Iona Propheta...

Tolkien's latest book will be published for the first time next month - I can't wait!!! It's just his translation of the Book of Jonah. In the 1960s, Tolkien was ''questioned on one or two points of style'' (as he put it) for the new Jerusalem Bible. Owing to other commitments (disputes in America over pirate editions of The Lord of the Rings, the publication of the Second Edition of The Lord of the Rings, the deteriorating health of his wife etc) he could only complete one book, and a very short one. I have never read his translation, which should be interesting. I am not sure whether it is from the Septuagint or the Masoretic, but that will undoubtedly be revealed by a learned reader.

I was, in fact, doing a translation of the Book of Jonah on my own. It was quite easy but I couldn't be bothered using the dictionary, so when unfamiliar words cropped up, I gave it up. Does that make me lazy? I shall return to it after I finish at least one chapter from the Contra Errores Graecorum - I am doing Pars Secunda, Caput XXXII on the Primacy of the Roman Pontiff, where the Angelic Doctor equates denial of the Primacy with denial of the Double Procession (at least that's how I have read it).