Vulgate

As the Vulgate Latin Bible text is called, which has replaced the hitherto customary older ( in scope and quality different ) Latin translations of the Bible ( Vetus Latina) since late antiquity.

The term Vulgate ( to stress on the second syllable of Latin vulgatus, - a,-um, widespread ') also refers to a widespread and usual text version. Among other things, a popular editor of a literary substance be meant about the Alexander story.

History of the Vulgate Bible

Under Pope Damasus I. whose confidant Jerome began after 382 a revision of existing, into Latin translated Gospels. On the ordinary view Jerome has also revised the text of the other writings of the New Testament, there but far less intervention in the text than in the Gospels. After the death of the Pope 384 Jerome moved to Bethlehem and turned to the translation of the Old Testament. Initially Jerome translated some books of the Old Testament according to the Septuagint from ancient Greek, namely the Psalter, Job, Proverbs, Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes, and the books of Chronicles. The he followed from 393 a translation of the entire Old Testament, according to information provided " after the Hebrew " ( iuxta Hebraeos ). Based on recent studies, some researchers believe that Jerome himself could hardly Hebrew and his translation of the Old Testament has made ​​" according to the Hebrew " in reality according to the Hexapla of Origen from the Greek. In the Hexapla there was a Septuagint ( by Symmachus, Aquila and Theodotion ) contained, in addition to the actual Septuagint translation and the Hebrew text into Greek letters and some other Greek translations.

For centuries, then Vetus Latina and Vulgate were next to each other in use. This meant that the data written after 400 manuscripts of the Vetus Latina took readings of the Vulgate, and vice versa, so that the original text of Jerome translation is unknown. The Vulgate took several centuries, until she had the Vetus Latina replaced everywhere. Only from the 8th to the 9th century, it was all over Western Christendom in use. Efforts to secure text shape fall into this time, including revisions of Alcuin and Theodulf of Orléans at the request of Charlemagne. From about the 9th century, it was viewed in the West as the only valid Bible. Through the invented in the mid-15th century printing with movable metal type ( Gutenberg Bible ) the dissemination of the Vulgate culminated.

With the Reformation of Martin Luther in the 16th century and whose translation of the Bible ( King James Version ), which is not a translation of the Vulgate, but draws on the Greek text edition of Erasmus of Rotterdam, but began the decline of the Vulgate. The Protestant movement rejected the Vulgate because of its many errors and largely preferred the original Hebrew or Greek languages ​​.

The Council of Trent declared the Vulgate in 1546 but for authentic and prompted the preparation of an official error-free as possible ( " quam emendatissime " ) output. Robert Bellarmine also now introduced the higher authority of the Hebrew and Greek text out: " They are the source, the Vulgate of the brook. "

Revision efforts

Martin Luther published his 1529 partial revision of the Vulgate, which was intended for scholars.

Sixtus V. caused but in 1590 the publication of the Sistine Chapel, which was drafted after his death in 1592 and replaced by the run by Clement VIII Sixto - Clementina.

1889 began with the publication of a critical edition of Oxford.

Pius X commissioned in 1907 a Benedictine monk with a critical edition.

1969 brought Robert Weber and Roger Gryson Biblia Sacra Vulgata out for the first time, which are the original manuscripts based.

In 1979 a developed according to the current state of textual criticism new edition of the Vulgate, based on the original texts of the Bible, the Vulgate Nova. The creation of such a new edition was commissioned by the Second Vatican Council.

Today's meaning

In science these days applies, edited by Robert Weber and Roger Gryson Biblia Sacra Vulgata, so the original is not revised Vulgate as the authoritative edition.

In the course of the liturgical reform, since the mid- sixties, communities, the celebration of the liturgy in Latin was uncommon in most Catholic ( parish ). Today, the texts of the Vulgate still in prayer of various orders ( Benedictines, Cistercians, Carthusians ) are used. 2001, the Vatican released the instruction Liturgiam authenticam, with which he attempted to strengthen the use of the Nova Vulgata. With the publication of the books of the Roman liturgy now the Nova Vulgata is to be used with. This meant that the Protestant Church stopped the collaboration in the revision of the translation unit.