Prologue to the biblical Codex Brixianus, translated and introduced by James Marchand:

This is scarcely a translation. As you can see, this is written in barbaric Latin. In fact, I feel that the author was probably a Goth. The peculiarity of using a dative instead of the accusative after _in_ with motion towards the object of the preposition is Gothic, perhaps also the use of the dative/ablative with _secundum_ (= Gothic afar). Marold complains: "Bei dem barbarischen Latein dieses Bruchstueckes ... ist an vielen Stellen der Sinn und Gedankengang schwer zu ermitteln" (Considering the barbaric Latin of this fragment ... it is difficult to determine the intent and the train of thought). The diction is typical of the fight between Jerome and Rufinus (and others) on translation. It is good to remember that it is Rufinus' translation of the Clementine Recognitions that is cited. This may have nothing to do with Jerome, but it seems to be a gun aimed at his head. Pay no attention to the silly dating of Friedrichsen, based on paleography.

Saint Peter, the apostle and disciple of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, teaching the faithful, because of the diversity of [ways of] speaking in [various] languages, admonishes all -- as is found written in the eighth book of Clement -- saying:

"Hear me, most beloved fellow-servants [of the Lord]. It is good for each of you, according to what he can do, to be of aid to those who are coming to the faith of our religion. Therefore, do not shrink from, according to the wisdom which is given to you by the foresight of God, instructing those who argue against you and teaching the ignorant, but in such a way that you blend the eloquence of your tongue with those things which you have heard from me and which have been handed down to you, not putting forward anything of your own or which is not handed down to you, even if it seems likely to you, but holding forth those things which I have said, which I myself received from the True Prophet and have handed down to you, even if they seem to be less fully stated [than they could be]."

Lest, therefore, in the translations of the [various] languages which are found inside this book it seem to the reader that one thing is meant when written in Greek, another in Latin or Gothic, let everyone note that, if a discrepancy is seen because of the nature (grammar) of the language, it neverless agrees in one and the same meaning, for which reason no one ought to be in doubt as to what the Scripture itself shows according to the force of the language [in question]. Because of differences, the words are arranged by careful observation as is written in the following:

This situation caused us to publish this by way of demonstration, because of some people who willfully by false ways of talking have inserted lying matter into the Old and the New Testaments through their own translation. Therefore, rejecting them, the following are inserted, which the Old Testament is found to contain in the letters of the Greeks. And the very etymologies of the languages when they are placed properly (side by side?) are shown to indicate one and the same sense. Now I must tell you what is done by uulthres -- in Latin it signifies `annotation' -- why it is put is for this reason: where the abbreviation .gr. is found above a uulthre, the reader should know that in that uulthre it is written according to what the Greek contains; where the abbreviation .la. is found above a uulthre, it is presented in the uulthre according to Latin. And for this reason this instruction is discussed, lest the readers not understand the uulthres themselves, as to why they are inserted. [NB: uulthres = Gothic wulthr-, OE wuldor- seems to have been a marginal note, an e-LUC-idation, wulthr- meaning `glory, brightness'.]