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Jerome's sources in his translation of the Hebrew Bible

by Paul Rodrigue, University of Cambridge. Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Open Book Publishers

Criticism and interpretationKnowledgeGreek philologyHebrew philologyTranslatingHistorySourcesCriticism, interpretation

"At the close of the fourth century CE, Jerome of Stridon-renowned Latin scholar, theologian, and priest-undertook the monumental task of translating the Hebrew-Aramaic Bible into Latin. The result of this effort, now known as the Vulgate, has long been regarded as a foundational text of Western Christianity. In this volume, Paul Rodrigue investigates the sources that Jerome may have drawn upon in the process of translation. Far from being just a rendering of the Hebrew-Aramaic Bible, the Vulgate emerges as a layered and multifaceted translation, shaped not only by the Hebrew-Aramaic text but also by a broad array of additional sources. Through a series of carefully chosen case studies, Rodrigue analyses a number of verses from the Joseph narrative in Genesis, as well as from Daniel and Esther. Each Vulgate passage is meticulously compared with its equivalents in the Hebrew-Aramaic Bible, the Septuagint, the Latin translations of the Septuagint, the Greek versions of Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion, and-where applicable-the Targumim and rabbinic writings. This comparative approach reveals Jerome's engagement with texts in four languages-Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Latin-and highl

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Book data: Open Library