DEDICATION.

...owe an account to no one except God; otherwise, it will undoubtedly seem different to others who are familiar with the norms and laws of our Academic Life. For the occupations and duties by which we are distracted for the benefit of the Studious Youth original: "Studiosæ Juventutis"; referring to the university students the author teaches so greatly restrict and cut short our time that we can hardly apply any efforts to our scholarly labors except "stolen" hours original: "furtivas"; hours snatched away from his official responsibilities. Therefore, if these works are less polished and refined, they deserve some measure of pardon.

I might fear with greater justification, however, that someone might charge these efforts of mine with Ambition. They might say that I am not content with teaching Theology and interpreting the Divine Word Verbum Divinum: The Holy Scriptures or the Gospel—a province in which I certainly have plenty to do if I have any talent at all—and that I have "put my sickle into another man’s harvest" A proverbial expression (original: "falcem meam in alienam messem mittam") meaning to meddle in a field of study belonging to someone else and excessively sought the praise of expertise in Hebrew Matters and Antiquities.

Or they might charge me with Arrogance, because, unmindful of Horace's warning A reference to the Roman poet Horace, who in his Art of Poetry advised writers to choose a subject that matches their strength, I have chosen a subject for my writing that far exceeds the strength of my intellect, my expertise, and my training in the study of the Antiquities of the Judean and Christian People. But as much as my conscience testifies before the Lord that I am pure of these vices, I may dismiss their suspicions with all the greater confidence. No desire for empty, fleeting glory or for "catching the popular breeze" original: "popularis auræ captandæ"; seeking public applause or fickle fame (which I do not know if I have ever truly valued) has moved me; no vain pre-