Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1908-02-11
THE vULGATE.
How 1t was Written and Published
Its Proposed Revision.

How It was Written and Published
Its Proposed Revision.
In the city Of Antioch In the year
374, a scholar, already beginning to be
known in the literary circles Of the
day for his knowledge of the Latin
classics Of Greek and of theology, was
suffering from a fever. And in his fe-
yer he dreamed that he was summon
ed to the judgment seat Of Christ, and
being asked who he was, replied, II am
a Christian" Thou lest" was his re-
buke; thou art no disciple Of Christ,
but Of Cicero" The fever left him,
and on his return to health the i'm
preston which the dream had made
upon him caused him to abandon all
secular studies and to take no longer
Cicero as his master, but the Christ.
In course of time he became intimate
with Pope Damasas, and from him re-
ceived commission to draw up an au-
thoritative Latin version Of the Scrip
lures.
This scholar was st. Jerome and the
version which he produced is that
known today as the Vulgate. st. Je-
rome started on his task by retiring
from the literary squabbles Of Rome
and settling down in quietude at Beth
lehem, the scene Of the Incarnation.
There he presided over a small COM
nunity Of monks, while certain devout
women founded a nunnery over against
them; and there, where the angels had
sung the first glorious Christmas dox-
ology, amid the peace and good will OF
that community Of friends, st. Jerome
labored at his task to the glory Of God.
He soon found that the Septuagint, the
current Greek version of the Old Tes-
lament was so corrupt that no trans
lation made from it could be trust
worthy, and therefore ungrudgingly he
set himself to perfect his slight knowl-
edge of Hebrew under the tuition Of a
converted Jewish Rabbi. Twenty years
of his life he gave to complete his task.
and when the world was put in posses
sion Of the fruit Of his labors the world
would have none Of 1t. For human ma
ture was then precisely what 1t is to-
day and Christians loved each other II
anything rather less than now.
Jerome has tampered with the ip-
sissima verba of the Saviour, and cast
a slur on Inspiration"--even in the
fourth century the church was wont
to damn things new with the epithet
new tangled" by what authority
does the version Of this Jerome seek TO
Supersede the divinely guided produc-
tion OF the Septuagint?" The ours
have always been ready to yap around
the literary lion (and st. Jerome was
never a very conciliatory lionb, and
men had already learned the prayer,
"Oh, that mine enemy would write a
book!" WHO is this Hebrew tutor OF
his, this rabbi, who, like Nicodemus,
comes to him by night?" The Gentle
Christian had not yet learned to love
his brother Jew. What is this one
hears about Paula and her nunnery"
There were cats. in those days, and
Jerome had. been very popular with
the ladies before his task robbed Rome
Of his presence.
But in spite of the showers Of mud
hurled at it's author the innate merits
of the version gradually won Its ac-
ceptance to the exclusion Of older
translations. Soon throughout Italy.
England, Ireland, Gaul and Germany,
rnonlxish scribes were busy copying
precious manuscripts Of the Vulgate,
eye and hand wearying and erring as
the rush light f1ickered in the cell or
the daylight waned in the scriptorium,
copying day after day, copying badly
bad copies Of copies badly copied, TILL
confusion reigned supreme.
At length Charles the Great, zeal
Gus for the welfare Of Holy Church,
looked about him for some one who
should draw up an accurate text for
the use of all Christendom. The man
he fixed upon was Alcuin abbot Of st.
Martin at Tours. native Of North
cumberland, educated at York. At
Christmas, sol A. D., 400 years after
Jerome's labors, Alcuin presented to
the emperor his amended text, founded
on manuscripts from York. Backed by
the authority of the Emperor Charles
and Of the scholar Alcuin, this text
soon sprang into general use; but the
forces Of degeneracy were still at work,
and at the time Of the invention OF
printing the text Of. the Vulgate was as
chaotic as ever ii had been.
Printing, Of course, put a check to
the progress of that textual corruption
which had been due to faulty copying
of manuscripts. But in spite Of the
fact that the council Of Trent In 1916
ordered an official Vulgate to be pre-
pared no action was taken by the
church until 1890, when an edition was
printed at the Vatican Press under
Pope Sixtus V. This edition was soon
superseded by that Of Sixtus's success
sor, Clement VIII, and it is this text
which is the subject Of the revision
now intrusted by the Pope to Dom
Gasuuet and the Benedictines. Their
task is to clear away from the Glenn
entine Vulgate the accumulated cor
ruptions of centuries, and by the aid OF
their vast learning and worldwide or
ganization to work back and back
through the errors of monkish copyists
until they have reached the nearest
approach possible to the text which st.
Jerome wrote at Bethlehem-London
Globe.