Editing Vulgate (section)

== Council of Trent and position of the Catholic Church ==
{{Catholic Church sidebar}}
In the early 1500s numerous new Catholic and Protestant biblical translations or revisions in Latin appeared, and theological disputes had arisen over the canonical status of books which e.g. supported doctrines that [[Luther's_canon|Luther]] disagreed with. The [[Council of Trent]] (1545–1563) both finalized the [[biblical canon]],<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Sutcliffe|first=Edmund F.|year=1948|title=The Council of Trent on the ''authentia'' of the Vulgate|journal=The Journal of Theological Studies|series=o.s.|volume=49|issue=193–194|pages=35–42|doi=10.1093/jts/os-XLIX.193-194.35|issn=0022-5185}}</ref> and re-endorsed the Vulgate among Latin versions for public reading: it was to "be held as authentic".<ref name="bible-researcher.com">[http://www.bible-researcher.com/trent1.html Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent, The Fourth Session], 1546</ref> (In liturgical use, this was not the case: the [[Roman Missal]] uses Psalms and Pater Noster taken from the ''vetus latina'' Latin versions.) 

The Council of Trent cited long usage in support of the Vulgate's [[Magisterium|magisterial authority]]:
<blockquote>Moreover, this sacred and holy Synod,—considering that no small utility may accrue to the Church of God, if it be made known which out of all the Latin editions, now in circulation, of the sacred books, is to be held as authentic,—ordains and declares, that the said old and vulgate edition, which, by the lengthened usage of so many years, has been approved of in the Church, be, in public lectures, disputations, sermons and expositions, held as authentic; and that no one is to dare, or presume to reject it under any pretext whatever.<ref name="bible-researcher.com" /></blockquote>The qualifier "Latin editions, now in circulation" and the use of "authentic" (not "inerrant") show the limits of this statement.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Akin|first=Jimmy|date=5 September 2017|title=Is the Vulgate the Catholic Church's Official Bible?|work=[[National Catholic Register]]|url=http://www.ncregister.com/blog/jimmy-akin/is-the-vulgate-the-catholic-churchs-official-bible|access-date=15 May 2018}}</ref>

When the council listed the books included in the canon, it qualified the books as being "entire with all their parts, as they have been used to be read in the [[Catholic Church]], and as they are contained in the Vetus Latina vulgate edition". The fourth session of the Council specified 72&nbsp;canonical books in the Bible: 45&nbsp;in the Old Testament, 27&nbsp;in the New Testament with Lamentations not being counted as separate from Jeremiah.<ref>[http://www.bible-researcher.com/trent1.html Fourth Session, April 8 1546].</ref> On 2&nbsp;June 1927, [[Pope Pius XI]] clarified this decree, allowing that the [[Comma Johanneum]] was open to dispute.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Denzinger – English translation, older numbering|url=http://patristica.net/denzinger/#n2100|access-date=11 March 2020|website=patristica.net|quote=2198 [...] "This decree [of January 13, 1897] was passed to check the audacity of private teachers who attributed to themselves the right either of rejecting entirely the authenticity of the Johannine comma, or at least of calling it into question by their own final judgment. But it was not meant at all to prevent Catholic writers from investigating the subject more fully and, after weighing the arguments accurately on both sides, with that and temperance which the gravity of the subject requires, from inclining toward an opinion in opposition to its authenticity, provided they professed that they were ready to abide by the judgment of the Church, to which the duty was delegated by Jesus Christ not only of interpreting Holy Scripture but also of guarding it faithfully."}}</ref>

Later, in the 20th&nbsp;century, Pope Pius&nbsp;XII declared the Vulgate as "free from error whatsoever in matters of faith and morals" in his [[papal encyclical|encyclical]] ''[[Divino Afflante Spiritu]]'':

{{Blockquote
|text=Hence this special authority or as they say, authenticity of the Vulgate was not affirmed by the Council particularly for critical reasons, but rather because of its legitimate use in the Churches throughout so many centuries; by which use indeed the same is shown, in the sense in which the Church has understood and understands it, to be free from any error whatsoever in matters of faith and morals; so that, as the Church herself testifies and affirms, it may be quoted safely and without fear of error in disputations, in lectures and in preaching [...]"<ref name="w2.vatican.va">{{Cite web|url=https://www.vatican.va/content/pius-xii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xii_enc_30091943_divino-afflante-spiritu.html|title=Divino Afflante Spiritu, Pope Pius XII, #21 (in English version)|website=w2.vatican.va|access-date=18 March 2020}}</ref>
|author=Pope Pius XII
}}

The [[Biblical inerrancy|inerrancy]] is with respect to faith and morals, as it says in the above quote: "free from any error whatsoever in matters of faith and morals", and the inerrancy is not in a [[philological]] sense:

{{Blockquote
|text=[...] and so its authenticity is not specified primarily as critical, but rather as juridical.<ref name="w2.vatican.va"/>}}

The Catholic Church has produced three official editions of the Vulgate: the [[Sixtine Vulgate]], the [[Sixto-Clementine Vulgate|Clementine Vulgate]], and the ''[[Nova Vulgata]]'' (see below).