Bad Advertisement?
Are you a Christian?
Online Store:Visit Our Store
| Preface to the Commentary on Ecclesiastes.
PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP 
Preface
to the Commentary on Ecclesiastes.
Addressed to Paula and Eustochium, Bethlehem, a.d. 388.
I remember that, about five years ago, when I was still
living at Rome, I read Ecclesiastes to the saintly Blesilla,5385
| 5385 Daughter of
Paula. See Letter XXXIX. | so that I might provoke her to the
contempt of this earthly scene, and to count as nothing all that she
saw in the world; and that she asked me to throw my remarks upon all
the more obscure passages into the form of a short commentary, so that,
when I was absent, she might still understand what she read. She was
withdrawn from us by her sudden death, while girding herself for our
work; we were not counted worthy to have such an one as the partner of
our life; and, therefore, Paula and Eustochium, I kept silence under
the stroke of such a wound. But now, living as I do in the smaller
community of Bethlehem, I pay what I owe to her memory and to you. I
would only point out this, that I have followed no one’s
authority. I have translated direct from the Hebrew, adapting my words
as much as possible to the form of the Septuagint, but only in those
places in which they did not diverge far from the Hebrew. I have
occasionally referred also to the versions of Aquila, Symmachus, and
Theodotion, but so as not to alarm the zealous student by too many
novelties, nor yet to let my commentary follow the side streams of
opinion, turning aside, against my conscientious conviction, from the
fountainhead of truth.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
