10-16-2012, 01:34 AM
Maybe there is an obvious answer to this question that I've just never come across, but I'm wondering what the "source text" for the Old Testament of Jerome's Vulgate. It was hailed as superior to the "Old Latin" because it was translated from the "original hebrew" rather than the greek Septuagint. But there's never been discovered a hebrew manuscript that contains all the books found in Jerome's Old Testament, and the Masoretic hebrew text that most western christians consider to be the inspired word of God post-dates the Vulgate by at least a few centuries.
I have read that in ancient times the aramaic language was (mistakenly) commonly called hebrew by westerners who just plain didn't know any better. It seems to me that the Latin Vulgate Old Testament, at the turn of the 5th century CE, could very well have been translated from the Peshitta Tanakh, which I understand was translated as early as the 2nd century CE and included what christians at the time considered the full canon (46 books, not 39).
Shlama,
Brian
I have read that in ancient times the aramaic language was (mistakenly) commonly called hebrew by westerners who just plain didn't know any better. It seems to me that the Latin Vulgate Old Testament, at the turn of the 5th century CE, could very well have been translated from the Peshitta Tanakh, which I understand was translated as early as the 2nd century CE and included what christians at the time considered the full canon (46 books, not 39).
Shlama,
Brian