2. Σωτήρ in the New Testament

Σωτήρ is attested twenty-four times in the editorial text of the Nestle-Aland Novum Testamentum Graece (NA28). The word never occurs as a free-standing title, but refers either to God or, in the majority of the instances, to Jesus.Footnote ⁴ The term is attested in different contexts and with multiple nuances, which will be briefly described below, in order to investigate whether the context might have influenced the choice of the Latin renderings, analysed in the next section.

At Luke 1.47 and 2.11 and Acts 5.31 and 13.23, God and Jesus are named as saviours in that they bring the salvation promised to Israel while, in John 4.42 and at 1 John 4.14, Jesus is acknowledged as the saviour of the world sent by God. Jesus is also called saviour with reference to the parousia, the coming of Christ from heaven (Phil 3.20).

The word occurs in passages in which firmness and witness to faith are encouraged (1 Tim 4.10 and 2 Tim 1.10), and believers are exhorted to live a righteous life founded on the knowledge of Christ (2 Peter 1.11; 2.20; 3.2 and 3.18). Σωτήρ is also attested in relation to Christ as bringer of order between husbands and wives (Eph 5.23), slaves and masters (Titus 2.10), of concordance with rulers (1 Tim 2.3) and within humankind (Titus 3.4 and 6).Footnote ⁵ The epithet is also recurrent at the beginning and ending of some of the Pastoral and Catholic Epistles as a formulaic title of Jesus and God (1 Timothy 1.1; Titus 1.3 and 4; 2 Peter 1.1 and 3.18; Jude 25).Footnote ⁶

The association of the word with κύριος, ‘lord’, (Luke 1.47 and 2.11; Phil 3.20; 2 Peter 1.11, 2.20, 3.2 and 3.18) and ἀρχηγός, ‘prince’ (Acts 5.31) indicates its honorific character and demonstrates that σωτήρ belongs to the semantic sphere of power. The honorific connotation of the title is also well attested in inscriptions dedicated to rulers, in which σωτήρ is usually accompanied by the honorific epithets κτίστης (‘founder’) and ɛὐɛργέτης (‘benefactor’).Footnote ⁷ In addition, some of the collocations of σωτήρ in the New Testament recall phraseologies of the imperial cult. At John 4.42 and 1 John 4.14 Jesus is called ‘saviour of the universe’ (ὁ σωτὴρ τοῦ κόσμου), while at 1 Tim 4.10 God is ‘saviour of all people especially of those who believe’ (σωτὴρ πάντων ἀνθρώπων μάλιστα πιστῶν): similar universalistic claims of salvation, although interpreted in a different way, are frequent in inscriptions dedicated to Roman emperors.Footnote ⁸ Another parallel with the imperial cult is the mention of Jesus’ and God's virtues in the passages of the Pastoral Epistles (Titus 1.3–4 and 1 Tim 1.13–16) and Jude 25, which resemble the celebration of the virtues of the emperors in inscriptions.Footnote ⁹ Moreover, the element of light during the announcement of Jesus’ birth to the shepherds (Luke 2.9) and at 2 Tim 1.10 with reference to the epiphany of Jesus, is a descriptive feature typical of the imperial ceremony known as aduentus.Footnote ¹⁰ The instances of σωτήρ in the Pastoral and Catholic Epistles have been considered by Jung to be deliberate references to the language of imperial cult, which, in his opinion, were part of a missionary strategy aiming at the conversion of gentiles through the use of expressions known to them.Footnote ¹¹ On the other hand, Karrer has argued that these statements have only an apparent similarity with imperial inscriptions, since σωτήρ acquires in the New Testament a christological and eschatological meaning unattested elsewhere: the salvation brought by the emperor is relevant to the earthly world, while that of Jesus applies to the separate dimension of the afterworld.Footnote ¹² Regardless of the intentional or unintentional character of these similarities and the semantic differences between the imperial and Christian message, the language of power is certainly present in the New Testament, as the use of honorific epithets attests. The following section will focus on how the Latin translators rendered σωτήρ in their versions of the New Testament.

3. The Latin Translations of σωτήρ in the New Testament

The terms corresponding to σωτήρ in the Latin versions of the New Testament are saluator, salutaris, conseruator, saluificator, salutificator and salus.Footnote ¹³ An overview of the distribution of these renderings is presented in Table 1 below. The renderings in the Vulgate are shown in the second column, while the renderings supported by the majority of the Old Latin manuscripts and citations of the Church Fathers are indicated in first place in the third column and separated by a square parenthesis from other variants found in the Vetus Latina tradition in each verse.Footnote ¹⁴

Table 1. Renderings of σωτήρ in the Latin New Testament

The synopsis of the renderings of σωτήρ shows that saluator and salutaris are the most frequent translations in the Latin New Testament. The Vulgate attests saluator in most instances and salutaris three times at Luke 1.47; 1 Tim 2.3; and Titus 2.10, in passages in which the majority of the Old Latin sources also feature salutaris. The alternation between saluator and salutaris is more prominent in the Vetus Latina than in the Vulgate: variations internal to the Vetus Latina are attested in most instances, except Acts 5.31; Eph 5.23; 2 Peter 3.18; 1 John 4.14; and Jude 25. The renderings salutificator/saluificator in Tertullian's biblical text (Phil 3.20; 1 Tim 2.3; and 4.10) and conseruator (Luke 2.11; 2 Peter 1.11 and 2.20), which is attested predominantly in citations, are each used three times whereas salus is present twice (John 4.42 and 1 Tim 4.10) and once in conjunction with conseruator at Luke 2.11. A difference in meaning between salutaris and saluator is not noticeable, although, from the morphological perspective, the latter was probably perceived to be a closer match for the noun σωτήρ than the adjective salutaris.Footnote ¹⁵ Not only morphological considerations, but also other factors might have influenced the prevalence of one rendering over the others. Latin versions sometimes attest a preference for a particular rendering throughout a manuscript. For example, salutaris is used at Acts 13.23 and 2 Tim 1.10 in VL 32 and at 2 Peter 1.1 and 2 Peter 1.11 in VL 55. The choice of the renderings could also be motivated by stylistic reasons, for instance at Titus 2.10 and 2.13, where the sources of text type I feature saluator and salutaris respectively, possibly to introduce lexical variations between neighbouring passages. The prevalence of a particular rendering in certain geographical areas may have also fostered a particular word. The table attests to the frequency of salutaris in text type I of the Pauline Epistles, which was in circulation in the mid-fourth century in Italy, and in other sources connected to Northern Italy, such as Ambrose, Ambrosiaster and manuscript Γ^A (Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, E. 53 inf.), transmitting a text in use in Milan.Footnote ¹⁶

Notably, the socio-political context in which these terms were used might have favoured one rendering to the detriment of the others. The diachronic distribution of the Latin renderings of σωτήρ, the moment at which they emerged and especially the semantic areas with which they were associated, cast light on their cultural and social connotations and possibly on the reasons behind their use.

The earliest attestations of salutaris go back to the first century bce: in its more general sense, the adjective means ‘beneficial’, but it is usually employed in a medical context and in metaphors related to well-being with the meaning ‘healthful’.Footnote ¹⁷ In literary sources, it refers to objects and rarely to people: however, in Suetonius, Tiberius is bonus et salutaris princeps (Tiberius 29). The contemporary inscription to Augusta salutaris from Africa Proconsularis (TM 200458), dated to 30 ce, might refer to Livia, the late wife of Augustus and mother of the current emperor Tiberius, but it is not sufficient to demonstrate a widespread use of the adjective as honorific epithet.Footnote ¹⁸ On the other hand, the religious connotation of salutaris is well attested in Cicero, who shows that the term belongs to religious discourse as an epithet of Jupiter (De finibus 3.20.66). A closer examination of the epigraphic witnesses that have been preserved, shows that salutaris is a title of various gods.Footnote ¹⁹ Jupiter is invoked as salutaris in eight votive inscriptions, and the connection with the semantic sphere of health is found in the epigraphic witnesses in which the god is thanked for assistance in matters of health: healing from a serious disease (TM 475721 and TM 404734), protection of personal and family health (TM 190694) and in a votive inscription dedicated by a doctor of the fleet of Ravenna (TM 509936).Footnote ²⁰ According to other inscriptions, however, the epithet is bestowed on the Nymphs and Fortuna more frequently than on Jupiter, nine and eight times respectively, and once together for the protection of the brother and family of the dedicator (HD 075021).Footnote ²¹ It is not surprising that the epithet is used of Aesculapius, the god of medicine, and Hygieia, goddess of health, who are often invoked together.Footnote ²² Similarly, Apollo, father of Aesculapius, is invoked as protector of family health with the title salutaris (TM 178515), as well as salutaris and medicinalis (EDR 161197). It is unclear for what functions and merits Hercules, Silvanus, Genius and Sol are given the epithet.Footnote ²³ The title is collectively bestowed on Apollo, Diana, Leto and other local gods and goddesses (TM 178416), to the Lares (TM 279087), who were the gods of the household, on the gods in general (dii), the gods of war (dii militares) and on the local dii Mauri invoked by officers serving in the province of Mauretania.Footnote ²⁴

The numismatic attestations of salutaris are not numerous: the word refers to gods on thirteen types of coin.Footnote ²⁵ It is possible to conclude that salutaris was employed to indicate the saviour in Roman religion, as well as to express the Christian concept of salvation in biblical translations.Footnote ²⁶

Unlike salutaris, saluator is a Christian neologism, attested from the third century onwards (Tertullian, Aduersus Marcionem 3.18.3 and 4.14.2), in order to be the Latin term corresponding to σωτήρ, as Augustine states (Sermo 299.6 and De trinitate 13.10) when interpreting the name Jesus as saluator.Footnote ²⁷ The affirmation of Augustine is corroborated by the lack of non-Christian inscriptions and numismatic witnesses which attest saluator in the period preceding the third century.Footnote ²⁸ Saluator is, therefore, a specialised term coined by Christian writers to match σωτήρ on the basis of the verb saluare, which translates σῴζω.Footnote ²⁹ This is not the only neologism translating σωτήρ in the biblical versions: the renderings salutificator and saluificator are first attested in Tertullian's writings and possibly coined by him.Footnote ³⁰ The corresponding verb saluificare is attested later than the noun, in fourth-century writings, according to the sources preserved.Footnote ³¹ Attestations of saluificator in the following centuries are scarce: Jerome interprets the name Moses as saluificator (Liber interpretationis hebraicorum nominum p. 42.24 ed. Lagarde), and Hilary of Poitiers employs the term in his quotations of Phil 3.20 (Tractatus super psalmos: psalmi 131.26 and 141.8).Footnote ³² According to de Labriolle, saluator and saluificator/salutificator were coined because conseruator and salutaris, which indicated protection and preservation of life, were incompatible with the Christian concept of salvation after death.Footnote ³³ However, the epigraphic and numismatic evidence suggests that salutaris was employed in the Latin New Testament, in continuity and in parallel with its use in Roman religion. The case of conseruator, which is a rarer rendering than salutaris in the Latin New Testament, appears to be different: the next section will therefore discuss the political connotation of conseruator and its implications for the biblical translations.

4. Conseruator as a Religious and Political Title in Coins

The coinage of matching words for σωτήρ, saluator and saluificator/salutificator, which appeared as early as in the third century, indicate that the existing terms, conseruator and salutaris, were not perceived as adequate translations of the Greek epithet.Footnote ³⁴ As demonstrated above, salutaris was a title with a strong religious connotation used to refer to gods as protectors of physical health. The term was also subject to semantic extension and was sporadically employed in the Vetus Latina and Vulgate to refer to Christian salvation.Footnote ³⁵ On the other hand, conseruator represents a more radical case of a word with a marked religious and political connotation. In most of the attestations of the term in Cicero's writings, conseruator is the protector of the state and of its institutions troubled by the civil wars.Footnote ³⁶ In this sense, it became a title of Augustus, who presented himself as the restorer of Rome after the civil wars, and of his successors: conseruator gradually became an encomiastic and formulaic title of Roman emperors, regardless of their real merits.Footnote ³⁷ More than seventy honorific inscriptions dated to the imperial period demonstrate the wide circulation of conseruator in the political language of the time as the Latin corresponding word for the honorific epithet σωτήρ, which is well attested in inscriptions dedicated to the emperors in the eastern provinces of the empire.Footnote ³⁸ Moreover, conseruator is the epithet of Olympian, eastern and minor Roman gods in over 500 epigraphic attestations as well as in a few literary sources.Footnote ³⁹ Coins offer additional support to the claim that conseruator was a specialised term in the religious and political discourse of imperial Rome. In his survey of the attestations of conseruator in literature and coins, Alföldi has observed that the legend OB CIVES SERVATOS, which is semantically equivalent to conseruator, was more popular than the title in coins.Footnote ⁴⁰ Since Alföldi's studies, 1228 types of coin attesting conseruator can be identified, while the total number of preserved coins is even higher, given that the same type can be represented in more than one coin.Footnote ⁴¹

In 114 coin types, conseruator refers to Roman rulers. The concept of the conseruatio rei publicae is present in the denarii of Augustus: four types dated to 18 bce (RIC I (second edition) Augustus 96–101) have the legend S(enatus) P(opulus)Q(ue) R(omanus) P(arenti) CONS(eruatori) SVO on the obverse and CAESARI AVGVSTO on the reverse, whereas two types dated to 16 bce (RIC I (second edition) Augustus 356–7) read S(enatus) C(onsulto) OB R(em) P(ublicam) CVM SALVT(e) IMP(eratoris) CAESAR(is) AVGVS(ti) CONS(eruatam) on the obverse.Footnote ⁴² The position of the legend with conseruator on the obverse is peculiar to Augustus’ coins: in the following types, the title mainly appears on the reverse together with a figure or symbol of a god and refers to the god protector of the emperor rather than to the emperor himself.Footnote ⁴³ Nonetheless, in a few types dated to the second half of the third century, the epithet refers directly to the emperors when it is accompanied by their bust, which, in these cases, is imprinted on both sides of the coins. Conseruator is part of formulaic expressions which emphasise the virtues of the emperors, mostly pertaining to the military and moral sphere: Gallienus is CONSERVATORI ORBIS, CONSERVAT(or) PIETAT(is) and CONSERVATOR EXERC(itus or -itum); Claudius Gothicus CONSERVAT(or) PIETAT(is); Aurelian AVG(ustus) CONS(eruator) and CONS(eruator) PRINC(eps) AVG(ustus); and Tacitus CONSERVATOR MILIT(um).Footnote ⁴⁴ At the beginning of the fourth century, the title is associated with Maxentius, Maximian and Constantine in the collocation CONSERVATOR/CONSERVATORES VRB(is) SVAE which stresses the centrality of Rome, depicted on the reverse.Footnote ⁴⁵ These rulers are also defined as CONSERVATOR/CONSERVATORES KART(aginis) SVAE and CONSERVATOR AFRICAE SVAE with Carthage and Africa represented on the reverse.Footnote ⁴⁶

The coins in which conseruator refers to the protective deities of the emperors are more numerous than those in which the noun is the epithet of rulers: 1114 types of coin associate conseruator with gods. Gods of the Roman pantheon are invoked as conseruatores of the emperors, such as Jupiter (711 types), Mars (157), Apollo (63), Hercules (55), Neptune (10), Asclepius (4), Liberus (4), Mercury (3), Janus (1) and the Dioscuri (1), as well as the eastern gods Sol (54), Elagabal (7) and Serapis (2). In a few types, the epithet is bestowed on the goddesses Diana (12) and Juno (8) and in one type on either Minerva or Roma.Footnote ⁴⁷ The gods are sometimes mentioned in pairs: Jupiter and Hercules (12), Jupiter and Fortuna (3), Mars and Victoria (2), Apollo and Diana (2), Jupiter and Victoria (1) and Minerva and Hercules (1). By the mid-fourth century, no coins with conseruator referring either to gods or emperors were minted any more according to the surviving evidence.

The numismatic evidence demonstrates that in the imperial period conseruator was a political and religious title widespread throughout the empire.

Coins minted between the end of the third and the beginning of the fourth century ce were means of propaganda aiming to reinforce imperial power in a period of great political instability, in which emperors were acclaimed and overthrown by the army.Footnote ⁴⁸ The legends conseruator militum and conseruator exercitus indicate that soldiers, who were paid in coins, were recipients and distributors of this propaganda. Coins have been discovered in contested areas of the empire: RIC V Gallienus 171A was found in Britannia, controlled by the usurper Postumus.Footnote ⁴⁹ The coinage of Tacitus with the legend conseruator militum (RIC V Tacitus 191–4) was minted in Serdica, modern Bulgaria, and was possibly distributed to the soldiers defending the Black Sea against barbarian attacks.Footnote ⁵⁰ Not only did the large-scale message delivered by coins reach the army, but also the literate and semi-literate population which is likely to have been aware of the religious and political undertones of conseruator.Footnote ⁵¹ Consequently, the political connotation of conseruator was widespread, at least among educated Romans, at the time in which the New Testament was translated into Latin.

5. Conseruator in the Latin New Testament and Patristic Literature

The numerous attestations of conseruator on coins contrast with the scarce use of the word in the Latin New Testament and patristic literature. As outlined above, conseruator is attested once in a manuscript and in four patristic writings quoting Luke 2.11 and 2 Peter 1.11 and 2.20. The rendering conseruator salutis at Luke 2.11 seems to be connected to a biblical text circulating in Ireland, as it is attested in VL 14 (Dublin, Trinity College 55, Codex Usserianus primus), a seventh-century Old Latin manuscript copied in Ireland and belonging to the Gallo-Irish manuscript group, and the Catechesis celtica (abbreviated in the Vetus Latina edition as AN Wil 11, Luke 2.11 p. 93 and line 156, p. 103).Footnote ⁵² The latter is a collection of homilies with a probable Irish affiliation transmitted by a single manuscript (MS Vat. Reg. lat. 49).Footnote ⁵³ In 2 Peter, the rendering conseruator is exclusively attested in patristic citations. In order to demonstrate that the reign of the Father and the Son is not divided, Ambrose (De fide 3.12.93 ed. Faller) quotes 2 Peter 1.10–11 in a unique textual form, indicated by Thiele as text type M, without any adjustment of the biblical text to the context of the passage.Footnote ⁵⁴ 2 Peter 2.20 is also cited verbatim by Augustine in two consistent citations of the same verse (De fide et operibus 24.45 and 25.46) and by Salvian of Marseilles (De gubernatione Dei 4.93) in support of their claims.

Conseruator is attested twenty-five times in patristic writings outside biblical citations. If the instances in which conseruator stands for ‘keeper’ and is not used as epithet of God and Christ are excluded, thirteen attestations remain, of which eight refer to God and five to Jesus.Footnote ⁵⁵ Ambrose employs the term in an absolute manner with reference to God in De Abraham 1.3.17, in which the one who fights for glory and not for a reward, is said to be worthy of the glory of the saviour (dignus habetur conseruatoris gloriae). The remaining attestations of conseruator can be classified in three groups according to their collocations. The first group contains the word in fixed formulae (Cyprian, Epistle 76; Zeno of Verona Tractatus 1.13.136 and 1.26.10). The second has the meaning ‘protector’ of humankind and refers to God (Tertullian, De resurrectione mortuorum 58.35 and De cultu feminarum 1.3.1; Arnobius the Younger, Commentarii in Psalmos 72.39; Orosius, Historiarum aduersum paganos 1.3.3.2) and Christ (Maximus of Turin, Sermo 73.26; Arnobius the Elder, Aduersus nationes 2.63–4). The third group attests conseruator in lists of epithets of God and Christ (Arnobius the Elder, Aduersus nationes 2.65; John Cassian, De incarnatione Domini contra Nestorium 6.19).

The noun is part of recurrent formulae attested at the beginning or at the end of letters and treatises (group 1): conseruator is employed in the salutation of Epistle 76 of Cyprian, in which the recipients of the letter are called martyrs of Jesus and of God our saviour (conseruatoris nostri). The formula per dominum et conseruatorem nostrum Iesum Christum features at the end of two treatises of Zeno of Verona. In the passages in which the term is an epithet of God and Christ (group 2), it means ‘protector’ of humans and of their body. Tertullian (De resurrectione mortuorum 58.35) when arguing in favour of the resurrection of the body, calls God ‘saviour of the flesh’ (carnis magis utique conseruatorem).Footnote ⁵⁶ In another context, Tertullian affirms that God is the saviour of Noah from the flood (De cultu feminarum 1.3.1). God is presented as protector (conseruator) of the believers in Arnobius the Younger (Commentarii in Psalmos 72.39), while Christ is defined as protector in evil things (in malis noster est conseruator) by Maximus of Turin (Sermo 73.26).Footnote ⁵⁷ In Orosius (Historiarum aduersum paganos 1.3.3.2), God is called conseruator humilium, ‘protector of the humble’, for averting a natural disaster after listening to the prayers of the emperor Arcadius and of the Christians.

Conseruator is attested three times in Aduersus nationes 2.63–5 in which Arnobius the Elder reports and replies to the arguments of his adversaries. In the answer to the question concerning the destiny of men who lived before Christ, the latter is defined as saviour (conseruator) of humankind from death (2.63). In the following counterargument of the gentiles, who complain that salvation is not universal, Christ is named conseruator generis humani (2.64) with the same meaning as above. Once again, conseruator is used in the objection of the adversaries as an epithet of God (si deus est potens misericors conseruator) with the meaning ‘protector’ (2.65). The language of Arnobius might reflect that of his opponents, considering that two out of three instances of conseruator are attested in the questions, albeit artificial, expressing criticism of the gentiles.Footnote ⁵⁸ This hypothesis is reinforced by a further occurrence of conseruator in Arnobius (7.48) in which the term refers to a pagan deity, Aesculapius, transformed into the snake living on the Tiber Island and deliverer of the plague.

In the lists of epithets of God and Christ (group 3), conseruator stands together with other titles, such as in the aforementioned passage of Aduersus nationes 2.65. The collocation of the term in John Cassian's list of epithets of Christ is hominum conseruator (De incarnatione Domini contra Nestorium 6.19), which is a further instance of the meaning ‘protector of humankind’ common to the sources included in group 2. A further attestation connected with group 3, in which conseruator is not a Christian title, is found in Lactantius: when he summarises the stoic doctrine according to which grace but not wrath are qualities of God, he includes the term conseruator in a list of epithets of the stoic God, lenis tranquillus propitius beneficus conseruator (De ira Dei 5.5). The epithet can be interpreted as ‘keeper of the universe’ from a stoic perspective, and it was probably employed in this passage because of its pagan connotation.Footnote ⁵⁹ The passages of Arnobius the Elder and Lactantius demonstrate that conseruator was anchored to Roman religion and stoicism. It is possible to conclude from the analysis of the New Testament and patristic instances of conseruator that the word is a niche rendering in Christian literature, in which it is less frequent than in imperial inscriptions and coins. The most plausible reason for this discrepancy will be given in the final section of this contribution.