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| Jeremiah.
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Jeremiah.
The Commentary on Jeremiah is in six books; but Jerome
did not live to finish it. It was written between the years 317 and
319, but only extends to chapter xxxii. It was dedicated to Eusebius of
Cremona. The Prefaces, which are full of vigour, contain many allusions
to the events and controversies of the last years of Jerome’s
life. In the Preface to Book i., after speaking of the Book of Daniel
and the apocryphal Letter of Jeremiah as not belonging to the
prophet’s writings, he continues:
I pay little heed to the ravings of disparaging critics
who revile not only my words, but the very syllables of my words, and
suppose they give evidence of some little knowledge if they discredit
another man’s work, as was exemplified in that5429
ignorant traducer who lately broke
out, and thought it worth his while to censure my commentaries on
Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians. He does not understand the rules
of commenting (for he is more asleep than awake and seems utterly
dazed), and is not aware that in our books we give the opinions of many
different writers, the authors’ names being either expressed or
understood, so that it is open to the reader to decide which he may
prefer to adopt; although I must add that, in my Preface to the First
Book of that work, I gave fair notice that my remarks would be partly
my own, partly those of other commentators, and that thus the
commentary would be the work conjointly of the ancient writers and of
myself.5430
| 5430 That is,
Rufinus. See Preface to Book xii. of Isaiah, where Rufinus is called
Grunnius Corocotta Porcellus, and Preface to Book iv. of Jeremiah. | Grunnius, his precursor,
overlooked the same fact, and once upon a time did his best to cavil. I
replied to him in two books, and there I cleared away the objections
which he adduced in his own name, though the real traducer was some one
else; to say nothing of my treatises against Jovinianus where, you may
remember, I show that he (Jovinianus) laments that virginity is
preferred to marriage, single marriage to digamy, digamy to polygamy.
The stupid fool,5431
| 5431 Scotorum
pultibus prægravatus. The words have been translated “made
fat with Scotch flummery” (Stillingfleet). Another rendering is,
“having his belly filled and his head bedulled with Scotch
porridge” (Wall on Infant Baptism, pt. i. c. 19, § 3). Some
think the words refer to Celestius, Pelagius’ supporter. | labouring
under his load of Scotch porridge, does not recollect that we said, in
that very work, “I do not condemn the twice married, nor the
thrice married, and, if it so be, the eight times married; I will go a
step farther, and say that I welcome even a penitent whoremonger; for
things equally lawful must be weighed in an even balance.” Let
him read the Apology5432
| 5432 The letter to
Pammachius (Jer. Letter XLVIII.) in defence of the book against
Jovinianus. | for the
same work which was directed against his5433
| 5433 Jovinian was
condemned in a Synod at Rome about 390. Thirty years had thus passed
since the events occurred to which Jerome refers. See Preface to the
treatise against Jovinian. | master, and was received by Rome
with acclamation many years ago. He will then observe that his
revilings are but the echoes of other men’s voices, and that his
ignorance is so deep that even his abuse is not his own, but that he
employs against us the ravings of foes long since dead and buried.
The Preface to Book ii. is short and contains nothing of
special importance. In that to Book iii. Jerome declares that he will,
like Ulysses with the Sirens, close his ears to the adversary. The
devil, who once spoke through Jovinianus, “now barks through the
hound of Albion (Pelagius), who is like a mountain of fat, and whose
fury is more in his heels than in his teeth; for his offspring is among
the Scots, in the neighbourhood of Britain; and, according to the
fables of the poet, he must, like Cerberus, be smitten to death with a
spiritual club, that, in company with his master Pluto, he may forever
hold his peace.”
In the Preface to Book iv. Jerome says he has been
hindered in his work by the harassing of the Pelagian controversy. He
regards Pelagius as reproducing the doctrines of impassibility and
sinlessness taught by Pythagoras and Zeno, and revived by Origen,
Rufinus, Evagrius Ponticus, and Jovinian. Their doctrines, he says,
were promulgated chiefly in Sicily, Rhodes, and other islands; they
were propagated secretly, and denied in public. They were full of
malice, but were but dumb dogs, and were refuted in “certain
writings,” probably those of Augustin; but he declares his
intention of writing against them, which he did in his anti-Pelagian
Dialogue.
The Prefaces to Books v. and vi. contain nothing
noteworthy.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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