CONFLICTING
TRANSLATIONS?
Why does the Vulgate say, “She will crush the head” while
modern translations say, “He will crush his head”?
The Hebrew (hu’) and the Greek Septuagint (autos)
clearly read the masculine pronoun here. However, the thirteenth-century Paris
manuscript of the Latin Vulgate reads ipsa (she), and that was the
manuscript used for the Clementine edition and the Douay-Rheims Catholic
English translation of the Bible. However, earlier manuscripts read ipse
(he). We will follow the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin manuscripts by reading “he,”
which makes this line of Genesis focused on Christ. (Mitch Pacwa, Mary,
Margin, Mother, and Queen: A Bible Study for Catholics [Huntington, Ind.: Our
Sunday Visitor Publishing Division, 2014], 25)
Further Reading:
Robert
Sungenis on Favouring "He" instead of "She" in Genesis 3:15
