Linguistic Studies and Essays

Vol. 59 No. 2 (2021)
Articles

Translation strategies in the Vetus Latina: a pilot study on the book of Genesis

  • Michele Bianconi
Michele Bianconi
Università per Stranieri di Siena / University of Oxford
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4454/ssl.v59i2.305

Published 2022-01-10

Keywords

  • Bible translations,
  • language contact,
  • Christian Latin
Copyright Notice

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to contribute to our understanding of the language Vetus Latina version of the Bible, with a specific focus on the book of Genesis. Through the analysis of the translations of Greek neologisms, it will be argued that the first Latin translators of the Old Testament were native speakers of Latin, who had a good knowledge of Greek but made rather conservative choices, and aimed at literalism in following their Septuaginta source.

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