Online-Edition of the Old Latin Text of Acts (Vetus Latina)
Protestant Theology
Roman Catholic Theology
Final Report Abstract
In this project, a digital edition of the Latin translations of the Acts of the Apostles is being developed, which will be made available to the public on the project's website. For each verse, the Greek source texts and the various Latin translations are presented in chronological order, the orthographic peculiarities of the individual manuscripts are recorded, and the evidence for the individual readings from the manuscripts and citations by the church fathers is provided. All relevant citations from the church fathers are presented in the apparatus criticus according to the authoritative editions. The complete wordings of all manuscripts can also be viewed in separate files. The scholarly insights derived from the processed material are very far-reaching. The previous common opinion that there was a single "original translation" of the Acts of the Apostles that was later revised is no longer tenable. Instead, various Old Latin translations can be identified, some of which can be traced back to different Greek source texts. The partial agreements in the text versions that have been cited as evidence for the "original translation" actually result from the fact that in striving for a somewhat accurate translation from Greek, there are only limited variations available in Latin. These variations are precisely exploited in the early translations. It is only in the course of the 4th century AD that a process of standardization begins, ultimately leading to the development of the Vulgate text. Augustine's well-known and clearly articulated statement (De Doctrina Christiana 2, 11, 16) that the Latin translators of the Greek New Testament are countless, and in the early phase of Christian religion, anyone who considered themselves proficient in both languages would undertake to translate Greek Bible codices into Latin, should therefore no longer be dismissed as an "error" of the church father. This assertion is corroborated by the work outlined here on the Acts of the Apostles. It would be misguided to assume fundamentally different circumstances for the remaining writings of the New Testament. Consequently, the existing accounts of the development of Latin Bible translations of the New Testament must undergo substantial revision.
