A letter from Jerome (388?)

Translated letter:

I remember that almost five years ago when I was in Rome and reading Ecclesiastes to Blesilla in order to stimulate her to a contempt for this world and to think that everything she saw in it was nothing, she asked me to discourse on certain obscure things in a little commentary so that she could understand what she was reading without me. But since during the preparation of our work she was removed by sudden death and we did not deserve, o Paula and Eustochium, to have such a one as companion of our lives, I was struck dumb from that wound. Now, in Bethlehem, a smaller city, I give back what I owe to her memory and to you, warning you briefly that I have followed no authority. But transcribing from Hebrew, I added me more in the manner of the septuagint translators, in those things which do not differ much from the Hebrews. Meanwhile, I recalled Aquila and Symmachus and Theodotion, so that I would neither discourage the zeal of the reader with too much novelty nor yet pursue the streams of opinions leaving out the fountain of truth.

Original letter:

Memini me ante hoc ferme quinquennium, cum adhuc Romae essem et Ecclesiasten sanctae Blesille legerem, ut eam ad contemptum istius saeculi provocarem, et omne quod in mundo cerneret, putaret esse pro nihilo, rogatum ab ea, ut in morem commentarioli obscura quaeque dissererem, ut absque me posset intellegere quae legebat. Itaque quoniam in procinctu nostri operis subita morte subtracta est, et non meruimus, o Paula et Eustochium, talem vitae nostrae habere consortem, tantoque vulnere tunc perculsus obmutui; nunc in Bethlehem positus, augustiori videlicet civitate, et illius memoriae et vobis reddo quod debeo, hoc brevite admonens, quod nullius auctoritatem secutus sum; sed de hebraeo transferens, magis me septuaginta interpretum consuetudini coaptavi, in his dumtaxat, quae non multum ab Hebraicis discrepabant. Interdum Aquilae quoque et Symmachi et Theodotionis recordatus sum, ut nec novitate nimia lectoris studium deterrerem, nec rursum contra conscientiam meam, fonte veritatis omisso, opinionum rivulos consectarer.

Historical context:

Jerome sends Paula and Eustochium a work that Paula's daughter, Blesilla, had asked him to write but which her death in 384 interrupted. Blesilla had been a widow living a worldly life, but converted under Jerome's influence to an ascetic life and died shortly after. Her death was blamed by many on Jerome and the monks and after it Jerome left Rome for good.

Printed source:

Praefatio, Commentarius in Ecclesiasten, CCSL 72, p.249

Date:

388?