Teaching Christianity
Unless you believe, you shall not understand, which another translator rendered, Unless you believe, you shall not endure[36] (Is 7:9). Which of these two, though, followed the original words one cannot tell, unless one reads copies of the original language. But all the same, for those who are shrewd readers, something important is being suggested by each version. It is difficult, after all, for translators to differ so much from each other, that they do not come close to some extent. So then, understanding refers to everlasting sight, while faith in temporal things as in a kind of cradle is, so to say, nourishing little ones on milk;[37] now, however, we are walking by faith and not by sight (2 Cor 5:7), but unless we walk by faith, we shall never be able to reach the sight which does not pass away but endures, when with our understanding purified we cleave to Truth. And that is why one translator says, Unless you believe, you shall not endure, while the other has, Unless you believe, you shall not understand.
18. And translators are often misled by ambiguities in the original language, when they are insufficiently familiar with the context, and translate the meaning of a word which is clearly far from the author's mind. Thus some versions have, Their feet are sharp to shed blood; oxys, you see, in Greek can mean both "sharp" and "swift." So the one who got the author's meaning was the one who translated, Their feet are swift to shed blood (Rom 3:15[38]), while the other went wrong by following in the wrong direction a sign that points two ways. And in such cases we have to do, not with obscurity, but with falsehood; so here another condition has to be met, the requirement being to correct, rather than simply to understand, copies of such versions. Here too is another instance: because the Greek moschos means "calf," some translators failed to understand that moscheumata means "seedlings," and so they translated it as "calflings." [39] This mistake has indeed infected so many copies that you can scarcely find one with the other reading. And yet the meaning is as plain as can be, because the next words make it quite clear; after all, Bastard seedlings will not strike deep roots (Wis 4:3) makes better sense than calflings, which walk on the ground with four feet, and do not strike roots. The rest of the context in this place also confirms this translation.
13, 19. But the proper meaning of a passage, which several translators attempt to express, each according to his capacity and judgment, can only be definitely ascertained from an examination of it in the language they are translating from; and translators frequently deviate from the author's meaning, if they are not particularly learned. So one should either aim at a knowledge of those languages from which the scriptures have come to their Latin and English versions, or else get hold of translations which have been the most strictly literal, word for word, renderings of the original, not because they are sufficient in themselves, but because they can help one to control the freedom,[40] or even the mistakes, of those translators who have preferred to follow the meanings rather than the words of the authors. It is often the case, after all, that not only single words but also whole phrases are transposed which simply cannot go into correct Latin or English usage, if one wishes to stick to the standards of the old classical authors who spoke the languages. Sometimes this in no way prevents one from understanding a passage, but still it does offend those who find greater pleasure in the substance of the things said, if a certain propriety is preserved in the signs by which they are conveyed.
What are called solecisms, after all, are simply cases where words are put together without observing the rules followed by our predecessors, whose manner of writing and speaking was not without authority. I mean, whether you say in Latin inter homines or inter hominibus,[41] or in English