Ritröð Guðfræðistofnunar - 01.01.2013, Qupperneq 17

with a twofold problem, that Augustine mentions in both the De doctrina
christinana and in the De civitate Dei.
First of all, a pastoral problem: in principle, even Jerome appeared to
agree with Augustine that the new translation from the Hebrew should
serve only the scholarly discussion and should not be used in the liturgy.
But in the long run, that could not be prevented, as the famous example
of the new term for the caster-oil plant mentioned in the Book of Jona
demonstrated. Augustine argues that the New Textament consistently cites
the Old Testament according to the LXX and that, in his opinion, this
means that the LXX was approved by the apostles. He also argues from the
universal tradition of the Church that the LXX has the greater authority,
and thus he sticks to the Vetus Latina. On one occasion, in connection with
a problem in Gen 46,26-27 he grumbles: “But how these young men less
than twenty-six years of age could have had grandchildren, is a question that
cannot be solved with reference to any original Hebrew text.”8
The second problem is a theological and epistemological one. Jerome
repeatedly makes the point that the LXX errs in departing from the Hebrew
text. But how should one deal with the differences between the Hebrew
text and the LXX, if one believes that God is all-knowing and truthful and
intends to teach human beings through the Bible? At this point, Augustine,
in view of his lack of knowledge of Hebrew, falls back on his firm belief
in the LXX-Legend related in the Letter of Aristeas, although Jerome had
ridiculed that tale as a bald-faced lie.9 This is the story that Ptolemaios II
had isolated the 72 Jewish translators from one another and prohibited
any communication between them, nevertheless, when their completed
translations were compared with each other, they agreed down to the very
last word. With Philo of Alexandria and the other Christian theologians,
Augustine took this as proof of the divine inspiration of the LXX: “They
were endowed with a higher authority than that normally accorded to the
office of translators, and thus they translated with the spirit of prophecy,
in virtue of which, as is attested, they agreed entirely in their translations
— what was a great wonder indeed.”10
damit allein Zustándigen“ [English: ... the refusal to accept Jerome as the only authority and thus
as the sole competent interpreter."] (p. 122).
8 Augustine, Quaestionum in Heptateuchum Libri VII, qu. 1,25.2.
9 Jerome, Prologus in Pentateucho.
10 Augustine, Quaestionum in Heptateuchum Libri VII, qu. 1,169.
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