Letter 28: 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.
Letter 28: To Marcella (384 AD)
[An explanation of the Hebrew word "Selah," which appears repeatedly in the Psalms. The word — rendered by the Septuagint as diapsalma and by the translator Aquila as "always" — was as mysterious in Jerome's day as it remains in ours. Jerome surveys the competing theories: some take it as a change of meter, others as a pause for breath, others as marking the start of a new subject, and still others as connected to rhythm or indicating a burst of instrumental music. Jerome himself leans toward Aquila and Origen, who interpreted the word as meaning "forever," and suggests it functions as a marker of completion — analogous to the "explicit" or "feliciter" that scribes wrote at the end of sections in contemporary Latin manuscripts.]
Human translation — New Advent (NPNF / ANF series)
Related Letters
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.
An explanation of certain Hebrew words which have been left untranslated in the versions. The words are Alleluia, Amen, Maran atha. Written at Rome 384 A.D.
An answer to five questions put to Jerome by Marcella in a letter not preserved. The questions are as follows. (1) What are the things which eye has not seen nor ear heard 1 Corinthians 2:9?
Marcella had sent some small articles as a present (probably to Paula and Eustochium) and Jerome now writes in their name to thank her for them. He notices the appropriateness of the gifts, not only to the ladies, but also to himself. Written at Rome in 385 A.D.
Marcella had asked Jerome to lend her a copy of a commentary by Rhetitius, bishop of Augustodunum (Autun), on the Song of Songs. He now refuses to do so on the ground that the work abounds with errors, of which the two following are samples: (1) Rhetitius identifies Tharshish with Tarsus, and (2) he supposes that Uphaz (in the phrase gold of Uph...