hebraica veritas

hebraica veritas

English

Noun

hebraica veritas (uncountable)

1. The traditional Hebrew and Aramaic text of the Jewish Bible, viewed as its original, correct, and authoritative text.

   It is impossible to understand the book of Job without consulting the hebraica veritas.

   • 2003, Frank Kermode, Pieces of My Mind: Essays and Criticism, 1958-2002, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, page 239

     “Once again it becomes apparent that the Christians, however devoted to the hebraica veritas, could not be so bold as the Jews; for their interpretations were always subject to censorship by the custodians of an infallible tradition that was partly independent of Scripture.”

   • 1964, , Marie Aquinas McNamara, Friends and Friendship for Saint Augustine, Alba House, page 197

     “Jerome had gone to Palestine to study the Hebrew language at its source and produce a new translation of the Bible from a restored hebraica veritas.”

   • 1990, Clarence C. Walton, Enriching Business Ethics, Plenum Press, page 12

     “With the rise of towns and universities, the interest of Christian scholars in the Hebraica Veritas rose.”

   • 2005, Maggie Anton, Rashi’s Daughters, Book III: Rachel, Plume, page 124

     “Guy returned to Salomon’s a week later. ‘It is audacious of me to ask you for a favor that will only waste your time, but I have come to think that to truly understand scripture, I must ascertain the Hebraica veritas from the original Hebrew.’”

   • 2017, Benjamin Balint, The Language of Survival, The Wall Street Journal, European ed., vol. 35, no. 39, Friday-Sunday, March 24-26, 2017, page 9A

     “In a pair of chapters on the neglected story of how Hebrew figured in the Christian imagination, Mr. Glinert tells how Christians learned Hebrew both to access ‘hebraica veritas,’ or Hebrew truth, and to monitor the Jews in their midst ‘with the goal of mastering the mischief and the falsehoods of the Jews,’ as a 14th-century writer put it.”

2. Saint Jerome's Latin Vulgate translation of the Jewish Bible, viewed as a faithful and authoritative rendering of the original Hebrew and Aramaic.

   At this point the Old Latin versions are almost incoherent: we must follow Jerome's hebraica veritas instead.

   • 2003, Frank Kermode, Pieces of My Mind: Essays and Criticism, 1958-2002, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, page 235

     “Jerome began it, offering hebraica veritas, and Greek truth also, but in Latin.”

Translations

Hebrew truth