Letter 114: Jerome writes to Theophilus to apologize for his delay in sending Latin versions of the latter's letter (CXIII.) and invective against John Chrysostom. Possibly, however, the allusion may be not to these but to some other work of Theophilus (e.g. a paschal letter.) This delay he attributes to the disturbed state of Palestine, the severity of the...
Jerome to the most blessed Pope Theophilus — greetings.
My delay in returning to Your Holiness your text in a Latin version is entirely explained by the cascade of interruptions and calamities I have encountered. The Isaurians have launched a sudden raid; Phoenicia and Galilee have been laid waste; Palestine is gripped by panic, Jerusalem in particular. We have all been occupied not with making books but with making walls. On top of all this there has been a severe winter and a famine that is nearly unbearable — I, who have charge of many brothers, have felt this heavily. In such circumstances, the translation work proceeded at night, in whatever hours I could snatch or steal.
I finally got it done, and by Lent nothing remained but to collate the fair copy with the original. Then a severe illness struck me and brought me to the threshold of death, from which only God's mercy and Your Holiness's prayers have rescued me — perhaps precisely so that I might complete what you had set me.
I admire in your work a quality that is almost impossible to describe: you write with the philosopher's depth and the rhetorician's force simultaneously. You combine Demosthenes and Plato as though they were two strings on the same instrument. What you say about the vessels of the Eucharist — that they must be treated with the utmost reverence, cleaned by consecrated hands alone, not touched by laypeople however well-intentioned — this passage in particular I found not only theologically sound but extraordinarily well put. I have rendered it as closely as the Latin allows, knowing that any paraphrase would diminish it.
If critics find fault with the translation, let them do the work themselves. They will discover that converting a Greek period of this kind into Latin without losing either the argument or the music is not as simple as it appears from the outside. I speak from experience.
To Theophilus
Jerome writes to Theophilus to apologize for his delay in sending Latin versions of the latter's letter (CXIII.) and invective against John Chrysostom. Possibly, however, the allusion may be not to these but to some other work of Theophilus (e.g. a paschal letter.) This delay he attributes to the disturbed state of Palestine, the severity of the winter, the prevalent famine, and his own ill-health. He now sends the translations that he has made and, while he deprecates criticism on his own work, praises that of Theophilus, quoting with particular approval the directions given by this latter for the reverent care of the vessels used in celebrating the holy communion. The date of the letter is 405 A.D.
To the most blessed pope Theophilus, Jerome.
1. My delay in sending back to your holiness your treatise translated into Latin is accounted for by the many interruptions and obstacles that I have met with. There has been a sudden raid of the Isaurians; Phœnicia and Galilee have been laid waste; Palestine has been panic-stricken, and particularly Jerusalem; we have all been engaged in making not books but walls. There has also been a severe winter and an almost unbearable famine; and these have told heavily upon me who have the charge of many brothers. Amid these difficulties the work of translation went on by night, as I could save or snatch time to give to it. At last I got it done and by Lent nothing remained but to collate the fair copy with the original. However, just then a severe illness seized me and I was brought to the threshold of death, from which I have only been saved by God's mercy and your prayers; perhaps for this very purpose that I might fulfil your behest and render with its writer's elegance the charming volume which you have adorned with the scripture's fairest flowers. But bodily weakness and sorrow of heart have, I need hardly say, dulled the edge of my intellect and obstructed the free flow of my language.
2. I admire in your work its practical aim, designed as it is to instruct by the authority of scripture ignorant persons in all the churches concerning the reverence with which they must handle holy things and minister at Christ's altar; and to impress upon them that the sacred chalices, veils, and other accessories used in the celebration of the Lord's passion are not mere lifeless and senseless objects devoid of holiness, but that rather, from their association with the body and blood of the Lord, they are to be venerated with the same awe as the body and the blood themselves.
3. Take back then your book, nay mine or better still ours; for when you flatter me you will but flatter yourself. It is for you that my brain has toiled; it is for you that I have striven with the poor resources of the Latin tongue to find an equivalent for the eloquence of the Greek. I have not indeed given a word-for-word rendering, as skilled translators do, nor have I counted out the money you have given to me coin by coin; but I have given you full weight. Some words may be missing but none of the sense is lost. Moreover I have translated into Latin and prefixed to this volume the letter that you sent to me, so that all who read it may know that I have acted under the commands of your holiness, and have not rashly and over-confidently undertaken a task that is beyond my powers. Whether I have succeeded in it I must leave to your judgment. Even though you may blame my weakness, you will at least give me credit for my good intention.
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Source. Translated by W.H. Fremantle, G. Lewis and W.G. Martley. From Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. 6. Edited by Philip Schaff and Henry Wace. (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1893.) Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight. <https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3001114.htm>.
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Jerome to the most blessed Pope Theophilus — greetings.
My delay in returning to Your Holiness your text in a Latin version is entirely explained by the cascade of interruptions and calamities I have encountered. The Isaurians have launched a sudden raid; Phoenicia and Galilee have been laid waste; Palestine is gripped by panic, Jerusalem in particular. We have all been occupied not with making books but with making walls. On top of all this there has been a severe winter and a famine that is nearly unbearable — I, who have charge of many brothers, have felt this heavily. In such circumstances, the translation work proceeded at night, in whatever hours I could snatch or steal.
I finally got it done, and by Lent nothing remained but to collate the fair copy with the original. Then a severe illness struck me and brought me to the threshold of death, from which only God's mercy and Your Holiness's prayers have rescued me — perhaps precisely so that I might complete what you had set me.
I admire in your work a quality that is almost impossible to describe: you write with the philosopher's depth and the rhetorician's force simultaneously. You combine Demosthenes and Plato as though they were two strings on the same instrument. What you say about the vessels of the Eucharist — that they must be treated with the utmost reverence, cleaned by consecrated hands alone, not touched by laypeople however well-intentioned — this passage in particular I found not only theologically sound but extraordinarily well put. I have rendered it as closely as the Latin allows, knowing that any paraphrase would diminish it.
If critics find fault with the translation, let them do the work themselves. They will discover that converting a Greek period of this kind into Latin without losing either the argument or the music is not as simple as it appears from the outside. I speak from experience.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.