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99-775: Quartodecimanism (from the Vulgate Latin quarta decima in Leviticus 23:5, meaning fourteenth) is the practice of celebrating Easter on the 14th of Nisan at the same time as the Jewish Passover . Quartodecimanism caused two schisms , one headed by Blastus in Rome and one headed by Polycrates in the East. In 325 an ecumenical council , the First Council of Nicaea , established two rules: independence from

198-550: A schism . Indeed, "Anicetus conceded the administration of the Eucharist in the church to Polycarp, manifestly as a mark of respect. And they parted from each other in peace, both those who observed, and those who did not, maintaining the peace of the whole church." Sozomen also wrote: As the bishops of the West did not deem it necessary to dishonor the tradition believed to be handed down to them by Peter and by Paul, and as, on

297-639: A Latin version, originating from before Jerome and distinct from that in the Vetus Latina , of the Greek Esdras ;A, now commonly termed 3 Ezra ; and also a Latin version of an Ezra Apocalypse, commonly termed 4 Ezra . God Schools Relations with: The Vulgate was given an official capacity by the Council of Trent (1545–1563) as the touchstone of the biblical canon concerning which parts of books are canonical. The Vulgate

396-660: A century in an earlier Latin version (the Cyprianic Version), before it was superseded by the Vetus Latina version in the 4th century. Jerome, in his preface to the Vulgate gospels, commented that there were "as many [translations] as there are manuscripts"; subsequently repeating the witticism in his preface to the Book of Joshua. The base text for Jerome's revision of the gospels was a Vetus Latina text similar to

495-726: A chapter headed "How All came to an Agreement respecting the Passover", he recounts that the Palestinian bishops Narcissus and Theophilus , together with the bishops of Tyre and Ptolemais , wrote a lengthy review of the tradition of Sunday celebration of Easter which believed "had come to them in succession from the apostles", and concluded by saying: Endeavor to send copies of our epistle to every church, that we may not furnish occasion to those who easily deceive their souls. We show you indeed that also in Alexandria they keep it on

594-508: A complete revised New Testament text by 410 at the latest, when Pelagius quoted from it in his commentary on the letters of Paul . In Jerome's Vulgate, the Hebrew Book of Ezra–Nehemiah is translated as the single book of "Ezra". Jerome defends this in his Prologue to Ezra, although he had noted formerly in his Prologue to the Book of Kings that some Greeks and Latins had proposed that this book should be split in two. Jerome argues that

693-652: A contemporary of Jerome, states in Book ;XVII ch. 43 of his The City of God that "in our own day the priest Jerome, a great scholar and master of all three tongues, has made a translation into Latin, not from Greek but directly from the original Hebrew." Nevertheless, Augustine still maintained that the Septuagint, alongside the Hebrew, witnessed the inspired text of Scripture and consequently pressed Jerome for complete copies of his Hexaplar Latin translation of

792-512: A general prologue to the whole Bible. Notably, this letter was printed at the head of the Gutenberg Bible . Jerome's letter promotes the study of each of the books of the Old and New Testaments listed by name (and excluding any mention of the deuterocanonical books ); and its dissemination had the effect of propagating the belief that the whole Vulgate text was Jerome's work. The prologue to

891-645: A noun form of the verb rapere in 1 Thes 4:17). The word " publican " comes from the Latin publicanus (e.g., Mt 10:3), and the phrase " far be it " is a translation of the Latin expression absit. (e.g., Mt 16:22 in the King James Bible ). Other examples include apostolus , ecclesia , evangelium , Pascha , and angelus . In translating the 38 books of the Hebrew Bible ( Ezra–Nehemiah being counted as one book), Jerome

990-536: A partnership between Johannes Gutenberg and banker John Fust (or Faust). At the time, a manuscript of the Vulgate was selling for approximately 500  guilders . Gutenberg's works appear to have been a commercial failure, and Fust sued for recovery of his 2026 guilder investment and was awarded complete possession of the Gutenberg plant. Arguably, the Reformation could not have been possible without

1089-539: A reform of the method of determining the date of Easter at a summit in Aleppo , Syria : Easter would be defined as the first Sunday following the first astronomical full moon following the astronomical vernal equinox , as determined from the meridian of Jerusalem . The reform would have been implemented starting in 2001, since in that year the Eastern and Western dates of Easter would coincide. This proposal, however,

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1188-538: A set of Priscillianist prologues to the gospels . The Latin biblical texts in use before Jerome's Vulgate are usually referred to collectively as the Vetus Latina , or "Vetus Latina Bible". "Vetus Latina" means that they are older than the Vulgate and written in Latin , not that they are written in Old Latin . Jerome himself uses the term "Latin Vulgate" for the Vetus Latina text, so intending to denote this version as

1287-594: A thousand years (c. AD 400–1530), the Vulgate was the most commonly used edition of the most influential text in Western European society. Indeed, for most Western Christians , especially Catholics , it was the only version of the Bible ever encountered, only truly being eclipsed in the mid-20th century. In about 1455, the first Vulgate published by the moveable type process was produced in Mainz by

1386-471: Is Jerome's preference for the Hebraica veritas (i.e., Hebrew truth) over the Septuagint, a preference which he defended from his detractors. After Jerome had translated some parts of the Septuagint into Latin, he came to consider the text of the Septuagint as being faulty in itself, i.e. Jerome thought mistakes in the Septuagint text were not all mistakes made by copyists , but that some mistakes were part of

1485-541: Is indeed one of at least five revised versions of the mid-4th century Vetus Latina Psalter, but compared to the other four, the revisions in the Roman Psalter are in clumsy Latin, and fail to follow Jerome's known translational principles, especially in respect of correcting harmonised readings. Nevertheless, it is clear from Jerome's correspondence (especially in his defence of the Gallican Psalter in

1584-584: Is the third and latest official Bible of the Catholic Church; it was published in 1979, and is a translation from modern critical editions of original language texts of the Bible. A number of manuscripts containing or reflecting the Vulgate survive today. Dating from the 8th century, the Codex Amiatinus is the earliest surviving manuscript of the complete Vulgate Bible. The Codex Fuldensis , dating from around 545, contains most of

1683-864: The Codex Veronensis , with the text of the Gospel of John conforming more to that in the Codex Corbiensis . Jerome's work on the Gospels was a revision of the Vetus Latina versions, and not a new translation. "High priest" is rendered princeps sacerdotum in Vulgate Matthew; as summus sacerdos in Vulgate Mark; and as pontifex in Vulgate John. The Vetus Latina gospels had been translated from Greek originals of

1782-535: The Comma Johanneum was open to dispute. Later, in the 20th century, Pope Pius XII declared the Vulgate as "free from error whatsoever in matters of faith and morals" in his encyclical Divino Afflante Spiritu : Hence this special authority or as they say, authenticity of the Vulgate was not affirmed by the Council particularly for critical reasons, but rather because of its legitimate use in

1881-516: The Easter always on Sunday. Irenaeus noted: Neither could Anicetus persuade Polycarp not to observe what he had always observed with John the disciple of our Lord, and the other apostles with whom he had associated; neither could Polycarp persuade Anicetus to observe it, as he said that he ought to follow the customs of the presbyters that had preceded him. But neither considered that the disagreement required them to break off communion and initiate

1980-714: The Gallican Psalms , Song of Songs, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, the minor prophets, the gospels. The final prologue is to the Pauline epistles and is better known as Primum quaeritur ; this prologue is considered not to have been written by Jerome. Related to these are Jerome's Notes on the Rest of Esther and his Prologue to the Hebrew Psalms . A theme of the Old Testament prologues

2079-632: The Jewish calendar , and worldwide uniformity. However, it did not provide any explicit rules to determine that date, writing only “all our brethren in the East who formerly followed the custom of the Jews are henceforth to celebrate the said most sacred feast of Easter at the same time with the Romans and yourselves [the Church of Alexandria] and all those who have observed Easter from the beginning.” Shortly before

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2178-727: The Latin Church . The Clementine edition of the Vulgate became the standard Bible text of the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church, and remained so until 1979 when the Nova Vulgata was promulgated. The term Vulgate has been used to designate the Latin Bible only since the 16th century. An example of the use of this word in this sense at the time is the title of the 1538 edition of the Latin Bible by Erasmus : Biblia utriusque testamenti juxta vulgatam translationem . While

2277-626: The Lord's Day should the mystery of the Lord's resurrection from the dead be celebrated, and on that day alone we should observe the end of the Easter fast. These synods were held in Palestine , Pontus and Osrhoene in the east, and in Rome and Gaul in the west. The council in Rome, presided over by its bishop Victor , took place in 193 and sent a letter about the matter to Polycrates of Ephesus and

2376-736: The Mediterranean basin . This system, on the evidence of Bede , fixed Easter to the Sunday falling in the seven-day period from the 14th to the 20th of its lunar month, according to an 84-year cycle. The limits of Nisan 14 – Nisan 20 are corroborated by Columbanus . The method used by the Roman Church was Nisan 15 – Nisan 21. The 84-year cycle, the lunar limits, and an equinox of March 25 also receive support from McCarthy's analysis of Padua, Biblioteca Antoniana, MS I.27. Any of these features alone could have led to occasional discrepancies from

2475-641: The Vetus Latina text of the four Gospels from the best Greek texts. By the time of Damasus' death in 384, Jerome had completed this task, together with a more cursory revision from the Greek Common Septuagint of the Vetus Latina text of the Psalms in the Roman Psalter, a version which he later disowned and is now lost. How much of the rest of the New Testament he then revised is difficult to judge, but none of his work survived in

2574-717: The Vetus Latina , considered as being made by Pelagian circles or by Rufinus the Syrian , or by Rufinus of Aquileia . Several unrevised books of the Vetus Latina Old Testament also commonly became included in the Vulgate. These are: 1 and 2 Maccabees , Wisdom , Ecclesiasticus , Baruch and the Letter of Jeremiah . Having separately translated the book of Psalms from the Greek Hexapla Septuagint , Jerome translated all of

2673-576: The Western text-type . Comparison of Jerome's Gospel texts with those in Vetus Latina witnesses, suggests that his revision was concerned with substantially redacting their expanded "Western" phraseology in accordance with the Greek texts of better early Byzantine and Alexandrian witnesses. One major change Jerome introduced was to re-order the Latin Gospels. Most Vetus Latina gospel books followed

2772-595: The books of the Bible . The Vulgate became progressively adopted as the Bible text within the Western Church . Over succeeding centuries, it eventually eclipsed the Vetus Latina . By the 13th century it had taken over from the former version the designation versio vulgata (the "version commonly used" ) or vulgata for short. The Vulgate also contains some Vetus Latina translations that Jerome did not work on. The Catholic Church affirmed

2871-537: The day of the Lord's coming ... Among these are Philip, one of the twelve apostles, who fell asleep in Hierapolis; and his two aged virgin daughters, and another daughter, who lived in the Holy Spirit and now rests at Ephesus; and, moreover, John, who was both a witness and a teacher, who reclined upon the bosom of the Lord, and, being a priest, wore the sacerdotal plate. All these observed the fourteenth day of

2970-517: The "Western" order of Matthew, John, Luke, Mark; Jerome adopted the "Greek" order of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. His revisions became progressively less frequent and less consistent in the gospels presumably done later. In places Jerome adopted readings that did not correspond to a straightforward rendering either of the Vetus Latina or the Greek text, so reflecting a particular doctrinal interpretation; as in his rewording panem nostrum supersubstantialem at Matthew 6:11 . The unknown reviser of

3069-549: The "rulers of the Churches", not the ruler of a yet unknown or unformed "universal Church". As the date of observance of the Resurrection of Christ as being on the Sunday day of the week rather than the 14th day of the month was not resolved by Papal authority it was only finally resolved by an Ecumenical Council. Epiphanius of Salamis even called Quartodecimanism a heresy. The rejection of Bishop Anicetus ' position on

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3168-459: The 14th day of Nisan. The practice had been followed by Polycarp , who was a disciple of John the Apostle and bishop of Smyrna (c. 69 – c. 155) - one of the seven churches of Asia , and by Melito of Sardis (d. c. 180). Irenaeus says that Polycarp visited Rome when Anicetus was its bishop (c. 68–153), and among the topics discussed was this divergence of custom, with Rome celebrating

3267-452: The 14th day. The decision of the council was unanimous that Pascha ( Easter ) was to be kept on Sunday, and on the same Sunday throughout the world, and that 'none hereafter should follow the blindness of the Jews ' ". A new translation, published in 1999, of Eusebius' Life of Constantine suggests that this view is no longer widely accepted; its view is that the dispute at Nicaea was between two schools of Sunday observance: those who followed

3366-515: The 19th and 20th centuries thought that the dispute over Pascha ( Easter ) that was discussed at Nicaea was between the Nisan 14 practice and Sunday observance. According to one account, "A final settlement of the dispute was one among the other reasons which led Constantine to summon the council at Nicaea in 325. At that time, the Syrians and Antiochenes were the solitary champions of the observance of

3465-499: The 22-letter Hebrew alphabet. Alternatively, he numbered the books as 24, which he identifies with the 24 elders in the Book of Revelation casting their crowns before the Lamb . In the prologue to Ezra, he sets the "twenty-four elders" of the Hebrew Bible against the "Seventy interpreters" of the Septuagint. In addition, many medieval Vulgate manuscripts included Jerome's epistle number 53, to Paulinus bishop of Nola , as

3564-425: The 8th century. The Gutenberg Bible is a notable printed edition of the Vulgate by Johann Gutenberg in 1455. The Sixtine Vulgate (1590) is the first official Bible of the Catholic Church. The Clementine Vulgate (1592) is a standardized edition of the medieval Vulgate, and the second official Bible of the Catholic Church. The Stuttgart Vulgate is a 1969 critical edition of the Vulgate. The Nova Vulgata

3663-467: The 9th century the Vetus Latina texts of Baruch and the Letter of Jeremiah were introduced into the Vulgate in versions revised by Theodulf of Orleans and are found in a minority of early medieval Vulgate pandect bibles from that date onward. After 1300, when the booksellers of Paris began to produce commercial single volume Vulgate bibles in large numbers, these commonly included both Baruch and

3762-719: The Asian churches, many Catholic theologians point to this episode as evidence of papal primacy and authority in the early Church , citing the fact that none of the bishops challenged his right to excommunicate but rather questioned the wisdom and charity of doing so. From the Orthodox perspective , Victor had to relent in the end and we see that the Eastern Churches never grant him presidency over anything other than his own church, his own synod. Cleenewerck points out that Eusebius of Caesarea simply refers to Victor as one of

3861-602: The Bible into vernacular languages. In English, the interlinear translation of the Lindisfarne Gospels as well as other Old English Bible translations , the translation of John Wycliffe , the Douay–Rheims Bible , the Confraternity Bible , and Ronald Knox 's translation were all made from the Vulgate. The Vulgate had significant cultural influence on literature for centuries, and thus

3960-444: The Churches throughout so many centuries; by which use indeed the same is shown, in the sense in which the Church has understood and understands it, to be free from any error whatsoever in matters of faith and morals; so that, as the Church herself testifies and affirms, it may be quoted safely and without fear of error in disputations, in lectures and in preaching [...]" The inerrancy is with respect to faith and morals, as it says in

4059-606: The Jewish calendar of the time was lamented by several Christian writers, who felt that the Jews were often using a wrong lunation as their Nisan month and advocated the introduction of an independent computus by the Christians. In a letter to the bishops who had not been present, Emperor Constantine I said that it had been decided to adopt a uniform date, rejecting the custom of the Jews, who had crucified Jesus and whose practice often meant that two passovers were celebrated in

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4158-429: The Jewish calendrical year started before and after the equinox according to Exodus 12:2 and Deuteronomy 16:1. In case the previous year had started after the equinox, two Passovers would be celebrated in the same solar year (the solar New Year was starting on March 21). Note: (The word month being Hebrew Chodesh which literally means New Moon which is referenced in Deuteronomy 16:1). Since the 3rd century this disorder of

4257-526: The Letter of Jeremiah as the Book of Baruch . Also beginning in the 9th century, Vulgate manuscripts are found that split Jerome's combined translation from the Hebrew of Ezra and the Nehemiah into separate books called 1 Ezra and 2 Ezra. Bogaert argues that this practice arose from an intention to conform the Vulgate text to the authoritative canon lists of the 5th/6th century, where 'two books of Ezra' were commonly cited. Subsequently, many late medieval Vulgate bible manuscripts introduced

4356-506: The Lord, and have met with the brethren throughout the world, and have gone through every Holy Scripture, am not affrighted by terrifying words. For those greater than I have said 'We ought to obey God rather than man.' On receiving the negative response of Polycrates, Victor attempted to cut off Polycrates and the others who took this stance from the common unity, but reversed his decision after bishops who included Irenaeus, bishop of Lugdunum in Gaul, interceded, recommending that Victor follow

4455-441: The Nicean Council, in 314, the Provincial Council of Arles in Gaul had maintained that the Lord's Pasch should be observed on the same day throughout the world and that each year the Bishop of Rome should send out letters setting the date of Easter. The Roman missionaries coming to Britain in the time of Pope Gregory I (590–604) found the British Christians adhering to a different system of Easter computation from that used in

4554-458: The Nisan 14 practice, or a practice that was called by the same name, lingered into the 4th century. Because this was the first-recorded Paschal/Easter controversy, it has had a strong influence on the minds of some subsequent generations. Wilfrid , the 7th-century bishop of York in Northumbria , styled his opponents in the Paschal/Easter controversy of his day "quartodecimans", though they celebrated Pascha ( Easter ) on Sunday. Many scholars of

4653-426: The Old Testament, a request that Jerome ducked with the excuse that the originals had been lost "through someone's dishonesty". Prologues written by Jerome to some of his translations of parts of the Bible are to the Pentateuch , to Joshua , and to Kings (1–2 Kings and 1–2 Samuel) which is also called the Galeatum principium . Following these are prologues to Chronicles, Ezra, Tobit, Judith, Esther, Job,

4752-426: The Passover according to the Gospel, deviating in no respect, but following the rule of faith . And I also, Polycrates, the least of you all, do according to the tradition of my relatives, some of whom I have closely followed. For seven of my relatives were bishops; and I am the eighth. And my relatives always observed the day when the people put away the leaven. I, therefore, brethren, who have lived sixty-five years in

4851-513: The Pauline Epistles in the Vulgate defends the Pauline authorship of the Epistle to the Hebrews , directly contrary to Jerome's own views—a key argument in demonstrating that Jerome did not write it. The author of the Primum quaeritur is unknown, but it is first quoted by Pelagius in his commentary on the Pauline letters written before 410. As this work also quotes from the Vulgate revision of these letters, it has been proposed that Pelagius or one of his associates may have been responsible for

4950-415: The Sunday following first Full Moon following the vernal equinox, calling it "the day of the resurrection of our Saviour". The difference became an ecclesiastical controversy when the practice was condemned by synods of bishops. Of the disputes over the date when the Lord's Supper (Eucharist) should be celebrated, disputes known as Paschal/Easter controversies , the quartodeciman is the first recorded. In

5049-482: The Sunday observance was also believed to have originated with the Apostles. According to Eusebius, in the last decade of the 2nd century a number of synods were convened to deal with the controversy, ruling unanimously that the celebration of Easter should be observed and be exclusively on Sunday. Synods and conferences of bishops were convened, and drew up a decree of the Church, in the form of letters addressed to Christians everywhere, that never on any day other than

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5148-404: The Vulgate as its official Latin Bible at the Council of Trent (1545–1563), though there was no authoritative edition of the book at that time. The Vulgate did eventually receive an official edition to be promulgated among the Catholic Church as the Sixtine Vulgate (1590), then as the Clementine Vulgate (1592), and then as the Nova Vulgata (1979). The Vulgate is still currently used in

5247-518: The Vulgate contains Vetus Latina which are independent from Jerome's work. The Alcuinian pandects contain: The 13th-century Paris Bibles remove the Epistle to the Laodiceans , but add: Another text which is considered as part of the Vulgate is: Jerome did not embark on the work with the intention of creating a new version of the whole Bible, but the changing nature of his program can be tracked in his voluminous correspondence. He had been commissioned by Damasus I in 382 to revise

5346-516: The Vulgate text of these books. The revised text of the New Testament outside the Gospels is the work of other scholars. Rufinus of Aquileia has been suggested, as has Rufinus the Syrian (an associate of Pelagius ) and Pelagius himself, though without specific evidence for any of them; Pelagian groups have also been suggested as the revisers. This unknown reviser worked more thoroughly than Jerome had done, consistently using older Greek manuscript sources of Alexandrian text-type . They had published

5445-403: The above quote: "free from any error whatsoever in matters of faith and morals", and the inerrancy is not in a philological sense: [...] and so its authenticity is not specified primarily as critical, but rather as juridical. The Catholic Church has produced three official editions of the Vulgate: the Sixtine Vulgate , the Clementine Vulgate , and the Nova Vulgata (see below). For over

5544-485: The appointed fasts. It is, then, plainly the will of Divine Providence (as I suppose you all clearly see), that this usage should receive fitting correction, and be reduced to one uniform rule. It is not known how long the Nisan 14 practice lasted. The church historian Socrates of Constantinople knew of quartodecimans who were deprived of their churches by John Chrysostom , and harassed in unspecified ways by Nestorius , both bishops of Constantinople. This indicates that

5643-409: The books of the Jewish Bible —the Hebrew book of Psalms included—from Hebrew himself. He also translated the books of Tobit and Judith from Aramaic versions, the additions to the Book of Esther from the Common Septuagint and the additions to the Book of Daniel from the Greek of Theodotion . The Vulgate is "a composite collection which cannot be identified with only Jerome's work," because

5742-407: The celebration of this most holy feast we should follow the practice of the Jews, who have impiously defiled their hands with enormous sin, and are, therefore, deservedly afflicted with blindness of soul. For we have it in our power, if we abandon their custom, to prolong the due observance of this ordinance to future ages, by a truer order, which we have preserved from the very day of the passion until

5841-470: The churches of the Roman province of Asia. Within the same year, Polycrates presided over a council at Ephesus attended by several bishops throughout that province, which rejected Victor's authority and kept the province's paschal tradition. Polycrates emphatically stated that he was following the tradition passed down to him: We observe the exact day; neither adding, nor taking away. For in Asia also great lights have fallen asleep, which shall rise again on

5940-417: The common Latin rendering of the Greek Vulgate or Common Septuagint (which Jerome otherwise terms the "Seventy interpreters"). This remained the usual use of the term "Latin Vulgate" in the West for centuries. On occasion Jerome applies the term "Septuagint" ( Septuaginta ) to refer to the Hexaplar Septuagint, where he wishes to distinguish this from the Vulgata or Common Septuagint. The earliest known use of

6039-515: The council listed the books included in the canon, it qualified the books as being "entire with all their parts, as they have been used to be read in the Catholic Church , and as they are contained in the Vetus Latina vulgate edition". The fourth session of the Council specified 72 canonical books in the Bible: 45 in the Old Testament, 27 in the New Testament with Lamentations not being counted as separate from Jeremiah. On 2 June 1927, Pope Pius XI clarified this decree, allowing that

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6138-430: The date of Easter as computed by the Alexandrian method. This 84-year cycle (called the latercus ) gave way to the Alexandrian computus in stages. The Alexandrian computus may have been adopted in parts of the south of Ireland in the first half of the 7th century. Among the northern English, the use of the Alexandrian computus over the Britanno-Irish cycle was decided at the Synod of Whitby in 664. The Alexandrian computus

6237-482: The development of the English language, especially in matters of religion. Many Latin words were taken from the Vulgate into English nearly unchanged in meaning or spelling: creatio (e.g. Genesis  1:1, Heb 9:11), salvatio (e.g. Is 37:32, Eph 2:5), justificatio (e.g. Rom 4:25, Heb 9:1), testamentum (e.g. Mt 26:28), sanctificatio (1 Ptr 1:2, 1 Cor 1:30), regeneratio (Mt 19:28), and raptura (from

6336-431: The diaspora of biblical knowledge that was permitted by the development of moveable type. Aside from its use in prayer, liturgy, and private study, the Vulgate served as inspiration for ecclesiastical art and architecture , hymns , countless paintings, and popular mystery plays . The fifth volume of Walton's London Polyglot of 1657 included several versions of the New Testament: in Greek, Latin (a Vulgate version and

6435-430: The discussion between Polycarp and Anicetus in Rome took place within the framework of a synod. Thus the churches in Asia appealed to the Apostle John in support of their practice, while Sozomen wrote that the Roman custom (observed, according to Irenaeus, since at least the time of Bishop Xystus of 115–25) was believed to have been handed down by the Apostles Peter and Paul, and Eusebius states that in Judea and Egypt

6534-423: The early 4th century all Christians were celebrating Easter on a Sunday. Accordingly, it was not the quartodeciman practice that Constantine sought to eliminate, but rather the so-called 'Protopaschite' practice which calculated the paschal full moon according to the Jewish lunar calendar and not the Julian solar calendar". As shown, for instance, by the Sardica paschal table , it was quite common at that time that

6633-414: The east were Quartodecimans. By the 4th century the influence of Quartodecimans declined; later they would even be persecuted. The opponents of Quartodecimanism argued that it is a form of Judaizing . Blastus , a Montanist caused a schism in Rome about the date of Easter, argued that Christians must keep Easter at the same time commanded in Exodus for the Passover and gained a following in Rome, and

6732-456: The first translation of the Old Testament into Latin directly from the Hebrew Tanakh rather than from the Greek Septuagint. Jerome's extensive use of exegetical material written in Greek, as well as his use of the Aquiline and Theodotiontic columns of the Hexapla, along with the somewhat paraphrastic style in which he translated, makes it difficult to determine exactly how direct the conversion of Hebrew to Latin was. Augustine of Hippo ,

6831-442: The great uncial codices of the mid-4th century, most similar to the Codex Sinaiticus . The reviser's changes generally conform very closely to this Greek text, even in matters of word order—to the extent that the resulting text may be only barely intelligible as Latin. After the Gospels, the most widely used and copied part of the Christian Bible is the Book of Psalms. Consequently, Damasus also commissioned Jerome to revise

6930-400: The long and detailed Epistle 106) that he was familiar with the Roman Psalter text, and consequently it is assumed that this revision represents the Roman text as Jerome had found it. Wisdom , Ecclesiasticus , 1 and 2 Maccabees and Baruch (with the Letter of Jeremiah) are included in the Vulgate, and are purely Vetus Latina translations which Jerome did not touch. In

7029-399: The majority of the Vulgate's translation is traditionally attributed to Jerome (directly helped by Paula of Rome ), the Vulgate has a compound text that is not entirely Jerome's work. Jerome's translation of the four Gospels are revisions of Vetus Latina translations he did while having the Greek as reference. The Latin translations of the rest of the New Testament are revisions to

7128-662: The mid– 2nd century , the practice in Asia Minor was for the pre-Paschal fast to end with a feast held on the 14th day of Nisan, when the barley was ripe after the new moon near the Jewish lunar month of Nisan (no matter the day of the week on which it occurred), the date on which the Passover sacrifice had been offered when the Second Temple stood, and "the day when the people put away the leaven". Those who observed this practice were called quartodecimani , Latin for "fourteenthers", because of holding their celebration on

7227-514: The more peaceful attitude of his predecessors. Thereupon Victor, who presided over the church at Rome, immediately attempted to cut off from the common unity the parishes of all Asia, with the churches that agreed with them, as heterodox; and he wrote letters and declared all the brethren there wholly excommunicate. But this did not please all the bishops. And they besought him to consider the things of peace, and of neighborly unity and love. Words of theirs are extant, sharply rebuking Victor. Among them

7326-770: The original text itself as it was produced by the Seventy translators . Jerome believed that the Hebrew text more clearly prefigured Christ than the Greek of the Septuagint, since he believed some quotes of the Old Testament in the New Testament were not present in the Septuagint, but existed in the Hebrew version; Jerome gave some of those quotes in his prologue to the Pentateuch. In the Galeatum principium (a.k.a. Prologus Galeatus ), Jerome described an Old Testament canon of 22 books, which he found represented in

7425-495: The other hand, the Asiatic bishops persisted in following the rules laid down by John the evangelist, they unanimously agreed to continue in the observance of the festival according to their respective customs, without separation from communion with each other. They faithfully and justly assumed, that those who accorded in the essentials of worship ought not to separate from one another on account of customs. A modern source says that

7524-467: The present time. Let us then have nothing in common with the detestable Jewish crowd; for we have received from our Saviour a different way. A course at once legitimate and honorable lies open to our most holy religion. Beloved brethren, let us with one consent adopt this course, and withdraw ourselves from all participation in their baseness... being altogether ignorant of the true adjustment of this question, they sometimes celebrate Pascha (Passover) twice in

7623-532: The psalter in use in Rome, to agree better with the Greek of the Common Septuagint. Jerome said he had done this cursorily when in Rome, but he later disowned this version, maintaining that copyists had reintroduced erroneous readings. Until the 20th century, it was commonly assumed that the surviving Roman Psalter represented Jerome's first attempted revision, but more recent scholarship—following de Bruyne—rejects this identification. The Roman Psalter

7722-661: The quartodeciman Passover on the evening beginning Nisan 14. Vulgate The Vulgate ( / ˈ v ʌ l ɡ eɪ t , - ɡ ə t / ) is a late-4th-century Latin translation of the Bible . It is largely the work of Jerome who, in 382, had been commissioned by Pope Damasus I to revise the Vetus Latina Gospels used by the Roman Church . Later, of his own initiative, Jerome extended this work of revision and translation to include most of

7821-686: The quartodeciman by Polycarp, and later Polycrates' letter to Pope Victor I, has been used by Orthodox theologians as proof against the argument that the Churches in Asia Minor accepted the Primacy of the Bishop of Rome and the teaching of Papal supremacy . Jehovah's Witnesses and Bible Students celebrate the Memorial of Christ's death on Nisan 14, while the Living Church of God keeps

7920-735: The relevant full moon fell. The Protestant churches of the Christian West all eventually adopted the Gregorian Calendar at various later stages. The Eastern Orthodox Church and the majority of the Christian East continue the older practice aligned to the Julian calendar . Several attempts have sought to achieve a common method for computing the date of Easter. In 1997 the World Council of Churches proposed

8019-526: The rest of the New Testament shows marked differences from Jerome, both in editorial practice and in their sources. Where Jerome sought to correct the Vetus Latina text with reference to the best recent Greek manuscripts, with a preference for those conforming to the Byzantine text-type, the Greek text underlying the revision of the rest of the New Testament demonstrates the Alexandrian text-type found in

8118-675: The revision of the Vulgate New Testament outside the Gospels. At any rate, it is reasonable to identify the author of the preface with the unknown reviser of the New Testament outside the gospels. Some manuscripts of the Pauline epistles contain short Marcionite prologues to each of the epistles indicating where they were written, with notes about where the recipients dwelt. Adolf von Harnack , citing De Bruyne, argued that these notes were written by Marcion of Sinope or one of his followers. Many early Vulgate manuscripts contain

8217-420: The said old and vulgate edition, which, by the lengthened usage of so many years, has been approved of in the Church, be, in public lectures, disputations, sermons and expositions, held as authentic; and that no one is to dare, or presume to reject it under any pretext whatever. The qualifier "Latin editions, now in circulation" and the use of "authentic" (not "inerrant") show the limits of this statement. When

8316-493: The same day that we do. For letters are carried from us to them and from them to us, so that in the same manner and at the same time we keep the sacred day. Historically, there had been a debate about when quartodecimanism disappeared and in particular whether it disappeared before or after the first ecumenical council (Nicaea I) in 325. According to Mark DelCogliano, "the older opinion persists" but Duchesne's opinion "has gained widespread acceptance." According to DelCogliano, "by

8415-603: The same solar year: (Even though there is a commandment to keep a second passover in Numbers 9:10-12 if found unclean to keep the first) It was resolved by the united judgment of all present, that this feast ought to be kept by all and in every place on one and the same day. For what can be more becoming or honorable to us than that this feast, from which we date our hopes of immortality, should be observed unfailingly by all alike, according to one ascertained order and arrangement? And first of all, it appeared an unworthy thing that in

8514-463: The same year. Why then should we follow those who are confessedly in grievous error? Surely we shall never consent to keep this feast a second time in the same year... And let your Holinesses' sagacity reflect how grievous and scandalous it is that on the self-same days some should be engaged in fasting, others in festive enjoyment; and again, that after the days of Pascha(Easter) some should be present at banquets and amusements, while others are fulfilling

8613-543: The term Vulgata to describe the "new" Latin translation was made by Roger Bacon in the 13th century. The translations in the Vetus Latina had accumulated piecemeal over a century or more. They were not translated by a single person or institution, nor uniformly edited. The individual books varied in quality of translation and style, and different manuscripts and quotations witness wide variations in readings. Some books appear to have been translated several times. The book of Psalms , in particular, had circulated for over

8712-565: The traditional practice of relying on Jewish informants to determine the lunar month of the Nisan in which Passover would fall, and those who wished to set it using Christian computations using the spring equinox on the solar calendar. Laurent Cleenewerck suggests that the East-West schism could even be argued to have started with Victor's attempt to excommunicate the Asian churches. Despite Victor's failure to carry out his intent to excommunicate

8811-417: The two books of Ezra found in the Septuagint and Vetus Latina , Esdras A and Esdras B, represented "variant examples" of a single Hebrew original. Hence, he does not translate Esdras A separately even though up until then it had been universally found in Greek and Vetus Latina Old Testaments, preceding Esdras B, the combined text of Ezra–Nehemiah. The Vulgate is usually credited as being

8910-619: The version by Arius Montanus ), Syriac, Ethiopic, and Arabic. It also included a version of the Gospels in Persian. The Vulgate Latin is used regularly in Thomas Hobbes ' Leviathan of 1651; in the Leviathan Hobbes "has a worrying tendency to treat the Vulgate as if it were the original". Before the publication of Pius XII 's Divino afflante Spiritu , the Vulgate was the source text used for many translations of

9009-563: The week), or Passover (the time of sacrifice of the Passover lamb). There is scholarly disagreement on which tradition is the original. Some scholars believe that Sunday observance began before Quartodecimanism, while others have argued that Quartodecimanism was original. The Quartodecimans claimed that their traditions are inherited from the Apostles John and Philip , while western churches claimed that their views of Easter have been inherited from Paul and Peter . Quartodecimanism

9108-454: Was Irenaeus, who, sending letters in the name of the brethren in Gaul over whom he presided, maintained that the mystery of the resurrection of the Lord should be observed only on the "Lord's day" namely Easter. He fittingly admonishes Victor that he should not cut off whole churches of God which observed the tradition of an ancient custom. In the short following chapter of the account by Eusebius,

9207-493: Was a Roman Montanist who was also a Quartodeciman. It is unclear if the Ebionites were Quartodeciman, however they probably observed Passover in addition to other Jewish festivals. Melito of Sardis , Sagar of Laodicea , Papirius of Smyrna , perhaps Apollinaris of Laodicea and Polycrates of Ephesus held Quartodeciman views. The Didascalia likely drew from a Quartodeciman source. Some Novatians that spread into

9306-440: Was declared to "be held as authentic" by the Catholic Church by the Council of Trent. The Council of Trent cited long usage in support of the Vulgate's magisterial authority : Moreover, this sacred and holy Synod,—considering that no small utility may accrue to the Church of God, if it be made known which out of all the Latin editions, now in circulation, of the sacred books, is to be held as authentic,—ordains and declares, that

9405-660: Was finally adopted by the Irish colonies in northern Britain in the early 8th century. After the Gregorian reform of the calendar by promulgation in 1582, the Catholic Church continued to follow the same method for computing the date of Easter but the resulting date differed from that computed using the Julian Calendar due to the difference in time regarding when the vernal equinox was deemed to occur and when

9504-460: Was never implemented. Quartodecimanism Quartodecimanism (from the Vulgate Latin quarta decima in Leviticus 23:5, meaning fourteenth) is the name given to the practice of celebrating the death of Christ on the day of Passover, the 14th of Nisan according to biblical dating, on whatever day of the week it occurs. The Quartodeciman controversy in the Church was the question of whether to celebrate Easter on Sunday (the first day of

9603-474: Was popular in Asia Minor , Jerusalem and Syria , however it was rejected by churches in other regions. Polycarp , like other Asiatics, kept Easter on the fourteenth day of the month of Nisan. According to Eusebius, Polycarp claimed that his practice came from the apostle John. Some of the Montanists were also Quartodeciman. Montanism brought Quartodeciman practices to the west, for example Blastus

9702-465: Was relatively free in rendering their text into Latin, but it is possible to determine that the oldest surviving complete manuscripts of the Masoretic Text which date from nearly 600 years after Jerome, nevertheless transmit a consonantal Hebrew text very close to that used by Jerome. The Vulgate exists in many forms. The Codex Amiatinus is the oldest surviving complete manuscript from

9801-463: Was then accused of Judaizing by the Church. This schism in Rome likely influenced the hostility of Pope Victor I against Quartodecimanism. The Quartodeciman controversy arose because Christians in Jerusalem and Asia Minor observed Passover on the 14th of the first month (Nisan), regardless of the day of the week on which it occurred, while the churches in and around Rome celebrated Easter on

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