The English Bible [antikvár]

THE TRANSLATORS : WYCLIF TO MOFFATTVERY sort of doctrine which is to be delivered to the faithful," says the Catechism of the Council of Trent, "is contained in the Word of God, which is divided into Scripture and Tradition." And the Scripture had always, at least in theory, held the first place. In his exposition and defence of Christian doctrine Thomas Aquinas has two courts of appeal,firstly Scripture, and secondly "the Philosopher," that is Aristotle, in matters scientific, but the latter is subject to correction by the former. The Scriptures were represented, for those who could read, by the Vulgate, St. Jerome's Latin translation of the Old and New Testament. The rhythm of the English Bible, as that finally emerged, owes not a little to the Latin of St. Jerome, though Tyndale will assert that both Hebrew and Greek are more easily rendered into English than into Latin.The influence of the Scriptures, Old and New Testament, on English literature goes back to the earliest extant records of that literaturethe Caedmonian poetic version of the books of Genesis and Exodus and of the apocryphal Judith (which in the Vulgate is included among the historical books) followed later by the Crist of Cynewulf, a noble poem. Just before his death the Venerable Bede was engaged on a translation of the Gospel of St. John, and the last work of King Alfred was a translation of the Psalter. If from the date of the Norman Conquest to the fourteenth century there were fewer English versions of Biblical literature that was because English was the language of a conquered people. Those who could read at all could also read Latin and French. Yet in many ways the main story of the Old and New Testament was made familiar