Les Parlers Judéo-Romans et la Vetus Latina

The American philologist David Simon Blondheim (1884–1934) was endowed with vast Hebraic learning. In this book, first published in 1925, he makes connections between European Jewish speech in antiquity, the Old Latin versions of the Bible, and medieval Romance languages. He examines how Greek-speaking Jews transmitted their linguistic traditions both orally and in writing until the Middle Ages. Establishing that they used the Hebrew and Greek Bibles side by side and translated the Greek version into Old Latin, Blondheim concludes that their traditional translations extensively influenced the Vulgate, the English Bible, and the Romance languages. In 1926, Blondheim was the first American to be awarded the Volney Prize from the French Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres for this groundbreaking scholarly achievement. It will make invaluable reading for students of the Bible and the Romance languages.