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 upon another; but, if one house rise upon it-self, that is, against it-self, it shal perish. According as he speaketh of a Kingdom devided against it-self, in the words before. And Act. 14. Sacerdos lovis qui erat, in the Greek, qui, is referred to Jupiter. Sometime to satisfie the Reader, that might otherwise conceive the translation to be false. As Philip. 4. v. 6. But in every thing by praier, &c. εν παντι προσευχη, 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. Mat. 4.Illi soli servies, him only shalt thou serve, λατρευσεις. And Act. 6. Nicolas a stranger of Antioch προσαλυτθ, & Ro. 9. the service η λατρεια & Eph. 10. to perfit, instaurare omnia in Christo, ανακεφαλαιωσασθαι. And, Wherin he hath gratified us, εχαριτωσεν. Et Eph. 6. Put on the armour, πανοαπλιαν: 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 having hope of your faith increasing, to be &c. where the Greek may also signifie, as or when your faith increaseth. Sometime for advantage of the Catholike cause, when the Greek maketh for us more then the Latin as, Act. 15. Seniores, πρεσβυτερος. 2. Thess. 2.Ut digni habeamini, ινα αξιωθητε. 1. Cor. 11.Qui effundetur, το εκχυνομενον, Præcepta, παραδοσεις. And Jo. 21. ποιμαινε, Pasce & rege. And sometime to shew the false translation of the Heretike, as when Beza saith, Hoc poculum in meo sanguine qui. το ποτηριον εν τω εμω αιματιτο εκχυνομενον. Luc. 22. &, Quem oportet cœlo contineri. ον δει ουρανον δεχεσθαι, Act. 3. Thus we use the Greek divers waies, & esteem of it as it is worthie, and take al commodities therof for the better understanding 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.
The Latin text sometime noted in the margent.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 Stevens funeral, Curaverunt 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 wind descended into the lake, and they were filled, & complebantur: and Jo. 5. when Jesus knew that he had now a long time, quiaiam multum tempus haberet; meaning, in his infirmitie.
In the beginning of Ghospels Matthew, Mark, &c. not S. Matthew, S. Mark &c.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. John: because it is so neither in Greek nor Latin: though in the tops of the leaves following, where we may be bolder, we adde, S. Matthew, &c. to satisfie the Reader: Much unlike to the Protestants our Adversaries, which make no scruple to leave out the name of Paul in the title of the Epistle to the Hebrewes, Bib. an. 1579. 1580. an. 1577. 1562.though it be in every Greek book which they translate. And their most authorized English Bibles leave out (Catholike) in the title of S. James Epistle and the rest, which were famously known in the primitive Church by the name of Catholicæ Epistolæ. Euseb. hist. Eccl. li. 2. c. 22.
Another reading in the margent.Item we give the Reader in places of some importance, another reading in the margent, specially when the Greek is agreable to the same, as John. 4. transiet de morte ad vitam. Other Latin copies have, transit, and so it is in the Greek.
The pointing sometime altered.We bind not our-selves to the points of any one copie, print, or edition of the vulgar Latin, in places of no controversie, but follow the pointing most agreable to the Greek and to the Fathers commentaries. As Col. 1. 10. Ambulantes digne Deo, per omnia placentes. Walking worthy of God, in al things pleasing. αξιως του κυριου εις πασαν αρεσκειαν. Eph. 1, 17. We point thus, Deus Domini nostri Jesu 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 Latin Testament.
The margent reading sometime preferred before the text.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. præsentiam, not, præscientiam, 2 Pet. 1. v. 16. Heb. 13. latuerunt, not, placuerunt.
Thus we haue endeavoured by al meanes to satisfie the indifferent Reader, & to help his understanding every way, both in the text, and by Annotations: and withal to deale most sincerely before God and man, in translating & expounding the most sacred
