A letter from Jerome (384-6)

Translated letter:

1. Recently, when I was reading the commentaries on the Song of Songs which the Hebrews call “sir asirim” of Reticius, bishop of Autun, who had been sent to Rome by emperor Constantine under bishop Silvester because of Montanism, I was amazed that an eloquent man thought, besides the folly of other senses, that Tharsis was the city Tarsus in which the apostle Paul was born, and the gold from Uphaz was stone, because Peter is called Cephas in the gospel. Surely he had the same word in Ezechiel where it is written of the four animals: "and the appearance of the wheels was like “tharsis”/beryl,"(1) and in Daniel about the lord: "and his body was like “tharsis”/beryl," which Aquila translates chrysolite, Symmachus sapphire, and in the Psalms: "with a violent breath you pound the ships of Tharsis/Tarshish." And among the stones which are cut in the priest's ornament with three names, the name of that stone is inserted and virtually every scripture uses this word. About Uphaz, what shall I say when the above-mentioned prophet Daniel in the third year of Cyrus king of Persians, says after three weeks of fasting and sorrow: "I looked up and saw a man clothed in linen and his loins girded with gold from Uphaz" [Dan.10:5]? Indeed there are many kinds of gold among the Hebrews, which is why Uphaz is said, to distinguish lest it be thought “zaab,” because in Genesis it was declared that he would be born with a carbuncle. 2. You ask if the “tharsis” stone is chrysolite or sapphire as different translations have it, by analogy to which the beauty of god is described, why is Jonah the prophet said to want to go to Tharsis and Solomon and Josaphat in the books of Kings had ships which carried merchandise from Tharsis. The easy answer is that the word is a homonym because a region of India is so called and the sea which is azure blue and often struck by the rays of the sun, the color of the above mentioned stones, which take their name from that color, though Josephus thinks the Greeks with the letter “tau” changed said Tarsus for Tharsis. 3. There are innumerable things which seemed squalid to me in his commentaries. The speech is certainly fluent in Gallican high style, but what of the interpretation, which is not his expertise, however skillful he appears, but how will he make one who reads it understand it as he understood it who wrote it? I ask, did he not have the ten volumes of Origen, nor other exegetes, some friends among the Hebrews to interrogate or read, [to tell him] what he did not know? But to have thought so badly of those who came after, that no one could judge his errors! 4. In vain, therefore, you ask me for the commentaries of that man, when many more things in them displease me than please me. And if you object [asking] why I have given them to others, you would hear that Jesus did not feed everyone in the desert with the same food, but fed many with barley bread and fewer with wheat; Corinthians, whose fornication was heard about, and what fornication, such as does not exist among gentiles, were fed with milk, since they could not yet take solid food. Ephesians, however, in whom no crime was shown, were fed heavenly bread by the lord which had been hidden from those in the world and they recognized the sacrament. Nor would you be guided/considered [ducaris] by the authority or age of those who got those copies from me, when Daniel judged old men and Amos, a goatherd, inveighed against the principal priests.

Original letter:

1. Nuper, cum Reticii Augustodunensis episcopi, qui quondam a Constantino imperatore sub Silvestro episcopo ob causam Montensium missus est Romam, commentarios in Canticorum Canticum perlegissem, quod Hebraei vocant sir asirim, vehementer miratus sum virum eloquentem praeter ineptias sensuum ceterorum Tharsis urbem putasse Tarsum, in qua Paulus apostolus natus sit, et aurum Ofaz petram significari, quod Cephas in evangelio Petrus sit appellatus. habuerat utique et in Hiezechiele id ipsum verbum, ubi de quattuor animalibus scribitur: et species rotarum sicut species tharsis, et in Danihele de domino: et corpus eius ut tharsis, quod Aquila chrysolithum, hyacinthum Symmachus interpretantur, et in Psalmis: spiritu violento conteres naves Tharsis. et inter lapides, qui in ornatum sacerdotis tribuum nominibus sculpti sunt, eiusdem lapidis nomen insertum est et omnis ferme scriptura hoc referta vocabulo est. de Ofaz vero quid dicam, cum supra dictus Danihel propheta in tertio anno Cyri, Regis Persarum, post tres ebdomadas ieiunii atque tristitiae dicat: extuli oculos meos et vidi, et ecce vir unus indutus baddim et renes eius cincti auro Ofaz? plura quippe apud Hebraeos auri sunt genera; unde ob distinctionem nunc Ofaz positum est, ne quis zaab putaret, quod in Genesi nasci cum lapide carbunculo praedicatur. 2. Quaeras, si tharsis lapis chrysolithus sit aut hyacinthus, ut diversi interpretes volunt, ad cuius similitudinem dei species describatur, quare Ionas propheta Tharsis ire velle dicatur et Salomon et Iosaphat in Regnorum libris naves habuerint, quae de Tharsis solitae sint adferre vel exercere commercia, ad quod facilis responsio est [Greek letters] esse vocabulum, quod et Indiae regio ita appelletur et ipsum mare, quia caeruleum sit et saepe solis radiis repercussum, colorem supra dictorum lapidum trahat, a colore nomen acceperit, licet Iosephus tau littera commutate Graecos putet Tarsum appellasse pro Tharsis. 3. Innumerabilia sunt, quae in illius mihi commentariis sordere visa sunt. est sermo quidem conpositus et Gallicano coturno fluens: sed quid ad interpretem, cuius professio est non, quomodo ipse disertus appareat, sed quomodo eum, qui lecturus est, sic faciat intellegere, quomodo intellexit ille, qui scripsit? rogo, non habuerat decem Origenis volumina, non interpretes ceteros aut certe aliquos necessarios Hebraeorum aut ad interrogare aut ad legere [et], quid sibi vellent, quae ignorabat? sed tam male existimasse de posteris, ut nemo posset de eius erroribus iudicare! 4. Frustra igitur a me eiusdem viri commentarios postulas, cum mihi in illis multo displiceant plura, quam placeant. quod si opposueris, cur ceteris dederim, audies non omnes eodem vesci cibo Iesus in deserto plures hordeaceis panibus pascit, triticeis pauciores; Corinthii, in quibus fornicatio audiebatur et talis fornicatio, qualis nec inter gentes quidem, lacte pascuntur, quia necdum poterant solidum cibum capere. Ephesii autem, in quibus nullum crimen arguitur, ipso domino caelesti vescuntur pane et sacramentum, quod a saeculis absconditum fuerat, agnoscunt. neque vero eorum, qui a me exemplaria acceperunt, vel auctoritate vel aetate ducaris, cum et Danihel sense iudicet et Amos, pastor caprarum, in sacerdotum principes invehatur.

Historical context:

Jerome refuses to send her commentaries she asked for because he has found them full of errors. While they may be of some use to others, they would not be to her.

Scholarly notes:

(1) The word is translated beryl in the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible in the first two passages cited here, Ezek.10:9 and Dan.10:6], Tarshish in the Psalm, 47:8; Jerome seems to think beryl was intended in the Psalm passage as well. Tharsis/Tarshish is a city from which metals were imported.

Printed source:

Sancti Eusebii Hieronymi Epistulae, ed. Isidorus Hilberg, 3 v. (New York: Johnson, 1970, repr.CSEL, 1910-18), ep.37

Date:

384-6