Translation:Vulgate Prologue

by Jerome (c. 345-c. 420)

Here begins the epistle of Jerome to Paulinus priest of all the divine stories.

Chapter 1

Brother Ambrose has brought me your little gifts and most enchanting letters, which from the beginning have underlined the fidelity of our friendship, and even now attest our true and old ties, which new things have undergone. The verity of our friendship is cemented by our unity in Christ, rectified not through manipulation of our familiarity nor stroking flattery, but by the fear of God and the study of divine scriptures. We have read in old histories, how men traversed provinces, visited new peoples, traversed seas, to see those whom they knew of from books. So Pythagoras went to the priests of Memphis, so Plato went to Egypt, and to Archita, Tarentine, and the coast of Italy, that was sometimes call'd Great Greece: he laboriously plied: such that he who in Athens was a great master, where the potency of his doctrines resounded within the Academy, would become a pilgrim, a disciple, more willing to modestly take in foreign learning, than to immodestly give out his own. Afterward while he pursued fleeing letters all over the world, he was captured by pirates and sold, appeared to a very cruel tyrant, led captive bound and thrall: however since he was a philosopher: he was more than his buyer. Also we have read that nobles from the furthest coasts of Spain and France went to Titus Livitus,^[1] loaded with the milk well of eloquence: and he who did not draw his sight to Rome, the fame of one man led there. That age of all ages had an unheard of miracle celebrated: that they that entered into the great city: would seek something else outside of the city. Appolloni, either that great [diviner], or in the common speech, [a philosopher],^[2] as Pythagorians say, plied into Persia, crossed the Caucuses, Albania, Scythia, Massageta, entered the richest kingdoms of India; and at the last, when he had pass'd over the very broad river of Physon, he came to Braginanas, so he could hear Hirarch sitting upon a golden throne, and drink of the well of Tantalus, who taught among a few disciples of nature, virtues, and manners, and of the course of days and stars; and from there he went by Elamites, Babylonians, Chaldeans, Medes, Assyrians, Parthians, Syrians, Phoenicians, Arabians, Palestinians,^[3] and when he went back to Alexandria, he went to Ethiopia: so he could see the great rhetoricians,^[4] and the most famous table of the sun in sand^[5] This man found, over all he might learn, that he, always profiting, could be made better then he was before.^[6] Phylostratus on this wrote mutch in 8 volumes.

Chapter 2

Why do I speak of men of the world? Since Paul the apostle, the vessel of choice, and teacher^[7] of Gentiles, who, of awareness of so grate a gift in himself, spoke, saying this: "Why do you seek open proof of him, that is Jesus Christ, that speaks in me." Afterward when he had gone up through Damascus and Arabia, he went up to Jerusalem, for he wanted to see Peter, and he dwelt with him for 15 days, for by these mystical 7 & 8 days, he was to be informed, so that he could be a preacher to the Gentiles, to convert them to the faith; then, after 14 years, when he had taken to him Barnabas and Titus, he explain'd the gospel with the apostles, so that his faith would not be in vain. The living voice of God's word spoken has a hidden inward working, and when the voice is spoken into the ears of the disciple from the mouth of the authour, it sounds more strongly. Therefore, when Æschines was exiled at Rhodes, and the oration of Demosthenes that was against him was read, he, amid all the men wondering and praising, sighing said, "What if you had heard the beast telling his own words!"

Chapter 3

I don't say this, because there is any such goodness in me, that you can either hear or learn from me; but because with your fervent love and study of learning are admirable in themselves; for a wit able to be taught is praiseworthy even without a teacher. We don't take heed to what you may find, but to what you seek. Wax is soft and easy to form, though the hands of craftsmen and formers cease, nevertheless within it is the potential for all shapes, that may me made with it. Paul the apostle joys that he himself had learned the law of Moses and the prophets at the feet of Gamaliel, that he could, armed with spiritual darts, speak trustingly "the weapons of our war are not carnal things but things mighty in god to cast down strongholds; that we overthrow evil thoughts and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bring into captivity all understanding to obey Christ, and ready to take vengeance on all disobedience." He writes to Timothy, well learned in holy letters from childhood, exhorting [him] to study of lesson, lest he leave off the grace, which was given him by the laying on of hands by the priest.^[8] He also commands Titus, among other virtues of a bishop, which he declared in a sermon, that he should not leave off knowing the scriptures, "holding", he says "that word, that after God's doctrine is a true word, so that he may be capable by sound doctrine to exhort and convince those who contradict."

Chapter 4

Truly, holy churlishness in a clergyman only lets him benefit himself because as much as he may benefit the church by his good life, he harms it the same because he can't withstand the destroyers of the faith. Malachi the prophet says, or rather the Lord by Malachi says: "Now ask the priests concerning the law;" for the office of a priest is, when he is asked, to answer from the law of God. And in Deuteronomy we read: "ask your father, and he will tell you; and ask your priests, and they will say to you." Also in the one hundred and eighteenth psalm David says, "Your justifications were joyful to me in the place of my pilgrimage." And in the description of righteous man, when David likened him to the tree of life that is in paradise, among other virtues he said this, "His will is in the law of the Lord, and he will think on His law day and night." Daniel in the end of a very holy vision says, "Righteous men will shine like the stars, and wise learned men as the firmament." You see how much righteous churlishness and wise righteousness differentiate between themselves. The first is likened to stars, and the other to heaven; albeit that, after the truth of the Hebrew tongue, either of them can be understood about learned men. For we read it in this way: "Truly, those that are wise learned men will shine like the brightness of the firmament, and those who teach many men to righteousness will shine like the stars, forever and ever." Why is Paul the apostle said the vessel of choice? Truly because he was the vessel of the law, and the cabinet of holy scripture. The Pharisees are astonished at the doctrine of the Lord, and wonder at Peter and John, how they knew the law, since they learned no letters. For the Holy Spirit told them everything, that God commonly gave others by daily study and thinking on the law of God every day, and, as it is written, "they were taught by God." Our Savior had only reached 12 years of age, and then he, sitting in the temple, and asking questions of the law, taught mutch more by asking wise questions. But ought we to say Peter to be ignorant, and John to be ignorant, both of whom could always say of themselves, "though I'm unwise in words, I am not unwise in knowledge." If John was a simple fisherman, untaught in schools; and from where, I ask, did he get the words, "In the beginning was the word, and this word was with God, and God was this same word?" This word logos^[9] in Greek signifies many things, for it is word, and reason, and number, and cause of everything, by which all things are, that have being; each one of these we rightfully understand in Christ.

Chapter 5

Wise Plato didn't know these things; nor did Demosthenes the orator know these things; for God says, "I will destroy the wisdom of wise man; and the prudence of prudent men of the world." True wisdom will destroy false wisdom, and although the folly of preaching is held in the cross, nevertheless Paul speaks wisdom among perfect men; not wisdom of this wold, which is destroyed, nor of princes of this world; but he speaks wisdom of God hidden in mystery, that god ordained before the world. Christ is the wisdom of God, for "Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God." This wisdom is in hidden mystery, for which the title of the ninth psalm is "for the hidden things of the son of God," in whom are all the treasures of wisdom and of hidden knowledge of God; and he that was hidden in mystery, is foreordained before the world; also foreordained and prefigured in the law and prophets. Therefore the prophets were called seers, for they saw him, who the other men didn't see. "Abraham saw the day of him, and he was glad." Heavens were opened to Ezekiel, which were closed to the sinful people. David says, "Lord, open my eyes, and I'll behold the marvels of your law." For the law is spiritual, and therefore it has need of open revelation, so that it can be understood, that we may behold the glory of God with open faces. The book in Revelation is shown sealed with seven seals, which, if you give it to a man knowing letters, so that he might read it, he'll answer you, I can't read it, for it is sealed. How many men know this day that they know letters, and hold the sealed book, and can't open it, but if it is unlocked by him that has the key of David "who opens and no man closes, and closes and no man opens." In the Acts of the Apostles the holy eunuch, yes, the holy man, because holy writ called him so, that when he read Isaiah the prophet, he was asked by Philip, "Do you think that you understand the words that you read?" and he answered, "how can I understand, except by being taught by someone." I that speak among others of myself, am neither holier nor more studious than this eunuch, who from Ethiopia, that is, from the furthest coasts of the world, came to the temple, and forsook the king's hall, and was so great a lover of knowing God and His law, that he would read holy letters in his chariot; and yet when he held the book, and thought on the words of the Lord in his mind, and read them with his tongue, and spoke with lips, he didn't know him who he worshiped in the book. Then Philip came, and showed to him Jesus, who rested privately hidden in the letter. O the marvelous virtue of the doctor! In the same hour the eunuch believed in God, and was baptized, faithful and holy, and from a disciple was made a master; he found more fruit in the desert well of the holy church, then in the golden temple of the synagogue of the Jews.

Chapter 6

These things are briefly and fully written by me (for the epistle's shortness didn't let me stray further on this matter), for to convince you that you can't enter into holy scripture without a guide to show you the way. I hold my peace on the topic of grammarians, rhetoricians, philosophers, geometers, logicians, musicians, astronomers, astrologers, physicians, whose science is sufficient, or very profitable, to mortal men, and is divided in 3 parts as in doctrine, and in reason, and use. I will come to the lesser crafts, which aren't ministered only with the tongue, but also with the hands; as farmhands, masons, metal smiths, carpenters, makers of woolen cloth, fullers,^[10] and others that forge, or make, various furniture, and cheap utensils; they can't be all that they desire without a teacher. Doctors profess that that is of the medical profession, smiths treat that that can be smithed; but the craft of holy scripture is the only science, that all men profess. "We all write poetic sayings, both learned and unlearned." This science of scriptures the chattering old woman, and the doting old man, and the sophist full of words, and all folks presume to know this, and chatter about it, and tear it apart, and teach it before they learn it. Other folks, with stern faces, and great chattering words, talk as philosophers of holy letters among young women; other men learn of women what they should teach men(that is shame); and if this seem of little peril, they explain to others with a kind of hardiness and lightness of words, that that they don't understand. I hold my peace about such that are like unto me, that when they are come to holy scripture after secular letters, and with a fair sermon delight the ears of the people, whatever they say, they think it to be the law of god, but they choose not to know what the prophets, what the apostles intended; but they shape inconvenient passages to their own desire, as if it were a grate, and not vicious manner of saying: to deprave sentences, and to twist reluctant^[11] scriptures to their will.^[12] They forget we have read the books drawn out of Homer and Virgil, but we don't say christless Maro a christian because he wrote such verse, "Now the maiden and Saturn's reign come back, now the newborn is sent down from the high heaven;" and [this verse could be] the father, speaking to the son, [the verse that] says, "my son, my might, my majesty;" and similar to the words of our Savior on the cross, he writes this verse, "such words those near felt, while transfixed he dwelt."^[13] These things are childish, and like the play of children playing at the circle, to teach what you don't know, and I say this with heart, it is folly to pretend that you know what you don't.

Chapter 7

It is commonly said, that the story of Genesis is very open, in which is written of the making of the world, and of the beginning of mankind, and of division of the land, and of the confusion of tongues, and of the going down of the Hebrew people into Egypt. The book of Exodus is open with the ten plagues, with the ten commandments, with mystic and godly commandments. The book of Levites^[14] is open, although all sacrifices, yes, and almost all words, and the clothes of Aaron, and the whole order of Levi, show heavenly symbols. The book of numbers, does it not contain many mysteries of the whole craft of numbers, and the prophecy of Balaam, and of 42 dwellings in the wilderness? Deuteronomy, truly, the second law and prefigures the law of the gospel, doesn't it, while containing the things that are before, nevertheless show all old things anew? This far the five books of Moses last, that I call the Pentateuch, these are the "five words" that the apostle glories himself, that he has the will to speak them in the church. Job, who is an example of patience, doesn't he knit mysteries with his word? He starts in prose, proceeds in verse, and with common words he makes an end; and he illustrates all the laws of rhetoric, with his prepositions, talking on evidence, confirmation, and conclusion. Every one of its words is very sensible; and, though I hold my peace on other things, he proficies of resurrection of bodies, so that no man can write more openly, or more carefully, on this matter, for he says this, "I know that my redeemer lives, and I shall rise from the earth on the last day; and I shall be covered with my skin, and then in the flesh I shall see God my Savior for myself, and my eyes and none other will behold Him. This is my hope put up in my bosom." I'll come to Jesus son of Nave,^[15] who bears the figure of the Lord, not only in worthy deeds, but also in name. He passes the Jordan, he turns the realms of enemies upside down, he divides the earth to the [Hebrew] people that had victory, and by all cities, villages, hills, rivers, creeks, and boundaries, he describes the spiritual realms of the holy church and of heavenly Jerusalem. In the book of Judges as many princes of the people as there are, there are that many hidden figures. Ruth the Moabite fulfills the prophecy of Isaiah, that says, "Lord, send out the lamb, the lordly governor of the earth from the stone of the desert to the mount of the daughter of Zion." Samuel shows that the old law would be done away in Eli's death, and in the death of Saul the king. Truly, in Zadok and David are witnessed the sacraments of the new priesthood and of the new empire. M'lakhim, that is, the books of kings, describes the realm of Judah, and the realm of Israel, from Solomon to Jeconiah, and from Jeroboam son of Nebat, to Hosea, who was led into Assyria. If you behold the story, the words are simple; and if you behold the hidden wit thereof in the letters, the fewness of the church, and the battle of heretics against the church is told. The twelve prophets, set together in the shortness of one volume, prefigure many other things than those that sound openly in the letter.^[16] Hosea often names Ephraim, Samaria, Joseph, Jezreel, and the wife of fornication, and the sons of fornication, and the adulteress closed in the bed of the husband, to sit for a long time a widow, and under the mourning cloth of the husband^[17] to wait for him to come back to her. Joel, the son of Pethuel, describes the land of the 12 tribes, that was laid waste through the wortworm, and the locust larvae, and the locust, and through blight;^[18] and after the overthrowing of the former people, he prophesied that the Holy Spirit would be shed out upon the servants and handmaids of God, that is, upon 120 believers, and the sun shining like a rainbow held out in the [upper] dining room of Zion;^[19] rising by gradations from one to fifteen, those hundred and twenty make fully the number of 15 degrees, which is contain'd hiddenly in the Psalm of degrees.^[20] Amos the prophet, that was both shepherd and a fieldsman, knew well the berries of the bushes, may not be open'd in a few words; for who may worthily show the three and the four wickednesses of Damascus, of Gaza, of Tyre, and Idumea, and of the sons of Ammon, and of Moab, and in the seventh and eighth degree of Judah and Israel? He says this to the fat cows tat are in the mount of Samaria, and witnesses that the greater house and the lesser of Samaria would fall down. He beholds the maker of the locust, and the Lord standing upon the daubed or adamant wall, and the apple crook drawing torments to sinful men, and hunger on earth, not hunger of bread, nor thirst of water, but of hearing of the word of God. Obadiah, whose name means "the servant of the Lord," thunders and sounds against Edom, and against the bloody man, and the earthly brother, also he strikes with a spiritual dart the continual enemy of Jacob against his brothers. Jonah, the fairest dove, in his shipwreck prefibgures the passion of Christ, calls the world back to penance, and, under the name of Nineveh, he shows salvation to come to heathen men. Micah the Morasthite, that was heir of heaven together with Christ, shows the wasting of the daughter of a robber, and he lays siege against her, for she struck the cheekbone of the judge of Israel. Nahum, comforter of the world, rebukes the city of bloods, and

Chapters 8 & 9

[Not yet translated]

Footnotes

1. "Titus Livitus", or "Titus the Levite"
2. "diviner" and "a philosopher" are missing in the Gutenberg bible and are supplied from the Wycliffe Translation, a textual witness. The "or" is out of place(Though that's not as severe in Latin) in the Gutenberg bible, so it would be translated "Appolloni either that great, as the common speech or"
3. "went by Elamites, Babylonians, Chaldeans, Medes, Assyrians, Parthians, Syrians, Phoenicians, Arabians, Palestinians" may be idiomatic for "went through Elam, Babylon, Chaldea, Mede, Assyria, Parthia, Syria, Phoenicia, Arabia, Palestine"
4. This Latin word is obscure to me. Wycliffe's Middle English translation has(in Modern English) "masters of studies"
5. "the most famous table of the sun" is a reference to an ancient legend(It was in a sort of Ethiopan El Dorado). I don't know why it's "in sand", as the legend said it was in a meadow.
6. "made better then he was before", or "made better than himself"
7. "teacher", or "master"
8. "laying on of hands by the priest" references the Catholic & Orthodox practice of the sacrament of Confirmation, in which the Holy Spirit is transferred onto a candidate by the priest laying hands on him.
9. "logos" is Greek for "word" in the quote.
10. a fuller bleaches cloth
11. the scriptures are reluctant because they are being twisted.
12. This twisting of scriptures still happens today, which is why careful interpretation through the holy spirit, prayer, and(if you subscribe to a church) your church are so important.
13. more literally, "such words he spoke, while transfixed he remain'd," but this way rimes
14. Leviticus
15. "Jesus son of Nave"; actually Joshua son of Nun. It's spell'd that way in the Septuagint according to the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers translation.
16. According to divers sources, the so-call'd "minor prophets"(that have shorter books) are all set together in one book in the Hebrew.
17. "mourning cloth of the husband" is the clothing she will wear when she is mourning her husband.
18. all of the things from "wortworm" to "blight" are pests & diseases that affect crops
19. "[upper] dining room"; the dining room was usually the upper room. This phrase is literally "dining place" in Latin. The Middle English Wycliffe translation has "common eating place", but a more modern translation has "upper room"
20. This isn't very eloquent, but it's a rough draft.