JEROME’S PREFACES.

To Domnio and Rogatianus, a preface by the same author to the same book.

Just as those who have seen Athens understand Greek histories better, and those who have sailed from Troy through Leucas and the Acroceraunian mountains to Sicily, and from there to the mouth of the Tiber, better understand the third book of Virgil; so too will one behold Holy Scripture more clearly who has contemplated Judea with his own eyes and learned the memories of ancient cities and the names of places—whether they remain the same or have changed. Hence, I also took care to undertake this labor with the most learned of the Hebrews: to travel throughout the province Judea/Palestine, which all the Churches of Christ proclaim. For I confess, my dearest Domnio and Rogatianus, that I have never trusted in my own strength regarding the divine volumes, nor have I followed my own opinion; even in those matters where I thought I knew something, I was accustomed to ask questions—how much more so regarding those things about which I was uncertain? Finally, when you recently demanded of me by letter that I translate the Book of Chronicles Paralipomenon; from the Greek meaning "things omitted," as it supplements the history of the Books of Kings into the Latin language, I undertook it. And I consulted with a certain teacher of the Law who was held in high admiration among the Hebrews; I conferred with him, as they say, from the top of the head to the very tip of the fingernail original: "a vertice... usque ad extremum unguem"; a Roman idiom meaning "completely and thoroughly": and thus strengthened, I dared to do what you commanded. For I speak freely to you: the list of names in the Greek and Latin manuscripts of this book is so corrupted that one might think they were not Hebrew names, but some kind of Barbaric or Sarmatian The Sarmatians were nomadic tribes north of the Black Sea, used here as a shorthand for "utterly foreign/gibberish" names thrown together. This is not to be ascribed to the Seventy Translators Septuagint; the 3rd-century BCE Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible who, full of the Holy Spirit, translated what was true; but rather to the fault of the scribes, who continuously write uncorrected things from corrected ones. Often, by removing syllables from the middle, they force three names into one word; or conversely, they divide one name into two or three words because of its length. Furthermore, these names themselves do not always signify men, as most people think, but rather cities, regions, forests, and provinces; and certain histories are narrated figuratively under their interpretation. Regarding these, it is said in the Book of Kings: "Are these things not written in the Book of the Words of the Days of the Kings of Judah?" 2 Kings 15:6 which certainly are not found in our manuscripts. First, it should be known that among the Hebrews, the Book of Chronicles is one; and among them, it is called Dibre Hayyamim original Hebrew: דברי הימים, which means "The Words of the Days" The Hebrew title for Chronicles is "Annals" or "Journal". Because of its great size, it has been divided among us; just as some do with Cicero’s dialogue Brutus, cutting it into three parts, though it was issued as one by its author. Next, it must be noted that names frequently signify the meanings of things, as I said, rather than just identifying men. Finally, all scriptural learning is contained within this book: histories that were either omitted in their proper places or touched upon lightly are here explained through concise summaries of words. Assisted therefore by the help of your prayers, I have sent this book which will please the well-meaning, though I do not doubt it will displease the envious. For most people, as Pliny says, prefer to despise the best things rather than learn them. If anyone wishes to find fault with anything in this translation, let him ask the Hebrews, let him consult his own conscience, let him see the order and flow of the speech: and then, if he can, let him disparage our labor.

Therefore, whenever you see asterisks The symbol *, that is, stars, shining in this volume, know that there something has been added from the Hebrew which is not found in the Latin manuscripts. But where an obelus The symbol ÷ or - used in ancient philology to mark suspect text, that is, a horizontal stroke, is placed before a passage, it marks what the Seventy Translators added, either for the sake of elegance or by the authority of the Holy Spirit, even though it is not read in the Hebrew volumes.

Preface by the same author to Domnio and Rogatianus, on Ezra and Nehemiah.

Whether it is more difficult to do what you ask or to deny it, I have not yet decided. For it is not my intention to refuse you anything you command; yet the greatness of the burden imposed so weighs upon my neck that I feel I must collapse under the bundle rather than lift it. To this are added the efforts of the envious, who think everything we write should be criticized; sometimes, with their conscience rebelling against them, they publicly tear apart what they read in secret—to such an extent that I am compelled to cry out and say: "Lord, deliver my soul Psalm 120 (119) from wicked lips and from a deceitful tongue." It is now the third year that you have been writing and rewriting to ask me to translate the Book of Ezra and the Book of Esther for you from the Hebrew—as if you did not already have Greek and Latin volumes, or as if whatever is translated by us will not be immediately spat upon by everyone. To strive in vain, as a certain man says, and to seek nothing by one’s fatigue but hatred, is the height of madness. Therefore I beseech you, my dearest Domnio and Rogatianus, to be content with private reading and not to bring these books into public, lest you force food upon those who are already nauseated original: "fastidiosis cibos ingeratis"; and avoid the arrogance of those who know only how to judge others while doing nothing themselves. If, however, there are any brothers whom our works do not displease, give a copy to them, warning them to transcribe the Hebrew names—of which there is a great abundance in this volume—distinctly and with proper spacing. For it will be of no use to have corrected the book unless the correction is preserved by the diligence of the scribes. Nor should it move anyone that we have issued only one book Jerome combined Ezra and Nehemiah into one book; nor should anyone delight in the dreams of the third and fourth apocryphal books Apocryphal texts like 1 and 2 Esdras, which Jerome rejected. For among the Hebrews, the discourses of Ezra and Nehemiah are squeezed into a single volume; and those things which are not held among them, and are not among the twenty-four elders The 24 books of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, must be cast far away. If anyone should oppose you with the Seventy Translators—whose manuscripts show by their very variety that they are mangled and overturned, and surely that which is diverse cannot be claimed as true—send him to the Gospels. In the Gospels, many things are placed as if from the Old Testament which are not found among the Seventy Translators, such as: "Because he shall be called a Nazarene," and "Out of Egypt I called my son," and "They shall look upon him whom they pierced," and many others which we reserve for a wider work. Ask him where these are written; and when he cannot produce them, you read them from these copies which we have recently published, which are daily pierced by the tongues of slanderers. But to come to a summary, surely what I am about to propose is most fair. Can they produce anything that is not in the Greek, or is found differently than I have translated it? Why do they mangle the translator? Let them ask the Hebrews: and based on those authors, let them either grant or deny credit to my translation. Furthermore, it is quite another thing if, with eyes closed...