Copyright

Paul Rodrigue

Published On

2025-08-20

Page Range

pp. 155–240

Language

  • English

Print Length

86 pages

The Translation of the Book of Daniel

  • Paul Rodrigue (author)
Chapter of: Jerome’s Sources in His Translation of the Hebrew Bible (pp. 155–240)

Chapter 3 is devoted to the Book of Daniel. The verses that the author selected from the Vulgate of Daniel, in comparison with other versions, give us a glimpse of the extent to which Jerome relied on sources other than the Hebrew-Aramaic form of the story; they also reveal independent departures which shed light on his translation technique and on his style. In the first case study, the author investigates Jerome’s treatment of a rare Hebrew word (פרתמים) across works that he composed throughout the entire course of the Vulgate project. Then the author turns his attention to Jerome’s responses to the syntagm ארץ הצבי and to different occurrences of the word צבי: the recentiores played an essential role in his understanding of this term, but the Church Father still preserved a certain autonomy in the employment of his sources. The author then addresses a particular case of hebraica veritas: while Vulg. Dan. 3.16 reflects the syntax of the Aramaic of Dan. 3.16 against that of the LXX version, in the commentary, Jerome tried to justify the LXX reading, probably with the VL readership in mind. The last two case studies deal with two types of departures from the Hebrew-Aramaic of Daniel. The first one hypothetically represents a case of interpolation in the Vulgate translation of Dan. 5.1; the second one reveals Jerome’s exclusive reliance on the recentiores: the suggestion that Jerome did not check the Aramaic in this passage explains how he came to render the phrase ועד אחרין ‘and eventually’ as donec collega ‘until a partner’ in Vulg. Dan. 4.5

Contributors

Paul Rodrigue

(author)

Born in 1996 in Boulogne-Billancourt, Paul Rodrigue completed his Baccalauréat before pursuing a passion for ancient languages. His interest in Latin and Greek literature led him to undertake undergraduate studies at Trinity College Dublin, in Ireland, where he honed his skills in classical translation and deepened his engagement with the classical world. Paul went on to pursue a Master’s degree in Semitic Philology at the University of Cambridge. His Master’s dissertation focused on the translation of the Book of Proverbs in the Septuagint, reflecting his growing interest in the intersections of ancient languages and textual traditions. In his doctoral thesis, Paul investigated Jerome’s sources in his Latin translations of the Joseph story and the Book of Daniel and that of Esther. His research is motivated by a deeper scholarly quest to uncover the linguistic and cultural junctures between Latin, Greek, Aramaic, and Hebrew. Paul was awarded a PhD in Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Cambridge in October 2024.