Divino afflante Spiritu


Divino afflante Spiritu is a papal encyclical letter issued by Pope Pius XII on 30 September 1943 calling for new translations of the Bible into vernacular languages using the original languages as a source instead of the Latin Vulgate. The Vulgate, completed by Jerome and revised multiple times, had formed the textual basis for all Catholic vernacular translations until then. Divino afflante Spiritu inaugurated the modern period of Roman Catholic biblical studies by encouraging the study of textual criticism, pertaining to text of the Scriptures themselves and transmission thereof and permitted the use of the historical-critical method, to be informed by theology, Sacred Tradition, and ecclesiastical history on the historical circumstances of the text, hypothesizing about matters such as authorship, dating, and similar concerns. The eminent Catholic biblical scholar Raymond E. Brown described it as a "Magna Carta for biblical progress".

Description

The encyclical appeared on the feast of Jerome to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Pope Leo XIII's 1893 encyclical Providentissimus Deus. With Providentissimus Deus, Pope Leo gave the first formal authorization for the use of critical methods in biblical scholarship. Pius XII noted that advances had been made in archaeology and historical research, which made it advisable to further define the study of the Bible.
Previously, Catholic translations of the Bible into modern languages were usually based on the Latin Vulgate, the text used in the Liturgy. They generally referred back to the source texts only to clarify the exact meaning of the Latin text.
In his encyclical, Pius stressed the importance of diligent study of the original languages and other cognate languages to arrive at a deeper and fuller knowledge of the meaning of the sacred texts:
Newer Catholic translations of the Bible have been based directly on the texts found in manuscripts in the original languages, taking into account as well the ancient translations that sometimes clarify what seem to be transcription errors in those manuscripts. However, the Latin Vulgate remains the official Bible in the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church.