Job, the “vir simplex” (Job 1:1, 8; 2:3)
Ambiguities in the Hebrew Book of Job and the Vulgate
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25788/vidbor.v1i1.1049Keywords:
Book of Job, ambiguity, Septuagint, Vulgate, Jerome, translation technique, Pelagian controversyAbstract
The study compares Jerome’s two translations of the Book of Job – the first from the Greek, the second from the Hebrew text – with a particular focus on their dealing with ambiguities and on the shift in the translation of ?? / ???????? / ?????? (Job 1:1, 8; 2;3) from “sine crimine” / “innocens” (iuxta Graecos) to “simplex” (iuxta Hebraos). As the analysis seeks to demonstrate, this shift is probably deliberate and reflects the theological debate around Pelagianism, in the course of which Jerome abandons the picture of Job as a model of piety and virtue and instead aims at depicting him as “simple man” that is not exempt from original sin.
