On Christian Teaching, Book 2

In Book Two of On Christian Teaching, Saint Augustine talks about the benefits of having multiple translations of the Scripture: "Obscure passages are often clarified by the inspection of several manuscripts" (37). I think this method can also be used to interpret the Psalms, especially if we recall our discussions about both the Bay Book's and Robert Alter's translation of Psalm 2. There were many differences between the two translations, but using Augustine's method of comparing multiple translations to reduce the amount of error due to the translation, we were able to come to a closer understanding of what the authors probably originally intended. For instance, in the first line of Psalm 2, what Alter translated as "nations," the Bay Book translated as "heathens." A similar situation is described by Augustine regarding differing translations of the scriptures, and he describes it thus: "It is not clear which of these represents the truth unless the versions in the original language are consulted. Yet both convey something important to those who read intelligently" (Book 2, 39). In our situation, by consulting both texts, we came to the conclusion that "nations" is probably closer to the author's intended meaning, but the Bay Book's interpretation of "heathens" gave us an insight into the mindset of the translators and their aims. Augustine would likely prefer Alter's translation of the Psalms because they are a more literal and objective interpretation, and can therefore be used as a check on other translations which try to follow "the ideas rather than the words" (Book 2, 44).