There was a Latin version made from the
Septuagint, including the Apocrypha, in Africa, and in use there at the
end of the second century, very barbarous, and copying even Greek
constructions. Of this text SS. Ambrose and Augustine used a
recension. But our author seems to have been very independent,
and to have made use of several different versions of holy Scripture,
translating, as it would seem, often for himself from the Septuagint,
referring also to Symmachus, Theodotion, and Aquila, though thinking
less of the latter. When the prophets, he says, were moved by the
Holy Spirit, they were troubled and darkened with their own
ignorance. De Abrah. II.
61. Prayer, he
asserts, is necessary for understanding holy Scripture. Ps. cxviii. 59. Each Testament is not equally easy, and
we are not to criticise what
we do not understand. Ep. 63–78,
De Parad. II. 7. He speaks of the Hebrew as the
truth, De Noe et Arca,
XII. 60. but states that the Septuagint added much
that is useful. Hexaëm. V.
20.