Stanley Rosenberg: Before pneumatology justified translating scriptures: Augustine’s theology of translation as revelatory and authoritative

While much has been written the history of the Bible and translations, relatively little has been written about early theological views underlying early commitments to translation. How did Middle Judaism and early Christianity (cf. contrary to Islam) allow the communities to treat translations — and not the scriptures exclusively in their originating languages — as fully authoritative and revelatory? This move is typically treated in histories of doctrine and theology through the rear-view mirror of pneumatology; this was of course not the basis for the creation of the Septuagint in Middle Judaism and is arguably absent in the early Christian centuries when the doctrines surrounding the Holy Spirit were not extensive and not yet rigorously developed.This presentation focuses on Augustine’s views of translating. He accepted translations as fully revelatory, not simply through a doctrine of the Holy Spirit, but rather based on a combination of the interior Word, ecclesiology, theological anthropology, semiotic theory, and too, the Holy Spirit. His formulation also explains the relatively cool reception he offered to Jerome’s translations; while admitting Jerome’s work was technically superior, Augustine believed the Vulgate lacked the critical imprimatur and connection of being ‘the Church’s Bible’ and would, hence, undermine the connections between the Latin and Greek speaking worlds.

NB: This is not a presentation about the history of canon or Late Antique practice per se but about the theological views enabling translation of scripture, though commenting on practice will be relevant to gaining an understanding of their theological foundations.