Complete Works of Saint Jerome, Vol. VII

A (Vers. 12.) "And having received an answer in their sleep, not to return to Herod, they went back another way into their own country," etc. Those who had offered gifts to the Lord, consequently receive an answer. But the answer (which in Greek is called chrematisthentes divinely warned/given an oracle) is not given through an angel, but by the Lord himself ¹, so that the privilege of Joseph's merits might be demonstrated. They return by another way because they were not to be mingled with the infidelity of the Jews.

(Vers. 13-15.) "Behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in sleep to Joseph, saying: Arise, and take the child and his mother, and flee into Egypt: and be there until I tell you. For it will come to pass that Herod will seek the child to destroy him. Who rising, took the child and his mother by night: B and retired into Egypt; and was there until the death of Herod."

When he takes the child and his mother to go into Egypt, he takes them by night and in darkness: but when he returns into Judea, neither night nor darkness is placed in the Gospel.

(Vers. 15, 16.) "That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: Out of Egypt I have called my son. Then Herod, seeing that he had been mocked by the Magi, was exceedingly angry; and sending, he killed all the boys who were in Bethlehem, and in all its borders, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had inquired from the Magi."

Let those who deny the truth of the Hebrew volumes answer where this is read in the Septuagint interpreters. When they find it not, we will tell them that it is written in the prophet Hosea (chap. 11), as the copies which we recently published can prove. We can C also reconcile this passage in another way or "explain" on account of the contentious ²—whose custom the Apostle Paul denies that he and the Church of Christ possess (1 Cor. 11:16)—and we bring forth a testimony from Numbers, where Balaam says: God called him out of Egypt; his glory is like that of a unicorn (Num. 24:8).

(Vers. 17-20.) "Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying: A voice in Rama was heard, lamentation and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not. But Herod being dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in sleep to Joseph in Egypt, saying: Arise, and take the child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel."

From Rachel, Benjamin was born, in whose tribe Bethlehem is not found. It is asked, therefore, how Rachel weeps for the children of Juda, that is, of Bethlehem, as if they were her own? We shall answer briefly: because she was buried near Bethlehem in Ephrata, and took the mother's name from the maternal hospitality of her body ³. Or, because Juda and Benjamin were two joined tribes, and Herod had commanded the children to be killed not only in Bethlehem, but in all its borders. Through the occasion of Bethlehem, we understand that many of Benjamin were also slain. She weeps for her children and does not receive consolation according to a double understanding: either because she considered them eternally dead, or because she would not allow herself to be consoled regarding those she knew would live. Regarding the mention of Rama, let us not think it to be the name of a place near Gabaa ⁴, but Rama is interpreted as "high" (ramah), so that the sense is: A voice was heard in the high place, that is, dispersed far and wide.

¹ I was once almost persuaded that this passage rested on a mistake, and that ipsum Dominum the Lord himself should be rewritten with the single word insomnium in a dream, so that the sense would be that the Magi received an answer in a dream, but Saint Joseph received the answer through an angel. This would be consistent with Saint Jerome himself, who wishes this prerogative of vision to be demonstrated as Joseph’s privilege. For it would be very different if he said the Magi were admonished by the Lord himself, but Joseph by an angel, since the condition of God’s admonition would be lesser, which is contrary to what truth cries out and what the holy Father himself contends in express words. Therefore, it seems to have been done by an error of the ancients due to some similarity between the words ipsum Dominum and insomnium, which a critic could easily take as two words divided, for example, in som and nium, which as they signify nothing by themselves, he might have believed should be corrected from insom to ipsum and nium to Dominum. Moreover, the sacred text gives faith to the reading insomnium, the truth of the matter supports it, and finally, the propriety and power of the Latin word itself, by which insomnium is called a vision portending what happens afterward.
But if we properly follow the mind of the holy Doctor, it will be established that there is nothing here that we should correct, if we weigh the matter a little more deeply. For he felt that the answers which were had in sleep, kat' onar in a dream, which the Greeks call chresmous oracles, were made by God himself, and are called a chresmos oracle, as often as God answers through himself. It is possible to recognize this opinion of his throughout his commentaries on the Prophets and elsewhere: for even regarding the name of Jerome himself, as being of a more hidden doctrine, it is referred to by the Greek lexicographers themselves at the word chresmos. Thus, the sacred text here, where the subject is the Magi, uses the verb chresmodeo to deliver an oracle, which, derived from the name chresmos, is clearly of the same meaning as it; and therefore, the answer is understood to be made by the Lord himself through the doctrine of the holy Father and the Greeks. And if the same sacred text notes that an answer was made to Joseph through an angel, since it declares that both occurred kat' onar, or in sleep—both to him and to the Magi—it certainly testifies that both were divine, or made by the Lord himself; in this, however, Joseph has more honor and praise, that an angel is sent by the Lord himself in addition to warn him, so that the privilege of Joseph’s merits might be demonstrated. The opinion is saved, the matter is saved: nor should hands be rashly laid upon the text of the holy Father, which all books, manuscripts as well as printed, as many as there are and have been, protect and approve with equal consensus, and even all liturgical writers do so as well.

² This reading in the printed books is very unskilled, namely, Possumus autem locum istum et aliter consolari propter contentiosos We can, however, reconcile this passage in another way on account of the contentious. It should therefore be read: Possumus autem locum istum et aliter conciliare, vel et aliter confirmare... et testimonium proferimus ex Numeris We can, however, reconcile or otherwise confirm this passage... and we bring forth a testimony from Numbers, etc.; for we read everywhere in the singular, I called my son, or I called him, and not as the LXX have in the plural, I called my sons. MART.

³ Our manuscripts, and two praised by Martianay, read: ex interno corpusculi hospitio from the internal hospitality of her body.

⁴ In the Palatine codices: to be the name of a place that is near Gabaa.