From whom did
John Calvin borrow the base of his Latin and French Bible translations?
---Was the Scripture in Latin used by
Calvin written by himself or was it borrowed? ---So a scholar went to investigate the
situation. He spent time in the Library of the British Museum. ---Several Latin versions of the Bible
existed before Calvin. ---One was made by Sebastian Munster at
Basle with a Hebrew text in 1534. ---But, Calvin’s text differed with it
in many ways. No, he did not use Munster’s Latin text. ---Another one was by Leo Juda or Leo
Keller or Löw Juda as he was also known in Zurich in 1543. This was reprinted
by Robert Stephens in 1545 and 1557. ---Juda was quite somebody. He later
became an Anabaptist, at least for a few years because the description says he
came back to the Reformers. ---It is still a mystery why the
Reformers resisted the truth about Baptism started in 1525? ---Juda was helping Zwingli and when
Zwingli was killed in a civil rights battle in 1531, Juda fell into a strong
depression. ---Comparing Juda and Calvin, the
researcher in the British Museum find differences but only slightly. ---He came to the conclusion that Calvin
took Juda as his pretext and basis and only altered here and there as he saw
fit. ---This is for the book of Genesis. Comparing Leo Juda and John Calvin’s
Latin of Genesis 1: THE
VERSION OF LEO
JUDA. THE VERSION
OF CALVIN.
1. In principio creavit Deus coelum et
terram 1. In principio creavit Deus
coelum et terram 2. Terra autem erat desolat et inanis, 2.Terra autem erat informis
et inanis, tenebraeque erant in superficie
voraginis: tenbraeque erant
in superficie voraginis: et Spiritus Dei agitabat sese in
superficie et Spiritus Dei
agitabat se in superficie aquarum. aquarum.
3. Dixitque Deus, Sit Lux, et fuit lux. 3. Et dixit Deus, Sit
Lux, et fuit lux 4. Viditque Deus lucem quod esset bona 4. Viditque Deus lucem quod
bona esset et divisit Deus lucem à tenebris et divisit Deus
lucem à tenebris 5. Vocavitque Deus lucem Diem, et
tenebras 5. Et vocavit Deus lucem
Diem, et tenebras vocavit Noctem; fuitque vespera, et fuit
vocavit Noctem; fuitque
vespera, et fuit mane dies unus. mane dies
primus. 6. Dixt quoque Deus, Sit expansio,
&c. 6. Dixt quoque
Deus, Sit extensio, &c. ---What about the French translation of
John Calvin? It was found that he relied on the translation of the Bible in
French by Jacques Le Fevre d’Estaples or as he was commonly known: Jacobus
Faber Stapulensis. ---The French Bible was printed in
Antwerp by Martin L-Empereur. ---The author was a catholic. It became
the basis of all French Bibles. ---It was not the first French Bible. The
First French Bible was that of Robert Peter Olivetan and he got help from his
relative, John Calvin who corrected the Antwerp edition where it differed with
from the Hebrew. ---One should expect that Calvin would
put his own version, the Leo Juda Calvin corrected version, at the head of his
Commentaries. But, he did not do so. The researcher found. ---William Whittingham married the
sister of John Calvin and he was the chief translator of the Geneva Bible into
English after Mary’s persecution. ---He then went on a trip with the Earl
to France and then was made Dean of Durham. ---Experts in the Geneva Bible
complained that it was filled with Calvinisms.
This is the observation of Bishop Horsley. ---The subject here is the Bibles which
existed before the King James Version. ---Whittingham’s translation and the
other editions of the Geneva Bible was based on the Tyndale Bible text. Tyndale
became later a martyr. ---Conclusion: It is common for all
translators to look at a very good literal translation as a basis text and then
to adjust, omit, add, transform choosing better synonyms, upgrade the
translation. This is what Calvin did. Calvin is not Juda but Juda can be found
in Calvin’s translation. ---In many ways I found Calvin’s method
of translation to have similarities in my own approach. Source: https://archive.org/stream/commentariesonfi01calv/commentariesonfi01calv_djvu.txt