Page:The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII.djvu/290



284 THE STUDY OF HOLY SCRIPTURE.

and piety. We recognize, without hesitation, that neither the extent of the matter nor the time at disposal allows each single book of the Bible to be separately gone through. But the teaching should result in a definite and ascer- Â»J,ained method of imerpretation â€” and, therefore, the professor should equally avoid the mistake of giving a mere taste of every book, and of dwelling at too great a length on a part of one book. If most schools cannot do what is done in large institutions â€” take the students through the whole of one or two books continuously and with a certain development â€” yet at least those parts which are selected should be treated with suitable fulness, in such a way that the students may learn from the sample that is put before them to love and use the remainder of the sacred book during the whole of their lives. The professor, following the tradition of antiquity, will make use of the Vulgate as his text; for the Council of Trent decreed that "in public lectures, disputations, preaching, and exposition," ^ the Vulgate is the "authentic" version; and this is the existing custom of the Church. At the same time, the other versions, which Christian antiquity has approved, should not be neglected, more especially the more ancient MSS. For, although the meaning of the Hebrew and Greek is substantially rendered by the Vulgate, nevertheless, wherever there may be ambiguity or want of clearness, the "examination of older tongues,"^ to quote St. Augustine, will be useful and advantageous. But in this matter we need hardly say that the greatest pru- dence is required, for the "ofRce of a commentator," as St. Jerome says, "is to set forth not what he himself would prefer but what his author says." ^ The question of "reading " having been, when necessary, carefully dis- cussed, the next thing is to investigate and expound the meaning. And the first counsel to be given is this: that

' De doctr. chr. iii. 4. ' Ad Pammachium.
 * Sess. iv. deer, de edit, et usu sacr, libror,