Leviticus — Latin Vulgate

Hebrew olah (ascending offering) emphasizes the smoke rising to God. Jerome's holocaustum emphasizes total consumption by fire. The Latin expiatio (expiation, cleansing from guilt) for Hebrew kipper (to cover/atone) introduced a specific theological interpretation: atonement as removal of guilt rather than covering or cleansing.

Hebrew minchah originally meant gift/tribute and specifically denotes a grain offering. Jerome's oblatio (offering, presentation) is generic and lost the specific grain/meal reference. This abstraction allowed the term to be applied broadly to Christian worship, particularly the offertory of the Mass.

Hebrew shelamim derives from shalom (wholeness, peace, well-being) and the sacrifice involves a shared meal. Jerome's hostia emphasizes the death of the victim rather than the fellowship of the meal. This shift in emphasis — from communal celebration to sacrificial death — profoundly shaped Western Eucharistic theology's focus on Christ's sacrificial death over the fellowship meal aspect.

Hebrew chattat derives from the root ch-t-' (to miss the mark, to sin) but the offering itself functions primarily as purification of sacred space. Jerome's pro peccato emphasizes the sin-bearing function over the purification function, aligning with the Western theological trajectory that sees sacrifice primarily as addressing guilt rather than impurity.

Hebrew asham encompasses guilt, liability, and the reparation offering itself. Jerome's delictum (offense, fault, trespass) is more narrowly legal. This contributed to Western theology's tendency to frame sin in juridical rather than relational terms — sin as legal offense requiring legal remedy.

Jerome compresses the Hebrew's two verbs (hitqaddishtem, 'consecrate yourselves' + vihyitem qedoshim, 'and be holy') into the single sancti estote. This compression loses the processual sense of self-consecration leading to holiness, presenting holiness as a direct command rather than a process. The phrase was quoted by 1 Peter 1:16 and became central to Western sanctification theology.

Hebrew azazel is debated: possibly a demon's name, possibly 'the goat of removal' (ez + azal). Jerome chose the interpretive route with emissarius (one who is sent away), treating it as a function rather than a name. This decision meant Western Christianity never developed theology around a desert demon receiving offerings, instead reading the ritual purely as sin-removal symbolism applied typologically to Christ.

Jerome pairs expiatio (removal of guilt) with mundatio (cleansing), capturing both dimensions of the Hebrew kipper + taher. The Latin terms entered systematized atonement theology: expiatio addresses the guilt of sin, while propitiatio (used elsewhere) addresses God's wrath. This distinction, rooted in Jerome's varied vocabulary for kipper, remains contested in modern theology.

Hebrew nephesh here means 'life' (not 'soul' in the Greek philosophical sense), and dam is blood. Jerome's anima carnis in sanguine est imports the soul-body dualism of Latin anthropology into a Hebrew text about life-force. This fusion of Hebrew vitalism with Latin soul-language produced the distinctive Western theology of blood as soul-bearer, foundational to Eucharistic and atonement doctrine.

The repetition of this formula in Leviticus created what scholars call the 'Holiness Code' (chapters 17-26). Jerome's consistent rendering sanctus/sancti established Latin sanctitas as the primary Western category for moral-spiritual perfection, a term that eventually named the saints (sancti) and sanctification (sanctificatio).

Hebrew re'a (companion, fellow, neighbor) is rendered proximum (the one near, neighbor). Jerome's choice of diliges (from diligere, to esteem, love with choice) rather than amabis (from amare, to love with feeling) made neighbor-love a matter of deliberate will rather than spontaneous affection — a distinction that deeply influenced Western moral theology's treatment of love as duty rather than emotion.

Hebrew kippurim is plural (atonements/coverings). Jerome preserves this plurality with expiationum. The day's Latin name fed directly into Western Good Friday theology, where Christ's death was interpreted as the ultimate dies expiationis fulfilling and surpassing the Levitical original.

The Hebrew simply states equivalence (as he gives, so it shall be given to him). Jerome's addition of cogetur (he shall be forced/compelled) imports state coercion into what the Hebrew presents as proportional principle. This rendering supported Western legal systems that treated talion as mandatory rather than as maximum penalty.

Hebrew yovel likely means 'ram's horn' (the trumpet announcing the year). Jerome's iubileus may derive from Latin iubilare (to shout for joy) rather than from the Hebrew — a folk etymology that nevertheless produced an enormously influential word. The connection of remissio to both economic debt-release and spiritual forgiveness shaped Catholic jubilee theology and social teaching on debt.

Jerome renders the hithpael of halak (to walk about, to go back and forth) with the simple ambulabo (I will walk), losing some of the intimacy of God strolling habitually among the people. Nevertheless, this verse in Latin became the definitive covenant formula cited in Western systematic theology to define the God-people relationship.