St Jerome, Prologus in Pentateucho:
Aliud est enim vatem, aliud esse interpretem: ibi spiritus ventura praedicit, hic eruditio et verborum copia ea quae intellegit transfert; nisi forte putandus est Tullius Oeconomicum Xenofontis et Platonis Protagoram et Demosthenis Pro Ctesifonte afflatus rethorico spiritu transtulisse, aut aliter de hisdem libris per Septuaginta interpretes, aliter per Apostolos Spiritus Sanctus testimonia texuit, ut quod illi tacuerunt, hii scriptum esse mentiti sint. Quid igitur? Damnamus veteres? Minime; sed post priorum studia in domo Domini quod possumus laboramus. Illi interpretati sunt ante adventum Christi et quod nesciebant dubiis protulere sententiis, nos post passionem et resurrectionem eius non tam prophetiam quam historiam scribimus; aliter enim audita, aliter visa narrantur: quod melius intellegimus, melius et proferimus. Audi igitur, aemule, obtrectator ausculta: non damno, non reprehendo Septuaginta, sed confidenter cunctis illis Apostolos praefero. Per istorum os mihi Christus sonat, quos ante prophetas inter spiritalia charismata positos lego, in quibus ultimum paene gradum interpretes tenent.Biblia sacra iuxta vulgatam versionem, ed. by B Fischer, I. Gribomont, et al., 5th edn (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 2006), pp. 3-4. My translation.
Indeed, it is one thing to be a prophet and another to be a translator: in the case of the first, the Spirit foretells things to come, in the case of the later, learning and power of expression translates what it understands. Unless perhaps Cicero ought to be understood to have translated the Oeconomicus of Xenophon, the Protagorus of Plato and the Oratio pro corona of Demosthenes under the inspiration of the rhetorical spirit, or that the Holy Spirit carefully build up evidence through the Seventy translators in one way, and through the Apostles in another way, so that the Seventy passed over in silence what the Apostles feign to have been written. What now then? Do we condemn the old? Not at all, but after we labour over the works of those who came before us, we do what we can in the house of the Lord. The Seventy translated before the coming of Christ and when faced with what they did not understand they rendered it into dubious translations. But after His Passion and Resurrection we write not so much prophecy as history; for what we have heard we tell one way and what he have seen we tell another way: what we understand better we translate better. Now listen, envious one. Hear me, critic. I do not blame the Seventy, but I dare to place the Apostles before them all. Christ speaks to me through the mouths of those whom I read [in 1 Cor. 12:28] are placed before the prophets on account of their spiritual gifts, in which the translators hold almost the highest place.