Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 36:141 (Jan 1879)
Article: A Defence Of The Catholic Faith Concerning The Satisfaction Of Christ Against Faustus Socinus Of Sienna Written By Hugo Grotius
Author: Frank Hugh Foster

BSac 36:141 (Jan 1879) p. 105

A Defence Of The Catholic Faith Concerning The Satisfaction Of Christ Against Faustus Socinus Of Sienna Written By Hugo Grotius

Rev. Frank H. Foster

[Prefatory Note. — The translation of Grotius’s “Defence” herewith offered to the Christian public is an attempt to present in pure and readable English this masterpiece among works upon the atonement. It has been the first endeavor to make the translation readable as well as exact, and the next to make it literal. Grotius’s style was eminently sequacious. He delighted in linking his sentences together by innumerable connective particles, and availed himself freely of the resources of the Latin language to accomplish this. As far as was thought consistent with English idiom these connective particles have been retained. But it was thought necessary to break up some of the longer sentences into shorter ones, and to take the same liberty with the paragraphs. An occasional Greek phrase, which in our day would seem pedantic, has been silently translated, and the Greek put at the bottom of the page, along with the numerous notes which were incorporated by Grotius with the text. To these foot-notes some small additions had been made by the translator, for self-evident reasons, and enclosed in brackets. The preface of Vossius has been omitted. Otherwise no change has been made; and it is hoped that the translation may enable the English reader to gain as true an idea of Grotius’s work as the Latin itself would afford him.

The translation is made from the Amsterdam edition of Grotius’s Theological Works and Letters, in four volumes, folio, 1679. Two other editions have also been employed in the work; one probably the first edition, Leyden, 1617, another the second edition of the same year and place. These texts differ somewhat, for the folio was printed from the author’s private copy, upon the margin of which certain additions had been made, chiefly citations of authorities. The folio edition is a most careful and excellent one, and reflects great credit upon its editor. For ready reference the pages and columns of the folio are printed in the margin of the translation. After the translation was completed, nearly two years since, it was revised throughout, from the Latin. Within a few months it has been again revised with the aid of the only other English translation of the work ever made. This was first published in London, 1692, and bears the trans-

BSac 36:141 (Jan 1879) p. 106

lator’s initials only — W. H. This translation is, of course, now unreadable, and often obscure. But it never was a perfect translation; for beside the fact that the English is Latin-English, such as never was spoken, and never could be, W. H. has not infrequently failed to gain precisely the author’s mea...