2. Generally it may be said that the scriptural idi- oms of our common language have come to us mainly through the Latin; and in a wider view the Yulg. is tlie connecting-link between classical and modern lan- guages. It contains elements which belong to the ear- liest stage of Latin, and exhibits (if often in a rude form) the flexibility of the popular dialect. On the other hand, it has furnished the source and the model for a large portion of current Latin derivatives. Even a cursory examination of the characteristic words which have been given will show how many of them, and how manv corresponding forms, have passed into living lan- guages. To follow out tills (piestion in detail would be out of place here; but it would furnish a chapter in the historv of language, fruitful in results and iiitherto un- written. \\'ithin a more limited range the authority of the Latin versions is undeniable, though its extent is rarely realized. The vast power which they have had in determining the theological terms of Western Chris- tendom can hardly be overrated. By far the greater part of the current doctrinal terminology is based on the Vulg., and, as far as can be ascertained, w-as originated in the Latin version. Predestination, jus/ijication, su- pere7'0f/ali<m {stipererogo), sandificntion, salvation, me- diator, reijeneration, revelation, visitation (met.), propi- tiation, first appear in the Old Vulg. Grace, redemption, election, reconciliation, satisfaction, inspiration,scriptnre, were devoted there to a new and holy use. Sacrament ij.uKJT'mnov') and communion are from the same source; and though baptism is (Jreek, it comes to ns from the Latin. It would be easy to extend the list by the addi- tion of orders, penance, congregation, priest. But it can be seen from the forms already brought forward that the Latin versions have left their mark both upon our lan- guage and upon our thoughts; and if the right method of controversy is based upon a clear historical perception of the force of words, it is evident that the study of the Vulg., however much neglected, can never be neglected with iui|)aiiity. It was the version which alone they knew who handed down to the Reformers the ricli stores of mediaeval wisdom; the version with which the greatest of the Reformers were most familiar, and from which they had drawn their earliest knowledge of divine truth.
In more important respects, likewise, the influence which the Latin versions of the Bible have exercised upon Western Christianity is scarcely less than that of the Sept. upon the (ireek churches. But both the Greek and the Latin Vulgates have long been neglected. The revival of letters, bringing with it the study of the orig- inal texts of Holy Scripture, checked for a time the study of these two great bulwarks of the Greek and Latin churches — for tiie Sept., in fact, belongs rather to tlie iiistory of Christianity than to the history of Juda- ism— and, in spite of recent labors, their importance is even now hardly recognised. In the case of tlie Vul- gate, ecclesiastical controversies have still further im- peded all efforts of liberal criticism. The Romanist (till lately) regarded the Clementine text as fixed be- yond appeal; the Protestant shrank from examining a subject which seemed to belong peculiarly to the jjo- manist. Yet, apart from all polemical questions, the Vulgate shonld iiave a very deep interest for all the Western chureiies. For many centuries it was the only Bible generally used ; and, directh' or indirect- ly, it is the real jiarent of all the vernacular ver- sions of Western Europe. The (iothic version of Lilphilas alone is independent of it, for the Slavonic and modern Russian versions are necessarilv not taken
into account. With England it has a peculiarly close connection. The earliest translations made from it were the (lost) books of Bede, and the glosses on the Psalms and gospels of the 8th and 9th centuries (ed. Thorpe, Lond. IHo.'), 184-2). In the lOih century /Elfric trans- lated considerable portions of the Old Test. ( Hepta- tenclnts, etc., ed. Thwaites, Oxford, 1698). But the most important moiniment of its influence is the great Eng- lish version of WyclitTe (lo-24-8-l, ed. Forsliall and Mad- den, Oxford, 1850), which is a literal rendering of the current Vulgate text. In the age of the Reformation the Vulgate was rather the guide than the source of the popular versions. The Romanist translations into German (Michaelis, ed. Marsh, ii, 107), French, Italian, and Spanish were naturally derived from the Vulgate (Simon, Hist. Crit. N. T. c."28, 29, 40, 41). Of others, that of Luther (New Test, in 1523) was the most im- portant, and in this the Vulgate had great weight, though it was matle with such use of the originals as was possible. From Luther the influence of the Latin passed to our own A. V. Tyndale had spent some time abroad, and was acquainted with Luther before he published his version of the New Test, in ]52(). Tyndale's versicni of the Old Test., which was unfin- ished at the time of his martyrdom (1536), was com- pleted b}' Coverdale, and in this the influence of the Latin and German translations was predominant. A proof of this remains in the Psalter of the Prayer-book, which was taken from the "Great English Bible" (1539, 1540), and this was merely a new edition of that called Matthew's, which was itself taken from Tyndale and Coverdale. This version of the Psalms follows the Galilean Psalter, a revision of the Old Latin made by Jerome and afterwards introduced into his new trans- lation, and differs in many res])ects from the Hebrew text (e. g. Psa. xiv). It would be out of place to fol- low this question into detail here. It is enough to remember that the first translators of our Bible had been familiarized with the Vulgate from their youth, and could not have cast off the influence of early association. But the claims of the Vulgate to the at- tention of scholars rest on wider grounds. It is not only the source of our current theological terminology, but it is, in one shape or other, the most important early witness to the text and interpretation of the whole Bi- ble. The materials available for the accurate study of it are unfortunately at present as scanty aS those j'et unexamined are rich and varied.