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The Hieronymic Oath
The Hieronymic Oath
Hieronymus, pronounced /haɪˈrɒnɪməs/, the Greek and Latin form of the name Jerome, means
"sacred name." (c.347 – 30 September 420). St. Jerome was from a place that now forms part of
ex-Yugoslavia. He was born in the late 300s and lived until the early 400s.
The reason he is regarded as the father of translation, as well as the founder of translation theory,
is because he was commissioned by Pope Damascus in the year 382 to translate the Old
Testament into Latin from Hebrew rather than Greek. This edition of the Bible is referred to as
the Vulgate. In addition to this new edition of the Bible, Jerome translated other less well-known
works and wrote many letters and commentaries regarding his
translation work. In addition to his translation work, he was the
forerunner in translation theory. He was alone in his idea that
translation should be "sense for sense" instead of "word for word."
This was not a popular theory accepted by translators at the time,
especially biblical ones. It's a lesson that all translators should be
reminded of today.