Complete Works of Saint Jerome, Vol. X

PREFACE.

in the thirteenth referring to the chapter or section number should know that Jerome devoted this work, whatever one might think of it, to no other book than the Gospels. We give great thanks to God, he says in number 6, for your work, by which you have translated the Gospel from the Greek, because there is almost no offense in it, when we have compared it with the Greek Scripture. Jerome received these words in epistle 112, in which he finally replied to him, just as if he had spoken about the New Testament as a whole. And if you, he says in number 20, as you say, support me in the correction of the New Testament, and explain the reason why you support it, etc. Indeed, there will perhaps be someone who wishes to suggest that the Gospels are designated well enough by this very name of New Testament, using other examples of such expressions. Nevertheless, this constant and perpetual manner of Jerome’s speaking about the New Testament ἁπλῶς simply/without qualification, not only in the praised passages but also in epistle 71 to Lucinius, where he says, I have restored the New Testament to the Greek authority, and what he has equal to these in epistle 106 to Sunnia and Fretela, will not allow one to think that it is said about the book of the Gospels alone. In reality, when he wished to designate that book alone, he used its proper name, as in the prologue to Damasus; in which place he indicates that he had not yet turned his mind to the remaining parts of the same Testament, which, however, he immediately took into his hands and examined with the same zeal.

The remainder leaves little room for doubt in epistle 27 to Marcella, in which, responding to the detractors of his interpretations from the New Testament, he takes almost all his examples from the Epistles of Paul. Let them read, rejoicing in hope, serving time: let us read, rejoicing in hope, serving the Lord. Jerome contrasts a corrupt reading "tempori servientes" (serving time) with his corrected reading "Domino servientes" (serving the Lord). Let them think that an accusation against a presbyter should be received at all: let us read, against a presbyter do not receive an accusation, etc. Let that please them, A human saying, and worthy of all acceptance: let us, with the Greeks, err, A faithful saying, etc. Jerome contrasts the inaccurate "Humanus sermo" (human saying) with his corrected "Fidelis sermo" (faithful saying).

From this, an argument is taken for the remaining books, and indeed for the entire Canon of the New Testament, which the Holy Father brought to the standard of the Greek codices: although he only provided the Gospels with a prologue, because that part is the first and most noble of all, perhaps also because he applied his healing hand and help to it in far more places. Richard Bentley, who, for the sake of preparing such an edition of Jerome from the most ancient manuscripts of various nations, issued a prospectus to the public and tested the judgments of learned men, preferred to exhibit a specimen of the great Work from the final chapter of the Apocalypse, so as to show that he did not doubt even about this book, which seems exposed to many calumnies from critics, that it was revised by Jerome according to the Greek. That labor could have been of great benefit to us, had not the death of the editor himself intervened after long delays.

In the meantime, even without it, we have omitted nothing that was in our power. We have prefixed to the Canons of the Gospels the epistle of Eusebius to Carpianus in Greek and Latin, which was missing in the previous edition by Martianay, but was absolutely necessary for understanding the structure of the Canons. We have examined the Gospels themselves, the Epistles of Paul, and the remaining text of Scripture against the most ancient and high-quality manuscripts, with little or no consideration for more recent ones, of which there is a great number in the libraries of Italy, but which do not have equal authority where the matter concerns restoring the original reading of Jerome. You will distinguish the rest from the annotations.

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