A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

466 HIERONYMUS.,HIERONYMUS.
Vol. VII. the Greek text had been carefully corrected from
11. Commentarii in Matthaeum, in four books. the original Hebrew, and with this in his hands
They belong to the year 398. (Ed. Bened. vol he revised the whole of the Old Testament. But
iv. pt. i. p. 1.) of this improved translation no portion has de12. Homiide XXXIX. in Lucam e. Origene. scended to us except the Psalms and Job, together.A translation, executed about A. D. 389 O e with the Prologues to the Verba Dierum or Chrot3l Coma entarui in Pauli EpADstol3s. Those nicles, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Solomon's Song.
1 3. Cominentarii in Pauli Epistolas. Those
namely to the Galatians, to theEphesians, to Tits, Indeed, the above-named were the only books ever
and to Philemon. Written about A. D. 387. (Ed. published, the MS. of the remainder having been
Bened. vto. iv. pt.Wri. p.tten abtA.222-24D2.) lost by the carelessness or abstracted by the
treachery of some one who had gained possession
VOL. VIII. of them. (See Epist. cxxxiv. "Pleraque enim prioris laboris fraude cujusdam amisimus.")
C7sronica Eusebji. The Chronicle of Eusebius, Nothing daunted by this misfortune, Jerome
translated from the Greek, enlarged chiefly in the resolved to recommence his toil upon a different
department of Roman history, and brought down and far more satisfactory basis. Instead of transto A.D. 378, that is, to the sixth consulship of ating a translation, he determined to hae recourse
Valens, the events of fifty-three years being thus ating a
added to the original. [EUSBIUS.] at once to the original, and accordingly, after long
and patient exertion, he finished in A. D. 405 an
entirely new translation made directly from the
VOLS. IX. X., and VOL..I., e. Bened. Hebrew. This is in substance the Latin transBIBLIOTHECA DIVINA. The most important con- lation of the Old Testament now in circulation, but
tribution by Jerome to the cause of religion was his it was not received into general use until formally
Latin version of the Old and New Testament. A sanctioned by Pope Gregory the Great, for a strong
Latin translation, or perhaps several Latin transla- prejudice prevailed in favour of every thing contions, existed in the second century, as we learn from nected with the ancient Septuagint, which at that
the quotations of Tertullian, but in the course of two period was universally believed to have been the
hundred years the text had fallen into lamentable result of a miracle.
confusion. A multitude of passages had been un- Jerome did not translate any part of the Aposcrupulously omitted or interpolated or altered by crypha, with the exception of Tobit and Judith,
successive transcribers, to suit their own fancy or which he rendered, at the request of Chromatius
for the sake of supporting or of overturning par- and Heliodorus, from the Chaldaean, not literally,
ticular doctrines, so that scarcely two copies could as he himself informs us, but in such a manner as
be found exactly alike, and in many cases the dis- to convey the general sense. Indeed, his knowcrepancies were of a most serious character. Such ledge of Chaldaean could not have been very proa state of things had reasonably excited the greatest found, since all he knew was obtained in the
alarm among all sincere believers, when Jerome, course of a single day from the instructions of one
who was admirably qualified for the task, under- versed in that tongue. (See Pref. to Tobit.)
took, at the earnest solicitation of his friend and The history of the Vulgate, therefore, as it now
patron, Pope Damasus, to remedy the evil. exists, is briefly this:He commenced his labours with the four Evan- 1. The Old Testament is a translation made
gelists, comparing carefully the existing Latin trans- directly from the original Hebrew by Jerome.
lations with each other and with the original Greek, 2. The New Testament is a translation formed
his object being to retain the existing expressions out of the old translations carefully compared and
as far as possible, and to introduce new phraseology corrected from the original Greek of Jerome. 3..
in those places only where the true sense had en- The Apocrypha consists of old translations with
tirely disappeared. Prefixed is an introduction ex- the. exception of Tobit and Judith freely translated
plaining the principle by which he had been guided, from the original Chaldaean by Jerome.
and ten synoptical tables, exhibiting a complete In addition to the contents of the Vulgate, we
analysis and harmony of the whole. The remain- find in the works of Jerome two translations of the
ing books of the New Testament were published Psalms, and a translation of Job, the origin of
subsequently upon the same plan, but from the ab- which we have already explained. The first transsence of any introduction it has been doubted by lation of the Psalms was adopted soon after its
some critics whether the translation of these was appearance by the Church in Rome, and hence is
really executed by Jerome. His own words, how- called Psalterium Romanuns; the second by the
ever, elsewhere, are so explicit as to leave no Church in Gaul, and hence is called Psalteriumn
rational ground for hesitation upon this point. (See Gallicanum, and these are still commonly employed,
the catalogue given by himself of his own works not having been superseded by the translation in
de Viris III. c. 135, Epist. lxxi., and Vallarsi, the Vulgate, since the introduction of the latter
Praef. vol. x. p. xx.) would have involved a complete change of thesacred
The Latin version of the Old Testament, as it music established by long use.
existed at that epoch, had not been derived di- In conclusion, we may remark that the Vulgate
rectly from the Hebrew, but from the Septuagint, in its present form is by no means the same as
and at first Jerome did not contemplate any thing when it issued from the hands of its great editor.
more than a simple revision and correction of this Numerous alterations and corruptions crept in
version by comparing it with the Greek. Accord- during the middle ages,. which have renidered the
ingly, he began with the book of Psalms, which he text uncertain. A striking proof of this fact: has
improved from an ordinary copy of the LXX, but been adduced by bishop Marsh, who states that two
here his work ended for the time. But when editions published within two years of each other,
residing at Bethlehem in.390-391, he became in 1590 and 1592, both printed at Rome, both
acquainted with the Hexapla, of Origen, in which under papal authority, and both formally pro