Chapter 15
22. Now among translations themselves the Italian (Itala) is to be preferred
to the others, for it keeps closer to the words without prejudice to clearness
of expression. And to correct the Latin we must use the Greek versions, among
which the authority of the Septuagint is preeminent as far as the Old
Testament is concerned; for it is reported through all the more learned
churches that the seventy translators enjoyed so much of the presence and
power of the Holy Spirit in their work of translation, that among that number
of men there was but one voice. And if, as is reported, and as many not
unworthy of confidence assert, they were separated during the work of
translation, each man being in a cell by himself, and yet nothing was found in
the manuscript of any one of them that was not found in the same words and in
the same order of words in all the rest, who dares put anything in comparison
with an authority like this, not to speak of preferring anything to it? And
even if they conferred together with the result that a unanimous agreement
sprang out of the common labour and judgment of them all; even so, it would
not be right or becoming for any one man, whatever his experience, to aspire
to correct the unanimous opinion of many venerable and learned men. Wherefore,
even if anything is found in the original Hebrew in a different form from that
in which these men have expressed it, I think we must give way to the
dispensation of Providence which used these men to bring it about, that books
which the Jewish race were unwilling, either from religious scruple or from
jealousy, to make known to other nations, were, with the assistance of the
power of King Ptolemy, made known so long beforehand to the nations which in
the future were to believe in the Lord. And thus it is possible that they
translated in such a way as the Holy Spirit, who worked in them and had given
them all one voice, thought most suitable for the Gentiles. But nevertheless,
as I said above, a comparison of those translators also who have kept most
closely to the words, is often not without value as a help to the clearing up
of the meaning. The Latin texts, therefore, of the Old Testament are, as I was
about to say, to be corrected if necessary by the authority of the Greeks, and
especially by that of those who, though they were seventy in number, are said
to have translated as with one voice. As to the books of the New Testament,
again, if any perplexity arises from the diversities of the Latin texts, we
must of course yield to the Greek, especially those that are found in the
churches of greater learning and research.