Navigating Ambiguity: Jerome’s Strategy in Translating the Blessing of Gad (Deut. 33:20-21)

Abstract

Because of its syntactic ambiguity and philological difficulty, the blessing of Gad (Deut. 33:20-21) represents a challenging text for both exegesis and translation. This article examines Jerome’s strategies in navigating these difficulties, demonstrating how he combines a marked formal coherence with the Hebrew text – closely adhering to the lexical arrangement and word order of the Vorlage – with a hermeneutical resolution of syntactic ambivalences. In doing so, he integrates Jewish-rabbinic interpretive traditions into his translation with remarkable ease.