Sebastian Castellio’s Latin Translation of the Old Testament

Job 40–41 as a Case Study

Abstract

This article examines Sebastian Castellio’s Latin translation of Job 40–41 as a case study in sixteenth-century humanist biblical scholarship. After situating Castellio and the publication history of his Latin Bible, it compares his rendering with the Masoretic Text and Jerome’s Vulgate. The analysis identifies a consistent preference for classical idiom over Hebraizing literalism, including subordinate syntax, idiomatic expressions, poetic and technical vocabulary, Greek loanwords, and deliberate variation. Castellio also heightens the literary character of the text through alliteration, hyperbaton, polyptoton, paronomasia, and carefully arranged word order. Although his version often avoids verbal echoes of the Vulgate, several lexical choices indicate that Jerome’s translation remained an important point of reference. Castellio nevertheless corrects the Vulgate where he considers it distant from the Hebrew and draws on contemporary exegesis, especially in identifying Behemoth as an elephant and Leviathan as a whale. These choices support his historical understanding of Job and show that his translation combines philological independence, exegetical tradition, and a distinctly humanist ideal of elegant Latin.