew but not in the Greek version.57 But in your later translation, which was made directly from the Hebrew, there is not the same fidelity to the words, and it rouses no little disquiet when one wonders why in the earlier translation the asterisks were placed with such care as to show even the most insignificant parts of speech that are lacking in the Greek texts but are found in the Hebrew, [but] less care [in the new translation] is
54. Doc. Chr. 2.15.22 (Green, 80–82); my trans., based on Gavigan, FOTC 2:80–81. 55. For an overview and analysis of the correspondence, see Kelly, Jerome, 263–72. 56. Jerome, in the Preface to his Hebrew Questions, began speaking of "Hebrew verity" (Hebraica veritas) as opposed to what he came to see as mistakes in the Septuagint. On Jerome's growing conviction on this issue, see Kelly, Jerome, 153–67.
57. "Asterisks . . . obelisks": Symbols used by ancient text critics to mark discrepancies in texts. Origen famously applied these symbols in his massive 6-column compilations of versions of the Old Testament, known as the Hexpla. Jerome apparently had access to Origen's volume for this work. Augustine, himself well-trained in literary critical scholarship, was impressed with such careful textual scholarship. On Origen's Hexpla and his work as a grammarian, see Joseph W. Trigg, Origen, Early Church Fathers (New York: Routledge, 1998).
shown in assigning these particles to their places. I should like to give you an example of this, but at the moment I have no texts from the Hebrew. As you surpass me, however, in quickness of mind, I think you understand not only what I say, but even what I want to say, and you can clear up what troubles me as if the case had been presented.
(2.4) For my part, I would rather you translated the Greek Scriptures for us as they are presented in the Septuagint. It will be very difficult if people begin to read your translation more commonly in many churches, because the Latin churches will differ from the Greek, and especially because anyone who objects is easily refuted by producing the book in Greek, as that is a wellknown language. But if anyone is disturbed by an unusual passage translated from the Hebrew and claims that it is wrong, seldom or never is there a way to appeal to the Hebrew to sustain the passage challenged. Even if there were, who would allow so many Latin and Greek authorities to be overruled? In addition to this, Hebrew experts could conceivably give different answers, and you would then seem to be the sole indispensable critic to convince them. Who will be able to be the judge? It would be surprising if one could find one.
(3.5) There was a certain bishop of ours who decided to read your translation in the church over which he presided, and he caused a sensation by some passage from the Prophet Jonah, which was very different from the version enshrined in the memory and hearing of all and sung for so many generations. There was such a disturbance made among the people, with the Greeks arguing and stirring up passions with the charge of falsification, that the bishop—it was in the city of Oea58—was forced to call on the testimony of the Jews. Whether it was through ignorance or malice, they answered that what the Greek and Latin texts said and maintained was found in the Hebrew texts. To make a long story short, the man was forced to correct an apparently wrong statement, not wishing to run the great risk of remaining without a flock. So it seems to us that you, like others, can be mistaken as well. You see the sort of thing that can happen when a text cannot be corrected by comparison with the familiar languages.
(4.6) . . . I wish you would be so kind as to explain what you think about the difference of authority in many places between the Hebrew texts and the Greek version known as the Septuagint. Surely that version has no little weight, which was duly published abroad and which experience shows was used by the Apostles—a fact which you asserted, as I recall. In this you would perform a great service if you would put into correct Latin the Greek translation which the Seventy made, for our Latin Scriptures vary so much from text
58. "Oea": modern Tripoli, Libya.