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| To Marcella.
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Letter
XXVII. To Marcella.
In this letter Jerome defends himself against the charge
of having altered the text of Scripture, and shows that he has merely
brought the Latin Version of the N.T. into agreement with the Greek
original. Written at Rome 384 a.d.
1. After I had written my former letter,708
containing a few remarks on some Hebrew
words, a report suddenly reached me that certain contemptible creatures were
deliberately assailing me with the charge that I had endeavored to
correct passages in the gospels, against the authority of the ancients
and the opinion of the whole world. Now, though I might—as far as
strict right goes—treat these persons with contempt (it is idle
to play the lyre for an ass709
), yet, lest they
should follow their usual habit and reproach me with superciliousness,
let them take my answer as follows: I am not so dull-wilted nor so
coarsely ignorant (qualities which they take for holiness, calling
themselves the disciples of fishermen as if men were made holy by
knowing nothing)—I am not, I repeat, so ignorant as to suppose
that any of the Lord’s words is either in need of correction or
is not divinely inspired; but the Latin manuscripts of the Scriptures
are proved to be faulty by the variations which all of them exhibit,
and my object has been to restore them to the form of the Greek
original, from which my detractors do not deny that they have been
translated. If they dislike water drawn from the clear spring, let them
drink of the muddy streamlet, and when they come to read the
Scriptures, let them lay aside710
| 710 Reading nec
diligentiam instead of et. | the keen eye which
they turn on woods frequented by game-birds and waters abounding in
shellfish. Easily satisfied in this instance alone, let them, if they
will, regard the words of Christ as rude sayings, albeit that over
these so many great intellects have labored for so many ages rather to
divine than to expound the meaning of each single word. Let them charge
the great apostle with want of literary skill, although it is said of
him that much learning made him mad.711
2. I know that as you read these words you will knit
your brows, and fear that my freedom of speech is sowing the seeds of
fresh quarrels; and that, if you could, you would gladly put your
finger on my mouth to prevent me from even speaking of things which
others do not blush to do. But, I ask you, wherein have I used too
great license? Have I ever embellished my dinner plates with engravings
of idols? Have I ever, at a Christian banquet, set before the eyes of
virgins the polluting spectacle of Satyrs embracing bacchanals? or have
I ever assailed any one in too bitter terms? Have I ever complained of
beggars turned millionaires? Have I ever censured heirs for the
funerals which they have given to their benefactors?712
| 712 Hæreditarias
sepulturas. | The one thing that I have unfortunately
said has been that virgins ought to live more in the company of women
than of men,713
| 713 The reference is to
Letter XXII. | and by this I have made the whole
city look scandalized and caused every one to point at me the finger of
scorn. “They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs
of mine head,”714
and I am become
“a proverb to them.”715
Do you suppose
after this that I will now say anything rash?
3. But “when I set the wheel rolling I began to
form a wine flagon; how comes it that a waterpot is the
result?”716
Lest Horace laugh at me I come back
to my two-legged asses, and din into their ears, not the music of the
lute, but the blare of the trumpet.717
| 717 Perhaps an allusion
to the Greek proverb, ῎ονος λύρας
ἤκουσε καὶ
σάλπιγγος
ὗς. “The ass listened to the lyre, and the pig
to the trumpet.” | They may say
if they will, “rejoicing in hope; serving the time,”
but we will say “rejoicing in hope; serving the
Lord.”718
They may see fit
to receive an accusation against a presbyter unconditionally; but we
will say in the words of Scripture, “Against an elder719
receive not an accusation, but before
two or three witnesses. Them that sin rebuke before all.”720
They may choose to read, “It is a
man’s saying, and worthy of all acceptation;” we are
content to err with the Greeks, that is to say with the apostle
himself, who spoke Greek. Our version, therefore, is, it is “a
faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation.”721
Lastly, let them take as much pleasure as
they please in their Gallican “geldings;”722
| 722 Jerome’s
detractors suggested this word instead of the simpler “ass”
in Zech. ix. 9 and Matt. xxi. 2–; 5. The phrase “Gallican
geldings” appears to be a quotation from Plaut. Aul. iii. 5,
21. | we will be satisfied with the simple
“ass” of Zechariah, loosed from its halter and made ready
for the Saviour’s service, which received the Lord on its back,
and so fulfilled Isaiah’s prediction: “Blessed is he that
soweth beside all waters, where the ox and the ass tread under
foot.”723
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