Jerome's lost Chaldean Judith exemplar behind the Vulgate translation

This article describes an entity that is not directly attested as a surviving Chaldean Judith manuscript; it is inferred from Jerome's preface to his Latin Judith translation.

Epistemic status

Draft article. Jerome's source claim is directly attested, but the exact exemplar and its relation to earlier Judith traditions are reconstructed.

Summary

In the preface to Judith, Jerome says the book was written in the Chaldean language and describes translating according to sense rather than verbatim. He also says he worked through corrupt codices and rendered only what he found coherently expressed in Chaldean words. Inferpedia treats the source behind this translation procedure as a draft inferred-source entity, not as a recovered original Judith.

What is being inferred

The inferred entity is the Chaldean or Aramaic Judith exemplar, or source surface, behind Jerome's Vulgate translation.

What is attested

Jerome attests a Chaldean language claim, a sense-for-sense translation method, corrupt codices, and coherent Chaldean wording behind his Latin rendering.

Why infer this entity

A translator's primary-source preface describing a source language and translation procedure implies a working source surface. Because that source surface does not survive in Jerome's stated form, it belongs in Inferpedia as an inferred source rather than a normal extant text.

Evidence ledger

• E1, Jerome: primary trace for Chaldean language.
• E2, Jerome: supporting trace for sense-for-sense translation.
• E3, Jerome: counterevidence showing source corruption and instability.
• E4, Jerome: supporting trace for Chaldean wording behind the Latin.

Counterarguments

Jerome may have used a late Aramaic tradition, an intermediary, or a source whose relation to earlier Judith is not straightforward. The preface does not give enough evidence to reconstruct the text's wording.

Confidence scores

Direct attestation: 52. Existence warrant: 76. Specificity: 70. Reconstruction dependence: 88. Counterevidence: 34.

What would change the score

Text-critical comparison of Vulgate Judith against Greek, Syriac, Old Latin, and any Aramaic evidence would clarify whether Jerome's source was a distinct textual tradition or a looser translation setting.