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The City of God

Chapter 43.--Of the Authority of the Septuagint Translation, Which, Saving the Honor of the Hebrew Original, is to Be Preferred to All Translations.

For while there were other interpreters who translated these sacred oracles out of the Hebrew tongue into Greek, as Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion, and also that translation which, as the name of the author is unknown, is quoted as the fifth edition, yet the Church has received this Septuagint translation just as if it were the only one; and it has been used by the Greek Christian people, most of whom are not aware that there is any other. From this translation there has also been made a translation in the Latin tongue, which the Latin churches use. Our times, however, have enjoyed the advantage of the presbyter Jerome, a man most learned, and skilled in all three languages, who translated these same Scriptures into the Latin speech, not from the Greek, but from the Hebrew. ¹ But although the Jews acknowledge this very learned labor of his to be faithful, while they contend that the Septuagint translators have erred in many places, still the churches of Christ judge that no one should be preferred to the authority of so many men, chosen for this very great work by Eleazar, who was then high priest; for even if there had not appeared in them one spirit, without doubt divine, and the seventy learned men had, after the manner of men, compared together the words of their translation, that what pleased them all might stand, no single translator ought to be preferred to them; but since so great a sign of divinity has appeared in them, certainly, if any other translator of their Scriptures from the Hebrew into any other tongue is faithful, in that case he agrees with these seventy translators, and if he is not found to agree with them, then we ought to believe that the prophetic gift is with them. For the same Spirit who was in the prophets when they spoke these things was also in the seventy men when they translated them, so that assuredly they could also say something else, just as if the prophet himself had said both, because it would be the same Spirit who said both; and could say the same thing differently, so that, although the words were not the same, yet the same meaning should shine forth to those of good understanding; and could omit or add something, so that even by this it might be shown that there was in that work not human bondage, which the translator owed to the words, but rather divine power, which filled and ruled the mind of the translator. Some, however, have thought that the Greek copies of the Septuagint version should be emended from the Hebrew copies; yet they did not dare to take away what the Hebrew lacked and the Septuagint had, but only added what was found in the Hebrew copies and was lacking in the Septuagint, and noted them by placing at the beginning of the verses certain marks in the form of stars which they call asterisks. And those things which the Hebrew copies have not, but the Septuagint have, they have in like manner marked at the beginning of the verses by horizontal spit-shaped marks like those by which we denote ounces; and many copies having these marks are circulated even in Latin. ² But we cannot, without inspecting both kinds of copies, find out those things which are neither omitted nor added, but expressed differently, whether they yield another meaning not in itself unsuitable, or can be shown to explain the same meaning in another way. If, then, as it behoves us, we behold nothing else in these Scriptures than what the Spirit of God has spoken through men, if anything is in the Hebrew copies and is not in the version of the Seventy, the Spirit of God did not choose to say it through them, but only through the prophets. But whatever is in the Septuagint and not in the Hebrew copies, the same Spirit chose rather to say through the latter, thus showing that both were prophets. For in that manner He spoke as He chose, some things through Isaiah, some through Jeremiah, some through several prophets, or else the same thing through this prophet and through that. Further, whatever is found in both editions, that one and the same Spirit willed to say through both, but so as that the former preceded in prophesying, and the latter followed in prophetically interpreting them; because, as the one Spirit of peace was in the former when they spoke true and concordant words, so the selfsame one Spirit hath appeared in the latter, when, without mutual conference they yet interpreted all things as if with one mouth.

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De civitate Dei (CCSL)

Caput XLIII: De auctoritate septuaginta interpretum, quae, saluo honore Hebraei stili, omnibus sit interpretibus praeferenda.

Nam cum fuerint et alii interpretes, qui ex Hebraea lingua in Graecam sacra illa eloquia transtulerunt, sicut Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion; sicut etiam illa est interpretatio, cuius auctor non apparet et ob hoc sine nomine interpretis quinta editio nuncupatur: hanc tamen, quae septuaginta est, tamquam sola esset, sic recepit ecclesia, eaque utuntur Graeci populi Christiani, quorum plerique utrum alia sit aliqua ignorant. ex hac septuaginta interpretatione etiam in Latinam linguam interpretatum est, quod ecclesiae Latinae tenent; quamuis non defuerit temporibus nostris presbyter Hieronymus, homo doctissimus et omnium trium linguarum peritus, qui non ex Graeco, sed ex Hebraeo in Latinum eloquium easdem scripturas conuerterit. sed eius tam litteratum laborem quamuis Iudaei fateantur esse ueracem, septuaginta uero interpretes in multis errasse contendant: tamen ecclesiae Christi tot hominum auctoritati ab Eleazaro tunc pontifice ad hoc tantum opus electorum neminem iudicant praeferendum; quia, etsi non in eis unus apparuisset spiritus sine dubitatione diuinus, sed inter se uerba interpretationis suae septuaginta docti more hominum contulissent, ut, quod placuisset omnibus, hoc maneret, nullus eis unus interpres debuit anteponi; cum uero tantum in eis signum diuinitatis apparuerit, profecto quisquis alius illarum scripturarum ex Hebraea in quamlibet aliam linguam interpres est uerax, aut congruit illis septuaginta interpretibus, aut si non congruere uidetur, altitudo ibi prophetica esse credenda est. spiritus enim, qui in prophetis erat, quando illa dixerunt, idem ipse erat etiam in septuaginta uiris, quando illa interpretati sunt; qui profecto auctoritate diuina et aliud dicere potuit, tamquam propheta ille utrumque dixisset, quia utrumque idem spiritus diceret, et hoc ipsum aliter, ut, si non eadem uerba, idem tamen sensus bene intellegentibus dilucesceret, et aliquid praetermittere et aliquid addere, ut etiam hinc ostenderetur non humanam fuisse in illo opere seruitutem, quam uerbis debebat interpres, sed diuinam potius potestatem, quae mentem replebat et regebat interpretis. nonnulli autem codices Graecos interpretationis septuaginta ex Hebraeis codicibus emendandos putarunt; nec tamen ausi sunt detrahere, quod Hebraei non habebant et septuaginta posuerunt; sed tantummodo addiderunt, quae in Hebraeis inuenta apud septuaginta non erant, eaque signis quibusdam in stellarum modum factis ad capita eorundem uersuum notauerunt, quae signa asteriscos uocant. illa uero, quae non habent Hebraei, habent autem septuaginta, similiter ad capita uersuum iacentibus uirgulis, sicut scribuntur unciae, signauerunt. et multi codices has notas habentes usquequaque diffusi sunt et Latini. quae autem non praetermissa uel addita, sed aliter dicta sunt, siue alium sensum faciant etiam ipsum non abhorrentem, siue alio modo eundem sensum explicare monstrentur, nisi utrisque codicibus inspectis nequeunt reperiri. si ergo, ut oportet, nihil aliud intueamur in scripturis illis, nisi quid per homines dixerit dei spiritus, quidquid est in Hebraeis codicibus et non est apud interpretes septuaginta, noluit ea per istos, sed per illos prophetas dei spiritus dicere. quidquid uero est apud septuaginta, in Hebraeis autem codicibus non est, per istos ea maluit quam per illos idem spiritus dicere, sic ostendens utrosque fuisse prophetas. isto enim modo alia per Esaiam, alia per Hieremiam, alia per alium aliumque prophetam uel aliter eadem per hunc ac per illum dixit, ut uoluit. quidquid porro apud utrosque inuenitur, per utrosque dicere uoluit unus atque idem spiritus; sed ita ut illi praecederent prophetando, isti sequerentur prophetice illos interpretando; quia sicut in illis uera et concordantia dicentibus unus pacis spiritus fuit, sic et in istis non se cum conferentibus et tamen tamquam ore uno cuncta interpretantibus idem spiritus unus apparuit.