John Owen's Latin Works

[SomberSoul]

Good morning folks,

I have had a long term goal of reading all of John Owen's works (Banner of Truth edition plus some) over the last 12 years and I am almost complete. I have read basically the entire set, and I have read the translation of his Biblical Theology. However, with the opportunity to nerd out on languages a bit, I do want to read the entire original volume 17, his Latin works, in Latin.

My Latin is not as good as it once was. I studied Latin for about 8 years growing up and then in college taught myself Greek, which eventually supplanted my Latin. My Greek is functional enough to pick up a NT book and read it with about 80% comprehension. My Latin lags behind that maybe closer to 50%.

Does anyone have a recommendation for essentially a stepping-stone book into more ecclesiastical Latin? I have been working through Caesar's works and tentatively was going to go straight to Owen after that but I think there will be a significant vocabulary jump between the two.

Any suggestions are appreciated!

 

[jhcampbell]

Good morning folks,

I have had a long term goal of reading all of John Owen's works (Banner of Truth edition plus some) over the last 12 years and I am almost complete. I have read basically the entire set, and I have read the translation of his Biblical Theology. However, with the opportunity to nerd out on languages a bit, I do want to read the entire original volume 17, his Latin works, in Latin.

My Latin is not as good as it once was. I studied Latin for about 8 years growing up and then in college taught myself Greek, which eventually supplanted my Latin. My Greek is functional enough to pick up a NT book and read it with about 80% comprehension. My Latin lags behind that maybe closer to 50%.

Does anyone have a recommendation for essentially a stepping-stone book into more ecclesiastical Latin? I have been working through Caesar's works and tentatively was going to go straight to Owen after that but I think there will be a significant vocabulary jump between the two.

Any suggestions are appreciated!

The Vulgate. It will get you caught up on biblical terminology, and in the groove of things.

 

[SomberSoul]

A good point. How is the grammar of the Vulgate compared to later writings?

 

[jhcampbell]

A good point. How is the grammar of the Vulgate compared to later writings?

I'm going based off my knowledge of advice I've heard from others, not my personal experience. @Charles Johnson is much further suited for this, or @RamistThomist

 

[CasualWestminsterEnjoyer]

A good point. How is the grammar of the Vulgate compared to later writings?

Same grammar.

Good morning folks,

I have had a long term goal of reading all of John Owen's works (Banner of Truth edition plus some) over the last 12 years and I am almost complete. I have read basically the entire set, and I have read the translation of his Biblical Theology. However, with the opportunity to nerd out on languages a bit, I do want to read the entire original volume 17, his Latin works, in Latin.

My Latin is not as good as it once was. I studied Latin for about 8 years growing up and then in college taught myself Greek, which eventually supplanted my Latin. My Greek is functional enough to pick up a NT book and read it with about 80% comprehension. My Latin lags behind that maybe closer to 50%.

Does anyone have a recommendation for essentially a stepping-stone book into more ecclesiastical Latin? I have been working through Caesar's works and tentatively was going to go straight to Owen after that but I think there will be a significant vocabulary jump between the two.

Any suggestions are appreciated!

If you want to get the theological vocabulary down, I would read the Synopsis Purioris Theologiae or something similar. The Vulgate will get you most of the way there, but it doesn't have a lot of theological terms of art, since it's a biblical text, not a theological one.