Letter 25: An explanation of the ten names given to God in the Hebrew Scriptures. The ten names are El, Elohim, Sabaôth, Eliôn, Asher yeheyeh Exodus 3:14, Adonai, Jah, the tetragram JHVH, and Shaddai. Written at Rome 384 A.D.
Letter 25: To Marcella (384 AD)
[An explanation of the ten names given to God in the Hebrew Scriptures: El, Elohim, Sabaoth, Elion, Asher yeheyeh ("I AM WHO I AM," Exodus 3:14), Adonai, Jah, the Tetragrammaton YHWH, and Shaddai. Written at Rome, this is one of several short scholarly notes Jerome sent to Marcella, demonstrating the kind of Hebrew expertise that no one else in the Western church could match. These letters were as much intellectual performance as instruction — Jerome displaying his unique qualifications to the aristocratic circle on the Aventine.]
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.
Related Letters
In this letter Jerome defends himself against the charge of having altered the text of Scripture, and shows that he has merely brought the Latin Version of the N.T. into agreement with the Greek original. Written at Rome 384 A.D.
Onasus, of Segesta, the subject of this letter, was among Jerome's Roman opponents. He is here held up to ridicule in a manner which reflects little credit on the writer's urbanity. The date of the letter is 385 A.D.
An explanation of the Hebrew word Selah. This word, rendered by the LXX. διάψαλμα and by Aquila ἀ εί, was as much a crux in Jerome's day as it is in ours.
Concerning the virgin Asella. Dedicated to God before her birth, Marcella's sister had been made a church-virgin at the age of ten. From that time she had lived a life of the severest asceticism, first as a member and then as the head of Marcella's community upon the Aventine.
Jerome draws a contrast between his daily life and that of Origen, and sorrowfully admits his own shortcomings. He then suggests to Marcella the advantages which life in the country offers over life in town, and hints that he is himself disposed to make trial of it. Written at Rome in 385 A.D.