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Dear Catholic Exchange:
Just finished re-reading 5 Myths About 7 Books, by Mark Shea. This was the article that first intrigued me to become a regular follower of Catholic Exchange.
This time, I was hoping to find an explanation to link the Greek Septuagint with Jerome's translation from Hebrew to become the Vulgate. 5 Myths About 7 Books clearly maintains that the Septuagint version of the Old Testament was what the Church relied upon for the first three centuries. Yet Jerome used scripture in Hebrew to translate the Old Testament.
Can you fill in this gap? Was it Hebrew, translated into Greek, translated back into Hebrew, translated into Latin? If so, who would be credited for the Greek to Hebrew translation?
Sincerely,
A.F. Hebert
Dear Mr. Hebert:
I'm no expert, but as I understand it, Jerome preferred to use Hebrew sources for Old Testament translations, but did not reject the Septuagint thereby. Old Testament books existed (and still exist) in both the Hebrew original and the Greek translation. Scholars today do much what Jerome did: check both sources, but give more weight to the original language when there's a serious disagreement.
Mark Shea
Senior Content Editor
Catholic Exchange
Lost in Hollywood
Dear Mr. Fitzpatrick,
I am a daily reader of the website Catholic Exchange and often find it's content thought provoking and enjoyable. Your recent piece, The Hollywood Disconnect, proves no exception. I found it to be incredibly insightful and accurate.
As a frequent business traveler to Los(t) Angeles as a member of the television production community, yours and Mr. Sajak's assessment of the industry is dead-on. I hope this piece finds an even larger distribution and audience than what Catholic Exchange can provide. Keep up the good writing.
Sincerely,
Dan Renaud
Lexington, KY
Tomb of “James, Son of Joseph, Brother of Jesus”
Hello to the fine staff at Catholic Exchange!
I am a Catholic who also attends a Protestant women's Bible study group in my neighborhood. I was asked to join, and did so mainly because 3 of the 9 other members are Catholic women who don't have a clue about even the basics of our faith, and are really being worked on by the evangelicals in the group.
I would really appreciate it if you would publish some sort of Catholic response to the discovery of the tomb of the alleged “brother” of Jesus, James. I know we have always explained scriptural references to Jesus's brothers as referring to cousins, not actual siblings. But I am sure to get hammered about this one, and the three Catholic women in the Bible study are probably going to be, too. I'd like to have a calm, clear, lucid response to the comments I am sure to hear. (You know, something better than, “So what. That doesn't prove anything.”)
I'm sure you're planning to deal with this issue soon, but please, the sooner the better!! Thank you.
God Bless,
K.P.
Dear K.P.,
We are working on this and will have a response within the next few days in our “Faith Questions” channel.
God Bless,
Tom Allen
Editor, CE
