Jeronimov prijevod knjige o Tobiji
Jerome’s Translation of Tobit

Summary/Abstract: Motivated by Pope Damasus, financially supported by several bishops and a group of educated Christian women of Rome, Jerome performed the task of translating individual Old Testament books from about AD 388 to 405, living and working in Bethlehem. In contrast to most other Christian scholars of his time, who considered the Septuagint Greek translation inspired and therefore suitable for translating the Bible into Latin, Jerome insisted on Hebrew truth (hebraica veritas) and hired competent instructors of Hebrew and Aramaic to acquire the necessary knowledge of the Semitic languages of the Old Testament books. In his letters to benefactors, especially to bishops Cromatius and Heliodorus, who used the Book of Tobit in the pastoral care of their faithful, and in the Prologues to several translated books or commentaries, he pointed out that the Jewish leaders and theologians of Jerome’s time did not accept Tobit among the canonical books. He personally was convinced that Tobit could be used in pastoral activities but as an apocryphon, in the sense of not belonging to the canon of the Christian Church. Aware that the Apostles used the Septuagint but did not leave before their deaths any official list of Old Testament books, by treating Tobit as non-canonical St. Jerome helped the Church of his own time and later times to discern which books of Jesus’ people should be accepted into the Christian canon. The Vulgate Latin text contained for centuries additions and omissions that do not exist in the Greek text of Tobit. One ironically criticized addition was a request to newly married believing couples to live in continence for the first three days after marriage before consummation (Tob Vg 6:18; 8:4-5). The Nova Vulgata, ordered by Pope Paul VI and promulgated by John Paul II, has been cleansed of this and other additions.

• Details
• Contents