Psalms: Hebrew, Latin and English

by Richard W. Thompson, Santes Pagnini (Translator)

The great collection of praises and prayers of the Hebrew Bible, with the Hebrew text in Romanized transliteration, the Latin word-for-word translation of Santes Pagnino along with the Sixto-Clementine rendering of the Vulgate, and the noble English translation of the King James translators, in an convenient and thought-provoking interlinear format. THE INTERLINEAR HEBREW BIBLE presents the Scriptures in a format designed to assist the reader in searching out the meaning of the original text. By arranging four crucial texts in an interlinear arrangement, it facilitates a deeper understanding of the original intent of the ancient writers. The Hebrew original is based on the traditional Masoretic text, and is presented in a transliterated form to allow all readers, regardless of their familiarity with the Hebrew alphabet, to read the words easily. Additionally, this arrangement allows the accompanying Latin and English translations to follow along in the left-to-right sequence readers of those languages are familiar with. The poetic lines are presented in poetic format, allowing the verses to be seen in the sense units the original writers intended. Prose sentences are broken into short clauses or phrases to enable easier understanding of the syntactical units. The first of the two Latin versions is the excellent word-for-word translation made by Santes Pagnino (1470-1541) for use in his Veteris et Novi Testamenti nova translatio (Lyon, 1527). In this work each Hebrew element is rendered by a strictly literal translation in Latin, regardless of whether or not the resulting expression constitutes exactly proper Latin. The idea is to convey the grammatical construction of the Hebrew by a corresponding Latin form, with close regard to mood, tense, person, number, case, and prepositional or other construction, in exactly the sequence of the Hebrew. A student could hardly find a better key for understanding the actual workings of the Hebrew original. The second Latin translation is the Sixto-Clementine version (Biblia Sacra Vulgatae Editionis, published in Rome, 1590, 1592) of the translation of St. Jerome (Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus, c. 347-420) which he had prepared at the behest of Pope Damasus I, and which was published from about 385 to about 405. This publication has constituted the official Latin translation of the Scriptures from the time of its publication to the present; consequently, it is the version most readers are familiar with. A more dynamical translation than the Pagnino version, it often expands the literal meaning into a more readable format, and converts the idioms of the Hebrew expression into more readily understandable Latin equivalents. The English translation is that of the King James’ Bible (London, 1911), a version of the highest scholarship and accuracy, and one of the most noble works of literature in the English language. Carefully literal, and very faithful to the Hebrew text, it has provided readers a reliable access to the ancient writings for some 400 years. It closely parallels Pagnini's translation, and so virtually constitutes a translation of his Latin version. All readers of the Scriptures should find this compilation a useful and informative means for deepening their understanding of the ancient texts.

900 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 10, 2017