The Seventy

English

And God saw the light, that it was beautiful. And God separated between the light and between the darkness.

Fresh draft (Claude), approved by Wilson Pruitt · cc-by

Greek

LXX Gen 1:4 (Rahlfs) · pd

Notes

Two features of the Greek decide most of what the Latin bench can say. First, the Hebrew ki tov is rendered kalon, 'beautiful' rather than 'good' — so that the approval reads as an aesthetic verdict, which is what Ambrose then expounds at length and what Augustine has to argue is not a verdict reached after the event. Second, the Hebrew's bein … u-vein is carried over word for word as ana meson … kai ana meson, 'between … and between', and the Old Latin that Augustine and his Carolingian copyists read reproduces it as divisit inter lucem et tenebras. Jerome does not: he writes divisit lucem a tenebris. Which of the two a Latin witness quotes is the cleanest single indication of which Latin text lay in front of him, and on this verse the two texts sort the bench almost perfectly.

Threads

• ← transmits · Jerome
  The Greek keeps the Hebrew's doubled preposition, ana meson tou photos kai ana meson tou skotous, and the Old Latin behind Augustine keeps it too: divisit inter lucem et tenebras. Jerome writes divisit lucem a tenebris. Which form a Latin witness quotes tracks his text closely enough to be visible on this daf: Augustine, Angelomus and Alcuin have the older form, Bede, Remigius, the Glossa and Comestor Jerome's, and Rupert has neither.