Confessions Study Guide

Note on the Bible of St. Augustine

Augustine used the Old Latin version of the Old and New Testaments, translated from Greek during the second century A.D. While this version was based on very old manuscripts of great authority, the forms presented in it occasionally differ from those of the modern English editions. The numbering of the Psalms (the same as the Septuagint and Vulgate versions) is, between numbers 10 and 148, one number less than the English versions translated from Hebrew. Therefore, when Augustine references Psalm 9, the text to which he refers is the English version of 9 and 10 combined. The situation is the same with Psalms 114 and 115, which he refers to as 113, and 116 and 147 are divided in two. Therefore, for the English Bible, to find the Psalm to which Augustine is referring, for Psalms 10 to 148 add one to the number Augustine quotes. The English reader will then be able to locate Augustine's text in the King James, the Revised English, or the New Jerusalem Bible. Further textual differences may occur, but they are stylistic rather than formal.