TO THE READER
as Luc. 11. Et domus supra domum cadet. Which we must needs english, and house upon house shal fal. By the Greek, the sense is not, one house shal vpon another; but, if one house rise vpon it-self, that is, against it-self, it shal perish. According as he speaketh of a Kingdom deuided against it-self, in the words before. And Act. 14. Sacerdos louis qui erat, in the Greek, qui, is referred to Iupiter. Sometime to satisfie the Reader, that might otherwise conceiue the translation to be false. As Philip. 4. v. 6. But in euery thing by praier, &c. ἐν παντὶ προσευχῇ, not, in al prayer, as in the Latin it may seem. Sometime when the Latin neither doth, nor can reach to the signification of the Greek word, we adde the Greek also as more significant. Illi soli seruies, him only shalt thou serue, λατρεύσεις. And Act. 6. Nicolas a stranger of Antioch προσήλυτον & Ro. 9. the seruice ἡ λατρεία and Eph. 10. to perfite, instaurare omnia in Christo, ἀνακεφαλαιώσασθαι. And, Wherin he hath gratified vs, ἐχαρίτωσεν. Et Eph. 6. Put on the armour, πανοπλίαν: and a number the like. Sometime, when the Greek hath two senses, and the Latin but one, we adde the Greek. 2. Cor. 1. By the exhortation wherwith we also are exhorted: the Greek signifieth also consolation &c. And 2 Cor. 10. But hauing hope of your faith increasing, to be &c. where the Greek may also signifie, as or when your faith increaseth. Sometime for aduantage of the Catholike cause, when the Greek maketh for vs more then the Latin as, Seniores, πρεσβύτερος. Ut digni habeamini, καταξιωθῆναι. Qui effundetur, τὸ ἐκχυνόμενον, Præcepta, παραδόσεις. And Io. 21. ποίμαινε, Pasce & rege. And sometime to shew the false translation of the Heretike, as when Beza saith, Hoc poculum in meo sanguine qui. Τὸ ποτήριον ἐν τῷ ἐμῷ αἵματί τὸ ἐκχυνόμενον. Luc. 22. &, Quem oportet cœlo contineri. ὃν δεῖ οὐρανὸν δέξασθαι, Act. 3. Thus we vse the Greek diuers waies, & esteem of it as it is worthie, and take al commodities therof for the better vnderstanding of the Latin, which being a translation, can not alwaies attaine to the ful sense of the principal tongue, as we see in al translations.
Item we adde the Latin word sometime in the margent, when either we can not fully expresse it, (as Act. 8. They tooke order for Steuens funeral, Curauerunt Stephanum, and, Al take not this word, Non omnes capiunt.) or when the Reader might thinke, it can not be as we translate; as, Luc 8. A storme of winde descended into the lake, and they were filled, & complebantur: and Io. 5. when Iesus knew that he had now a long time, quiaiam multum tempus haberet; meaning, in his infirmitie.
This precise following of our Latin text, in neither adding nor diminishing, is the cause why we say not in the title of the Ghospels in the first page, S. Matthew, S. Mar, S. Iohn: because it is so neither in Greek nor Latin: though in the tops of the leaues following, where we may be bolder, we adde, S. Matthew, &c. to satisfie the Reader: Much vnlike to the Protestants our Aduersaries, which make no scruple to leaue out the name of Paul in the title of the Epistle to the Hebrewes, though it be in euery Greek book which they translate. And their most authorized English Bibles leaue out (Catholike) in the title of S. Iames Epistle and the rest, which were famously known in the primitiuo Church by the name of Catholicae Epistolae. Euseb. hist. Eccl. li. 2 c. 22.
Item we giue the Reader in places of some importance, another reading in the margent, specially when the Greek is agreable to the same, as Iohn. 4. tranfiet de morte ad vitam. Other Latin copies haue, tranfiit, and so it is in the Greek.
We bind not our-selues to the points of any one copie, print, or edition of the vulgar Latin, in places of no controuersie, but follow the pointing most agreable to the Greek and to the Fathers commentaries. As Col. 1. 10. Ambulantes dignè Deo, per omnia placentes. Walking worthy of God, in al things pleasing. ἀξίως τοῦ κυρίου εἰς πᾶσαν ἀρεσκείαν. Eph. 1, 17. We point thus, Deus Domini nostri Iesu Christi, pater gloria: as in the Greek, and S. Chrysostom, & S. Hierom both in text and commentaries. Which the Catholike Reader specially must marke, lest he find fault, when he seeth our translation disagree in such places from the pointing of his Latin Testament.
We translate sometime the word that is in the Latin margent, and not that in the text, when by the Greek or the Fathers we see it is a manifest fault of the writers heretofore, that mistook one word for another. As, In fine, not, in fide, 1. Pet. 3. v. 8. prasentiam, not, prascientiam, 2 Pet. 1. v. 16. Heb. 13. latuerunt, not, placuerunt.
Thus we haue endeuoured by al meanes to satisfie the indifferent Reader, and to help his vnderstanding euery way, both in the text, and by Annotations: and withal to deale most sincerely before God and man, in translating & expounding the most sacred
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