Book Two: On the Hebrew, Chaldee, Greek and Latin Vulgate Editions
Chapter Three: On the Chaldee Edition
In the Chaldee tongue were edited the books of Tobit and Judith, and in part the books of Ezra and Daniel. Further, the whole of ancient Scripture was translated from Hebrew into a Chaldee paraphrase, which paraphrase the Hebrews call the Targum. And in fact Rabbi Aquila is said to have translated the Pentateuch which in Chaldee is called Onkelus. The earlier and later Prophets, that is, Joshua, Judges, and the books of Kings, also Isaiah, Jeremiah and the other Prophets were translated by Rabbi Jonathan son of Uziel, and Psalms, Job, Ruth, Esther and the works of Solomon by Rabbi Joseph the blind.
These paraphrastic translations are of great authority among the Hebrews, and for that reason are useful also for us, so that from them we may convict the Hebrews. In other respects they are not made much of by the Church, nor can a firm argument be drawn from them. Since (as Francis Cardinal Ximenes says in his preface to the Complutensian Bible) the Chaldee paraphrases, with the exception of the one on the Pentateuch, are sprinkled with Jewish fables and the nonsense of Talmudists. That this is very true anyone will prove by experience who wants to read the paraphrase on Lamentations, the Song of Songs, Job, Psalms, and all the Prophets.
Certainly the whole of Isaiah ch.53, where the Prophet very openly prophesies the passion of Christ, is twisted by the paraphrase into the calamities of the people of the Jews. But in the paraphrase on Song of Songs and Lamentations there are everywhere read books of the Talmud, the third temple, two Messiahs, liberation from the captivity of Titus and Vespasian, threats against the Christians and Mohammedans, whom the Hebrews signify, in their accustomed fashion, by the names of Esau and Ishmael. Finally there are very many fables about the lamentation of God, about the ascension of Moses to heaven, about the tables of the law cut from the sapphire of the divine throne, and about other things of the same sort. But neither should the paraphrase of Aquila on the Pentateuch be reckoned wholly complete and uncorrupted. For it too has its errors, although fewer and slighter than the other paraphrases of Jonathan and Joseph have.
And to put forward something by way of example from the individual books: in Genesis ch.4 v.23, where the Hebrew text has “because I have killed a man”, the Greek and Latin texts agree with it; but the Chaldee paraphrase adds a negation, “I have not killed a man,” and produces a contrary sense. Again in Genesis ch.22 v.18 and ch.26 v.4 and ch.28 v.14 the Hebrew text has, “All the nations of the earth will be blessed in your seed,” and the Greek and Latin texts agree. The Apostle Paul in Galatians ch.3 bids one notice that the promises were made to Abraham and to his seed, and that it is not said “and to his seeds” as to many but as to one, “and to your seed, which is Christ.” But the Chaldee paraphrase in all these places makes the number plural, “all the peoples of the earth will be blessed because of your sons.”
In Exodus ch.12 v.44, where we read in the Hebrew text, “No son of a foreign nation shall eat of it,” and where the Greek and Latin texts agree, the Chaldee paraphrase put, in hatred of the Neophytes, “No destroyed son of Israel”, for thus do the Jews call those who, abandoning Judaism, convert to the Christian faith.
In Leviticus ch.10 v.6 and ch.21 v.10, where the Hebrew text has “You shall not shave or make bare your heads,” and the Greek and Latin texts too, the Chaldee paraphrase rendered the contrary, “you shall not multiply the hair of your head.”
In Numbers ch.21 v.19 there is put a fable about a well, which the Hebrews imagined they descended with the sons of Israel down to torrents, and from the torrents ascended with them to the hills, and from the hills again descended to the valleys; and in ch.18 v.9 where the Hebrew text has, “The people alone will inhabit it,” that is, they will not mix with other nations, the Chaldee paraphrase rendered it, in the Jewish manner, “Behold only the people will posses the age,” for they expect that they alone will dominate in the world.
Finally in Deuteronomy ch.4 v.28 and ch.28 v.64, where the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin Scripture predict that the Hebrews will serve foreign Gods, which prediction we also know was often fulfilled, the Chaldee paraphrase diverts this crime from the Hebrews to the Gentiles. For it translates, “You will serve the peoples who serve idols.”
Now a few things must be added about the Syriac edition.
Robert Bellarmine’s: Controversies of the Christian Faith – Volume 1: On the Word of God — HOME