Page:The New Testament in the original Greek - 1881.djvu/48

 xl INTRODUCTION TO THE AMERICAN EDITION.

B. Latin Versions.

(a.) The OLD LATIN (!TALA). This version is not found complete ; but from the quotations of the Latin fathers, es- pecially those in Tertullian, Cyprian, Lucifer of Cagliari, Hilary of Poitiers, Hilary the deacon or Ambrosiaster, Am- brose, Victorinus, Jerome, Rufinus, Augustine, Pelagius, and in the Apocalypse Primasius, its text can be in large meas- ure restored. See Hermann Ronsch, Das N. T. Tertul- lian's, aus den Schriften des Letzeren mdglichst vollstand'iy reconstruct, Leipsic, 1871 (731 pages).

The version is nearest in age to the Peshito, and may be assigned to the middle of the second century. It was not the work of one man, nor suffered to go uncorrcctcd by many. Hence the confusion into which the matter has fallen, and the different accounts of it by different schol- ars ; some holding that there were many versions before Jerome, in proof of which statement they quote Augustine, De Doctr. Christ, ii. 11; others holding that there was only one version, and citing in proof Jerome. But by the simple and natural explanation that there were many revis- ions of the one old translation, Augustine and Jerome can be reconciled.

The version is made from the Septuagint in the Old Tes- tament ; is verbal, rough, and clumsy ; the language is the degenerate Latin of the second century, with admixture of colloquial and provincial forms. But this admixture ren- dered it soon unintelligible, and necessitated constant re- visions, and, eventually, a new and thorough translation from the original tongues.

The balance of probability is in favour of North Africa as the place of its origin, because there, rather than in Italy,

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