In this lesson, Pastor Dave Capoccia examines three important fourth century church fathers and their legacies: Athanasius (the Trinity Defender), John Chrysostom (the Expositor), and Jerome (the Translator).
Auto Transcript
Note: This rough transcript was automatically generated by YouTube’s AI algorithm. We provide it here for your convenience, but know it will surely contain errors as it has not been proofread or edited by a human.
team Christian leaders in those days today we’re moving into the fourth and even fifth century which many have considered to be the Golden Age of theological work in the early church recall what was the great change that took place at the beginning of the fourth Century the early 300s that enabled this theological flowering big political change Constantine came to power and officially legalized Christianity as a religion in the Empire and even promoted it so this is why we have this like I say theological flowering so many of the early churches most important and most recognizable names come from these last two centuries the fourth and the fifth and so you’ve actually heard me mention a number of these names in this course and even in sermons or Christian books that you read you’ll see these names athanasius John chrysostom Jerome Ambrose and Augustine Augustine being the main one I want you to meet these men I want you to be able to appreciate at least to some small degree their far-reaching Legacies and because these men are so significant I’m slowing down the pace of the course just a little bit spending more time with these men than those that we’ve met previously we’re actually just going to look at three of these fourth and fifth century fathers today this is lesson 10 on athanasius chrysostom and Jerome next week we’ll meet the other two men Ambrose and Augustine and there were of course other notable persons great teachers and leaders in this period but these five are some of the most important writers preachers Scholars of the early church not perfect just like us yet nonetheless useful happy instruments of Our Lord in this in this period of time now as previously I plan to introduce you to these men by and give you their biographies and summarize some of their significant contributions to the church but I also really want these brothers to speak themselves to you so we’ll be highlighting some of their writings sampling them we’re going to start today by meeting someone that we’ve kind of met a little bit already but let’s hear more about him athanasius athanasius the Trinity Defender we met him when we were talking about the seven ecumenical councils because he played an important role in a certain Council which Council was that the Council of nicaea in 325 he was a leading opponent of arianism what is arianism again that’s right not a trinity because who specifically is not the Eternal God Jesus Jesus is a created being an aryan’s point of view arius’s point of view and this was arianism and I’m not going to go over all the material related to nicaea and arianism again but I do want to tell you more about this faithful brother so we don’t know too much about athanasia’s early life but since he later spoke and wrote in Coptic he was probably born in Egypt to a poor family probably in her near Alexandria some of his later Aryan opponents pejority pejoratively referred to him as the black dwarf suggesting that he was short and dark-skinned his friend Gregory of nazianzis described him as a small thin man with a beautiful face piercing eyes and a mysterious Aura of power that affected even his enemies athanasius may have grown up visiting or even serving some of the desert monks who lived near Alexandria as he would later in his life find many allies among those monks adopt a similar lifestyle and even hide out with them in the wilderness but we do know with more certainty is that athanasius became the senior Deacon of the church in Alexandria secretary to the city’s Bishop Alexander and then later Bishops himself you remember I already mentioned athanasia student found himself fighting the Aryan heresy even speaking on the subject at the Council of nicaea in 325 it was made Bishop despite his protests and this is kind of a theme in the early church people get made Bishops and they don’t want to be Bishops they’re like no but you really deserve the job you would be great in this role and like no I don’t want to do it too much responsibility but then they take it and then like okay I’ll serve the Lord this way that was true of athanasius didn’t want to become Bishop but Alexander on his deathbed is like let’s make athanasius bishop he’s like oh man I gotta do it now he was elected the next Bishop of Alexandria on the old Bishop’s recommendation now because Constantine was later persuaded to side with the Aryans against those who supported the Nicene confession and because many of Constantine’s successors were also Aryan athanasius soon found himself and frequently found himself at odds with the governing authorities as I mentioned to you previously athanasius was exiled multiple times actually five times from his church in Alexandria once to Trier in Germany once to roam twice to the deserts of Egypt because there’s more flight than Exile and then once to a house or Cemetery outside Alexandria keeps getting kicked out of his church despite how much pressure came from the Emperors for him just about arianism athanasius did not give in you never stopped writing against it continued to preach Christ as both man and God because for athanasius arianism didn’t just upend a true understanding of the nature of Christ which is fundamental in and of itself but it really overturned the whole basis for Christian hope and salvation if Jesus is not God then Our Gospel is not real it’s not complete listen to two excerpts from athanasius most famous work on the Incarnation of the word and I take this via Needham’s book two thousand years in Christ’s power but this work is available online here’s what athanasius writes no one else but the Savior who in the beginning made everything out of nothing could bring what had been corrupted into a state free from corruption no one else but the image of the father could recreate human beings in God’s image no one else but our Lord Jesus Christ who is life itself could give immortality to Mortal humans no one else but the Lagos who imparts order to everything and is the one true and only begotten son of the father could teach us about the father and Destroy idolatry so what is athanasia’s basic argument here well Jesus Is God but what does that enable him to do say that again Danny well yeah that’s one way he describes it all the things that the Bible says Jesus has accomplished for his people showing the father giving them new life making them into the image of God they can’t happen unless Jesus is actually God himself and then from another section of the work athanasius adds he that’s Jesus became human that we might become divine he revealed himself in a body that we might see the invisible father he suffered our insults so that we might inherit immortality now that beginning phrase there might make you a little uncomfortable he became humans that we might become Divine but this is just an illusion from athanasius to Second Peter 1 4 which you know Pastor Bobby has treated that passage several times just to remind you of it second Peter 1 4 says for by these um talking about the knowledge Christ revealing the power of Christ he has granted to us this precious and magnificent promises so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust and that original passage Peter didn’t teach that Christians became gods or even became part of God but that Christ through Christ we are Sanctified to become like God in character and we become fellow heirs with God that is God the son in his glorious Kingdom so we’ve become partakers of the divine nature which is kind of a shocking statement in and of itself understood correctly that is that is not error this is actually one of Aries athanasius famous favorite sorry let me slow down a little bit this is when athanasia’s favorite arguments against the Aryans only someone who is himself Divine could enable those who are in Union with him to be participants in the divine nature he’s created being he can’t do what II Peter 1 4 says you can’t enable that and by the way this terminology of Christians becoming Divine it is prevalent in the grief Orthodox church today and their Doctrine which they call deification or theosis it’s a little weird the way that they explain it and it definitely Trends towards mysticism and a works-oriented salvation but the origin of the idea is scriptural and they would even look back to people like athanasius for extra support there is a sense in which Christians do participate in the divine nature and become like God but anyways you see that athanasius was a zealous defender of the truth and particularly the trinity but he was also gifted in discernment knowing that there was a difference between a true departure of Salvation Doctrine and just a small error or a misunderstanding one of athanasia’s greatest contributions in the fight against arianism is that he helped bring together the strict nicenes with a more moderate nicenes and both of these groups had been suspicious of one another and the Aryans had been picking them apart this is something that athanasius said calling for those who are in his own group The strychnicenes to listen to athanasius says those who accept the Creed of nicaea but have doubts about the word homo usias and we talked about that before right this means of the same substance but there were a large group of Christians both at nicia and afternicea who are uncomfortable with this term because it sounded like civilianism you’re trying to make the father and the son absolutely the same no difference in person there are some people uncomfortable with that so he’s telling his fellow strychnicenes these who are on who have doubts about the word must not be classed as enemies let us discuss the issue with them as brothers with Brothers they mean the same thing we mean all we are arguing about is the use of a word now this is a wise man and his efforts did much to bring together those two groups and unite against arianism I do love athanasius as a zealous defender of the truth but also a reasonable conciliator among the brethren he could also be quite clever and even humorous the story told about athanasius that one time when he’s fleeing from Roman authorities by boat up the Nile River in the dark he rounded a bend and then suddenly turned around and approached the pursuing boat supposing that he was actually a different boat than the one they are pursuing the pursuers called out to him in the dim light have you seen athanasius you replied yes you are very close to him he’s just a little ahead of you of course then he passes by and he’s able to escape safely well as I mentioned uh in the previous class athanasius didn’t live long enough to see aryanism totally defeated but he believed the day of its defeat would come and he kept doing his part enjoying a few years of ministering Alexandria after his Last Exile athanasius died peacefully in his bed we have a number of his work surviving today I think maybe 20 or more but some of his most famous include on the Incarnation of the word which I quoted to orations against the Aryans and another word from later in his life the life of Anthony and this was an important work it was a biography of one desert monk named Anthony now known today’s Anthony the great whom athanasius greatly admired and was like everybody needs to know about this guy this work became the ancient equivalent of a bestseller and it ended up drawing a lot of people to monasticism to like the monastic life seems pretty good and it would be influential in both the eastern and the Western halves of the empire so when we think about athanasius and his legacy think of him as that faithful Trinity Defender who not only preached the truth but lived a holy and perseverant life on top of it thank the Lord for athanasius now he’s one of my favorites but the next Church Father I want to introduce you to is another one of my favorites and that man is John chrysostom John chrysostom the Expositor and don’t get confused about that name like Justin Martyr the second part of John’s name is not actually his name it’s a title it’s a Greek phrase kusostomas does anybody know what that means good guess not christ-like crew sauce or I think it’s yeah crew sauce means gold and stomas means mouth so this is John the golden mouth and why would he be given that title because he was the most eloquent and eminent preacher of his period notable for his clear expository Style he was actually probably the most important important Church Father in the East during his lifetime he had that much impact who was John well John was born in Antioch in Syria to parents of some means middle or upper class in 347.
he became a Christian around age 20 studied rhetoric under a pagan teacher and then went on to study theology at the school at the Christian School at Antioch and if you remember what kind of interpretation of the Bible does Antioch favor well certainly they’ll be using Greek if we have allegorical and literal which one does Antioch prefer literal yes allegorical interpretation centers where Alexandria that’s right remember these two schools kind of rival each other so he’s studying an Antioch and he also began to live a very ascetic self-denying lifestyle even living as a Hermit for some time before becoming a deacon and then a priest at Antioch remember priest just means presbyter Elder he was an extremely popular preacher at Antioch his homilies or sermons were clear and practical expositions of the Bible with an emphasis on holy living as a result of a heart that loves God he also continually spoke against the increasing worldliness that existed in the church both among lay people and the clergy and why would this be an increasing problem in the fourth and fifth centuries that’s right remember that blessing you are officially tolerated no persecution anymore well it’s also a curse in some ways because it brings nominal Christianity into the church people who want Christianity just for the Social and economic benefits or whatever that it gives them so chrysostom preaches against this encroaching worldliness I served as a preacher 12 years in Antioch but then was suddenly given the bishopric of Constantinople which is an extremely prestigious post because that’s the capital that’s the capital of the empire after the previous patriarch’s death the clergy and Constantinople elected John without consulting him and he traveled to Constantinople against his will there it is again to take the position really don’t want to do this apparently he was so popular in Antioch that he had to leave secretly or else it might have caused a great outcry among the people now John became popular in Constantinople just as he did in Antioch but that was with the common people he had a much chillier reception among constantinople’s Elite who were often cut by John’s words against worldliness and hypocrisy John also refused to continue the practices of constantinople’s previous Patriarchs such as hosting social Gatherings for Aristocrats or monetarily supporting clergy at Constantinople who had left their Regional posts so he had these clergy who were supposed to be serving in other areas they just stayed in Constantinople and they expected to still be supported in their positions he’s like I’m not going to do that and among those who became John’s enemies was the Eastern Empress herself named Alia eudoxia whom John characterized as extremely vain and no doubt she was as her opposition to him increased he compared her to herodias from the Bible the New Testament woman who clamored for the head of John the Baptist well like herodius eudoxia was determined to have her way and she United with John’s clerical opponents and had him deposed as Bishop of Constantinople and exiled sound familiar but these men are conviction they don’t stop when you put them in Exile just like athanasius John continued to write back to Constantinople from his exile and that got him X Out even further even outside the Empire eventually it was on his way to his Last Exile in abcasia on the Eastern side of the Black Sea that John died this tomb is actually still there today though his Earthly remains were taken back to Constantinople soon after his death his last words are said to have been doxa taseo Pantone Heineken glory be to God in all things so that’s a summary of John’s life let’s hear more from chrysostom himself as I said Chris awesome was a notable verse by verse Expositor he wasn’t the only expositional preacher of this period or the time before but he was the most prominent and just overall clear what is expository preaching it often is verse by verse though it doesn’t always have to be yeah Mark redundant yes in many ways it is a redundant term expository just means explaining and really all preaching is supposed to be that you’re explaining the Bible and you’re applying it to the lives of your people to the lives of those who hear you it’s another way to describe it it is explanation by exegesis exegesis is the process of interpretation properly giving attention to the historical literary and grammatical context of a passage of the Bible you want to know what the Bible means when it says something and how we know it means what it means expository preaching seeks to explain by proper hermeneutics the biblical authors originally intended meaning and really it’s it’s what proper preaching is and so yes in some ways expository preaching is a redundant term that’s what we seek to practice here and it’s what John also practiced now listen to John himself talk about Exposition this comes from his work against martians and manichaeans for we ought to unlock the passage by first giving a clear interpretation of the words what then does the saying mean we must not attend the words merely but turn our attention to the sense and learn the aim of the speaker and the cause and the occasion and by putting all these things together turn out the hidden meaning now when he says hidden meaning there he doesn’t mean a secret symbolic meaning but the author’s original intent and let’s hear an example of John’s exposition and we give you something from one of his sermons or homilies this is from Matthew one you can actually turn there yourself if you like very beginning of Matthew this is a sermon he preached starting on Matthew 1 3 which if you know is the genealogical section of Matthew what kind of sermon can you get from the genealogies well let’s hear John the text is or at least part of the text and Judas begat Ferris and Zara of Tamar so Judas actually being Judah that’s just another way of Translating the Name Who real quick who was Tamar not Jacob’s wife but what were you saying Tina yes that’s right she had I think actually two children but yeah she slept with her father-in-law because he wasn’t giving up his surviving son to be her husband and uh he didn’t realize it because she was dressed as a prostitute but she was his daughter-in-law had twins and this was kind of a uh what’s the word I’m looking for this is a this is not a a proud moment in the history of the Patriarchs but it’s recorded in this genealogy here’s what John says about it what does that old man putting us in remembrance of a history that contains an unlawful intercourse but why is this said since if we were recounting the race of Mira of a mere man one might naturally have been silent touching these things but if of God incarnate so far from being Silent One ought to make a glory of them showing forth is tender care and his power yay it was for this cause he came not to escape our disgraces but to Bear them away therefore as he is the more admired and that he not only died but was even crucified though the thing be approprious denigrating yet the more appropriate The More Death it show him full of love to man so likewise may we speak touching his birth it’s not only because he took flesh upon him and became man that we just lay stand amazed at him but because he vouched safe to have such to have also such kinsfolk being in no respect ashamed of our evils in this he was proclaiming from the very beginning of his birth that he is ashamed of none of those things that belonged to us while he teaches us also hereby never to hide our face at our forefathers wickedness but to seek after one thing alone even virtue for such a man that we have an alien for his ancestor that we have a mother who is a prostitute or what you will can take no hurt thereby for if the whoremonger or a moral man himself being changed is nothing disgraced by his former life much more will the wickedness of his ancestry have no power to bring to shame him that is sprung of a harlot or an adulteress if he’d be virtuous Christ did these things not only to instruct us but also to bring down the haughtiness of the Jews but since they negligent about virtue and their own Souls were parading the name of Abraham thinking that they had a plea for their forefathers virtue he shows in the very beginning that it is not in these things meant out to Glory but in their own Good Deeds yeah pause real quick there good deeds wait is John promoting works-based salvation one more paragraph besides this he is establishing another point also to show that all are under sin even their forefathers themselves at least their patriarch and namesake is shown to have committed no small sin for tomorrow stands against him to accuse his whoredom and David too at Solomon by the wife whom he corrupted but if the great if by the great ones the law was not fulfilled much more by the less and if it was not fulfilled all have sinned and Christ’s coming has become necessary John says we all need Christ to save us we can’t save ourselves even the great great Patriarchs for great Sinners so how much more we but God is such a God as John points out from Matthew’s original intent God is not ashamed to call us Brethren it’s even shown in the genealogy and that’s an edifying Exposition right and many of John’s homilies like this one are preserved you can still benefit from this ancient brother’s preaching today it’s available online before we leave John one other note at Antioch John preached eight homilies entitled against the Jews and that title is a little bit misleading it’s really against judaizing Christians Christians want to bring back aspects of the Old Testament law it’s written though in a literary form called the sagas which literally means blame which was a genre at the time which is very forceful and denigrating and it was denigrating even to the Jews now some say these homilies show John to be anti-Semitic that could be true certainly the Christians in this period partly due to increasing supersessionism seeing that the church replaces Israel God has done with that Wicked people they were tempted towards anti-Semitism and some yielded to it but John’s blistering rhetoric May simply be due to the form of his writing rather than any prejudice against the Jews it was a Zeal against judaizing coming through rather than just a hate for a people no we don’t know the full situation there but we don’t necessarily have to say yep he was an anti-semite there’s a similar issue that comes up with Martin Luther I know Mark mentioned some things about that in his Sunday school lesson when we get there Lord willing we will get there I’ll have more to say about the circumstances surrounding his work against the Jews in their lives but that’s it for John the golden mouth faithful preacher by expository preaching and exegesis even as many others in this period were opting for the allegorical hermeneutic popularized by origin well the Third Church Father from this period I want to introduce you to today is Jerome we have athanasius the Trinity Defender chrysostom the Expositor and Jerome the translator some of you have probably heard of this scholar before um even before this course because it is famous for one literary work and that is the Vulgate what is the Vulgate it is the translation of the Bible into Latin and it is still held up with Incredible esteem in the Roman Catholic Church even too much but more about that in just a moment who was Jerome oh born in the Roman province of Dalmatia which is present-day Bosnia and herzkavina just across from Italy Eastern side of that sea Jerome as a young man went to Rome to study rhetoric and philosophy he also lived a profligate life there and it was soon hounded by guilt and the thought of hell he repented he was baptized in his late and he was baptized in his late teens or early 20s a few years later Jerome traveled to Trier Germany before going on a trip with some friends through Asia Minor but on this trip his two friends died and Jerome became seriously ill this had a huge impact on Jerome he decided as a result to give up all secular study and instead take up the life of an ascetic and study the Bible our time Jerome lived and studied in a desert near Antioch in Syria with a number of other Hermits and just there that Jerome first began to learn Hebrew it’s not common for people even Bible teachers to know Hebrew at that time but he started to learn it he was eventually ordained a priest in Antioch but was still committed to scholarly steady rather than pastoral Ministry and by the way if you ever look up pictures or paintings of Jerome you often seem depicted in bright red garb which is the clothing of What official position in the Roman Catholic Church Cardinals which is weird because Jerome was never a cardinal and he never could have been a cardinal because the position of cardinal or special elector of the pope did not exist until 1059.
despite this historical fact Jerome has almost always pictured in cardinal red this gives me an opportunity for a side note when I show you pictures and paintings of these various persons obviously that is not a accurate historical representation I think there’s maybe one picture that Mosaic or picture that might be connected to the person at the time but most of these are done later especially in the Renaissance period And so you see these figures often papified if I can use that term these early church fathers are pictured wearing the gaudy robes capes and hats of much later priests and popes that’s not what they actually look like just understand that’s not historically accurate though the Imperial Church in the 4th Century 5th Century we do move to more elaborate vestments in the church they’re kind of adopting the Court look of the emperor not everybody but you do see more of that in the church the Catholic clergy Roman Catholic churchly clergy did not have official vestments until at the earliest 12 15.
which would be at the fourth lateran Council where clerks you were given instructions as to what to wear and not what not to wear in their position but anyways that’s just trying to give you some background there I try to avoid most anachronistic depictions of these persons if I can but I can’t always so that’s just a little aside but back to Jerome after ordination as a priest Jerome continued to travel and serve in various positions positions but he eventually settled down in Bethlehem where he lived in a monastic community and wrote most of his literary Works interesting fact when we were in Bethlehem and we went to visit the reported site of Jesus birth Jerome’s cell where he stayed and worked is said to be right next to it and there’s actually a little statue of Jerome outside of it today Now One Source I read says that aside from Augustine Jerome was the second most prolific writer of this period he wrote commentaries polemics histories translations of previous literary works in his Bible interpretation Jerome followed the school of Alexandria which meant what kind of hermeneutic yeah symbolic allegorical harmonic alas didn’t make him Unfaithful but um not not really doing what he ought to there his most important work however would be Bible translation while serving in Rome the bishop of Rome asked Rome to create a new translation of the Bible but as Jerome began it bothered him that nearly all the Bible translations of his time whether written in Latin or Greek they had Old Testaments translated not from the Hebrew but from the Septuagint which is written in what language Greek yeah septuagint’s Greek and then sometimes be translated in Latin now if you’re not familiar with the Septuagint it is the Greek translation or a set of translations of the Old Testament books and other related books written before the time of Christ for hellenized Jews those Jews who had embraced Greek culture and language after the time of Alexander the Great and they couldn’t read Hebrew anymore or even Aramaic still needed to study the Bible still wanted to study the Bible and so this translation came about the name Septuagint means 70 and it refers to the legend of 70 or 72 Jewish Scholars who created the work there’s like a whole story about it each one supposedly independently translated the books of the Bible without consulting one another they came together and lo and behold all their translations were exactly the same like the spirit was inspiring them to do this exact translation didn’t actually happen but that was the legend now because it means 70 you will sometimes see the Septuagint abbreviated using what three Roman numerals lxx so whenever you see that that’s just the Septuagint many Old Testament quotations in the New Testament Even in our bibles are based off the Septuagint translation not all of them but it was very commonly used in the early church even today the Greek Orthodox church has a high degree of reverence for the Septuagint but anyways Jerome is noticing as he’s given this task a Bible translation that all available 4th Century Bible translations of the Old Testament were based off of the Septuagint rather than the Hebrew so the translations are based off of translation rather than the original text no one seemed to question this but Jerome’s like that’s not the way to do it so he started to create a Latin Bible translation of the Old Testament that was from the original Hebrew and actually once people heard that this is what Jerome was doing that he had started doing this they actually tried to dissuade him from it asking him hey why don’t you trust the septuagint’s translation of the Old Testament how could you possibly improve on the septuagint’s work and how could you not help but put new errors into your translation to the detriment of the church what do you think you’re doing Jerome but Jerome persevered and the resulting translation of the Old Testament and the New Testament and the apocryphal books he called The Vulgate now Vulgate sounds like what English word vulgar which means what common or dirty right vulgar language oh it’s can’t use that well that’s because these vulgar and Vulgate they come from the same Latin root and it does mean common which is actually why Jerome wrote his work entitled it thus he wanted an accurate translation of the Bible to be available in the common language of the West which was not Greek but Latin which is then ironic considering what took place throughout the centuries preceding the Reformation the Roman Catholic Church actually came to forbid any translation of the Bible into the vulgar or common languages of the people saying no you must instead use the Vulgate translation which was actually translated to be the common language of the people well Jerome’s translation was a good one though it was imperfect as all translations are some better than others nevertheless it became the translation of the Bible used in Western Christianity for the next 1100 years Jerome’s bulgate even after Iraq vernacular versions of the Bible became more widespread after the Reformation and the days afterwards many Protestants certainly Catholics but many Protestants still looked with great respect upon Jerome’s Latin translation now one of the significant choices in Jerome’s translation of the New Testament was his choice for the Greek word metanoia which means repentance it’s one of the words used for repentance but what word did Jerome use for this word and his translation penance right yeah the Latin version of that so similarly meta Nao a methano the word for repent the verb he translated it as do penance this is an unfortunate word choice because what does size about the term repentance external Works external turning external obedience and change that is part of repentance but that’s not all of repentance not even the essence of repentance now perhaps Jerome had the right meaning in mind when he chose that word but over the centuries the Roman Catholic Church view of repentance would become almost holy external connected with the word Penance which is ironic because the originally translated word metanoia it actually doesn’t refer to the outside at least not directly metanoia means literally what a change in mind a change or turning in your mind which leads to a change of action but it is fundamentally a change in mind so unfortunately Penance got away from that meaning well Jerome continued to write and contend for the faith until his death in Bethlehem in 420.
his remains originally buried in Bethlehem are now in Rome though not in Saint Peter’s Basilica I want you to hear a little bit from Jerome first I want to show you something kind of funny as I said many at the time regarded Jerome’s translation with apprehension including Jerome’s younger contemporary Augustine now listen to a part of a letter that Augustine wrote to Jerome in 394 and then I will show you Jerome’s response so first here’s Augustine for My Own Part I keep my wonder that anything of you manuscripts which escaped so many translators perfectly acquainted with the language I say nothing of the 70 regarding whose Harmony and Mind and Spirit surpassing that which is found in even one man I dare not in any way pronounce a decided opinion except that in my judgment Beyond question very high Authority must in this work of translation be conceited to them I am more perplexed by those translators who though enjoying the advantage of laboring after the 70 had completed their work although well acquainted as it is reported with the force of Hebrew words and phrases and with Hebrew syntax have not only failed to agree among themselves but have left many things which even after so long A Time still remain to be discovered and brought to light now these things he’s referring to those unresolved Hebrew translation questions we’re either obscure or plain if they were obscure It is believed that you are as likely to have been mistaken as the others if they were playing it does not believe that they the 70 could possibly have been mistaken having stated the grounds of my perspective perplexity I appeal to your kindness to give me an answer regarding this matter so Augustine is clearly questioning Jerome’s translation work and on what three grounds yeah you think you can do better than the 70. come on these guys were great why else others have tried to translate independent of the 70 and what does Augustine say what happened they didn’t do it with success and they didn’t agree on their translation others have tried to do what you’re trying to do Jerome and it didn’t go well why do you think it’s going to be different for you and he Intimates if there’s something wrong in this Septuagint it must be something obscure because if it were plain the Septuagint would have gotten it right if it’s obscure you’re not going to get it right and if it’s plain you’re not going to do better than them now what is Jerome’s response well at first I think this is hilarious Jerome did not reply so some years later Augustine sent Jerome another letter with similar words and asking if Jerome’s reply to his first letter I’d gotten lost somewhere I’m sure you must have replied I didn’t receive it did it get lost well finally 10 years after the first letter was sent Jerome sent a response here’s an excerpt all of the commentators who have been our predecessors in the Lord and the work of expounding the scriptures have expanded I have expanded either what was obscure or what was plain if some passages were obscure how could you after them presume to discuss which they were not able to explain if the passages were plain it was a waste of time for you to have undertaken to treat that which could not possibly have escaped them the syllogism applies with peculiar Force The Book of Psalms in the interpretation of which Greek commentators have written many volumes now I put to your wisdom to answer why you after all the labors of so many and so competent interpreters differ from them in your exposition of some passages what’s Jerome’s point yeah yeah he’s saying you’re saying that I can’t do a better job than any of the translators that came before but what about you as a preacher why do you keep preaching if people have preached those passages before you you think you can do better than that you think you’re going to understand what they didn’t understand you obviously don’t take their same interpretation sometimes your expositions are different what gives you the goal to think that you can do that so he’s turning Augustine’s objections against his translation on Augustine here’s what he says to close the letter in closing this letter I beseech you to have some consideration for a soldier who is now old and has long retired from active service and not to force him to take the field and again expose his life to the chances of War do you who are young and who have been appointed to the conspicuous seed of pontifical dignity that is the bishopric give yourself the teaching to people and enrich Rome with new stores from fertile Africa I am contented to make but little noise in an obscure corner of a monastery with one to hear me or read to me so Jerome goes back to what he mentioned before Augustine you’re the young preacher keep preaching that’s good for you to do I’m the old scholar let me do my work in peace one other thing I want to bring up before we finish with Jerome you may have noticed that I said earlier that Jerome included the the Apocrypha in his Vulgate you may ask why did he do that well let me tell you first of all do you remember how I told you that in the process of canonizing the New Testament there were different works that were considered helpful but that were ultimately rejected as inspired so there was the ditiki or the Epistle of Barnabas or The Shepherd of Hamas these were considered helpful but not inspired not scripture well the same thing apparently had happened with Works related to the Old Testament and these had actually been included in the Septuagint translation you had a Pocketful books like Judith or first second and third Maccabees or ecclesiasticus or the prayer of Manasseh or even a few chapters added to some Bible books like the Book of Daniel these though not considered inspired but considered helpful were included in the Septuagint translation of the Bible and even interspersed with the canonical books there was no Apocrypha section in the Septuagint but from what I understand people recognize that there was a difference between the apocal books and the canonical books so this was the reality for the Septuagint when Jerome decided to make a translation for the Vulgate he really wasn’t doing anything than what had been done before he says I’m going to include these other helpful works even though they’re not the Bible Christians are using them Christians have benefited from them I’m going to include them in my translation except Jerome included some explanatory preferences prefaces to these apocryphal books including the following I forget which one this is in front of but this is in his translation of the Vulgate as then the church reads Judith Tobit and the books of McAfee’s but does not admit them among the canonical scriptures so let it read these two volumes oh there it is wisdom of Solomon and Ecclesiastes for the edification of the people not to give authority to doctrines of the church Jerome wrote this in the Vulgate now I know this is strange to think about but did you know that the apocal books while not recognized as canonical by Jews or Christians until the Catholic Council of Trent in 1546 the Greek Orthodox Canada of Jerusalem in 1672 the apocryphal books have nonetheless been paired with the biblical texts for hundreds of years even when Luther produced his own Bible translation in the Reformation he retained the Apocrypha though he did put those books into its own section and labeled them with the following title Apocrypha these books are not held equal to the scriptures but are useful and good to read even the Geneva Bible the first Bible was study notes originating under Calvin’s Ministry in Geneva Switzerland retained the Apocrypha no not as canonical it was only at the Westminster assembly in 1643 from which we received the Westminster Confession of faith that the Apocrypha was removed and here’s a statement from the Westminster Confession the books commonly called Apocrypha not being of divine inspiration are no part of the Canon of the scripture and therefore are of No Authority in the Church of God nor to be any otherwise approved and made use of than other human writings that’s a little bit surprising we might ask why did it take so long for the Apocrypha to be removed from the rest of the scriptures perhaps it was just tradition perhaps it was because people didn’t want to rock the boat be guilty of taking out something from the collection that they shouldn’t have or perhaps it’s because people really did find them helpful as additional histories and writings related to the scriptures but certainly there was a danger in including them together with the Bible especially without any explanatory statement or introduction what’s that Danger that’s right Associated it they will think there’s no difference between these Bible books and the Apocrypha books they have the same inspiration they have the same Authority and indeed the Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox Churches after years of traditionally including the non-scriptures with the scriptures they validated this concern over the Apocrypha when they said the books of the Apocrypha are divinely inspired they are scripture and interpreters of these non-inspired books not in not heeding Jerome’s own exhortation in the Vulgate based doctrines on the text of the Apocrypha including the following from second Maccabees second Maccabees 12 40 44 and 45.
for if he Judas we’re not expecting that those who had fallen would rise again it would have been Superfluous and foolish to pray for the Dead but if he was looking to The Splendid reward that is laid up for those who fall asleep in godliness it was a holy Empire’s thought therefore he made atonement for the Dead that they might be delivered for from their sin these verses are used as justification of for what Roman Catholic Doctrine purgatory the things you can do to help the Dead reach heaven or a better afterlife well so this Maccabees oh you’re asking who are the Jews in this context book of Maccabees is a history of the maccabean rebellion and Kingdom In the inter-testamental period so it would be one of those persons I don’t know the specific context but someone in the family The Maccabees are connected to them so this is why you tell some Catholics Roman Catholics that Purgatory is not in the Bible they will be confused and think you foolish because it is there in the Bible in the Catholic Bible because the Roman Catholic Bible includes the Apocrypha as canonical so amazingly Jerome whom the Roman Catholic Church looks back on as a doctor of the church one of the primary teachers of the early church they would nonetheless be condemned by him today for dealing falsely with the Bible the Bible that he took such pains to recover in their original languages and translate into a language that the people could understand so those persons could hear about the great God who is Jerome actually condemns the way the Catholic church has treated the Bible the Roman Catholic Church is true to the Bible over the years and one final thought there is a lesson here for us to learn about Bible translations twice in history we see people clinging too closely to certain Bible translations first it was with the Septuagint and then it was with the Vulgate people who thought these translations were so good even inspired that they regarded with suspicion any new different translation that sought to update the language for the common people or improve and make more accurate the translation has this happened any other time of course it has especially with what the King James version don’t get me wrong King James Bible is a great translation of the Bible for English speakers all the English translations of the Bible that exist today are in some way indebted to the King James Bible translation however we do not want to say make the same mistake that some early Christians and some medieval Christians made when it comes to the Bible and its translation no translation of the Bible is inspired no translation is perfect and they become outdated as languages change they no longer are the common language of the people so rather than holding to a particular inspired translation what should we hold on to when when it comes to the Bible and understanding it faithfulness the original languages as much as possible in the translation and comprehensibility and the language in which it is translated this is the problem with the King James today if you understand it and can be edified by it great but a lot of people can’t understand the language of the King James or at least not fully so it’s not the best Bible translation to use languages change we should not expect a good translation or even what we consider the best translation to be the best forever so I don’t know about you maybe you have a favorite Bible translation maybe it’s the new American Standard English Standard Version Legacy Standard Bible with King James or maybe certain years of those translations you’ve got to understand to probably come there will come a time maybe there already is a time when that translation is not the best but don’t fear that happening this is normal this is not the end of the world this is just what Christians will have to do we will need to update our Bible translations not for the sake of accommodating worldly ideas but as maybe more manuscripts get discovered or just as our languages change and needs to be updated we will have much benefit even Eternal benefit from updating our Bible translations well that’s all I had for this week have a few minutes comment or question yeah mark hmm I think about that and I think about King James Bibles influence on the English language maybe you could say a few words about how we as Christians can Faithfully push back against the postman review of Truth yeah so um I think that’s a big question and I’m not sure totally how to answer it right now your observation note that post-modern ideas can affect the society’s language and that language can then be reflected in a new Bible translation and there certainly needs to be a limitation to how much we accommodate the language of a culture this has had been a problem in some recent updated translations I think of the NIV and even I think the New American Standard the newest version in the NIV if I remember correctly pronouns that originally say he are translated to they because that’s the way that people speak well I get what they’re trying to do that is actually obscuring the meaning of the original text because you’re taking a singular term and you’re making it into a plural term so you can’t just say hey you know we’re just trying to update it for the common people with the language that they speak well we also want to reflect what the original text actually says now it’s always going to be a little bit of a challenge for a Bible translator because you say well this is what it says originally but we don’t speak that way today how can I reflect that in the language in which I’m translating it to it’s always a push and pull between faithfulness literal translation and comprehensibility in the translated language but we can’t go too far to the side of comprehensibility to the point of actually altering or obscuring the biblical text so that’s the maybe best comment I can give right now Glenda that’s a good question some would say even as you do Glenda that the King James Bible is better in certain ways when it comes to memorization or maybe for prayer or things like that and maybe because the language is a little bit different it stands out more in our minds I think you’re also correct to say the King James has had such a long time to impact our culture that certain verses or phrases from the King James are well known and so they’re much easier to remember um so that may be true yeah I guess that’s all I could say if you have other questions come talk with me afterwards um thankfully actually and then before 10 today but I better pray make sure that we’re done before 10. I pray oh I should say next week Augustine and Ambrose all right let’s pray Lord thank you for your word thank you that we have it in a good translation but God we don’t want to uphold hold on to any translation too tightly thank you that you do preserve your word your word people fade like grass the field but your word stands forever Lord we thank you for the faithful preachers and those who came before us to uphold your word for athanasius for John chrysostom and even Jerome in his own way but Lord help us not to make the mistakes that they did it would help us to be faithful were they were faithful and to give you thanks for how you use them and how you use us we are imperfect just like they were but you still use us to pass on the truth and reach a world that is yet wrapped in darkness I pray God that you would use us to save others and to disciple one another so that we grow into the image of Christ in Jesus name amen thank you