Fourth, from the variety of translations.
Fourth, from the variety of translations.
§ 521. (IV) From the variety of translations. “Heretics turn out diverse and mutually disagreeing translations. It is better, therefore, to keep the old Latin version.”
We respond. (1) We are foisting no translation upon the Church as authentic. Rather, we claim that only the Hebrew text in the Old Testament and the Greek in the New are authentic. (2) That disagreement should be recognized and reconciled only on the basis of an inspection of the sources. (3) One should prove that this Vulgate edition is to be preferred to the other translations, not to the sources themselves. (4) Bellarmine argues in this question that “just as the Latin Church was more constant than the Greek in keeping the faith, so also it was more watchful in defending its manuscripts from corruption.” But this conflicts with many testimonies of the Latin fathers themselves, which we have enumerated earlier. Moreover, the Latin Church was no less negligent, if no more than the Greek Church, in preserving purity of doctrine. (5) He adds: “The Church approved the Vulgate version and made us certain in those things that have to do with faith and behavior that there are no errors of the translator in this version.” We respond to this briefly. The Church does not have the authority and power to approve the translation of any man, no matter how accurate it is, in such a way that it claims that that alone is authentic and must be preferred to the sources themselves. And what is that church that has canonized the Latin Vulgate version? Surely, none other than the Roman Church, which reveals that it is not the true Church by the very fact that it demands that one have absolute faith in it, even when it canonizes errors.