Letter 37: 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...
Letter 37: To Marcella (384 AD, Rome)
[Marcella had asked Jerome to lend her a copy of a commentary on the Song of Songs by Rhetitius, bishop of Autun. He refuses — characteristically, not politely but with withering scholarly contempt for the work's errors.]
Marcella asked to borrow the commentary on the Song of Songs by Rhetitius, bishop of Augustodunum [modern Autun, in Burgundy]. Jerome flatly refuses, on the ground that the work is riddled with errors. He gives two samples:
1. Rhetitius identifies Tarshish with Tarsus — wrong.
2. He assumes that Uphaz (in the phrase 'gold of Uphaz') is the same as Cephas — also wrong.
[This is pure Jerome: someone asks to borrow a book, and instead of just lending it, he delivers a scathing one-paragraph demolition of the author's competence.]
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.
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