Category Archives: Patristica

I’ve just posted a page including all my translations of the Vulgate Prologues, with notes giving Biblical and other citations, alternate renderings, indications of difficult passages, and a very few explanatory notes, along with a short introduction and bibliography. Some of the renderings have been altered, but not many. I haven’t changed the original posts, nor do I intend to. Any further revisions will occur on that page.

If any reader finds any errors or anything that they think needs changing, please do let me know. I would also appreciate any comments or questions.

This is not the last of irascible St Jerome, who should truly be patron saint of the curmudgeonly, or of the magnificent Vulgate that you’ll see on biblicalia, God willing. But it will do, I think, for now. Enjoy!

Moses, who instructs all men
      with his celestial writings,
He, the master of the Hebrews,
      has instructed us in his teaching—
the Law, which constitutes
      a very treasure house of revelations,
wherein is revealed
      the tale of the Garden—
described by things visible,
      but glorious for what lies hidden,
spoken of in few words,
      yet wondrous with its many plants.

      Praise to Your righteousness
      which exalts those who prove victorious

I took my stand halfway
      between awe and love;
a yearning for Paradise
      invited me to explore it,
but awe at its majesty
      restrained me from my search.
With wisdom, however,
      I have reconciled the two;
I revered what lay hidden
      and meditated on what was revealed.
The aim of my search was to gain profit
      the aim of my silence was to find succor.

Joyfully did I embark
      on the tale of Paradise—
a tale that is short to read
      but rich to explore.
My tongue read the story’s outward narrative,
while my intellect took wing
      and soared upward in awe
as it perceived the splendor of Paradise—
      not indeed as it really is,
but insofar as humanity
      is granted to comprehend it.

St Ephrem the Syrian, beginning of Hymn 1 of the Hymns On Paradise, translated by Sebastian Brock

For convenience, here are links to all my recent posts with translations of Vulgate Prefaces, including the post on St Jerome’s notes to the Additions to Esther.

Jerome’s Prologue to Genesis
Jerome’s Prologue to Joshua
Jerome’s “Helmeted Introduction” to Kings
Jerome’s Prologue to Chronicles
Jerome’s Prologue to Ezra
Jerome’s Prologue to Tobias
Jerome’s Prologue to Judith
Jerome’s Prologue to Esther
Jerome’s Notes to the Additions to Esther
Jerome’s Prologue to Job
Jerome’s Prologue to Psalms (LXX)
Jerome’s Prologue to Psalms (Hebrew)
Jerome’s Prologue to the Books of Solomon
Jerome’s Prologue to Isaiah
Jerome’s Prologue to Jeremiah
Jerome’s Prologue to Ezekiel
Jerome’s Prologue to Daniel
Jerome’s Prologue to the Twelve Prophets
Jerome’s Prologue to the Gospels
Vulgate Prologue to Paul’s Letters

UPDATE:
I’ve created a final draft page of all the prologues, including an introduction, notes, and line numbers based on the Latin text to aid in using these translations as reference.

I have a few articles to look up regarding the authorship of this letter, so I’ll end up posting more on that at a later date. Essentially, there are three contenders: St Jerome, the British heretic Pelagius, and some unknown author. Since patristic scholarship in the early part of the twentieth century had an unfortunate tendency to pin the names of heretics to many various works not otherwise demonstrably theirs or even heretical, I don’t, at this point, consider Pelagius a likely candidate, but rather a faddish suggestion given rather too much attention. These days some idiot would likely suggest St Mary Magdalene. Also, having just worked through seventeen authentic prologues of St Jerome, it is definite that this prologue to Paul’s letters are from someone else, judging by the style and even the vocabulary. It’s not as rambling as St Jerome’s own letters, which are constructed in a much more oral manner (likely because he was actually simply dictating to a scribe most of the time), and certain words of the vocabulary require meanings that are later than the more classical, antiquarian usage of St Jerome. So I opt for an unknown author. Nevertheless, it is a very interesting preface, especially his description of why the letters of Paul are arranged as they are: they are addressed to progressively more accomplished Christians, and apparently in reverse chronological order. How interesting!

I hope everyone has enjoyed my translation of these Vulgate prefaces. I certainly enjoyed the discovery involved in learning what they say, having not read most of them before, and the definite education in Latin they provide. I hope they’re found to be useful. This is the last preface included in Weber’s Biblia Sacra Vulgata, Fourth Edition, which means this first stage of my translation of the Vulgate Prefaces is done with this. Now that I have them all finished in a first draft, I’ll be editing them for consistency, style, etc, and post them all on a single web page. So if anyone wants to use them in a convenient form, with notes and such things, just wait about a week or so. In the meantime, I’ll post links to the blog posts with all the prefaces, which I’m rather surprised to have finished in only three weeks, even with some breaks. Enjoy!

[See also the final draft version of this translation, on this page]

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BEGINNING OF THE PROLOGUE TO THE LETTERS OF PAUL THE APOSTLE

First is asked, for what reason after the Gospels, which are a supplement of the Law and in which are collected for us examples and precepts of living abundantly, the Apostle wanted to send these letters to individual churches. And it was seen to have been for this reason, that, as is known, he strengthened the firstborn of the Church from new arising heresies, so that he cut off present and arising errors and also afterward excluded future questions by the example of the Prophets, who after the publishing of the Law of Moses, in which were collected all the commandments of God, nevertheless still by its revived teaching the people always restrained (their) sins, and because of the example in the books they indeed also left a memorial for us.

Continue reading “Vulgate Prologue to Paul’s Letters”

I translated St Jerome’s prologue to the Gospels several years ago, as part of a project involving the Eusebian canon tables. That translation is here, and a page leading to my information on the canon table system is here. I’ll revisit that translation when I edit the others for consistency. Not right now though. This prologue to the Gospels is the last by St Jerome. That prologue written as an introduction to the Letters of Paul is not by him, as he seems never to have translated or edited any translations of Paul’s Letters. I’m working on that one right now, and it’ll be posted next. It’s the last of the prologues preserved in the Vulgate.

[See also the final draft version of this translation, on this page]

This is St Jerome’s prologue to the Twelve Prophets, or Twelve Minor Prophets as they’re often called, because these books are shorter relative to the books of the Prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. It’s a very short prologue, but there are two items of interest in it. One is that St Jerome mentions that “the Hebrews” of his day considered Malachi to be Ezra. I don’t think I’d ever read that before, so it was a pleasant surprise. The other interesting thing is that St Jerome considered the Twelve Prophets to be chronologically arranged (which I do too, great, somewhat curmudgeonly minds thinking alike), and that the books which don’t include dating indications can be dated after those who do. And now, I think my introduction to the prologue has now come to more words than are actually in it, so with no further ado, here it is. Enjoy!

[See also the final draft version of this translation, on this page]

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BEGINNING OF THE PROLOGUE OF THE TWELVE PROPHETS

The order of the Twelve Prophets is not the same among the Hebrews as it is among us. For which reason, according to how it is read there, they are also arranged here. Hosea is composed of short clauses and speaking as though by aphorisms. Joel is clear in the beginning, more obscure at the end. And they each have their individual properties up to Malachi, who the Hebrews name Ezra the scribe and teacher of the Law. And because it is too long to speak of all these things now, I would only you were warned this, O Paula and Eustochium: the book of the Twelve Prophets to be one; and Hosea a contemporary (συνχρονος) of Isaiah; (and) Malachi in fact to have been of the times of Haggai and Zechariah. And those (books) in which the time is not set down in the title, under those kings which they were to have prophesied under, they also prophesied after those which have titles.

END OF THE PROLOGUE

This prologue by St Jerome is a little odd to translate, as it’s dealing in part with some wordplay in both Greek and Latin. I’ve placed the original words in parentheses, as I’ve done in others of the prologue translations, but they’re especially necessary here. I get the distinct impression that St Jerome is actually showing us a sense of humor, or is at the very least recalling some funny sayings from a past teacher. There is also the fascinating and rather bittersweet retrospective on his learning Chaldean, which we call Aramaic these days. Another interesting part is his mention of the Hebrew Scriptures being divided into three parts: the Law with five books, the Prophets with eight books, and the Hagiographa with eleven books, for a total of twenty-four books. And though he doesn’t name the books included in those numbers here, the scheme is close enough to that which he presented in his “Helmeted Introduction” to Kings (22 books there, as opposed to 24 here), to determine these are the books for each category: Law: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy; Prophets: Joshua, Judges, Samuel/Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, The Twelve; Hagiographa: Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Chronicles, Ezra/Nehemiah, Esther, and somewhere in there Ruth and Lamentations, which in the “Helmeted Introduction” are attached to Judges and Jeremiah respectively, presumably to make the total number of books fit the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet: twenty-two. So, we have at least that evidence of what was the canon of at least some Jews in Palestine in the late fourth and early fifth centuries A.D. Enjoy!

[See also the final draft version of this translation, on this page]

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BEGINNING OF THE PROLOGUE OF JEROME TO THE BOOK OF DANIEL

The churches of the Lord Savior do not read the Prophet Daniel according to the Seventy interpreters, using (instead) the edition of Theodotion, and I don’t know why this happened. For whether because the language is Chaldean and differs in certain properties from our speech, (or) the Seventy interpreters were not willing to keep the same lines in the translation, or the book was edited under their name by some unknown other who did not sufficiently know the Chaldean language, or not knowing anything else which was the cause, I can affirm this one thing, that it often differs from the truth and with proper judgment is repudiated. Indeed, it is known most of Daniel and some of Ezra were written in Hebrew letters but the Chaldean language, and one pericope of Jeremiah, and also Job to have much in common with the Arabic language.

Continue reading “Jerome’s Prologue to Daniel”

There’s not much to say about this prologue, as it’s pretty straightforward. Near the end, St Jerome sarcastically calls his detractors “friends.” And there’s Greek in this one, too! Enjoy!

[See also the final draft version of this translation, on this page]

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BEGINNING OF THE PROLOGUE TO THE PROPHET EZEKIEL

The Prophet Ezekiel was led captive with Joachin king of Judah to Babylon, and he prophesied there to those who were captives with him, to those repenting that they had willingly handed over the prophecy of Jeremiah to enemies, and yet saw the city Jerusalem to stand, which he had predicted would fall. And in his thirtieth year of age, and in the fifth year of the captivity, he began to speak to his fellow captives. And at the same time, though later, this one in Chaldea and Jeremiah in Judea prophesied. His style is neither greatly eloquent nor excessively rustic, but properly proportioned between both. And he was a priest, as also was Jeremiah, the beginning and ending of the book being wrapped in great obscurities. But also the common edition of him does not differ much from the Hebrew one. Because of that I greatly wonder what was the cause, that when we have the same translators in all the books, in some they translated the same things, in others, different things. Therefore, read this also according to our translation because, by being written in words with spaces, it gives a clearer meaning to readers. And if my friends also mock this, say to them that no one restrains them from writing. But I do not respect him who follows them, which is more clearly said in Greek, as they are called insult-swallowers (φαγολοιδοροι).

END OF THE PROLOGUE

A couple of notes on this prologue by St Jerome to Jeremiah are in order. He mentions that Jeremiah “lamented the ruins of his city in fourfold alphabet,” civitatis suae ruinas quadruplici plaxit alfabeto. This is a reference to the acrostic first four chapters of Lamentations, in which each verse begins with the successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet, thus “in a fourfold alphabet.” Another perhaps puzzling reference just after that is to his presenting the book “in the measure of the meter and in verses.” This refers to his breaking the verses into separate lines based upon metrical measurements, probably according to the Hebrew, and written with separation of verses and words. Basically think of the way that poetry is printed today, in short lines that take no notice of the width of the page, and that’s what he’s describing. If I find a picture of one of the early Vulgate manuscripts reflecting this, I’ll post it. St Jerome also mentions a confusion of the order of the visions in Jeremiah as known among the Greeks and Latins. This refers to the very different (and probably original) arrangment of the prophecies as found in the Septuagint and is supported by a Dead Sea Scroll fragment, so we know that there were Hebrew manuscripts with this order, which Jerome did not. Anyhow, in the meantime, enjoy yet another prologue. There aren’t many left now! Once I’ve done all of them, I’ll go back through to edit them and then post them all on a single page, with notes and such.

[See also the final draft version of this translation, on this page]

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BEGINNING OF THE PROLOGUE OF JEROME TO THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH

The Prophet Jeremiah, for whom this prologue is written, was seen among the Hebrews to be certainly more rustic in style than Isaiah and Hosea and certain other prophets, but equal in meanings, which the same Spirit obviously prophesied. Furthermore, his simplicity of speech happened from the place in which he was born. For he was from Anathoth, which is up to today a village three miles distant from Jerusalem, a priest from priests and sanctified in his mother’s womb, dedicating with her virginity a man of the Gospel to the Church of Christ. This boy began to prophesy the captivity of the city and Judea both not only by the Spirit, but also with eyes of flesh. The Assyrians had already transferred the ten tribes of Israel, and now colonies of gentiles had taken possession of their lands. For this reason he prophesied only in Judah and Benjamin, and he lamented the ruins of his city in a fourfold alphabet, which we have presented in the measure of the meter and in verses. Besides this, the order of visions, which is entirely confused among the Greeks and Latins, we have corrected to the original truth. And the Book of Baruch, his scribe, which is neither read nor found among the Hebrews, we have omitted, standing ready, because of these things, for all the curses from the jealous, to whom it is necessary for me to respond through a separate short work. And I suffer because you think this. Otherwise, for the benefit of the wicked, it was more proper to set a limit for their rage by my silence, rather than any new things written to provoke daily the insanity of the envious.

END OF THE PROLOGUE

St Jerome’s preface here to Isaiah is very interesting for its mention of the way in which he wrote ir out: with spaces between the words. While this is natural for us, it was not the way writing was done in those days. The addition of the spaces was also mentioned in his prologue to Chronicles, where it was especially necessary to keep separate all the many Hebrew names in transliteration, which Latins and Greeks were always mixing up, not knowing Hebrew. His mention of the prophecies of Isaiah covering “all the mysteries of Christ and the Church” is entirely intriguing, and it would be nice to have had more on that subject, but here we are. Enjoy!

[See also the final draft version of this translation, on this page]

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BEGINNING OF THE PROLOGUE OF JEROME TO THE PROPHET ISAIAH

No one, when he will have seen the Prophets to be written in verses, would think them to be bound in meter among the Hebrews, and to have anything in common with the Psalms or the works of Solomon. But what is customary to be used in Demosthenes and Cicero, as they are written in words with divisions, who certainly wrote prose and not in verses, we also, providing ease of reading, have divided a new translation with a new kind of writing. And first, knowing of Isaiah what is presented in his speech, certainly as a man noble and of urbane elegance he does not have anything of rusticity mixed into (his) speech. For this reason it happens that in comparison with others the translation was not able to preserve the flower of his speech. And then adding this, that it is being spoken not only by a prophet, but by an evangelist. For thus all the mysteries of Christ and the Church are pursued to clarity, so that you would not think them to be prophesied of the future, but they covered the history of things past. For this reason I suppose the Seventy interpreters to have been unwilling at that that time to set forth clearly for the gentiles the sacraments of their faith, not throwing holy things to dogs or pearls to swine, which things, when you will have read this edition, you will note were hidden by them.

Continue reading “Jerome’s Prologue to Isaiah”