Readers of the Catholic Herald don’t need to be told that the Old Testament was originally written in Hebrew and the New Testament in Greek. Still, Latin versions of the Bible became extremely influential very early on in the story of Christianity.
You will have your own preferences as to the ideal language for the Bible. To get a feel for the different versions, here is a short passage from the Gospel of John about the wedding at Cana, and the miracle of the conversion of water to wine (John 2.1-11).
The three versions below come from the Latin Vulgate, the King James Bible – a significant Anglican contribution to biblical translation –and the original Greek of the New Testament. The words are spoken by the steward at the feast, astonished by the quality of the wine.
Omnis homo primum bonum vinum ponit et cum inebriati fuerint, tunc id, quod deterius est. Tu autem servasti bonum vinum usque adhuc.
‘Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine; and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse: but thou hast kept the good wine until now.’
Πᾶς ἄνθρωπος πρῶτον τὸν καλὸν οἶνον τίθησιν καὶ ὅταν μεθυσθῶσιν τὸν ἐλάσσω σὺ τετήρηκας τὸν καλὸν οἶνον ἕως ἄρτι.
All three have their merits. My own favourite for the New Testament is in the original Greek. But for individual expressions from both the New and Old Testaments, there is something pithy and memorable about Latin expressions coming from the Latin Vulgate, like this one:
Noli me tangere.
‘Don’t touch me.’ John 20.17
Jesus said these words to Mary Magdalene when she tried to embrace him after the resurrection. In the New Testament, it was originally in Greek: Μή μου ἅπτου (me mou haptou), which really means something more like “Stop clinging to me.” Ancient Christian tradition also provides these famous words:
Quo vadis?
‘Where are you going?’ Acts of Peter, Codex Vercellensis
As Peter fled crucifixion in Rome, he received a vision of the risen Jesus travelling in the opposite direction on the Via Appia. In answer to his question, Jesus replied “Romam eo iterum crucifigi” (I am going to Rome to be crucified again). The story holds that Peter turned round and went back to Rome, where he was crucified upside down. The same question appears here and there in the Vulgate, in different contexts. It’s in the Vulgate, too, that this haunting construction on the nature of vanity appears.
Vanitas vanitatum, dixit Ecclesiastes; vanitas vanitatum et omnia vanitas.
‘Vanity of vanities, [the preacher] said; vanity of vanities, and everything is vanity.’ (Ecclesiastes 1.2)
Evocative stuff, but how did Latin become the official language of the Catholic Church in the first place?
The spark for the mass conversion to Christianity came in the wake of the conversion of the Emperor Constantine (272-337 AD). Before the decisive Battle of the Milvian Bridge over his rival emperor Maxentius in 312 AD, Constantine saw these words in the sky beside a vision of Christ’s cross – a cross of light above the sun.
In hoc signo vinces.
‘In this sign, you will conquer.’
After victory in the Battle of Milvian Bridge, Constantine was confirmed as emperor and declared Christianity the official religion of the empire, ending centuries Christian persecution.
In fact, those words – In hoc signo vinces – like Caesar’s supposed last words, “Et tu, Brute?”, were later Latin translations from the original Greek spoken by Constantine. What Constantine really saw in his vision were the Greek words ἐν τούτῳ νίκα or, to transliterate, en touto nika – Conquer in this sign. Caesar’s real last words, in Greek, were “Kai su, teknon?” – “You, too, my child?’
Even if Constantine’s divine message was originally in Greek, though, that didn’t stop Latin, the official language of the Roman Empire, becoming the official language of the Church.
Latin was accepted into the liturgy in the papacy of Damasus (360-82 AD), who commissioned Jerome to produce the Vulgate, a revised Latin translation of the Bible. It clung on long after the invasion of the Roman Empire by the Goths and the Vandals in 410 AD. They were surprisingly respectful towards Latin and all things Roman, principally because they too tended to be Christian and respected the language of the Church.
Even as Rome was eclipsed, there were still several keepers of the flame who kept the pure, old Latin language going. Chief among them was the Church, including the monasteries that became the main hubs of scholarship before the first universities of the 12th and 13th centuries. Those universities, too, maintained a reverence for old, pure Latin that continued across Europe and in America for another millennium.
Today, even as Latin has disappeared from many services, you will see echoes of it throughout the Christian Church. And fragments of Christian Latin still filter down the ages. The prayer “Ave Maria” comes from the Latin form of the Hail Mary. The Eucharistic liturgy in Latin is still familiar to many. These sections are particularly memorable:
Dominus vobiscum: Et cum spiritu tuo.
‘The Lord be with you: And with your spirit.’
In Nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti.
‘In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.’
Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto:
Sicut erat in principio et nunc et semper et in saecula saeculorum.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son,and to the Holy Spirit.
As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end.’
The original version of the Nicene Creed, a defining statement of Christian belief, was decided at the First Council of Nicaea in 325 AD. Originally in Greek, the Latin translation is more familiar to many Christians.
Credo in unum Deum, Patrem omnipotentem, factorem coeli et terrae, visibilium omnium et invisibilium.
‘I believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.’
The Lord’s Prayer, originally recorded in Greek in different versions in Matthew and Luke, also has a familiar Latin version: the Pater Noster.
Latin remains the official language for documents in the Vatican. The decrees of the Second Vatican Council allowed vernacular local languages to be used in Mass, but the Traditional Latin Mass (also known as the Tridentine rite) remains popular. In 2007 Pope Benedict XVI made it easier for Catholics to attend the Tridentine rite, which was authorized under Pope Pius V in 1570.
Pope Benedict gave his abdication speech in Latin in 2013; although he has quite rightly been celebrated as a driving force behind the revival of the Tridentine Rite, his predecessor did his bit, too. In the early 1980s Pope John Paul II removed major liturgical restrictions, and in 2001 he emphasized the importance of the Latin texts with Liturgiam Authenticam (“Authentic Liturgy”), which mandated liturgical translations that were closer to the Latin texts.
Although the Church used liturgical Greek for several hundred years before adopting Latin, it was the Latin version that stuck. Nevertheless, under John Paul II it was up to individual bishops to decide whether or not to allow the celebration of the Tridentine Rite in their dioceses. Pope Benedict removed that prerogative from the bishops.
As a result of his 2007 apostolic letter Summorum Pontificum (“Of the Supreme Pontiffs”), issued motu proprio (by his own motion), individual priests could choose to say the Tridentine Rite of mass. And, what’s more, individual congregations could ask that their priest celebrate it for them.
Last year, however, Pope Francis imposed his own restrictions on the Tridentine Mass with Traditionis Custodes (“Guardians of Tradition”). Still, Latin lingers in the Church as its official language, and there are no restrictions on Latin in the “new rite” – the Novus Ordo.
The Requiem Mass for the dead gets its name from the introit of that particular liturgy. Requiem is the accusative of requies (rest), derived from re (again) and quies (rest – from which we get “quiet”).
Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine: et lux perpetua luceat eis. Te decet hymnus, Deus in Sion: et tibi reddetur votum in Jerusalem: exaudi orationem meam, ad te omnis caro veniet.
‘Rest eternal grant to them, O Lord: and let light perpetual shine upon them. Praise befits you in Zion, O God: and to you is offered prayer in Jerusalem. Hear my prayer, for to you shall all flesh come.’
Still, today, it is Latin that best captures the majesty and seriousness of the most important moment in our life – our death.
Et Tu, Brute? The Best Latin Lines Ever (Bloomsbury, £14.99) by Harry Mount and John Davie is published on 13 October
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