is which the several translators endeavour to express, each
40 ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. [bOOK II.
reasons one says, " If ye will not Lelieve, ye shall not understand ;" but the other, "If ye will not believe, ye shall not abide."
18. And very often a translator, to whom the meaning is not well known, is deceived b}' an ambiguity in the original language, and puts upon the passage a construction that is wholly alien to the sense of the writer. As for example, some texts read : " Their feet are sharp to shed blood ;" ^ for the word ofU9 among the Greeks means both sharp and si.uift. And so he saw the true meaning who translated : " Their feet are swift to shed blood." The other, taking the wrong sense of an ambii^uous word, fell into error. Is'ow translations such as this are not obscure, but false ; and there is a wide difference between the two things. For we must learn not to interpret, but to correct texts of this sort. For the same reason it is, that because the Greek word ijl6(T')(o^ means a calf, some have not understood that iioG'^evyiaTa? are shoots of trees, and have translated the word " calves ;" and this error has crept into so many texts, that you can hardly find it written in any other way. And yet the meaning is very clear ; for it is made evident by the words that follow. For " the plantings of an adulterer will not take deep root,"^ is a more suitable form of expression than the " calves ;" ^ because these walk upon the ground with their feet, and are not fixed in the earth by roots.
In this i)assage, indeed, the rest of the context also justifies tliis translation.
CiiAi'. XIII. 11ow faulty interpretations can be emended.
19. But since we do not clearly see what the actual thought is which the several translators endeavour to express, each according to liis own ability and judgment, unless we examine it in the language which they translate ; and since the translator, if he be not a very learned man, often departs from the meaning of his author, we must cither endeavour to get a knowledge of those languages from which the Scriptures are translated into Latin, or we must get hold of the translations of those who keep rather close to the letter of the original,
Horn. iii. 15. » Wisd. iv. 3.
Adulteriua; plantationes non dabunt radices altas. * Vitulaniina.