Expert: Fr. Michael - 1/15/2011

Question
Why does the Latin Vulgate translated by St. Jerome say in Luke 1:28 "full of grace" . but ALL others say highly favored one...I find this troubling, thanks!

Answer
The Latin Vulgate's "gratia plena" reflects the Greek "kecharistomene," a perfect passive participle from the verb "charitoo."  That verb is related to the Greek noun for what we call grace, "charis."  Latin doesn't have a verb derived from its noun for grace, "gratia," so St. Jerome had to use a close periphrasis, "gratia plena," full of grace.  A literal rendering of the Greek would be "graced."

Modernist periphrases (they are not translations), that is, those that attempt to rewrite the meaning of the Sciptures, frequently introduce these novelties to confuse people's traditional faith.  Often the Modernists claim that the new paraphrase is closer to the meaning of the original, but, as in this case, that is definitely not true.  Otherwise, they could have used the word "graced."