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| Preface to the Book of Hebrew Questions.
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Preface to
the Book of Hebrew Questions.
Written a.d. 388. For the scope
and character of this work, see Prolegomena.
The object of the Preface to a book is to set forth the
argument of the work which follows; but I am compelled to begin by
answering what has been said against me. My case is somewhat like that
of Terence, who turned the scenic prologues of his plays into a defence
of himself. We have a5377
| 5377
Terence’s rival, to whom he makes allusions in the Prologi to the
Eunuchus, Heoutontimoroumenos and Phormio. | Luscius
Lanuvinus, like the one who worried him, and who brought charges
against the poet as if he had been a plunderer of the treasury. The
bard of Mantua suffered in the same way; he had translated a few verses
of Homer very exactly, and they said that he was nothing but a
plagiarist from the ancients. But he answered them that it was no small
proof of strength to wrest the club of Hercules from his hands. Why,
even Tully, who stands on the pinnacle of Roman eloquence, that king of
orators and glory of the Latin tongue, has actions for embezzlement5378
| 5378
Repetundarum. Properly an action to compel one who has left
office to restore public money which he had embezzled. | brought against him by the
Greeks. I cannot, therefore, be surprised if a poor little fellow like
me is exposed to the gruntings of vile swine who trample our pearls
under their feet, when some of the most learned of men, men whose glory
ought to have hushed the voice of ill will, have felt the flames of
envy. It is true, this happened by a kind of justice to men whose
eloquence had filled with its resonance the theatres and the senate,
the public assembly and the rostra; hardihood always courts detraction,
and (as Horace says):
“The5379
| 5379 Hor. Odes
II., x. 19, 20. | highest
peaks invoke
The lightning’s stroke.”
But I am in a corner, remote from the city and the
forum, and the wranglings of crowded courts; yet, even so (as
Quintilian says) ill-will has sought me out. Therefore, I beseech the
reader,
“If5380
| 5380 Virgil, Ec.,
vi. 10. | one there
be, if one,
Who, rapt by strong desire, these lines shall
read,”
not to expect eloquence or oratorical grace in those Books of Hebrew
Questions, which I propose to write on all the sacred books; but
rather, that he should himself answer my detractors for me, and tell
them that a work of a new kind can claim some indulgence. I am poor and
of low estate; I neither possess riches nor do I think it right to
accept them if they are offered me; and, similarly, let me tell them
that it is impossible for them to have the riches of Christ, that is,
the knowledge of the Scriptures, and the world’s riches as well.
It will be my simple aim, therefore, first, to point out the mistakes
of those who suspect some fault in the Hebrew Scriptures, and,
secondly, to correct the faults, which evidently teem in the Greek and
Latin copies, by a reference to the original authority; and, further,
to explain the etymology of things, names, and countries, when it is
not apparent from the sound of the Latin words, by giving a paraphrase
in the vulgar tongue. To enable the student more easily to take note of
these emendations, I propose, in the first place, to set out the true5381
| 5381 Ipsa
testimonia. This is what he calls in other places Hebraica veritas.
Jerome was right in the main in correcting the LXX, and other Greek
versions by the Hebrew. He was not aware (as has been since made clear)
that there are various readings in the Hebrew itself, and that these
may sometimes be corrected by the LXX., which was made from older mss. | reading itself, as I am now able to
do, and then, by bringing the later readings into comparison with it,
to5382
| 5382 That is, by
the obeli (†), to show what has been left out, and the asterisk
(*), to show what has been inserted. | indicate what has been omitted or
added or altered. It is not my purpose, as snarling ill-will pretends,
to convict the LXX. of error, nor do I look upon my own labour as a
disparagement of theirs. The fact is that they, since their work was
undertaken for King Ptolemy of Alexandria, did not choose to bring to
light all the mysteries which the sacred writings contain, and
especially those which give the promise of the advent of Christ, for
fear that he who held the Jews in esteem because they were believed to
worship one God, would come to think that they worshipped a second. But
we find that the Evangelists, and even our Lord and Saviour, and the
Apostle Paul, also, bring forward many citations as coming from the Old
Testament which are not contained in our copies; and on these I shall
dilate more fully in their proper places. But it is clear from this fact that
those are the best mss. which most correspond
with the authoritative words of the New Testament. Add to this that
Josephus, who gives the story of the Seventy Translators, reports them
as translating only the five books of Moses; and we also acknowledge
that these are more in harmony with the Hebrew than the rest. And,
further, those who afterward came into the field as translators—I
mean Aquila and Symmachus and Theodotion—give a version very
different from that which we use.5383
| 5383 That is,
from the copies of the LXX. commonly used in the fourth century. |
I have but one word more to say, and it may calm my
detractors. Foreign goods are to be imported only to the regions where
there is a demand for them. Country people are not obliged to buy
balsam, pepper, and dates. As to Origen, I say nothing. His name (if I
may compare small things with great) is even more than my own the
object of ill-will, because, though following the common version in his
Homilies, which were spoken to common people, yet, in his Tomes,5384
| 5384 Larger
Commentaries. | that is, in his fuller discussion
of Scripture, he yields to the Hebrew as the truth, and, though
surrounded by his own forces, occasionally seeks the foreign tongue as
his ally. I will only say this about him: that I should gladly have his
knowledge of the Scriptures, even if accompanied with all the ill-will
which clings to his name, and that I do not care a straw for these
shades and spectral ghosts, whose nature is said to be to chatter in
dark corners and be a terror to babies.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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