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| To Marcella.
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Letter
XXXII. To Marcella.
Jerome writes that he is busy collating Aquila’s
Greek version of the Old Testament with the Hebrew, inquires after
Marcella’s mother, and forwards the two preceding letters (XXX.,
XXXI.). Written at Rome in 384 a.d.
1. There are two reasons for the shortness of this
letter, one that its bearer is impatient to start, and the other that I am too busy to
waste time on trifles. You ask what business can be so urgent as to
stop me from a chat on paper. Let me tell you, then, that for some time
past I have been comparing Aquila’s version744
| 744 This version, made
in the reign of Hadrian by a Jewish proselyte who is said by some to
have been a renegade Christian, was marked by an exaggerated literalism
and a close following of the Hebrew original. By the Church it was
regarded with suspicion as being designedly anti-Christian. Jerome,
however, here acquits Aquila of the charge brought against him. | of the Old Testament with the scrolls of
the Hebrew, to see if from hatred to Christ the synagogue has changed
the text; and—to speak frankly to a friend—I have found
several variations which confirm our faith. After having exactly
revised the prophets, Solomon,745
| 745 I.e. all the
sapiential books, viz. Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Ecclesiasticus,
Wisdom. | the psalter, and
the books of Kings, I am now engaged on Exodus (called by the Jews,
from its opening words, Eleh shemôth746
| 746 Exod. i. 1, תומש
הלא, A.V.,
“these are the names.” | ),
and when I have finished this I shall go on to Leviticus. Now you see
why I can let no claim for a letter withdraw me from my work. However,
as I do not wish my friend Currentius747
| 747 The name means
runner. Hence the allusion to Gal. ii. 2. | to run
altogether in vain, I have tacked on to this little talk two letters748
which I am sending to your sister
Paula, and to her dear child Eustochium. Read these, and if you find
them instructive or pleasant, take what I have said to them as meant
for you also.
2. I hope that Albina, your mother and mine, is well. In
bodily health, I mean, for I doubt not of her spiritual welfare. Pray
salute her for me, and cherish her with double affection, both as a
Christian and as a mother. E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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