A letter from Jerome (410-414)

Translated letter:

Having finished the eighteen books of exposition on Isaiah, I wanted to go on to Ezekiel, which I had often promised to you and your mother of holy memory, Paula, o virgin of Christ Eustochium, and to put my last hand, as they say, to the prophetic work, when suddenly the dormition [death] of Pammachius and Marcella in the siege of the Roman city, and of many brothers and sisters was announced. And alarmed, I was so benumbed that I could think of nothing else for days and nights but the safety of all and I believed myself to be captive in the captivity of the saints, nor could I open my mouth unless I learned something more certain while I was suspended in my care between hope and despair, crucifying myself for the evils of others. Indeed after the brightest light of earth was exstinguished, rather the head of the Roman empire was cut off and, to speak truly, the whole world was killed in one city, "I was mute and humiliated and silent about the good, and my sorrow was renewed; my heart grew hot within me, and fire burned as I mused" [Ps.38:3-4], nor did I think that opinion should be neglected, "music in time of mourning is ill-timed narrative" [Eccli.22:6]. But since you ceaselessly urge this and a scar slowly covers the great wound, and the scorpion is under ground between Enceladus and Prophyrian Sicily,(1) and the hydra of many heads has ceased somewhat to hiss against us, and time is given in which we should not respond to the plots of heretics but work on the exposition of scriptures, I shall approach the prophet Ezekiel whose difficulty the Hebrew tradition declares. For unless one has reached the age of priestly ministry, that is the thirtieth year, one is not allowed to read the beginning of Genesis, nor the Song of Songs, nor the beginning and end of this book, so that the full time of human nature may reach complete learning and mystical understanding. If through the mercy of God I bring this work to conclusion, I shall go on to Jeremiah, who in his Lamentations mourned the four wounds/plagues of the world in the figure of Jerusalem with a quadriplex alphabet. Book II: This is the beginning of the second book of expositions on Ezekiel, o virgin of Christ, Eustochium. Book III: Nothing is long that has an end and the whole completed series of times past is no use unless it prepares the provisions for the journey which always look to the future, rather to eternity, and have no term. It is a true judgment that "all things which are born die and what grows grows old," and elsewhere "nothing is made by work and hand that age does not weaken and consume." Who would believe that the Rome erected with victories over the whole world would fall, that she who was mother to her peoples would become a tomb, that all the shores of the east, of Egypt, of Africa would be filled with the servants and handmaids of the once dominant city, that daily holy Bethlehem would receive as beggars the once noble and affluent with all wealth of either sex? With whom, since we do not have the resources, can we share the suffering and join tears to tears. Occupied with the burden of holy work, when we cannot bear to see the influx without a sigh, we put aside the expositions on Ezekiel and almost all study of scriptures, and desire to turn words into works, and not say holy things but do them. But again forcefully reminded by you, o virgin of Christ Eustochium, we pick up the interrupted labor and having approached the third book, we desire to satisfy your desire, beseeching you and others who will read it that they consider not our strengths but the vow, for human fragility is one thing, a holy desire in the Lord is another. Book IV: I would prefer, if it were possible, Eustochium, to construct the explanations of Ezekiel in single books for each prophecy, and never divide in exposition what is joined in a prediction, so the course of dictating as well as of reading would be easier. I would separate the long and immeasurable road of interpretation with certain spaces and with titles and indices and, to speak more properly, I would show with arguments what the individual books contain. But what shall I do, when some prophecies are brief, others long, so we are often compelled by necessity to compress several into one book and divide one into many? Whence now we wish to comprise in the fourth book a catalogue also of the vices of Jerusalem, to the elders of the people of Israel and to the land over which the four worst wounds/plagues were spread, in contrast to the prophets and prophetesses, and about the tree of life which when it is cut is useless among all the trees of the forests. Which, since the constraint of one book does not allow, we reserve another part of it to the fifth book, warning the sollicitude of the very prudent reader what is to explained in this book and what must be read for oneself. Book V: Lest the number of the books be confused, and the order of the divided volumes be corrupted from the long intervals of time, I have set little prefaces before the individual books, so that from the title the reader might know immediately which book should be read and which prophecy is to be explained. Thus, in the past volume, the fourth, I discussed with a brief speech as best I could a part of the prophecy against Jerusalem, which begins, "your origin and your birth were in the land of the Canaanites" [Ezek.16:3], up to the place where it is written: "I nourished you with wheat and oil and honey and you set it before them as a pleasing odor" [16:9]. Now the remaining part of that prophecy with the others that follow in the fifth volume is dedicated to your name, Eustochium; in which you will find nothing from rhetoric, nothing from composition and the beauty of words, but a care for simple and skilful diligence, and my only praise will be if you understand what is said in the prophecy through me. Book VI: I thought that, with the middling serpent struck down, the shoots of the new hydra would not come to life and, according to the fables of the poets, with Scylla dead, the Scyllaean dogs would not rage against me, who do not cease to bark, and with the heretics struck by the hand of God lest they attempt, "if possible, even the chosen of God" [Matth.24:24], but that heresy did not die, and they left behind the young dogs as the heirs of their hatred against us, which simulating our things, do not abandon the poisons of the ancient mother and the deceitful Ulysses, and smear honey on their lips and, with the eloquence of scripture, soften their words beyond oil, but they are darts, and fiery darts which must be repelled with the shield of faith and extinguished. I have said these things, daughter Eustochium, so that you would help me laboring in the prophetic work and resisting heretical orations, and the Lord would set out the sixth volume of explanations on Ezechiel in my mouth with his meaning, and with the grace of his Spirit, by which the prophecies we read are revealed, they also be revealed to us discussing them, so that we can say: "I have opened my mouth and attracted the spirit" [Ps.118:131]. Book VII: As children long ago we read: "nothing is so easy that it cannot become difficult if you do it unwillingly." I confess that I promised the expositions on Ezekiel long since and could not fulfill it because I was occupied with the people coming here from the whole world, for there is no hour and no moment in which we do not meet crowds of brothers and exchange the solitude of the monastery for frequency of guests, inasmuch as either we must shut the door or the studies of scriptures for which the gates are to be opened must be abandoned, so with the gained or rather stolen [hours] of night work, which begin to be longer as winter approaches, we try to dictate these things by whatever small light and dissipate the weariness/disgust of the burning spirit by interpretation. We do not boast, as some might suspect, of the reception of the brothers, but simply acknowledge the causes of delay, especially since the flight of the westerners and the dense crowding of the holy places, with the nudity and wounds of the indigent, sets before us the rage of the barbarians. We cannot see them without tears and sighs or that what was once power and indifference to wealth should have reached such need, that it lacks a roof and food and clothes, and yet the hard and cruel souls of some are never softened as they disperse their rags and bundles, seeking gold in captivity. Added to this the difficulty of dictating, because with eyes darkening in old age and enduring something like blessed Isaac, we are never able to reread the Hebrew books by nocturnal light, which also by the brightness of sun and day are blinded for us by the smallness of letters. And we investigate the commentaries of the Greek brothers only by voice; and no one can doubt that food softened by another's teeth is nauseating to an eater. Whence I beseech you, daughter Eustochium, that these things which we hammer out with the pen of secretaries with scarce time for corrections, that is the seventh book on Ezekiel, you take up after the interruption and, as I have said before, if the brevity or length of books is unequal, impute it to the brevity or length of the visions or “hypotheseon” [Grk] since we do not wish to separate what is joined and compress dissonant things into one mass. Book VIII: What use our dictation on the prophets may be to others is for God's judgment and their knowledge who want to know, without declaiming and applause and rhetorical composition, what their [the prophets'] speech tells of the past or shows in the present or predicts in the future. For us the first use is that while we do this and think of nothing else we approach the expositions like a thief, and make up for the miseries of the days by the night study. The soul is nourished and forgets the calamities of the world which groans already at its last limit and labors until who restrains it is removed [2Thess.2:7] and the feet of the statue, once iron, are crumbled by the fragility of breakable toes. The world falls and the raised neck is not bent; riches perish and avarice never ceases; they hasten to assemble what are again seized by others; tears dry up, all piety is gone; there are many who ask, few who give. Nor do we blush, preferring poverty to a vile little cloak, to brood over the wealth of Croesus, to care for the hunger and destruction of many with our treasures, following that high-ranking rich man, who as he did nothing else scripture does not testify to his plundering and iniquity, but his cruelty and pride have no measure: to Lazarus lying before his gate half-dead, he ordered not even those things which are thrown to dogs to be given. How many Lazaruses now lie, and how many purples [high ranks] are protected by different colors of clothes, not even turning to their own use the things that will perish, they preserve them. These things, virgin of Christ Eustochium, the mouth spoke from the abundance of the heart and we said them a little more freely than is suitable to our humility. For the rest, the eighth book on Ezekiel which contains the rebuke of the sons of Ammon and other peoples and future predictions, begins thus.

Book IX: It was reasonable, daughter Eustochium, that I include the prophecy of Tyre and of the prince of Tyre in one book and not separate by the order of books what is joined by place and prediction. But since there are more things to be said and they exceed the measure of prolixity, the explanation was deferred to the ninth book which with your prayers and those of all the saints we believe will come to a conclusion, so that we may discuss what is written in Ezekiel against Pharaoh and all of Egypt. Which for its length we have divided into the tenth book by which the measure of the books among themselves is preserved and, divided in parts, the labor of dictator, writer, and reader recovers.

Book X: I would prefer, as I have said before, to explain the prophecies against one province or one king in the same book and never divide the reader’s thought; but what shall I do about the length which, unless it is divided into parts, exceeds the measure of a book and presents an infinite series of problems as much to the dictator as to the reader? Accordingly, after the speech against Egypt and its lament and the king of Egypt, about whose arm we said in the last part of the ninth book it would never be covered up nor restored to its previous health, we go on to the beginning of the tenth book against the same Pharaoh king of Egypt who is compared to the Assyrian king and after a very long prophecy a lamentation is made over him and then against all Egypt. In examining which, o virgin of Christ Eustochium, raise your hands with Moses so that our victory may be the fruit of your prayers, for “it depends not on the one willing nor on the one running, but on God who shows mercy” [Rom.9:16], who spoke to the prophet: “open your mouth and I shall fill it” [Ps.80:11] and the prophet answered the Lord, “I opened my mouth and I drew in the spirit” [Ps.118:131] which “blows where it chooses” [John 3:8]. “Yet where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” [2Cor.2:17]. God endowed us with this freedom which the Jews in vain claimed to have, saying: “we are the seed of Abraham, we have never served anyone,” though they were subject to many sins and vices and did not know that judgment: “one is a slave to the one he is conquered by” [2Petr.2:19].

Book XI: The eleventh book of explanations on Ezekiel will contain in its last part the prediction against Gog and Magog up to the beginning of the city placed on the mountain and the temple set in it where Jerusalem will come. Which if, with the Lord helping and examining its mysteries, I can bring to its end, I will have many and long doubts whether I should put my hand to the spiritual temple or openly confess my ignorance, especially when there is a great silence among the Jews and us on its interpretation, some thinking it is to be built in a future time, others with good spirit but no training knowing there are said to be spiritual things and yet not knowing how those spiritual things should be discussed. And meanwhile, as the care of the present work holds us, you know, o virgin of Christ Eustochium, that you must pray for us. On the most difficult prophecy, I shall briefly remind [you] that a man of our age [Ambrose], not ignoble, said writing to the emperor about this nation: “this Gog is the Goth”; with what reason all things which are written in it can be brought together, it is not for me but those who think this to speak.

Book XII: My hesitation to explain the temple of Ezekiel, or rather my insistence on being silent, has been conquered by your prayers, daughter Eustochium, and the promises of the Lord who says: “ask and it will be given you; search and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you” [Matth.7:7]. And since we used as our excuse, as we said in the end of the previous book: “it is better to say nothing than to say little,” you turned it around saying you prefer that we say at least a little to saying nothing, since a prompt will in one is despair over the whole work in another, and you recall that it is in the nature of men that they are not as grateful for what you give, as sad about what you refuse. For we praise virtues with less zeal than we reprove vices and, although bodies may be beautiful, they are more noteworthy for the crookedness and deformity of one limb. I obey your will, therefore, and with the holy spirit blowing I raise my sails, not knowing to what shores I shall come and crying out with this same prophet, “come spirit, from the four winds” of heaven [Ezek.37:9]. To the fastidious reader, or rather to the one who will read our things with hostile spirit, I announce with complete freedom on the explanation of the temple that, if he desires truth, he should seek it from others; we on the other hand can surmise things in this most difficult work and acknowledge simply and dictate, giving thanks to the Lord if he opened the gates of learning to us not in all things, which is impossible, but in many. For, as the sublime orator [Cicero] says, “what comes first to an adherent, can also honorably stand second or third.”

Book XIII: The thirteenth book of explanations of Ezekiel is the second book on the temple, which the fourteenth also, with our Saviour assisting, I am eager to dictate to the end, singing that of the same number with David in the fourteenth psalm: “Lord, who will live in your tent? Or who will rest on your holy mountain?” [Ps.14:1] which we ought to take as difficult and impossible. Afterwards in another place, like a man of longings, he prays earnestly and says: “one thing I asked of the Lord that I will seek after: to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the delight of the Lord and visit his holy temple” [Ps.26:4] and again he says: “how lovely is your dwelling place/tent, lord of hosts. My soul longs, it faints for the courts of the Lord [Ps.83:1-2]. I anticipate the curses of my rivals, who consider not what they can do but what I cannot and when they judge our things do not offer their own to be judged, never fighting in the arena but judging fighters with lazy or rather proud spirit. It is easy to give what is dictated by the people and to slander single blows and laugh about foreign blood and discuss where the wound should be inflicted, in the manner of an inexperienced trainer. I, in my explanation of the temple of Ezekiel and other things which pertain to the end of that book, confess I am worthy to write nothing because of the magnitude of the thing, and to thank the Saviour for the few things, if I deserve to receive them. For it is written: “unless you believe, you do not understand” [Isa.7:9 LXX] and in another place: “if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed and you say to this mountain `move from here and transplant to the sea’ it will be done” [Matth.17:19]. And the apostle reminds us that the grain of mustard seed is not a small portion of faith but the whole faith, saying: “and if I have all faith so as to move mountains” [1Cor.13:2], even if the grain of mustard seed had been small: “it grew into a large tree and birds of the sky nested in its branches” [Luke 13:19]. Because of this, I wish to call you as witness, my daughter Eustochium, who willingly accept our things, whatever they are; and I remind you briefly from the rhetor Victorinus, that you know the obscurity of books comes from three things: either the magnitude of the thing, or the teacher’s lack of training, or the obstinacy of the audience. Of which I openly acknowledge the first and second in this work, while the keenness of your wit and your desire for scriptures easily rejects the third, [you] who possess God as your not frequent but perpetual guest, with virginal prerogative and way of life. Therefore we seize the thirteenth book on Ezekiel, of which this is the beginning.

Book XIV: What I should have said in the beginning on the temple of Ezekiel, I shall now say at the end, with the order reversed, mindful of that little verse: “Here the labor, that house and inextricable error” [Aen.6.27], about which the poet sings in another place: the labyrinth in high Crete had a path built out of blind walls, an ambiguous maze of a thousand ways, … that mocked all signs of finding a way out a puzzle … irresolvable and irretaceable [Aen.588-91].(2) So I, having entered on the ocean of holy scriptures and mysteries of God shall speak like the labyrinth about which it is written: “he put his refuge in darkness” and “clouds are all around him” [Ps.96:2]. I do not dare to claim perfect knowledge of truth for myself but I know I have offered some disclosures to those desiring doctrine not by my strength but by the mercy of Christ who, to us wandering, “helped resolve the wiles and mazes, guiding the blind footsteps” [Aen.6.29-30] with the holy Spirit. Following which we shall be able to reach the harbor of expositions of the prophet Ezekiel, in which this is the last, the fourteenth book. Which if, with you praying, virgin of Christ Eustochium, I shall bring to its end, and if the Lord grants the space of this life, I shall cross over to Jeremiah who alone of the prophets remains to us. Whose interpretation will rest on my labor and your prayers, but especially on the indulgence of Christ.

Original letter:

Finitis in Esaia decem et octo explanationum voluminibus, ad Hiezechiel, quod tibi et sanctae memoriae matri tuae Paulae, o virgo Christi Eustochium, saepe pollicitus sum, transire cupiebam et extremam, ut dicitur, manum operi imponere prophetali, et ecce mihi subito mors Pammachii atque Marcellae, romanae urbis obsidio, multorumque fratrum et sororum dormitio nuntiata est. Atque ita consternatus obstupui, ut nihil aliud diebus ac noctibus nisi de salute omnium cogitarem meque in captivitate sanctorum putarem esse captivum, nec possem prius ora reserare nisi aliquid certius discerem dum inter spem et desperationem sollicitus pendeo aliorumque malis me crucio. Postquam vero clarissimum terrarum omnium lumen exstinctum est, immo romani imperii truncatum caput et, ut verius dicam, in una urbe totus orbis interiit, obmutui et humiliatus sum et silui de bonis, et dolor meus renovatus est; concaluit intra me cor meum, et in meditatione mea exardescet ignis, nec putavi illam sententiam neglegendam: Musica in luctu importuna narratio. Verum quia et tu indesinenter hoc flagitas et magno vulneri cicatrix paulatim obducitur, Scorpiusque inter Enceladum et Prophyrionem Trinacriae humo premitur et Hydra multorum capitum contra nos aliquando sibilare cessavit, datumque tempus quo non haereticorum respondere insidiis sed scripturarum expositioni incumbere debeamus, aggrediar Hiezechiel prophetam cuius difficultatem Hebraeorum probat traditio. Nam nisi quis apud eos aetatem sacerdotalis ministerii, id est tricesimum annum impleverit, nec principia Geneseos nec Canticum Canticorum nec huius voluminis exordium et finem legere permittitur, ut ad perfectam scientiam et mysticos intellectus plenum humanae naturae tempus accedat. Quod opus si per Domini misericordiam ad calcem usque perduxero, transibo ad Hieremiam, qui in Lamentationibus suis sub typo Hierusalem quattuor plagas mundi quadruplici plangit alphabeto. LIBER SECUNDUS Secundi explanationum in Hiezechiel voluminis, o virgo Christi Eustochium, istud exordium est. LIBER TERTIUS Nihil longum est quod finem habet, et omnis retro temporum series transacta non prodest, nisi forte bonorum operum sibi viaticum praepararet, quae semper ad futura, immo ad aeterna respiciunt et nullis terminis coartantur. Vera sententia est: Omnia quae orta occidunt, et aucta senescunt; et alibi: Nihil est enim opere et manu factum, quod non conficiat et consumat vetustas. Quis crederet ut totius orbis exstructa victoriis Roma corrueret, ut ipsa suis populis et mater fieret et sepulcrum, ut tota Orientis, Aegypti, Africae littora olim dominatricis urbis, servorum et ancillarum numero complerentur, ut cotidie sancta Bethleem, nobiles quondam utriusque sexus atque omnibus divitiis affluentes, susciperet mendicantes? Quibus, quoniam opem ferre non possumus, condolemus, et lacrimas lacrimis iungimus, occupatique sancti operis sarcina, cum sine gemitu confluentes videre non patimur, explanationes in Hiezechiel, et pene omne studium omisimus scripturarum, cupimusque verba in opera vertere, et non dicere sancta sed facere. Unde rursus a te commoniti, o virgo Christi Eustochium, intermissum laborem repetimus et, tertium volumen aggressi, tuo desiderio satisfacere desideramus, illud et te et ceteros qui lecturi sunt deprecantes: ut non vires nostras sed votum considerent, quorum alterum fragilitatis humanae, alterum sanctae est in Dominum voluntatis. LIBER QUARTUS Vellem, si fieri posset, Eustochium, explanationes in Hiezechiel per singulos libros propriis texere prophetiis, et quod vaticinatione coniunctum est nequaquam expositione dividere, ut facilior esset cursus dictantis pariter et legentis; longumque et immensum interpretationis iter certis spatiis separarem, ut quasi titulis et indicibus et, ut proprius loquar, argumentis ostenderem quid libri singuli continerent. Sed quid faciam, cum aliae prophetiae breves sint, aliae longae, ut saepe necessitate cogamur et plures in unum librum coartare et unam in multos dividere? Unde et nunc contra prophetas et prophetissas, ad seniores quoque populi Israel, et ad terram super quam inducuntur quattuor plagae pessimae, et de ligno vitis, quod cum fuerit abscisum inutile est inter omnia ligna silvarum, catalogum etiam vitiorum Hierusalem volumus quarto libro comprehendere; quem quia unius voluminis non patitur angustia, alteram partem eius quinto volumini reservamus, prudentissimi lectoris sollicitudinem praemonentes, ut sciat quid nobis in hoc explanandum et quid sibi legendum sit. LIBER QUINTUS Ne librorum numerus confundatur, et per longa temporum spatia divisorum inter se voluminum ordo vitietur, praefatiunculas singulis libris praeposui, ut ex fronte tituli statim lector agnoscat quotus sibi liber legendus et quae nobis prophetia explananda sit. Iuxta, praeterito igitur volumine, id est quarto, partem prophetiae contra Hierusalem, cuius istud exordium est: Radix tua et generatio tua de terra Chanaan, usque ad eum locum, ubi scriptum est: Similam et oleum et mel quibus enutrivi te posuisti in conspectu eorum in odorem suavitatis, ut potui brevi sermone disserui. Nunc eiusdem prophetiae pars reliqua cum ceteris quae sequuntur, quinto volumini, et tuo, Eustochium, nomini dedicatur; in quo nihil ex arte rhetorica, nihil ex compositione reperies et venustate verborum, sed curam simplicis et solertis diligentiae, ut ista et sola laus mea sit, si prophetae per me dicta intellegas. LIBER SEXTUS Putabam quod, medio serpente confosso, non reviviscerent hydrae novellae plantaria et, iuxta fabulas poetarum, Scylla mortua, nequaquam in me Scyllaei saevirent canes qui latrare non cessant, et, haereticis Dei percussis manu ne tentarentur, si fieri potest, etiam electi Dei, haeresis ipsa non moritur, haereditariis contra nos odiorum suorum catulis derelictis, qui, nostra simulantes, genitricis antiquae et pellacis Ulixi venena non deserunt, labiaque tantum melle circumlinunt et, iuxta eloquia scripturarum, mollierunt verba sua super oleum, ipsi autem sunt iacula, et iacula ignita, quae scuto fidei repellenda simul et exstinguenda sunt. Haec dixi, filia Eustochium, ut laborantem me in opere prophetali et haereticis resistentem orationibus iuves, et sextum volumen explanationum in Hiezechiel meo ore suo sensu Dominus explicet, eiusdemque Spiritus gratia, qua prophetis revelata sunt quae scripta legimus, nobis quoque disserentibus revelentur, ut possimus dicere: Os meum aperui et attraxi spiritum. LIBER SEPTIMUS Olim pueri legimus: Nihil tam facile est, quin difficile fiat quod invitus facias. Fateor me explanationes in Hiezechiel multo ante tempore promississe et occupatione de toto huc orbe venientium implere non posse, dum nulla hora nullumque momentum est, in quo non fratrum occurrimus turbis, et monasterii solitudinem hospitum frequentia commutamus, intantum ut aut claudendum nobis sit ostium, aut scripturarum per quas aperiendae sunt fores studia relinquenda, itaque ut lucrativis immo furtivis noctium operis, quae hieme propinquante longiores esse coeperunt, haec ad lucernulam qualiacumque sunt dictare conamur et aestuantis animi taedium interpretatione digerere. Nec iactamus, ut quidam forsitan suspicantur, fratrum susceptionem, sed morarum causas simpliciter confitemur, praesertim cum occidentalium fuga et sanctorum locorum constipatio, nuditate atque vulneribus indigentium rabiem praeferat barbarorum; quos absque lacrimis et gemitu videre non possumus; illamne inopiam pervenisse, ut tecto et cibo et vestimento indigeat, et tamen nequaquam duri quorundam atque crudeles animi molliuntur, dum pannos eorum et sarcinulas discutiunt, aurum in captivitate quaerentes. Accedit ad hanc dictandi difficultatem, quod caligantibus oculis senectute et aliquid susinentibus beati Isaac, ad nocturnum lumen nequaquam valemus Hebraeorum volumina relegere, quae etiam ad solis dieique fulgorem, litterarum nobis parvitate caecantur. Sed et Graecorum commentarios fratrum tantum voce cognoscimus; nullique dubium, quod alienis dentibus commoliti cibi, vescentibus nauseam faciant. Unde obsecro te, filia Eustochium, ut ista quae notariorum stilo cudimus et ad quae emendanda spatium vix habemus, id est septimum in Hiezechielem librum, post intervalla suscipias, et, ut ante iam dixi, si librorum brevitas vel longitudo inter se fuerit inaequalis, visionum immo upotheseon [Greek] brevitati imputes ac longitudini, dum et iuncta nolumus separare et dissonantia in unam artare congeriem. LIBER OCTAVUS Quid aliis prosit in prophetas nostra dictatio, Dei iudicii est, eorumque conscientiae qui, omissis declamationibus ac plausu et compositione verborum, cupiunt scire quid eorum sermo vel narret praeteritum vel praesens arguat vel praedicat esse venturum. Nobis interim primum prodest; dum enim hoc facimus et nihil aliud cogitamus, in modum furti explanationes aggredimur, et dierum miserias noctium studio compensamus; pascitur animus et obliviscitur saeculi calamitatum, quod in extremo fine iam positum congemiscit et parturit, donec qui tenet de medio fiat, et pedes statuae quondam ferrei, fragilitate digitorum fictilium conterantur. Cadit mundus et cervix erecta non flectitur; pereunt divitiae et nequaquam cessat avaritia; congregare festinant, quae rursum ab aliis occupentur; aruerunt lacrimae, pietas omnis ablata est; multi qui petant, pauci qui tribuant. Nec erubescimus, paupertatem vili palliolo praeferentes, Croesi opibus incubare, famemque et interitum plurimorum nostris custodire thesauris, secundum illum divitem purpuratum, qui ut aliud nihil fecerit, neque enim rapinas eius et iniquitates scriptura testatur, crudelitas eius atque superbia non habet modum; Lazaro vero ante fores iacenti atque semineci, ne ea quidem iussit dari quae canibus proiciuntur. Quanti nunc Lazari iacent, et quantorum purpurae diversis vestium coloribus proteguntur, ne in usus quidem proprios vertentium quae peritura conservant! Haec, virgo Christi Eustochium, ex cordis abundantia oc locutum sit, et paulo liberius quam humilitati nostrae convenit, dixerimus. Ceterum octavus in Hiezechielem liber, qui filiorum Ammon et gentium ceterarum increpationem continet et vaticinium futurorum, hoc habebit exordium.

LIBER NONUS Consequens erat, filia Eustochium, ut prophetiam Tyri et principis Tyri uno volumine comprehenderem, et tam locis quam vaticinatione coniunctos, nequaquam librorum ordine separarem. Sed quia plura sunt quae dicuntur et modum prolixitatis excedunt, ideo in nonum librum dilata est explanatio, quam orationibus tuis omniumque sanctorum ad calcem credimus perventuram, ut contra Pharaonem quoque et universam Aegyptum, quae in Hiezechiele scripta sunt, disseramus. Quae et ipsa nobis longitudine sui, in librum decimum dividenda sunt, quo et voluminum inter se mensura servetur, et, divisus, dictantis scribentisque et legentis labor respiret in partibus.

LIBER DECIMUS Vellem, ut ante iam dixi, prophetias contra unam provinciam aut unum regem hisdem explanare libris et nequaquam sensum lectoris dividere; sed quid faciam longitudini que, nisi dividatur in parte, modum voluminis egreditur, et infinita congeries tam dictanti quam legenti molesta est? Itaque, post sermonem contra Aegyptum et planctum eius regemque Aegypti, et de cuius brachio nequaquam obvoluto neque restituto pristinae sanitati in ultima parte noni libri diximus, transimus ad principium decimi libri contra eundem Pharaonem regem Aegyti qui comparatur regi Assyrio, et, post longissimam prophetiam, lamentatio super eodem assumitur et deinceps contra omnem Aegyptum; in quibus disserendis, o virgo Christi Eustochium, eleva cum Moyse manus ut nostra victoria tuarum orationum fructus sit: Non est enim volentis neque currentis, sed miserentis Dei, qui loquitur ad prophetam: Aperi os tuum et implebo illud, propheta ad Dominum respondente: Aperui os meum et attraxi spiritum qui ubi vult spirat. Ubi autem spiritus Domini, ibi libertas, qua libertate donavit nos Deus; quam frustra se Iudaei habere iactabant, dicentes: Semen Abraham sumus nemini umquam servivimus, multis vitiis peccatisque subiecti et ignorantes illam sententiam: A quo quis vincitur eius et servus est.

LIBER UNDECIMUS Undecimus in Hiezechielem explanationum liber in extrema sui parte contra Gog et Magog vaticinium continebit et usque ad exordium civitatis in monte positae et templi in ea siti veniet Hierusalem. Quem si, adiuvante Domino et sua mysteria disserente, potuero ad calcem usque perducere, diu mihi erit multumque dubitandum, utrum ad spiritale templum debeam mittere manus an aperte ignorantiam confiteri, praesertim cum et apud Iudaeos et apud nos super interpretatione eius grande silentium sit, aliis in futuro tempore exstruendum esse censentibus, aliis bono quidem animo, sed imperito, scientibus spiritalia esse quae dicuntur et tamen ipsa spiritalia, quomodo disseri debeant, nescientibus. Et interim, ut praesentis operis cura nos teneat, et scias, o virgo Christi Eustochium, orandum tibi esse pro nobis. In prophetia difficillima illud breviter admonebo, quod vir nostrae aetatis haud ignobilis, ad imperatorem scribens, super hac natione dixerit: Gog iste Gothus est, cui qua ratione possint omnia quae in ea scripta sunt coaptari, non est meum sed eorum qui hoc putant disserere.

LIBER DUODECIMUS Trepidationem meam in explanatione templi Hiezechiel, immo tacendi perseverantiam, tuae, filia Eustochium, preces, et Domini promissa superant dicentis: Petite et accipietis, quaerite et invenietis, pulsate et aperietur vobis; et quia nos excusatione usi sumus, ut in calce anterioris voluminis diceremus: ‘Melius est nihil quam parum dicere,’ tu eam vertisti in contrarium, ut praeferre putes saltem parum quam nihil dicere, quia in altero voluntas prompta, in altero totius operis desperatio est, naturamque huiuscemodi hominum esse commemoras, ut non tantum gratiam habeant pro his quae tribueris, quantum dolorem super his quae negaveris: minore enim studio virtutes laudamus quam vitia reprehendimus, et, quamvis pulchra sint corpora, unius pravitate ac deformitate membri insigniora fiunt. Obsequar igitur voluntati tuae, et flanti Spiritui sancto vela suspendam, ignorans ad quae sim littora perventurus et cum hoc eodem propheta clamitans: A quattuor ventis caeli veni, spiritus. Fastidiosoque lectori, immo animo perduelli nostra lecturo, illud in explanatione templi tota libertate denuntio, ut, si veritatem desiderat, quaerat ab aliis; nos autem ea quae in opere difficillimo possumus suspicari, simpliciter confitemur atque dictamus, gratias acturi Domino, si non in omnibus – quod impossible est – sed in plerisque nobis aperuerit fores scientiae: Prima enim, ut ait sublimis orator, quaeque sectanti, honestum est etiam in secundis tertiisve consistere.

LIBER DECIMUS TERTIUS Tertius decimus liber explanationum in Hiezechielem, liber secundus est explantionis templi, quem et quartum decimum , opitulante Salvatore nostro, ad finem usque dictare cupio, illud eiusdem numeri cum David in quarto decimo psalmo canens: Domine, quis habitabit in tabernaculo tuo? aut quis requiescet in monte sancto tuo? quod et pro difficili et pro impossibili debemus accipere; inde et in alio loco quasi vir desideriorum enixius deprecatur ac dicit; Unum petivi a Domino, hoc requiram: ut habitem in domo Domini omnibus diebus vitae mea, ut videam iucunditatem Domini et visitem templum sanctum eius, et rursum: Quam dilecta, inquit, tabernacula tua, Domine virtutum. Concupiscit et deficit anima mea in atria Domini. Aemulorum maledicta praevenio, qui non quid ipsi possint sed quid ego non possim considerant et, cum nostra diiudicent, sua diiudicanda non praebent, numquam in agone pugnantes sed de pugnantibus otioso immo superbo animo iudicantes: facile est dare dictata de populo, et singulos ictus calumniari, ac de alieno ridere sanguine, et, ubi vulnus infigi debuerit, imperiti lanistae more disserere. Ego, in explanatione templi Hiezechielis et ceterorum quae ad finem ipsius voluminis pertinent, fateor me pro rei magnitudine nihil dignum scribere, et in paucis, si qua tamen accipere meruero, gratias agere Salvatori: scriptum est enim: Nisi credideritis, non intellegetis, et in alio loco: Si habueritis fidem ut granum sinapis, et dixeritis monti huic: Transmigra et transplantare in mare, fiet; et quomodo apostolus granum sinapis non modicam fidei portionem sed totam fidem commemorat esse dicens: Et si totam fidem habuero, ita ut montes transferam, igitur granum hoc sinapis, etiam si modicum fuerit: In magnam succrescit arborem, et volatilia caeli habitant in ramis eius. Quamobrem tibi, filia mi Eustochium, quae nostra qualiacumque fuerint libenter accipis, contestatum volo; et illud rhetoris Victorini breviter admoneo, ub obscuritatem voluminum ex tribus rebus fieri scias: vel rei magnitudine, vel doctoris imperitia, vel audientis duritia: quorum primum et secundum liquido in hoc opere confitebor, tertium acumen ingenii tui et desiderium scripturarum facile renuit, quae privilego virginali et victus continentia, non dicam frequentem sed iugem hospitem possides Deum. Igitur tertium decimum in Hiezechiel arripiamus librum, cuius hoc principium est:

LIBRUM DECIMUS QUARTUS Quod in principio templi Hiezechielis debui dicere, nunc praepostero ordine in fine dicturus sum, illius versiculi memor: Hic labor ille domus et inextricabilis error, de quo et in alio loco idem poeta decantat: Ut quondam Creta fertur Labyrinthus in alta paritiebus textum caecis iter ancipitemque mille viis habuisse dolum, qua signa sequendi frangeret indeprensus et irremeabilis error.

Ita et ego, sanctarum scripturarum ingressus oceanum et mysteriorum Dei ut sic loquar labyrinthum – de quo scriptum est: Posuit tenebras latibulum suum et: Nubes in circuitu eius, perfectam quidem scientiam veritatis mihi vindicare non audeo, sed nosse cupientibus aliqua doctrinae indicia praebuisse: non meis viribus sed Christi misericordia, qui, errantibus nobis, … ipse dolos teci ambagesque resolvit, caeca regens Spiritu sancto vestigia.

Quem sequentes, ad portum explanationum prophetae Hiezechielis pervenire poterimus, in quem extremus, id est quartus decimus, hic liber est; quem si, orante te, virgo Christi Eustochium, ad finem usque perduxero, et Dominus vitae huius concesserit spatium, transibo ad Hieremiam qui unus nobis remanet prophetarum; cuius interpretatio, mei quidem laboris et tuarum orationum, sed proprie Christi erit clementiae.

Historical context:

Jerome writes the commentary on Ezekiel which he had originally promised to her and her mother Paula and which Eustochium has pressed him to do. He has been deeply distressed and distracted by the deaths of close friends and the fall of Rome, as he will be later by the flood of impoverished refugees. But he finally takes up the work and keeps coming back to it, again addressing Eustochium directly, as he had in the commentary on Isaiah, in prologues to each of the fourteen books, and she gets him to write even about things he is hesitant to discuss.

Scholarly notes:

(1) Rufinus, the "scorpion," once Jerome's friend but long his enemy, died in 411. Enceladus was a giant who was punished for his rebellion against Jupiter by being buried under the Sicilian volcano, Etna. Prophyrion may refer to another of the giants, Porphyrion.
(2) This passage is taken from Allen Mandelbaum's translation of the Aeneid (New York: Bantam Books, 1971).

Printed source:

Prologus, Commentarius in Hiezechielem, CCSL75, 3-4, 54, 91, 136, 185, 224, 277-78, 333-34, 385, 434, 480, 549, 605-06, 676

Date:

410-414