A letter from Jerome (387-388)

Translated letter:

Though they are not worthy of faith who rendered the first faith worthless, I speak of Marcion and Basilides and all the heretics who mangle the old testament; yet we would bear them in some part if at least they kept their hands off the new and did not dare to violate the gospels or apostles of Christ, son as they put it of the good God. Now however that they destroy his gospels and the epistles of his apostles, making them apostles not of Christ but of themselves, I wonder how they dare to claim the name of Christian for themselves. To say nothing about the other epistles where they see something contrary to their dogma, they believe several whole [epistles] should be rejected: to Timothy (both), to Hebrews, and to Titus, which we are now attempting to expound. And if they gave reasons why they think they are not by the Apostle, we would try to answer them and perhaps to satisfy the reader. But when they pronounce with heretical authority and say: that epistle is Paul's this is not, they judge themselves to be refuted for truth by that authority by which they do not blush to represent what is false. But Tatian, patriarch of the Encratitae [a Gnostic sect], who himself rejected several epistles of Paul, believed this or most of it to be by Paul; giving little weight to the assertion of Marcion and others who agree with him on this. Therefore, O Paula and Eustochium, the apostle writes from Nicopolis which is on the shore of Actium, now mostly a part of your holding; and he writes to Titus his disciple and son in Christ whom he had left at Crete to instruct the churches. He orders him to come to Nicopolis with Artemas or Tychicus whom he will send to Crete. It was just, indeed, that he who had said "my care is for all the churches" and who laid the foundation of Christ's gospel carrying it from Jerusalem to Illyria [Dalmatia] would not allow the Cretans to be abandoned by his own and Titus's absence, where the seeds of idolatry had first sprouted, but he sent them Artemas or Tychicus for himself and Titus, whose doctrine and consolation they fostered.

Original letter:

Licet non sint digni fide, qui fidem primam irritam fecerunt, Marcionem loquor et Basilidem, et omnes haereticos qui vetus laniant Testamentum: tamen eos aliqua ex parte ferremus, si saltem in novo continerent manus suas: et non auderent Christi (ut ipsi jactitant) boni Dei Filii, vel evangelistas violare, vel apostolos. Nunc vero cum et Evangelia ejus dissipaverint, et apostolorum epistolas, non Apostolorum Christi fecerint esse, sed proprias, miror quomodo sibi Christianorum nomen audeant vindicare. Ut enim de caeteris Epistolis taceam, de quibus quidquid contrarium suo dogmati viderant, eraserunt, nonnullas integras repudiandas crediderunt: ad Timotheum videlicet utramque, ad Hebraeos, et ad Titum, quam nunc conamur exponere. Et siquidem redderent causas, cur eas Apostoli non putarent, tentaremus aliquid respondere, et forsitan satisfacere lectori. Nunc vero cum haeretica auctoritate pronuntient et dicant: Illa epistola Pauli est, haec non est; ea auctoritate refelli se pro veritate intelligant, qua ipsi non erubescunt falsa simulare. Sed Tatianus Encratitarum patriarches, qui et ipse nonnullas Pauli epistolas repudiavit, hanc vel maxime, hoc est, ad Titum, Apostoli pronuntiandam credidit; parvipendens Marcionis et aliorum, qui cum eo in hac parte consentiunt, assertionem. Scribit igitur Apostolus, o Paula et Eustochium, de Nicopoli quae in Actiaco littore sita, nunc possessionis vestrae pars vel maxima est; et scribit ad Titum discipulum suum, et in Christo filium quem Cretae reliquerat ad Ecclesias instruendas: praecepitque ei, ut cum e duobus Artemas, seu Tychicus Cretam fuerit appulsus, ipse Nicopolim veniat. Justum quippe [Al. quia] erat, ut ille qui dixerat, sollicitudo mea omnium Ecclesiarum: et qui Evangelium Christi usque ad Illyricum de Jerosolymis proficiscens, fundaverat, non pateretur et sui et Titi absentia Cretenses esse desertos; a quibus primum idololatriae semina pullularunt: sed mitteret eis pro se et Tito Arteman, vel Tychicum, quorum doctrina et solatio confoverentur.

Historical context:

In this prologue, Jerome denounces various heretics for rejecting some of Paul's epistles, though modern scholars have come to similar conclusions. This was the last of the commentaries on the Pauline epistles Jerome did for Paula and Eustochium.

Printed source:

Commentarius in Epistolam ad Titum, Prologus, PL26 c.555-556.

Date:

387-388