Book Two: On the Hebrew, Chaldee, Greek and Latin Vulgate Editions
Chapter Thirteen: The Places in the Psalms are Defended that Calvin Contends were Badly Translated by the Latin Translator
Now we will come to the places that John Calvin in his Antidote to the Council of Trent has noted as corrupt and distorted, and although William Lindanus has before us performed this same task, yet it does not seem useless if the calumnies of the heretics are refuted by several people.
So, the first place is in the words of Psalm 2, “Learn discipline.” Which place Calvin shows is distorted by the fault of the translator, since in the Hebrew there is “Kiss the son;” nor could this happen in any way by the guilt of the copyists, since there is no likeness of letters.
I reply, literally in the Hebrew it is, “Kiss,” or “adore the son;” yet the sense of the place is very correctly translated by “Learn discipline.” For thus the Chaldee, thus the Greek, thus all the old Greeks and Latins have hitherto read. One must therefore observe that when it is said “kiss the son,” the sense is, “acknowledge that the Son of God is your true King and Messiah by kissing his hand in honor,” as Blessed Jerome expounds Against Ruffinus bk.2; and for this reason too it can be translated, “Adore the son.” Further, to acknowledge the son to be King and Messiah, we can do no other than to receive his faith and doctrine. And what else is “learn discipline” than to receive the teaching and doctrine of the Son of God?
The second place is Psalm 4, “Sons of men, how far with heavy heart?” This place is censured in the same place by Calvin because in Hebrew there is nothing like it; for in place of our words “why with heavy heart,” there is in Hebrew, “my glory for shame.”
I reply that it is very likely the Hebrew text has been corrupted by the fault of the copyists; for if one Hebrew letter is put for another and the pointings are changed, it will be “why heavy of heart,” and without doubt such is what the Septuagint read, whose version all the Greek and Latin Fathers followed, besides Jerome who, since he read otherwise, translates “my renowned ones;” the sense however is still the same, which suffices for truth of translation. For God in this place is complaining about men because, having neglected eternal things, they love temporal ones; and indeed according to the Greek and Latin translation he calls them heavy of heart, because such they are by their vice; according to the Hebrew text, as it now is, he calls them his glory, or his renowned ones, because such they are by divine beneficence if we consider in them the heavenly image and not their own vice. Besides the relevant Hebrew word can either be a passive participle or a verbal noun.
The third is Psalm 31, “I was converted in my toil, when the thorn pierced.” This place too is censured by Calvin because in the Hebrew there are different words and a different sense. For literally in the Hebrew it is, “My taste is without moisture, my freshness is turned into summer dryness.” And indeed the sense of our edition is, “I am converted to penitence in the time of toil and affliction, when the thorn of calamity began to pierce me;” but the sense of Hebrew truth is, “all my goods have perished, in the way that moisture and freshness dry up in summer by the heat of the sun and perish.”
I reply that our translation cannot be censured in this place because it does not translate from the Hebrew into Latin but from the Greek; but the Greek text very well responds to our text. Now the Septuagint seems to have read the Hebrew text a little differently than it now is. Therefore there is an error of the scribes in the Hebrew. For by a very little change in one or two letters the sense in Hebrew can become as it is in our edition. For what is translated as “my freshness” will be, if the little change is read, “I am converted in my toil,” the way also Blessed Jerome reads it, who translates, “I am turned in my misery.” And what follows, “into summer dryness,” will be, if the little change is read, “when the thorn pierced me.”
And to be sure, if when we see in the Latin text that something could easily be changed by the copyists because of likeness of letters and could not be so changed in the Hebrew, we say that the error of the copyists is in the Latin, why do we not in this place, where there could have easily been an error in the Hebrew and not in the Greek or Latin, also say that the text has been changed in the Hebrew by an error of the copyists?
The fourth is in the same Psalm, for where we read, “with bit and bridle restrain their jaws, who do not approach thee.” Calvin maintains that this should be read, “in jagged spikes and with bridle for coercing them lest they go before to thee.” I reply that his impudence in this matter is remarkable; for both the Septuagint and Blessed Jerome in his Psalter to Sophronius and all the Fathers always so read as we now read, and the Hebrew words, even as they now are, can be thus very fittingly expounded.
The fifth is in Psalm 37, “Since my loins are filled with illusions.” And what do we understand, says Calvin, by “loins filled with illusions”? I reply that the Hebrew word signifies ignominy and ardor; wherefore David speaks of the itching and ardor of lust, which when it exists in the body generates illusions in the mind; further the Greek translator, whom the Latin and (which is more remarkable) the Chaldee translator have followed, put the effect for the cause, which ought to seem neither new nor remarkable to anyone.
The sixth is Psalm 67, “Who makes to live of one morals in the house.” Calvin maintains that this should be read, “Who makes single persons to live in the house,” that is, who endows orphans and solitaries with a family. I reply that the Hebrew words very well admit of several senses, and all are true. One sense is: who makes to live in one house, which is the Church, men of one morals, that is, of one faith, one hope, one will, according to the verse of Acts ch.4, “There was for the multitude of believers one heart and one soul.” For those who are of diverse faith or will, as heretics and schismatics, cannot remain in the Church but either depart themselves or are cast out.
This sense is expressed by the Septuagint and thence by the Latin translator and by almost all the Greek and Latin Fathers. Nor does this sense depart from the Hebrew word, which signifies one composed of many. Because however it also signifies single and solitary, thence it also has another true sense: who makes men abandoned and solitary, who have none to defend them, to live secure nevertheless in their homes, the divine aid protecting them. This St. Jerome seems to have had regard to, because he translates as solitary. The third sense is also true and does not destroy the others: who makes single men, that is, orphans or sterile to live in a house, that is, to possess a large family.
Nor is their exposition absurd who translate thus: he makes the solitary to live in a house, that is, makes some, for love of celestial contemplation, abandoning company to betake themselves to desert places and live alone, as Elijah did formerly, and John the Baptist later, and our Paul, Anthony, Hilarion and others.
The seventh is in the same Psalm where for what we have, “Who dwell in tombs,” Calvin contends that “in a parched place” should be read. And indeed it cannot be denied that the Hebrew word means dry and parched. But it is not credible that the Greek translator did not know this, since the word is sufficiently well known. The translator therefore wished to express horror of the desert from which God led out his people, because it did indeed seem to be like a tomb. This phrase we see used in Ezekiel ch.37 who called the Babylonian captivity the tombs of the Jews.
The eighth is in the same Psalm where is said, “The Lord will give word to those who give good news with much virtue, the King of virtues of the beloved, the beloved, and of the beauty of a house to divide the spoils. If you sleep in the middle of the shares, a dove silvered in its wings, and on its back in pale gold.” This place Calvin especially vexes above the rest, saying that where the sense in the words of David flows very well, the translator has involved it in riddles from which no Oedipus could extract himself. He himself wants to read: “the Kings of armies have fled, have fled, and the women in the house have divided the spoils. If you sleep in the middle of the jars, you will be as the wings of a dove that is covered in silver and whose wings are covered with yellow gold.” I reply that one cannot accuse the Latin translator who translated most faithfully what he found in the Greek; and although in the Latin edition the place is very obscure, yet it is also obscure in the Greek and Hebrew, and in Calvin’s version, as is plain.
I say in addition that the Hebrew text can easily be accommodated to our reading. For the word that signifies ‘Kings of virtues or of armies’, if the pointing is changed it will be ‘King of virtues’. And the word that means ‘will flee’ seems to have been read differently by the Septuagint by a change of only one letter to mean ‘beloved, chosen’, and this word is in the title of Psalm 44 where is read ‘song of the chosen’. But the word that means woman in the house (not women in the house as Calvin badly translates) also signifies a beautiful and chosen woman who almost always stays at home; and hence when the word is translated it means vision and beauty. For Blessed Jerome translated as beauty in this place, and almost always elsewhere.
Next the word Calvin translates as jars does not have this meaning. For it is of dual number and therefore signifies something double in its nature. For more or less thus do the Hebrews use the dual. But jars are infinite. Instead it signifies two lips or two limits or orders. Hence Jerome translates ‘within the limits’ and the Septuagint ‘among the shares’ that is, the lots, or inheritances, as if to say, ‘between the limits of two lots’. So we have it that our reading is not foreign to the Hebrew. Now let us explain the sense.
The sense then of these words, as is collected from Augustine and other Fathers, is as follows: “The Lord will give word to those who give good news with much virtue,” that is, the Lord will give to the preachers of the Gospel a mouth and wisdom which all their adversaries will not be able to resist or contradict. For what they will say they will confirm with signs and prodigies. “The King of virtues of the beloved, the beloved,” that is, the Lord, of whom we were speaking, is the King of virtues, that is, King most powerful, the Lord of armies of many thousands of Angels, and at the same time father of the beloved, beloved, that is, of the Messiah his most beloved Son, who will also give the spoils to divide to the beauty of the house, that is, he will give to the same preachers to divide the spoils of the Gentiles converted to Christ, for the beauty and splendor of his house, which is the Church. For the word for ‘beauty’ is in the dative case and means the same as ‘for beauty’. “If you sleep in the middle of the shares,” that is, if you O preachers and Pastors of the Church remain between the two lots or inheritances, the heavenly and the earthly, so that while you live here you are not wholly occupied in temporal things, nor totally in spiritual things, nor totally in action, nor totally in contemplation, but in between; then the Church will be as a most shapely and beautiful dove, having silvered wings and a golden back etc.
The ninth is in the same place where we read, “Why do you suspect the coagulated mountains?” For Calvin maintains that it should be read, “why do you envy the best mountains?” But since the word is only found in this place and there are as many interpretations of the word as there are translators, why, I ask, is one man to be followed rather than the 70 translators of the Septuagint? Certainly Calvin will not be able to confirm his translation from anywhere. Since therefore it is necessary to acquiesce in the judgment of the translators, who does not see that the Septuagint is to be preferred to all the others, especially since the Catholic Church has approved that version by very long use.
The tenth is in the same place, where we read, “And that the Lord God dwell among the non believers.” For Calvin thinks it should be read thus, “Also the defectors, so that the Lord God may dwell there.” But there is here assuredly too much lust for contradiction, since the sense is the same, and the words of the Vulgate edition are better, and so did St. Jerome translate from the Hebrew.
The eleventh is in the same place, where we read, “I will turn back to the depth of the sea.” For Calvin says the contrary is contained in the Hebrew, that is, “I will bring back from the depths of the sea.” But that the translation from the Hebrew can be ‘to the depth’ is testified to by Rabbi David who asserts that the word can sometimes be taken for ‘to’, as Deuteronomy ch.33 v.1, “to Sinai.” Next there are various readings both in the Greek and in the Latin codices, since some read ‘to the depth’ and others ‘in the depths’. Which latter reading seems both truer and more coherent with the Hebrew word. For what else is “I will turn back in the depths of the sea” than those too I will draw out and turn back who are in the depths of the sea? Which is how Augustine, Bede, Euthymius and not a few others expounded it.
The twelfth place is in the same Psalm, “There Benjamin in excess of mind.” Calvin wonders what the translator was thinking who so translated, since in the Hebrew there is “their dominator.” I reply that the word can signify ‘their dominator’ and also ‘one deep sleeping’; the latter reading is followed by the Greek and Latin translator, but each is a true interpretation, nor does one destroy the other. For by Benjamin Catholic writers understand with Augustine the Apostle Paul, who was in
excess of mind when sleeping so deeply that he did not know whether he was in the body, and was also at the same time chief Lord or Prince of the spiritual Church of the Gentiles.
The thirteenth is in Psalm 131, where we read, “Blessing his widow I will bless.” Which place both Calvin and Chemnitz say is corrupt, since in Hebrew there is “his food.” Calvin adds that some purblind little priest had in his codex ‘victum’ (food), and he thought the letters ‘c’ and ‘t’ to be the one letter ‘d’ and so he read ‘vidum’; and because this signifies nothing, he added the letter ‘a’ and made ‘viduam’ (widow), and there was no one who could notice the error.
I reply that Calvin in this place has twice lied. First when he says that no one has noticed this variation; it was noticed by Chrysostom and Hilary on this place, and also by Jerome in Question on Genesis. Again several recent writers, Cajetan, Titelmann, and others on this place. Second when he says ‘purblind little priest’ he has corrupted the place; for in almost all the Greek codices there is ‘widow’ and so read Ambrose, Hilary, Augustine, Chrysostom, Prosper, Cassiodorus, and others. St. Hilary also asserts that before Christ was born there was ‘widow’ in this text.
I say further, that if there is any error here it arose from the Greek, where, with the change of only one letter, one word could be replaced for another, and ‘widow’ would become ‘game animal’. For even now some Greeks have ‘game animal’ and Jerome in his Psalter translated ‘hunting’, and thus do Chrysostom and Theodoret expound it in their commentaries on this place.
Because however the sense is almost the same, and always in the Greek and Latin Church ‘widow’ has been read and sung, I do not think this place should be changed; for Jerome in his epistle to Sunia and Fretella often advises that what in the Latin Psalms seems to differ from the Hebrew must indeed be noted and observed by the learned, but not for this reason should the text be changed which has been in Ecclesiastical use for so many centuries and has obtained so much authority. Which counsel of Jerome Calvin has not at all kept, who has so overturned and changed everything that he has clearly made a different Psalter.
It has seemed good to transcribe at the end certain words of Conrad Pellican, a Zwinglian, so that we can truly say about our edition what Moses says about the true God, that our edition is not as theirs are, and our enemies are the judges. He then, since he twice produced a Psalter translated by him in accord with Hebrew truth, gave this testimony about our Psalter, in his preface of 1534: “We discover that the Vulgate edition of the Psalter concords with such very great dexterity, erudition, and faithfulness to the Hebrew as to the sense, that I do not doubt that the Greek and Latin translator was most erudite, and equally most pious, and truly endowed with a prophetic spirit; although in some places they depart from the Hebrew pointings, which now are used by the Jews, I am compelled to doubt that they were not formerly similar, and suspicion arises for those who carefully consider each thing that a change made in the letters must be complained of.” So Pellican. And thus much about the Old Testament.
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