A letter from Jerome (391-392)

Translated letter:

Before I get into Zephaniah, who is ninth in the order of twelve prophets, it seems to me that I should answer those who think me ridiculous because I leave men out and write rather to you, o Paula and Eustochium. But if they knew that Huldah prophesied when men were silent and Deborah as judge and prophet overcame the enemies of Israel when Barak was afraid, and Judith and Esther, as types of the church, killed adversaries and freed Israel from danger as it was about to perish, never would they ridicule me [curve a hand in a stork] behind my back. I say nothing of Anna and Elizabeth and other holy women, whose star-like sparks the bright light of Mary hides. Let me turn to pagan women so that they can see that philosophers of the world sought out differences of souls not of bodies. Plato brought Aspasia into disputes, Sappho was cited with Pindar and Alcaeus; Themista philosophized among the wisest men of Greece; the whole Roman city admired Cornelia of the Gracchi, that is your Cornelia(1); that most eloquent of philosophers and most acute of rhetors, Carneades, who elicited applause among consuls in the Academy, did not blush to dispute on philosophy at home before his wife. What shall I say of the daughter of Cato, the wife of Brutus, whose virtue was such that we do not admire the constancy of her father or husband as much? Greek and Latin history is filled with the virtues of women which demand whole books. Let it suffice for me, since other work presses, to say only at the end of this prologue that the lord at his resurrection appeared first to women and that they were apostles of the apostles, so that men blushed that they did not seek him whom the weaker sex had already found.

Original letter:

Antequam Sophoniam aggrediar, qui nonus est in ordine duodecim prophetarum, respondendum uidetur his qui me irridendum aestimant, quod omissis uiris, ad uos scribam potissimum, o Paula et Eustochium. Qui si scirent Oldam, uiris tacentibus, prophetasse, et Debboram iudicem pariter et propheten, hostes Israel, Barac timente, superasse; et Iudith et Esther, in typo Ecclesiae, et occidisse aduersarios, et periturum Israel de periculo liberasse; numquam post tergum meum manum curuarent in ciconiam. Taceo de Anna et Elisabeth, et ceteris sanctis mulieribus, quarum uelut siderum igniculos, clarum Mariae lumen abscondit. Ad gentiles feminas ueniam, ut et apud saeculi philosophos uideant animorum differentias quaeri solere non corporum. Plato inducit Aspasiam disputantem, Sappho cum Pindaro scribitur et Alcaeo; Themista inter sapientissimos Graeciae philosophatur; Corneliam Gracchorum, id est uestram, tota Romanae urbis turba miratur; Carneades eloquentissimus philosophorum, acutissimus rhetorum, qui apud consulares uiros et in Academia plausus excitare consueuerat, non erubuit in priuata domo, audiente matrona, de philosophia disputare. Quid referam Catonis filiam, Bruti coniugem, cuius uirtus facit ne patris maritique constantiam tantopere miremur? Plena est historia tam Graeca quam Latina uirtutibus feminarum, et quae integros libros flagitent. Mihi tantum, quia aliud operis incumbit, in fine prologi dixisse sufficiat, Dominum resurgentem primum apparuisse mulieribus, et apostolorum illas fuisse apostolas, ut erubescerent uiri non quaerere, quem iam fragilior sexus inuenerat.

Historical context:

This prologue to Zephaniah is particularly notable for Jerome's defense of his writing so much to women. Jerome began his commentaries on the twelve minor prophets at the request of Paula and Eustochium, doing them not in the order in which they are found in the old testament but in the order they were requested, as he explains in the third book on Amos addressed to Pammachius (CCSL76, 300). But even in the prologue to Joel, Jerome remembers Paula's role, offering Pammachius "what we promised your holy and venerable relative, Paula, take it as her pious heir" (CCSL 76, 160).

Scholarly notes:

(1) According to the genealogy Jerome alludes to in his letter about Paula, ep.108.3 (Epistolae 445.html) her family claimed the Gracchi among its forebears.

Printed source:

Commentariorum in Sophoniam Prophetam, Prologus, CCSL 76a, 655

Date:

391-392