A letter from Jerome (388)

Translated letter:

It is very few days since I interpreted the epistle of Paul to Philemon and moved on to Galatians, with many things left unfinished, when suddenly letters were brought to me from the city [Rome], announcing that Albina, the venerable old woman had returned to the presence of the lord, and left Marcella deprived of the companionship of a mother, needing your solace now even more, o Paula and Eustochium. And since this can not be given because of the great distance of sea and land between you, I wish to heal the wound hastily at least with the medicine of scripture. I know her ardor, I know her faith, that she has a flame always in her breast, to conquer her sex, to be unmindful of man, to pass over the Red Sea of this world with the drum of divine volumes resounding. Certainly, when I was at Rome, she never saw me so hastily that she did not ask something about scripture. Nor indeed did she think it right that I answer something in the Pythagorean mode: authority did not hold for her unless it was judged by reason. She examined all things and thought about them with a sharp mind, so that I felt myself to have not so much a disciple as a judge.(1) And so because I think it would be agreeable to her absent and useful to you who are present, I shall approach the work before me making use of the writers in our tongue and the Greeks, although they are not a few, as the dignity of the work demands. It is not that I do not know that Caius Marius Victorinus, who taught me rhetoric at Rome when I was a boy, produced commentaries on the apostle; but that he, busy with learning in secular letters, was almost entirely ignorant of holy scripture. And no one, however eloquent, can argue well about what he does not know. Am I therefore a fool or rash to attempt what he could not do? Not at all. But rather, as I seem to myself, more cautious and timid that feeling the weakness of my strengths, I follow the commentaries of Origen… ...

Original letter:

Pauci admodum dies sunt, ex quo epistolam Pauli ad Philemonem interpretatus, ad Galatas transcenderam, multis retrorsum in medio praetermissis; et ecce subito litterae mihi de Urbe allatae sunt, nuntiantes et Albinam venerabilem anum praesentiae Domini redditam, et sanctam Marcellam matris contubernio destitutam, magis nunc vestrum, o Paula et Eustochium, flagitare solatium. Et quia hoc interim fieri non potest, propter grandia maris in medio spatia atque terrarum, repente vulnus impressum saltem Scripturarum vellem curare medicamine. Scio equidem ardorem ejus, scio fidem, quam flammam semper habeat in pectore, superare sexum, oblivisci hominis, et divinorum voluminum tympano concrepante, rubrum hujus saeculi pelagus transfretare. Certe cum Romae essem, numquam tam festina me vidit, ut non de Scripturis aliquid interrogaret. Neque vero more Pythagorico quidquid responderam, rectum putabat: nec sine ratione praejudicata apud eam valebat auctoritas; sed examinabat omnia, et sagaci mente universa pensabat, ut me sentirem non tam discipulam habere, quam judicem. Itaque quod et illi absenti pergratum fore, et vobis quae in praesentiarum estis, utile existimo, aggrediar opus intentatum ante me linguae nostrae scriptoribus, et a Graecis quoque ipsis vix paucis, ut rei poscebat dignitas, usurpatum. Non quod ignorem Caium Marium Victorinum, qui Romae, me puero, rhetoricam docuit, edidisse Commentarios in Apostolum; sed quod occupatus ille eruditione saecularium litterarum, Scripturas omnino sanctas ignoraverit: et nemo possit, quamvis eloquens, de eo bene disputare, quod nesciat. Quid igitur, ego stultus aut temerarius, qui id pollicear quod ille non potuit? Minime. Quin potius in eo, ut mihi videor, cautior atque timidior, quod imbecillitatem virium mearum sentiens, Origenis Commentarios sum secutus [...]

Historical context:

Jerome agreed to compose this commentary for Paula and Eustochium, but when Marcella's mother died, he decided to send it also to her feeling she needed the comfort. Though the prologue is addressed to Paula and Eustochium, it explains why the work (with the prologue) is being sent to Marcella, and includes interesting comments about her. Only the beginning of the prologue is given here.

Scholarly notes:

(1) Abelard cites this passage in a letter to Heloise, ep.9, and Heloise cites it in her letter accompanying the Problemata (Epistolae 178.html).

Printed source:

Commentariuam in Epistolam ad Galatas, Prologus, PL26 c.307-310.

Date:

388