Ron,
Quite right. Although I might phrase things a bit differently.
The Neo-Vulgate, although not teaching error – isn’t protected from inserting a less clear rendition of the Teaching.
The Greek clearly has one statement of the truth, and was used by the church at one time or another – so these two – the Vulgate and the Greek – must not teach a contradiction, although they may vary in the clarity with which they teach truth.
Do you have the variant readings of the Greek for John 8:24 handy you are speaking of?
In the text I am looking at, the ambiguity is quite limited – a definite article appears before τι ( why / or something ). So, even as a question – the Greek is making a ‘noun’ statement out of a question.
But in English one can make a statement which is ambiguous in exactly the same way as the Greek – I could say: Jesus, the first “why?” or again, Jesus the first reason.
In either case, the sense of “what I have told you from the first” takes on the notion of “told = word = creation”, and recalls the creative act of Genesis which is also the opening statement of St. John concerning the “word was God.”
But let’s look at the Greek briefly:
John 8:25
ελεγον ουν αυτω : συ τις ει
[They]-said, therefore, to-him: “you – why are-you?”
ειπεν αυτοις ο ιησους την αρχην ο τι και λαλω υμιν
[He]-said to-them, “the Jesus, the first, the ‘why’ and I-am-giving to all-of-you”
alternately, translating “τι” taken as the question type of pronoun eg:“something”
Therefore they said to-him, “you – something are-you?”
[He]-said to-them, “Jesus is the first something and I-am-giving to -all-of-you”
So, I interpret it like this (crudely):
Therefore they said to him: why! you are something?
He said to them, “Jesus [is] the first something and I-am-giving to-all-of-you”
So, I agree – Jesus calls himself the “first” and the “why” in Greek as the Clementine Vulgate translates properly.
But, comparing the English translations – Jesus does not do so in the first person “I” but in the third person by referencing his own name “Jesus”.
Unfortunately, the meaning of Jesus (God Saves) isn’t clear in the Greek (it’s a Hebrew/Aramaic word) – but the odd phrasing of the sentence would surely have made the Greek audience wonder what “Jesus” meant by not saying “I”, but speaking of himself as “Jesus” – a royal statement at least! But more likely calling attention to the fact that his name means something.
I don’t know if even the Greek is much clearer, though, than:
"'what I have been saying to you from the beginning."
For Jesus’ mixed audience clearly does not believe him in any event.
His answer is evasive, in that he is avoiding giving them grounds for accusing him of blasphemy – but at the same time “judging” them (see V. 26) based on scripture.