The ''Nova Vulgata'' (complete title: ''Nova Vulgata Bibliorum Sacrorum Editio'', ;
abr. ''NV''), also called the Neo-Vulgate, is the official
Classical Latin
Classical Latin is the form of Literary Latin recognized as a literary standard by writers of the late Roman Republic and early Roman Empire. It was used from 75 BC to the 3rd century AD, when it developed into Late Latin. In some later periods ...
translation of the original-language texts of the
Bible
The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...
published by the
Holy See
The Holy See ( lat, Sancta Sedes, ; it, Santa Sede ), also called the See of Rome, Petrine See or Apostolic See, is the jurisdiction of the Pope in his role as the bishop of Rome. It includes the apostolic episcopal see of the Diocese of Rome ...
. It was completed in 1979, and was
promulgated
Promulgation is the formal proclamation or the declaration that a new statutory or administrative law is enacted after its final approval. In some jurisdictions, this additional step is necessary before the law can take effect.
After a new law ...
the same year by
John Paul II
Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...
in ''
Scripturarum thesaurus''. A second, revised edition was published in 1986. It is the official Latin text of the Bible of the
Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
. The ''Nova Vulgata'' is also called the New Latin Vulgate
or the New Vulgate.
Before the ''Nova Vulgata'', the
Clementine Vulgate
The Sixto-Clementine Vulgate or Clementine Vulgate () is the edition wikt:promulgate, promulgated in 1592 by Pope Clement VIII of the Vulgate—a 4th-century Latin translation of the Bible that was written largely by Jerome. It was the second ...
was the standard Bible of the Catholic Church.
The ''Nova Vulgata'' is not a
critical edition
Textual criticism is a branch of textual scholarship, philology, and of literary criticism that is concerned with the identification of textual variants, or different versions, of either manuscripts or of printed books. Such texts may range in da ...
of the historical
Vulgate
The Vulgate (; also called (Bible in common tongue), ) is a late-4th-century Latin translation of the Bible.
The Vulgate is largely the work of Jerome who, in 382, had been commissioned by Pope Damasus I to revise the Gospels u ...
. Rather, it is a text intended to accord with modern critical editions of the Hebrew and Greek Bible texts, and to produce a style closer to Classical Latin.
History
Elaboration of the text
In 1907,
Pope Pius X
Pope Pius X ( it, Pio X; born Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto; 2 June 1835 – 20 August 1914) was head of the Catholic Church from 4 August 1903 to his death in August 1914. Pius X is known for vigorously opposing modernist interpretations of C ...
commissioned the
Benedictine Order
, image = Medalla San Benito.PNG
, caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal
, abbreviation = OSB
, formation =
, motto = (English: 'Pray and Work')
, foun ...
to produce as pure a version as possible of
Jerome
Jerome (; la, Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus; grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος Σωφρόνιος Ἱερώνυμος; – 30 September 420), also known as Jerome of Stridon, was a Christian presbyter, priest, Confessor of the Faith, confessor, th ...
's original text after conducting an extensive search for as-yet-unstudied manuscripts, particularly in Spain.
Pope Pius XI
Pope Pius XI ( it, Pio XI), born Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti (; 31 May 1857 – 10 February 1939), was head of the Catholic Church from 6 February 1922 to his death in February 1939. He was the first sovereign of Vatican City fro ...
established the
Pontifical Abbey of St Jerome-in-the-City
The Pontifical Abbey of St Jerome-in-the-City ( la, Abbatia pontificia sancti Hieronymi in urbe; it, San Girolamo in urbe) was a Benedictine monastery in Rome founded in 1933 for the purpose of creating a critical edition of the Vulgate. The abbey ...
in 1933 to complete the work.
By the 1970s, the Benedictine edition was no longer required for official purposes because of
liturgical changes that had spurred the Holy See to produce a new translation of the Latin Bible, the ''Nova Vulgata''.
In consequence, the abbey was suppressed in 1984. Five monks were nonetheless allowed to complete the final two volumes of the Old Testament, which were published under the abbey's name in 1987 and 1995.
The
Second Vatican Council
The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the , or , was the 21st Catholic ecumenical councils, ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church. The council met in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome for four periods (or sessions) ...
in ''
Sacrosanctum Concilium
''Sacrosanctum Concilium'', the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, is one of the constitutions of the Second Vatican Council. It was approved by the assembled bishops by a vote of 2,147 to 4 and promulgated by Pope Paul VI on 4 December 1963. ...
'' mandated a revision of the
Latin Psalter, to bring it in line with modern textual and linguistic studies while preserving or refining its Christian Latin style. In 1965,
Pope Paul VI
Pope Paul VI ( la, Paulus VI; it, Paolo VI; born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini, ; 26 September 18976 August 1978) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City, Vatican City State from 21 June 1963 to his ...
appointed a commission to revise the rest of the Vulgate following the same principles. The Commission published its work in eight annotated sections and invited criticism from Catholic scholars as the sections were published. The
Latin Psalter was published in 1969, the New Testament was completed by 1971, and the entire ''Nova Vulgata'' was published as a single-volume edition for the first time in 1979.
The foundational text of most of the Old Testament is
the critical edition commissioned by
Pope Pius X
Pope Pius X ( it, Pio X; born Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto; 2 June 1835 – 20 August 1914) was head of the Catholic Church from 4 August 1903 to his death in August 1914. Pius X is known for vigorously opposing modernist interpretations of C ...
and produced by the monks of the
Benedictine Abbey of St. Jerome.
The foundational text of the Books of Tobit and Judith is from manuscripts of the ''
Vetus Latina
''Vetus Latina'' ("Old Latin" in Latin), also known as ''Vetus Itala'' ("Old Italian"), ''Itala'' ("Italian") and Old Italic, and denoted by the siglum \mathfrak, is the collective name given to the Latin translations of biblical texts (both ...
'', rather than the Vulgate. The New Testament was based on the 1969 edition of the
Stuttgart Vulgate, and hence on the
Oxford Vulgate
The Oxford Vulgate (full title: ''Nouum Testamentum Domini nostri Jesu Christi latine, secundum editionem Sancti Hieronymi'', tr.: ''Latin New Testament of our Lord Jesus Christ, according to the edition of Saint Jerome'') is a critical edition ...
. All of these base texts were revised to accord with the modern critical editions in Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic. A number of changes were also made where modern scholars felt that Jerome had failed to grasp the meaning of the original languages, or had rendered it obscurely.
First publication
The NV was first published in different
fascicles between 1969 and 1977.
Promulgation and publication
In 1979, after decades of preparation, the ''Nova Vulgata'' was published, and was made the official Latin version of the Bible of the Catholic Church in the
apostolic constitution ''
Scripturarum thesaurus'',
promulgated
Promulgation is the formal proclamation or the declaration that a new statutory or administrative law is enacted after its final approval. In some jurisdictions, this additional step is necessary before the law can take effect.
After a new law ...
by Pope
John Paul II
Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...
on April 25, 1979.
The ''NV'' was published the same year.
A second edition, published in 1986, added a Preface to the reader,
[ an Introduction to the principles used in producing the ''Nova Vulgata'', and an appendix containing three historical documents from the ]Council of Trent
The Council of Trent ( la, Concilium Tridentinum), held between 1545 and 1563 in Trento, Trent (or Trento), now in northern Italian Peninsula, Italy, was the 19th ecumenical council of the Catholic Church. Prompted by the Protestant Reformation ...
and the Clementine Vulgate
The Sixto-Clementine Vulgate or Clementine Vulgate () is the edition wikt:promulgate, promulgated in 1592 by Pope Clement VIII of the Vulgate—a 4th-century Latin translation of the Bible that was written largely by Jerome. It was the second ...
.
''Liturgiam authenticam''
In 2001, the released the instruction ''Liturgiam authenticam
''Liturgiam authenticam'' (titled: ''De usu linguarum popularium in libris liturgiae Romanae edendis'') is an instruction of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, dated 28 March 2001.
This instruction included ...
''. This text stated the ''Nova Vulgata'' was "the point of reference as regards the delineation of the canonical text". Concerning the translation of liturgical texts, the instruction states:
This recommendation is qualified, however: the instruction specifies that translations should not be made from the ''Nova Vulgata'', but rather "must be made directly from the original texts, namely the Latin, as regards the texts of ecclesiastical composition, or the Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek, as the case may be, as regards the texts of Sacred Scripture
Religious texts, including scripture, are texts which various religions consider to be of central importance to their religious tradition. They differ from literature by being a compilation or discussion of beliefs, mythologies, ritual prac ...
". The instruction does not recommend translation of the Bible, or of the liturgy, based solely upon the Latin ''Nova Vulgata''; the ''NV'' must instead simply be used as an "auxiliary tool".
When translating the Tetragrammaton
The Tetragrammaton (; ), or Tetragram, is the four-letter Hebrew language, Hebrew theonym (transliterated as YHWH), the name of God in the Hebrew Bible. The four letters, written and read from right to left (in Hebrew), are ''yodh'', ''he (l ...
, ''Liturgiam authenticam
''Liturgiam authenticam'' (titled: ''De usu linguarum popularium in libris liturgiae Romanae edendis'') is an instruction of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, dated 28 March 2001.
This instruction included ...
'' says that " accordance with immemorial tradition, which indeed is already evident in the above-mentioned Septuagint
The Greek Old Testament, or Septuagint (, ; from the la, septuaginta, lit=seventy; often abbreviated ''70''; in Roman numerals, LXX), is the earliest extant Greek translation of books from the Hebrew Bible. It includes several books beyond th ...
version, the name of almighty God expressed by the Hebrew tetragrammaton and rendered in Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
by the word Dominus
Dominus or domini may refer to:
* Dominus (title), a title of sovereignty, clergy and other uses
Art, entertainment, and media
* Dominus (band), a Danish death metal band
* Dominus (DC Comics), an alien character in DC Comics
* Dominus (Mar ...
, is to be rendered into any given vernacular by a word equivalent in meaning."
Textual characteristics
Most of the approximately 2,000 changes made by the ''Nova Vulgata'' to the Stuttgart Vulgate text of Jerome's version of the Gospels are minor and stylistic in nature.
In addition, in the New Testament
The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christ ...
the ''Nova Vulgata'' introduced corrections to align the Latin with the Greek text in order to represent Jerome's text, as well as its Greek base, accurately. This alignment had not been achieved earlier, either in the edition of 1590 or in the 1592 edition of the Vulgate.
The ''NV'' contains only the Biblical canon of the Catholic Church, and not other pseudepigraphical
Pseudepigrapha (also anglicized as "pseudepigraph" or "pseudepigraphs") are falsely attributed works, texts whose claimed author is not the true author, or a work whose real author attributed it to a figure of the past.Bauckham, Richard; "Pseu ...
books "often associated with the Vulgate tradition."
Use of the ''Nova Vulgata''
William Griffin used the ''Nova Vulgata'' for his Latin-to-English translation of the Books of Tobit, Judith, 1 and 2 Maccabees
2 Maccabees, el, Μακκαβαίων Β´, translit=Makkabaíōn 2 also known as the Second Book of Maccabees, Second Maccabees, and abbreviated as 2 Macc., is a deuterocanonical book which recounts the persecution of Jews under King Antiochus I ...
, Baruch, Wisdom
Wisdom, sapience, or sagacity is the ability to contemplate and act using knowledge, experience, understanding, common sense and insight. Wisdom is associated with attributes such as unbiased judgment, compassion, experiential self-knowledge, ...
, Sirach
The Book of Sirach () or Ecclesiasticus (; abbreviated Ecclus.) is a Jewish work, originally in Hebrew, of ethical teachings, from approximately 200 to 175 BC, written by the Judahite scribe Ben Sira of Jerusalem, on the inspiration of his fa ...
, and the additions to Esther
The Book of Esther ( he, מְגִלַּת אֶסְתֵּר, Megillat Esther), also known in Hebrew as "the Scroll" ("the Megillah"), is a book in the third section (, "Writings") of the Jewish ''Tanakh'' (the Hebrew Bible). It is one of the fi ...
and to Daniel for the Catholic/Ecumenical Edition of ''The Message'' Bible.
The ''Nova Vulgata'' provides the Latin text of Kurt and Barbara Aland
Barbara Aland, née Ehlers (born 12 April 1937 in Hamburg, Germany) is a German theologian and was a Professor of New Testament Research and Church History at Westphalian Wilhelms-University of Münster until 2002.
Biography
After having c ...
's bilingual ''Novum Testamentum Graece et Latine''; the latter was first released in 1984. Since the Alands' 1984 revision of the ''Novum Testamentum Latine'', that version has also used the ''Nova Vulgata'' as its reference text.
Criticism
According to Protestant
Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...
university professor Benno Zuiddam, many of the ''NV''s New Testament readings are not found in any Latin manuscripts
A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand – or, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten – as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced in ...
, meaning that the ''NV'' diverges from Jerome
Jerome (; la, Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus; grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος Σωφρόνιος Ἱερώνυμος; – 30 September 420), also known as Jerome of Stridon, was a Christian presbyter, priest, Confessor of the Faith, confessor, th ...
's translation. Zuiddam has called the ''NV'' "an imaginary text of Scripture on the authority of scholarship, based on a handful of manuscripts that run contrary to the textual traditions of both the Eastern
Eastern may refer to:
Transportation
*China Eastern Airlines, a current Chinese airline based in Shanghai
*Eastern Air, former name of Zambia Skyways
*Eastern Air Lines, a defunct American airline that operated from 1926 to 1991
*Eastern Air Li ...
and the Western Church
Western Christianity is one of two sub-divisions of Christianity (Eastern Christianity being the other). Western Christianity is composed of the Latin Church and Western Protestantism, together with their offshoots such as the Old Catholic C ...
".
See also
* Benedictine Vulgate
The Benedictine Vulgate, Vatican Vulgate or Roman Vulgate (full title: ''Biblia Sacra iuxta latinam vulgatam versionem ad codicum fidem'', tr. ''Holy Bible following the Latin vulgate version faithfully to the manuscripts'') is a critical editio ...
* Douay Rheims Bible Douay is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Abel Douay (1809–1870), French general
* Félix Douay (1816–1879), French general and brother of Abel Douay
See also
* Douay–Rheims Bible, an English translation of the Bible, c. ...
* ''Divino afflante Spiritu
''Divino afflante Spiritu'' ("By the inspiration of the Spirit") is a papal encyclical letter issued by Pope Pius XII on 30 September 1943 calling for new translations of the Bible into vernacular languages using the original languages as a so ...
''
References
External links
*
Nova Vulgata Bibliorum Sacrorum Editio
'
Further reading
*
*
*
*
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Editions of the Vulgate
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