Wednesday, May 03, 2017

The Holy Spirit's Style

In his Disputation on Holy Scripture, William Whitaker argues for the superiority of the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures over the old Latin Vulgate version which Trent endorsed by appealing to the style:

“I readily acknowledge that the style of scripture is simple and unadorned; and am so far from blaming it, that I admire it rather as divine. But in the authentic original scriptures you shall never find such barbarity and disgraceful solecisms as are everywhere occurring in the Latin Vulgate.” (p149-150) – see further p150

The scriptures whilst not scrupulously exact are always clear, pure and eloquent. (p150)
 
Augustine: the Scripture writers “ought to have said it in no other manner” Doct. Christ. Lib. IV.c..6 T. III. P88. According to Augustine, as Whitaker puts it: the Scriptures show the “certain kind of eloquence suitable to divine writings”.  (p151)

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