A letter from Jerome (384-6)

Translated letter:

1. Blessed Pamphilus the martyr, whose life Eusebius bishop of Caesarea unfolded in about three volumes, when he wanted to equal Demetrius Phalereus [a famous orator] and Pisistratus in the study of the holy library sought images of talents which are true and eternal monuments, through the whole world, then eagerly pursued particularly the books of Origen, and gave them to the church of Caesarea. Since they were partly destroyed, Acacius, and then Euzoius, priests of that church, tried to restore them in parchment. He found many and left us a record of what he found, but confessed that he had not been able to find the commentary on the 126th psalm and the treatise on the letter “phe.” Not that such or so great a man — we mean Adamantius — had disregarded them, but that the negligence of those who came after did not bring them to our memory. That is why I declare that I do not have from the commentaries of Origen what he thought about the psalm you set before me, asking what was the "bread of sorrow" where it says: "in vain you rise before the light, and retire late, who eat the bread of sorrow." [2. Jerome gives her various Greek translations for the Hebrew “leem aasabim,” and suggests that the latter may refer to idols worshipped in the temple. Aquila's "their labors," Jerome takes as either the sacraments of heretics or the labor of this miserable and wretched life, the food of this brief life born from thorns.] 3. You also deigned to ask from the same psalm who were the "filii excussorum," "sons of the shaken out/discarded." I wonder that you have not read in Hilary's commentaries that they are the people of the believers; clearly he thought the apostles were called by that name, who were ordered in the gospels whenever they entered a city and were not received, to shake off the dust of their feet in witness of non-believers, though you will sharply have been wary of understanding “excussorum” as apostles, when it is one thing to shake out, another to be shaken. For the shakers do the shaking, the shaken are shaken by others, and it is incongruous to take the apostles for the shaken who should better be called shakers. Why then shall I do it? I do not dare to reprove such a man so learned in his time, who by the merit of his confession and the industry of his life and the clarity of his eloquence, is proclaimed wherever the Roman name is found, except that it is not his fault, since he was ignorant of Hebrew speech, and had had only a whiff of Greek letters, but [the fault] of Heliodorus the elder, whom he knew well, who sought what Origen had said about the things which he could not understand and when he could not find the commentary of Origen on this psalm, preferred to slip in his own opinion rather than confess his lack of knowledge, which the other having taken it up delivered with brilliant speech and more skillfully pursued the alien error. 4. It remains therefore that we go back to the source of Hebrew speech and see how it is written. [Jerome finds that the Hebrew was translated as "sons of youth" by Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion, and explains the genesis of the confusion. [5. In the following psalm, it is Heliodorus rather than "our" Hilary who errs, in "labors of your fruits" versus "fruits of labors," a problem of the Latin being led astray by the ambiguity of the Greek.] 6. When the swift hand of the notary indicated to me dictating furtively as they say in night labor, and I thought to say more though it had already gone past the fourth hour of night, I was suddenly roused by stomach pains, and broke into prayer that at least in the remaining hours the illness might be frustrated by sleep coming on.

Original letter:

1. Beatus Pamphilus martyr, cuius uitam Eusebius Caesariensis episcopus tribus ferme uoluminibus explicauit, cum Demetrium Phalereum et Pisistratum in sacrae bibliothecae studio uellet aequare imaginesque ingeniorum, quae uera sunt et aeterna monumenta, toto orbe perquireret, tunc uel maxime Origenis libros inpensius persecutus Caesariensi ecclesiae dedicauit, [quam ex parte corruptam Acacius, dehinc Euzoius, eiusdem ecclesiae sacerdotes, in membranis instaurare conati sunt.] hic cum multa repperiret et inuentorum nobis indicem derelinqueret, centesimi uicesimi sexti psalmi commentarium et phe litterae tractatum ex eo, quod non inscripsit, confessus est non repertum; non quod talis tantusque uir — Adamantium dicimus — aliquid praeterierit, sed quod neglegentia posteriorum ad nostram usque memoriam non durarit. hoc ideo, ut, quia mihi de eodem psalmo proposuisti, qui esset 'panis doloris' in eo, quod dicitur: in uanum uobis est ante lucem surgere, surgere, postquam sederitis, qui manducatis panem doloris, ostenderem me de Origenis commentariis, quid senserit, non habere. 2. Unde ad Hebraeum recurrens inueni pro 'pane doloris' scriptum esse 'leem aasabim', quod Aquila interpretatus est ’arton ton diaponimaton, id est 'panem elaborationum’, Symmachus ’arton kakopathoumenon [Greek]quod exprimitur 'panem aerumnosum’, quinta editio et Theodotion, qui in ceteris cum septuaginta translatoribus facit, 'panem idolorum’, sexta planes, id est 'erroris’. nec mirandum de Aquila, si diaponimata pro 'idolis’ ponat, cum opera manuum hominis sint et prophetice populus arguatur ad templum diluculo frustra consurgere et post quietem ad sanctuarium festinare, cum idola dei honore uenerentur, secundum quod Ezechihel scripsit in ipso templo sacrificare idolis sacerdotes. ut autem plenius adducaris pro 'dolore’ in Hebraeo 'idola’ posita, hoc ipsum uerbum, hoc est 'aasabim’, etiam in centesimo tertio decimo psalmo scriptum Septuaginta quoque 'idola' transtulerunt. nam in eo loco, ubi legimus: idola gentium argentum et aurum, opera manuum hominum, in Hebraeo habet 'asabeem’, quod Aquila interpretatur 'elaborationes eorum’. unde, cum ita se ueritas habeat, frustra quidam doloris panem aut hereticorum intellegunt sacramenta aut uitae istius miserabilis et aerumnosae interpretantur laborem, apud quam in sudore faciei comedimus panem nostrum interque spinas et tribulos breuis uitae alimenta nascuntur. 3. Illud quoque de eodem psalmo interrogare dignata es, qui sint filii excussorum. miror te in Hilarii commentariis non legisse excussorum filios credentium populos interpretari, quod uidelicet apostolos illo nomine putauerit appellatos, quibus in euangeliis sit praeceptum, in quamcumque ciuitatem introierint et non fuerint recepti, excutere puluerem pedum suorum in testimonium non credentium, licet tu argute praecaueris non posse apostolos sub nomine excussorum intellegi, cum aliud sit excutientium, aliud excussorum, quia excutientes sint, qui excutiant, excussi uero ab aliis excutiantur, et incongruum esse excussos apostolos accipi, qui magis excutientes debuerint appellari. quid igitur faciam? tanturn uirum et suis temporibus disertissimum reprehendere non audeo, qui et confessionis suae merito et uitae industria et eloquentiae claritate, ubicumque Romanum nomen est, praedicatur; nisi quod non eius culpae adscribendum est, qui Hebraei sermonis ignarus fuit, Graecarum quoque litterarum quandam aurulam ceperat, sed Heliodori presbyteri, quo ille familiariter usus ea, quae intellegere non poterat, quomodo ab Origene essent dicta, quaerebat. qui, quia in hoc psalmo commentarium Origenis inuenire non potuit, opinionem magis insinuare suam quam inscientiam uoluit confiteri, quam ille sumptam claro sermone disseruit et alienum errorem disertius exsecutus est. 4. Restat igitur, ut rursum ad fontem sermonis recurramus Hebraei et uideamus, quomodo scriptum sit. ubi nos habemus sic filii excussorum, ibi legitur 'chen bne annaurim', quod Aquila interpretatus est sic filii pubertatum, Symmachus et Theodotion sic filii iuuentutis, sexta ’iconeos nou [Greek], quod nos dicere possumus exacuti sensus. ex quo manifestum est adulescentiae populos intellegi Christianos secundum illud exemplum, quo deus sanctos suos in modum arcus et sagittarum dicatur extendere, ut in propheta Zacharia: quoniam extendi te mihi, Iuda, ut arcum, et saluator de semet ipso: posuit me sicut sagittam electam et in pharetra sua abscondit me, denique in sequenti uersu exceptis Septuaginta, qui aliter transtulerunt, et in Hebraeo et in cunctis editionibus ita repperi: beatus uir, qui repleuerit pharetram suam ex ipsis, ut, quia metaphoram semel sumpserat ex sagittis, et in pharetra quoque translatio seruaretur. 'excussos' autem et consuetudo sermonis humani 'uegetos' et 'robustos' et 'expeditos’ uocat et ipsi septuaginta interpretes in Esdrae libro pro 'iuuenibus’ transtulerunt, in quo ita scribitur: et factum est ex die illa, medii excussorum faciebant opus et medii eorum habebant hastas et scuta et arcus et thoracas et principes post omnem domum Iuda aedificantium in muro. ex quo animaduertimus et in praesenti loco pro adulescentibus atque puberibus 'excussos’ positos, non, ut ille opinatus est, pro apostolis, qui excussi a pedum excussione dicantur. legi et cuiusdam librum at elegantem in eo sensum repperi, 'excussos' Iudaeos dici a templo et lege et (264) gratia domini pro eo, quod est 'reprobos': eorum esse filiosapostolos, qui ex ipsorum semine procreentur et in similitudinem sagittarum manu domini contineantur. 5. In sequenti quoque psalmo Heliodorus magis quam Hilarius noster errauit, qui de eo loco, in quo scriptum est: labores fructuum tuorum manducabis, uaria opinatus adseruit magis stare sententiam, si scribatur 'fructus laborum’ aliquem manducare et non 'labores fructuum’; unde spiritalem intellegentiam debere perquiri. et ex hac occasione in longam egrediens disputationem tanta operositate, quod uolebat intellegi, usus est persuadendi, quanta semper falsitas indiget, ut uera uideatur, cum in hoc loco non septuaginta interpretes, sed Latini de Graeci uerbi ambiguitate decepti karpous 'fructus’ magis quam 'manus’ interpretati sunt, cum karpoi 'manus’ quoque dicantur, quod in Hebraeo ponitur 'chaffach’, et Symmachus quintaque editio transtulerunt 'manuum tuarum’ ut ambiguitatem prioris sermonis effugerent. 6. Cum haec furtiuis, ut aiunt, operis ad lucubratiunculam uelox notarii manus me dictante signaret et plura dicere cogitarem, iam ferme quarta noctis hora excesserat et repente stimulis quibusdam dolentis stomachi suscitatus in orationem prorui, ut saltim reliquo horarum spatio subrepente somno frustraretur infirmitas.

Historical context:

Jerome answers still other questions from Marcella at some length, and only breaks off late at night when he is overcome by stomach pains. [Partial translation with summary in brackets.]

Printed source:

Sancti Eusebii Hieronymi Epistulae, ed. Isidorus Hilberg, 3 v. (New York: Johnson, 1970, repr.CSEL, 1910-18), ep.34

Date:

384-6