"JEALOUSY" OF GOD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20595, 20 June 1930, Page 15

"JEALOUSY" OF GOD.

| STRIKING BIBLE PASSAGE. IV NEW VERSION REPORTED. itSD : SCEPTICISM IN AUCKLAND. u ~~~~~~~~ assertion from London that one of | most striking passages in the Bible , is a b o ut to be altered, in view of the belief of the Vatican's international commission that a mistranslation has ocred was viewed sceptically by Dr. / t Bus ton, Administrator of St. Patrick's when., the question was refsrred to him yesterday. |t'The passage referred to reads:—"For j the Lord thy God, am a jealous God, 4-iting the sins of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation." According to the London Sunday Express, the Vatican commission thinks the passage should read literally "For I, the Lord thy God, am a God of "loving-kindness and mercy, considering the errors of the fathers as mitigating circumstances in judging the sins of the children un!o the third and fourth generations." The Vatican' commission, which has been functioning for several years, was charged with the' responsibility of restoring the original text of the Latin Bible cr Vulgate as it came from the hands of St. Jerome, the famous scholar, who in fourth ceptury translated th« scriptures from the/ Hebrew, Greek and •.other Oriental languages into Latin. Task o! Commission. "The commission was not required to retranslate % Vulgate and turn it into English," explained Dr. Buxton. "It has simply to restore the text as it left the hands of St. Jerome. For that purpose many manuscripts were compared, photographs of the originals being made in cases where the manuscripts could not be taken away. By making those comparisons, the "commission was enabled, by jmch methods as noting peculiarities perpetuated in various texts, to group the manuscripts and trace them to their common stocks. There was, however, no intention of upsetting the Latin version of the scriptures made by St- Jerome. For that reason, I am inclined to regard yith scepticism the statement that the passage referred to is to be changed. It may be that some missing words have been discovered which may permit of a jxiore kindly interpretation being placed on the passage,' but, in the absence of an authoritative statement, I am not prepared to accept this announcement as being correct." The Vulgate is the only Latin version of the scriptures which the Roman Catholic Church admits to be authentic. The English version, translated from the Latin Vulgate for the use of Roman Catholics, is known as the Douav Bible. St. Jerome's Work. Of St. Jerome's work of interpretation it has been said:—"Whatever it may owe to the older/and fragmentary versions, Jerome's Bible is a wonderful work, still more as achieved by one man, and that a Western Christian. It almost created a new language. The inflexible Latin became pliant and expansive, naturalising foreign Eastern imagery, Eastern words of expression and thought, and Eastern religious notions, most uncongenial to its genius and character, end yet retaining much of its own peculiar strength, solidity and majesty." Asked his;' opinion of the suggested change in the translation of the pasrage, Dr. H. Ranston, professor of Hebrew and classical languages at the Trinity Methodist College, said it certainly seemed to be at variance with the general interpretation. The Hebrew word interpreted as "jealousy" meant jealousy in the sense of "'burning indignation." The relationship between Jehovah and Israel Tvas described as being similar to the relationship between husband and wife, and any move toward idolatry was regarded as akin to a sort of spiritual adultery. The word might have a secondary meaning implying that behind the jealousy was a feeling of mercy or affectum for the one. going away.