SV: UNiversity and Church

[Stephen Hodge]

V.V. Raman wrote:

> 2. Hinduism, Judaism, and Islam are perhaps the only major religions
which (at
> least in classical times) did not encourage (sometimes prohibited)
the
> translation of their primary scriptures from their respective
languages
> [Sanskrit, Hebrew (language of Canaan, as the Bible says), Arabic]
which were
> regarded as sacred.

Although it depends on what you mean by "classical", this is exactly
the case with Judaism.  Although the standard Torah compiled and
promulgated by Ezra and Nehemiah in the decades following the return
of the exiles from Babylon is written in Hebrew, this language was not
understood by many of the exiles who instead were fluent in Aramaic.
Indeed some late parts of the Tanakh (what Christians call the Old
Testament) are written in Aramaic. Those parts which were not already
in Aramaic were soon translated into that language (the so-called
targums) and these were in use for centuries, well into medieval
times.  One should also recall the translation of the Tanakh into
Greek under the earlier Ptolomaic dynasty (3rd century BCE) in Egypt
(aka the Septuagint) -- this was also widely used instead of the
Hebrew version by Alexandrian etc Jews who could not read the Hebrew.
There seems to have been not restrictions on the use of translations
provided they were accurate -- the concern that pious Jews should have
access to their religious laws seems to have been paramount.

Best wishes,
Stephen Hodge