An old argument

Wednesday, August 8. 2007

You complain of the study of Greek and Hebrew. You say it leads to the neglect of Latin. Was not the New Testament written in Greek? Did not the early Fathers write in Greek? Is truth only to be found in Gothic Latin?

You will have no novelties; you say the 'old is better'; of course it is; the wisdom of the Fathers is better than the babbling of you moderns. You pretend that the Gospel can be understood without Greek; that there is no need of a new translation; we have the Vulgate and others besides, you say, and a new version was superfluous. I beseech you, where are these others? I have never met a man who has seen any but the Vulgate. Produce them. And for the Vulgate itself, it is nonsense to talk of the many ages for which it has been approved by the Church. It was the best or the first which the Church could get. When once in use it could not easily be changed, but to use it is not to approve it as perfect.

- Sir Thomas More in defense of Erasmus author of the Textus Receptus
from Life and Letters of Erasmus (1894) by J.A. Froude (page 136)

Posted by Ray in Truth at 20:54 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

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