Customer Reviews

Novum Testamentum Graece Et Latine - Greek/Latin New Testament

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Don't let the imprecise terminology of the other reviews fool you--this book does not contain the Vulgate New Testament. The Vulgate is Jerome's standard Latin version of the Bible, the one familiar to literate persons throughout the Middle Ages, until modern vernacular translations took its place in common usage (relatively recently in some Catholic countries).

How nice it would be to have a good critical text of the New Testament in Greek (which this edition offers) opposite the real Vulgate. At one glance, you could take in Paul's original words (according to the most penetrating modern scholarship) and, at the same time, the form in which those words profoundly affected Western Europe for a millennium. In cases where the Vulgate is in disagreement with the critical Greek text, the facing-page format would make this obvious enough to the reader.

The above pipe-dream is NOT what this book offers. The Latin version is the "neo-Vulgate" and has been altered as necessary to obliterate any difference between it and the Nestle-Aland Greek text. Yes, the Latin here usually follows the Vulgate, and the apparatus will help you reconstruct the Vulgate, but it is dangerous, in principle, to regard the actual printed text as more than a crib for understanding the Greek text. (Outside of the New Testament, the neo-Vulgate's changes are particularly violent in the Psalter, where the traditional Vulgate Psalms--the very essence of Western Christian worship for so many centuries--have been done away with entirely because they are based on the Septuagint rather than directly on the Hebrew. A mess is also made of Jerome's work in the Prophets.)

If you want to read the New Testament of Dante, Cervantes, Montaigne, or Chaucer, you'll need to buy the entire Vulgate bible (ISBN 3438053039 is an excellent critical edition of it).

I am disappointed with the editorial decision here. The real Vulgate, with its historical significance (and even its textual authority, given the great antiquity of the manuscripts with which Jerome worked), is far worthier of being kept in print than a version that does not scruple to tamper with the Vulgate's charm and power. This edition does not serve its audience well--if we just wanted a mirror-view of the modern critical text of the Greek NT, why would we bother reading it in Latin?

The N.T.G.L.Q. is the clear choice for biblical scholars. With the latest 27th edition Greek text beside the latest Latin vulgate, clarity abounds. I highly recommend going the extra mile and ordering the text with the Latin as well as the Greek, since one's knowledge of Latin will assist in Greek study. The binding is disappointingly flimsy for such a valuable work, but it is a German book, and the Germans are known for their fine bookbinding skills. Still, one would expect a nice leather, smythe-sewne binding. But overall, an excellent choice.

If you are interested in both New Testament Greek and Latin this version of the Bible will be very beneficial to you in your studies. The Greek text is the lastest UBS/Nestle critical edition. The Latin version is also a critical edition. This might bother some people who had to learn portions of scripture in latin when they were children because this text is not exactly the same one they are familiar with. This text attempts to restore an older version of the latin than the one that was in use 40 years ago.

The Book itself is very well designed. The font is clear and easy to read, and the critical apparatus is clearly explained. Also it is very nice to have the Greek on one page and the Latin on the facing page. I believe this is far superior to interlinear or double column.

Also let me give you one good reason why you should own this book if you are a pastor. Often if you are wondering how you will be able to explain a particular Greek concept to your church, the latin will help. Reading a word or phrase in Latin can give you one more tool for exegesis.

I am a student of both these languages and I have been wanting a bible in Latin and the original Greek for a long time.This has fully met my expectations. I like that the the diiferant languages are on separate pages instead of in columns: it is easier to keep from looking at the Latin which I know better! What a treasure.

There are two things you should know about this Bible:

1. It is a great exegetical tool for working with the Greek Nestle-Aland 27, which parallels it. Collin76 in his review on this page says, "Often if you are wondering how you will be able to explain a particular Greek concept to your church, the latin will help. Reading a word or phrase in Latin can give you one more tool for exegesis." I couldn't agree more. In supplement to the other tools for exegesis, this is an excellent book.

2. However, "A Reader" made very pertinent observations about how this is NOT the VULGATE. Yes, the critical apparatus gives the variants, so that it is possible to reconstruct the readings from the Vulgate for any passage; but if what you want is the Vulgate in parallel with the Greek, this is NOT IT.

Caveat emptor.

All the same, this is a volume I highly recommend despite its shortcomings.

I love it.

When I'm a little stuck for a Greek word, the facing page in Latin is definitely a welcome resource. I'm relearning Greek after a long time and this is just what the doctor ordered.

Personally, I'd prefer less of the critical apparatus and more text on each page so as to leave room for vocabulary in the back. You'll need a separate lexicon if you don't already have one...but if you're searching for the "Novum Testamentum" you probably do have one.

I highly recommend this!

Many of the features of this work are beyond reproach - the construction of the book itself (paper, printing, binding), the up-to-date critical apparatus. The disappointment for me rests solely in the Nova Vulgata translation itself. As a first-year student of Greek but with considerable background in Latin, I had hoped and expected that the grammar of the Latin in the Nova Vulgata would be sufficiently close to the grammar of the Greek text to serve as a guide through the complexities of Greek verbs and participles. I was thus considerably disappointed to find that the grammar of the Nova Vulgata all too frequently fails to match the grammar of the Greek. Of course, there are limits; the Greek genitive absolute construction must be translated by the ablative case in Latin; but it strikes me that the Latin translators were far too quick in departing from a strict rendering of the Greek construction. More than a mere interlinear translation, neophyte readers of Greek need a work that (a) presents the Greek text in its original ordering of words and (2) displays the grammar of the individual words. Many software programs do that, but there remains need for a book. Unfortunately, the Nova Vulgata does not do the job.

THE time that it took to get the item was less than pitiful. If I had wanted to write the book I would not have ordered it. I noticed that others rated this particular company as being extremely slow in delivery--had I known it, I would have ordered from someone else.

Please do better in the future.

this seems to be some type of book with strange writing on one side and even stranger writing on the other. Weird. it might be some type of religious text or instructions on how to build a time machine, I don't know