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Why did St. Augustine worry about St. Jerome’s translation from Hebrew?

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José de Ribera: Saint Jerome — St. Jerome *Saint Jerome*, oil on canvas by José de Ribera (Jusepe de Ribera, Lo Spagnoletto), c. 1638–40; in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art.

St. Augustine’s concerns regarding St. Jerome’s translation of the Old Testament from the original Hebrew stemmed from his commitment to the Septuagint, the Greek version of the Old Testament that had long served as the standard text for the early Christian church.1

While Jerome sought to produce a more accurate Latin version by translating directly from the original Hebrew, his departure from the established Septuagint tradition provoked significant opposition. Augustine, along with other contemporaries, viewed these biblical efforts with skepticism, leading to strictures that strained the relationship between the two scholars and briefly imperiled their mutual respect.2

It is important to note that while Jerome’s work—eventually known as the Vulgate—faced resistance during his lifetime, it was later recognized as a monumental achievement and became the authoritative Latin Bible for Western Christendom.34