HEBRAISMS IN THE OLD LATIN VERSION OF THE BIBLE

Abstract

AbstractRecent work on the Old Latin version of the Bible attributes Hebraisms to a hebraized Greek Vorlage. The results of this work question previous claims that the Hebraisms of the Old Latin derive from Jewish attempts to revise the Old Latin towards the Hebrew directly through Hebrew texts and Jewish exegetical traditions. This study reconsiders the evidence in favor of Hebraizations of the Old Latin from a Hebrew source and concludes that: 1. There was no translation of the Bible directly from the Hebrew into Latin prior to Jerome. 2. There was no editorial reworking of the Old Latin directly from the Hebrew. 3. Hebraisms in the Old Latin must be attributed to the Greek tradition or Jerome and his influence. 4. Since Jerome's time, interest in the Hebrew text behind the Latin also accounts for the Hebraisms found in the Old Latin. 5. Jewish communities utilized a Latin Bible borrowed from Christians after Jerome.