# Letters - Author: [Jerome](https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/authors/jerome/) - Latin title: *Epistulae* - Date: ca. 370–419 (approximate) - Source: Isidor Hilberg, ed., Sancti Eusebii Hieronymi Epistulae, CSEL 54–56 (Vienna: Tempsky; Leipzig: Freytag, 1910–1918) (Latin text: Isidor Hilberg (CSEL 54–56, 1910–1918), digitized by Open Greek and Latin, University of Leipzig (csel-dev), CC BY-SA 4.0) - Translation: Claude, from the original text, unless a passage says otherwise; each passage below gives the translator - Editions and translations: Jérôme Labourt, ed. and trans., Saint Jérôme: Lettres, 8 vols. (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1949–1963) - Work page: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/ - Passages: 1362 ## Letter 1.1 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/1-1/#p-1-1 - Source: CSEL 54:1 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome explains that his friend Innocent has pressed him to write about a recent miracle despite his reluctance. ### Latin text Saepe a me, Innocenti carissime, postulasti, ut de eius miraculo rei, quae in nostram aetatem inciderat, non tacerem. cumque ego id uerecunde et uere, ut nunc experior, negarem meque adsequi posse diffiderem, siue quia omnis humanus sermo inferior esset laude caelesti, siue quia otium quasi quaedam ingenii robigo paruulam licet facultatem pristini siccasset eloquii, tu e contrario adserebas in dei rebus non possibilitatem inspici debere, sed animum, neque eum posse uerba deficere, qui credidisset in uerbo. ### English translation (Claude) You have often asked me, my dearest Innocent, not to keep silent about the wonderful thing that has happened in our own time. I declined, modestly and, as I now find, truly, and doubted that I could do it justice, either because all human speech falls short of heavenly praise, or because idleness, like a kind of rust on the mind, had dried up what little power of speech I once had. You argued in reply that in the things of God it is not ability that should be considered but willingness, and that words cannot fail a man who has believed in the Word. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 1.1 (CSEL 54:1; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/1-1/#p-1-1). ## Letter 1.2 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/1-1/#p-1-2 - Source: CSEL 54:1–2 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome compares his undertaking to an untrained sailor put to sea and commits the attempt to the Holy Spirit. ### Latin text Quid igitur faciam? quod inplere non possum, negare non audeo. super onerariam nauem rudis uector inponor et homo, qui necdum scalmum in lacu rexi, Euxini maris credor fragori. nunc mihi euanescentibus terris caelum undique et undique pontus, nunc unda tenebris inhorrescens et caeca nocte nimborum spumei fluctus canescunt. hortaris, ut tumida malo uela suspendam, rudentes explicem, clauum regam. pareo iam iubenti et, quia caritas omnia potest, spiritu sancto cursum prosequente confidam habiturus in utraque parte solacium: si me ad optatos portus aestus adpulerit, gubernator putabor; si inter asperos orationis anfractus inpolitus sermo substiterit, facultatem forsitan quaeras, uoluntatem certe flagitare non poteris. ### English translation (Claude) What, then, am I to do? What I cannot accomplish, I dare not refuse. An unskilled passenger, I am put aboard a merchant ship; a man who has never yet steered an oar on a lake is entrusted to the roar of the Euxine Sea. Now, as the land fades from sight, there is "sky on every side and on every side the sea"; now the water shudders with darkness, and in the blind night of the storm clouds the foaming waves grow white. You urge me to hang the swelling sails on the mast, to let out the ropes, to steer the helm. I obey your command at last, and because love can do all things, I shall trust in the Holy Spirit to speed my course, and I shall have comfort either way: if the tide carries me into the harbor I longed for, I shall be thought a pilot; if my unpolished speech runs aground among the rough windings of the discourse, you may perhaps look for ability, but you certainly cannot fault my good will. ### Scripture references - 1 Cor 13:7: echo, low confidence ### Extrabiblical texts - Virgil, Aen. 3.193 (Virgil): quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - "Sky on every side and on every side the sea" is from Virgil, Aeneid 3.193. "Love can do all things" echoes 1 Cor 13:7. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 1.2 (CSEL 54:1–2; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/1-1/#p-1-2). ## Letter 1.3 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/1-1/#p-1-3 - Source: CSEL 54:2–3 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: At Vercellae a woman falsely accused of adultery with a young man is tortured and, while he confesses falsely to escape the pain, she refuses to lie. ### Latin text Igitur Vercellae Ligurum ciuitas haud procul a radicibus Alpium sita, olim potens, nunc raro habitatore semiruta. hanc cum ex more consularis inuiseret, oblatam sibi quandam mulierculam una cum adultero.— nam id crimen maritus inpegerat — poenali carceris horrore circumdedit. neque multo post, cum liuidas carnes ungula cruenta pulsaret. et sulcatis lateribus dolor quaereret ueritatem, infelicissimus iuuenis uolens conpendio mortis longos uitare cruciatus, dum in suum mentitur sanguinem, accusauit alienum solusque omnium miser merito nisus est percuti, quia non reliquit innoxiae, unde posset negare. at uero mulier sexu fortior suo, cum eculeus corpus extenderet et sordidas paedore carceris manus post tergum uincula cohiberent, oculis, quos tantum tortor alligare non poterat, suspexit ad caelum et uolutis per ora lacrimis: tu, inquit, testis, domine Iesu, cui occultum nihil est, qui es scrutator renis et cordis, non ideo me negare uelle, ne peream, sed ideo mentiri nolle, ne peccem. at tu, miserrime homo, si interire festinas, cur duos interimis innocentes? equidem et ipsa cupio mori, cupio inuisum hoc corpus exuere, sed non quasi adultera. praesto iugulum, micantem intrepida excipio mucronem, innocentiam tantum mecum feram. non moritur, quisquis uicturus occiditur. ### English translation (Claude) Vercellae, then, is a Ligurian city lying not far from the foot of the Alps, once powerful, now half-ruined and thinly inhabited. When the consular governor was visiting it in the usual way, a poor woman was brought before him together with an alleged adulterer (for her husband had laid that charge against her), and he committed them to the horror of the prison as punishment. Not long afterward, when the bloody hook was beating on their livid flesh and pain was seeking the truth from furrowed sides, the most wretched young man, wishing to escape long torture by the shortcut of death, lied against his own blood and accused another; he alone of all men was, in his misery, deservedly struck down, because he left the innocent woman no way to deny it. But the woman, stronger than her sex, while the rack stretched her body and chains held her hands, filthy from the prison, behind her back, looked up to heaven with her eyes, which alone the torturer could not bind, and with tears rolling down her face she said: "You are my witness, Lord Jesus, from whom nothing is hidden, who search the reins and the heart, that I do not deny this in order not to die, but refuse to lie in order not to sin. And you, most wretched man, if you are in haste to perish, why do you destroy two innocent people? I too long to die, I long to put off this hated body, but not as an adulteress. I offer my throat; I receive the flashing blade without fear; only let me take my innocence with me. Whoever is killed in order to live does not die." ### Scripture references - Jer 11:20: allusion, medium confidence - Ps 7:9 (7:10 Vulg.): allusion, low confidence ### Translation notes - "Who search the reins and the heart": Jer 11:20; 17:10; compare Ps 7:9. The young man "lied against his own blood", that is, falsely incriminated himself. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 1.3 (CSEL 54:2–3; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/1-1/#p-1-3). ## Letter 1.4 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/1-1/#p-1-4 - Source: CSEL 54:3 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: The governor orders the woman's tortures doubled. ### Latin text Igitur consularis pastis cruore luminibus ut fera, quae gustatum semel sanguinem semper sitit, duplicari tormenta iubet et saeuum dentibus frendens similem carnifici minitatus est poenam, nisi confiteretur sexus infirmior, quod non potuerat robur uirile reticere. ### English translation (Claude) Then the governor, his eyes glutted with blood like a wild beast that, once it has tasted blood, always thirsts for it, ordered the tortures to be doubled; gnashing his teeth in his cruelty, he threatened the executioner with the same punishment unless the weaker sex confessed what a man's strength had not been able to keep silent. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 1.4 (CSEL 54:3; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/1-1/#p-1-4). ## Letter 1.5 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/1-1/#p-1-5 - Source: CSEL 54:3–4 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: The woman endures further torture in prayer and continues to deny the charge for both herself and the young man. ### Latin text Succurre, domine Iesu: ad unum hominem tuum quam plura sunt inuenta supplicia! crines ligantur ad stipitem et toto corpore ad eculeum fortius alligato uicinus pedibus ignis adponitur, utrumque latus carnifex fodit nec papillis dantur indutiae: inmota mulier manet et a dolore corporis spiritu separato, dum conscientiae bono fruitur, uetuit circa se saeuire tormenta. iudex crudelis quasi superatus adtollitur, illa dominum deprecatur; soluuntur membra conpagibus, illa oculos ad caelum tendit; de communi scelere alius confitetur, illa pro confitente negat et periclitans ipsa alium uindicat periclitantem. ### English translation (Claude) Help, Lord Jesus! How many tortures have been devised for this one servant of yours! Her hair is tied to a stake, her whole body is bound more tightly to the rack, and fire is set near her feet; the executioner digs into both her sides, and her breasts are given no respite. The woman remains unmoved, and with her spirit set apart from the pain of her body, enjoying the good of a clear conscience, she forbade the tortures to rage around her. The cruel judge rises as though defeated; she prays to the Lord. Her limbs are wrenched from their joints; she lifts her eyes to heaven. Another confesses to a shared crime; she denies it on behalf of the one confessing, and, in peril herself, defends another who is in peril. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 1.5 (CSEL 54:3–4; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/1-1/#p-1-5). ## Letter 1.6 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/1-1/#p-1-6 - Source: CSEL 54:4 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: The woman appeals to God's future judgment, and the governor reasons that she must be guilty since adultery takes two. ### Latin text Una interim uox: caede, ure, lacera; non feci. si dictis tollitur fides, ueniet dies, quae hoc crimen diligenter excutiat; habebo iudicem meum. iam lassus tortor suspirabat in gemitum nec erat nouo uulneri locus, iam uicta saeuitia corpus, quod laniarat, horrebat: extemplo ira excitus consularis: quid miramini, inquit, circumstantes, si torqueri mauult mulier, quam perire? adulterium certe sine duobus committi non potest et esse credibilius reor noxiam. ream negare de scelere, quam innocentem iuuenem confiteri. ### English translation (Claude) Meanwhile she has one cry only: "Beat me, burn me, tear me: I did not do it. If my words are not believed, a day will come that will examine this charge carefully; I shall have my Judge." By now the weary torturer was sighing and groaning, and there was no room for a new wound; his cruelty defeated, he shrank from the body he had mangled. At once the governor, roused to anger, said: "Bystanders, why are you surprised if a woman would rather be tortured than die? Adultery certainly cannot be committed without two, and I think it more believable that a guilty woman denies the crime than that an innocent young man confesses it." ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 1.6 (CSEL 54:4; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/1-1/#p-1-6). ## Letter 1.7 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/1-1/#p-1-7 - Source: CSEL 54:4–5 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: At the execution the young man is beheaded, but the sword twice fails to harm the woman, who calmly points out the executioner's fallen brooch. ### Latin text Pari igitur prolata in utrumque sententia damnatos carnifex trahit. totus ad spectaculum populus effunditur et, prorsus quasi migrare ciuitas putaretur, stipatis proruens portis turba densatur. et quidem miserrimi iuuenis ad primum statim ictum amputatur gladio caput truncumque in suo sanguine uolutatur cadauer. postquam uero ad feminam uentum est et flexis in terram poplitibus super trementem ceruicem mioans eleuatus est gladius et exercitatam carnifex dexteram totis uiribus concitauit, ad primum corporis tactum stetit mucro letalis et leuiter perstringens cutem rasurae modicae sanguinem aspersit. inbellem manum percussor expauit et uictam dexteram gladio marcescente miratus in secundos impetus torquet. languidus rursum in feminam mucro delabitur et, quasi ferrum ream timeret adtingere, circa ceruicem torpet innoxium. itaque furens.. et anhelus lictor paludamento in ceruicem retorto, dum totas expedit uires, fibulam, quae chlamydis mordebat oras, in humum excussit ignarusque rei ensem librat in uulnus et en tibi, ait mulier, ex umero aurum ruit. collige multo quaesitum labore, ne pereat. ### English translation (Claude) So the same sentence was passed on both, and the executioner drags the condemned away. The whole people pours out to the spectacle, and the crowd, rushing out through the packed gates as though the city itself were thought to be moving away, grows dense. At the very first stroke the most wretched young man's head is cut off by the sword, and the headless corpse rolls in its own blood. But when they came to the woman, and she had bent her knees to the ground, the flashing sword was raised over her trembling neck, and the executioner swung his practiced right hand with all his strength; at the first touch of her body the deadly blade stopped, and lightly grazing her skin it drew only the blood of a slight scratch. The striker was terrified at his feeble hand, and, marveling that his right hand was defeated and his sword gone limp, he swings for a second blow. Again the blade falls limply on the woman and, as though the steel feared to touch the accused, it lies harmless around her neck. So the officer, raging and panting, twisted his military cloak back onto his neck, and as he gathered all his strength, he shook to the ground the brooch that fastened the edges of his mantle; not noticing it, he poises his sword for the wound. "Look," says the woman, "a piece of gold has fallen from your shoulder. Pick up what you gained with much labor, so that it is not lost." ### Translation notes - The text of this section has several digitization slips; the rendering follows the evident sense (e.g., "flashing" for the misprinted mioans, probably micans). ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 1.7 (CSEL 54:4–5; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/1-1/#p-1-7). ## Letter 1.8 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/1-1/#p-1-8 - Source: CSEL 54:5–6 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: A third stroke and an attempt to stab the woman fail, the sword bending back to its hilt. ### Latin text Rogo, quae est ista securitas? inpendentem non timet mortem, laetatur percussa, carnifex pallet; oculi gladium non uidentes tantum fibulam uident et, ne parum esset, quod non. formidabat interitum, praestabat beneficium saeuienti. iam igitur et tertius ictus: sacramentum frustrauerat trinitatis. iam speculator exterritus et non credens ferro mucronem aptabat in iugulum, ut, qui secare non poterat, saltim premente manu corpori conderetur: — o omnibus inaudita res saeculis! — ad capulum gladius reflectitur et uelut dominum suum uictus aspiciens confessus est se ferire non posse. ### English translation (Claude) What, I ask, is this calm? She does not fear the death hanging over her; she rejoices when struck; the executioner turns pale. Her eyes do not see the sword; they see only the brooch; and, as though it were not enough that she did not dread her end, she did a kindness to the one raging against her. And now a third stroke too: the mystery of the Trinity had made it vain. Now the executioner, terrified and no longer trusting the blade, set its point against her throat, so that what could not cut might at least be driven into her body by the pressure of his hand. O thing unheard of in all the ages! The sword bends back to the hilt and, as though looking at its master in defeat, confessed that it could not strike. ### Translation notes - "The mystery (sacramentum) of the Trinity had made it vain": the third failed stroke is linked to the three Persons. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 1.8 (CSEL 54:5–6; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/1-1/#p-1-8). ## Letter 1.9 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/1-1/#p-1-9 - Source: CSEL 54:6 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome compares the woman's deliverance to the three young men in the furnace, Daniel among the lions, and Susanna. ### Latin text Huc, huc mihi trium exempla puerorum, qui inter frigidos flammarum globos hymnos edidere pro fletibus, circa quorum sarabara sanctamque caesariem innoxium lusit incendium. huc beati Danihelis reuocetur historia, iuxta quem adulantibus caudis praedam suam leonum ora timuerunt. nunc Susanna nobilis fide mentes omnium subeat, quae iniquo damnata iudicio sancto spiritu puerum replente seruata est. ecce non dispar in utraque misericordia domini: illa liberata per iudicem, ne iret ad gladium, haec a iudice damnata absoluta per gladium est. ### English translation (Claude) Come here, come to me, examples of the three young men, who among the cool balls of flame sang hymns instead of weeping, around whose trousers and holy hair the fire played harmlessly! Let the story of blessed Daniel be recalled here, near whom the lions' mouths, fawning with wagging tails, feared their prey. Let Susanna, noble in faith, now come to everyone's mind, who, condemned by an unjust judgment, was saved when the Holy Spirit filled a boy. See how the Lord's mercy is alike in both: Susanna was freed by a judge so that she did not go to the sword; this woman, condemned by a judge, was acquitted by the sword. ### Scripture references - Dan 3:27: allusion, high confidence - Dan 6:22: allusion, high confidence ### Extrabiblical texts - Sus 45 (Susanna): allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - Dan 3 (the furnace; sarabara, "trousers", from Dan 3:21, 27 in the Latin), Dan 6 (the lions), and the story of Susanna (in the Greek additions to Daniel). ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 1.9 (CSEL 54:6; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/1-1/#p-1-9). ## Letter 1.10 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/1-1/#p-1-10 - Source: CSEL 54:6–7 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: The crowd rescues the woman, but the officer responsible pleads that he will die in her place, and the people relent. ### Latin text Tandem ergo ad feminam uindicandam populus armatur. omnis aetas, omnis sexus carnificem fugat et coetu in circulum coeunte non credit paene unusquisque, quod uidit. turbatur tali nuntio urbs propinqua et tota lictorum caterua glomeratur. e quibus medius, ad quem damnatorum cura pertinebat, erumpens et canitiem inmundam perfuso puluere turpans: meum, inquit, o ciues, petitis caput, me illi uicarium datis! si misericordes, si clementes estis, si uultis seruare damnatam, innocens certe perire non debeo. quo fletu uulgi concussus est animus maestusque se per omnes torpor insinuat et mirum in modum uoluntate mutata, cum pietatis fuisset, quod ante defenderant, pietatis uisum est genus, ut paterentur occidi. ### English translation (Claude) At last, then, the people take up arms to defend the woman. Every age and sex drives off the executioner, and as the crowd gathers in a ring almost no one believes what he has seen. The nearby city is thrown into confusion by the news, and the whole troop of lictors assembles. From their midst the one responsible for the condemned bursts out, and, soiling his gray hair with sprinkled dust, says: "Citizens, you are seeking my head; you are giving me as her substitute! If you are merciful, if you are clement, if you want to save the condemned woman, I at least, who am innocent, ought not to die." The people's feelings were shaken by his tears, a sad numbness crept over everyone, and, their will wonderfully changed, whereas they had defended her out of compassion before, now it seemed a kind of compassion to let her be killed. ### Extrabiblical texts - Virgil, Aen. 12.611 (Virgil): allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - "Soiling his gray hair with sprinkled dust" echoes Virgil, Aeneid 12.611 (canitiem immundo perfusam puluere turpans). ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 1.10 (CSEL 54:6–7; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/1-1/#p-1-10). ## Letter 1.11 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/1-1/#p-1-11 - Source: CSEL 54:7 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: A new executioner strikes the woman down, and she appears to die so that the officer will not die in her place. ### Latin text Nouus igitur ensis, nouus percussor adponitur. stat uictima Christo tantum fauente munita. semel percussa concutitur, iterum repetita quassatur, tertio uulnerata prosternitur et — o diuinae potentiae sublimanda maiestas! — quae prius fuerat quarto percussa nec laesa, ideo paululum uisa est mori. ne pro ea periret innoxius. ### English translation (Claude) So a new sword, a new executioner is brought. The victim stands protected only by the favor of Christ. Struck once, she is shaken; struck again, she staggers; wounded a third time, she is laid low. And (O majesty of divine power, to be extolled!) she who before had been struck four times without harm seemed to die for a little while for this very reason: that an innocent man might not die for her. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 1.11 (CSEL 54:7; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/1-1/#p-1-11). ## Letter 1.12 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/1-1/#p-1-12 - Source: CSEL 54:7–8 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: As the clergy prepare her burial at nightfall, the woman revives and quotes the psalm, "The Lord is my helper." ### Latin text Clerici, quibus id officii erat, cruentum linteo cadauer obuoluunt et fossam humum lapidibus construentes ex more tumulum parant. festinato sol cursu occasum petit et misericordiam domini celatura nox aduenit. subito feminae palpitat pectus et oculis quaerentibus lucem corpus animatur ad uitam: iam spirat, iam uidet, iam subleuatur et loquitur, iam in illam potest uocem erumpere: dominus auxiliator meus, non timebo, quid faciat mihi homo. ### English translation (Claude) The clergy whose duty it was wrap the bloody corpse in a linen cloth, and, digging the earth and building it up with stones, they prepare a tomb in the customary way. The sun speeds to its setting, and night arrives to hide the Lord's mercy. Suddenly the woman's breast stirs, her eyes seek the light, and her body is brought back to life. Now she breathes, now she sees, now she rises and speaks, now she can burst out with the words: "The Lord is my helper; I will not fear what man can do to me." ### Scripture references - Ps 118:6 (117:6 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Heb 13:6: quotation, medium confidence ### Translation notes - Ps 118:6 (LXX and Vulgate 117:6); compare Heb 13:6. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 1.12 (CSEL 54:7–8; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/1-1/#p-1-12). ## Letter 1.13 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/1-1/#p-1-13 - Source: CSEL 54:8 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: An old woman's body is buried in the tomb in her place, and the clergy mock the lictor who comes looking for the corpse. ### Latin text Anus interim quaedam, quae ecclesiae sustentabatur opibus, debitum caelo spiritum reddidit et quasi de industria ordine currente rerum uicarium tumulo corpus operitur. dubia adhuc luce in lictore zabulus occurrit, quaerit cadauer occisae, sepulchrum sibi monstrari petit; uiuere putat, quam mori potuisse miratur. recens a clericis caespes ostenditur et dudum superiecta humus cum his uocibus ingeritur flagitanti: erue scilicet ossa iam condita, infer nouum sepulchro bellum et, si hoc parum est, auibus ferisque lanianda membra discerpe; septies percussa debet aliquid morte plus perpeti. ### English translation (Claude) Meanwhile an old woman who was supported by the church's funds gave back her spirit to heaven as it was owed, and, as though by design in the course of events, her body is put in the tomb in the other's place. While the light was still dim, the devil meets them in the person of the lictor; he looks for the corpse of the executed woman and demands that her grave be shown him; he thinks she is alive, marveling that she could have died. The clergy show him the fresh turf, and the earth lately heaped over her is pressed on the one demanding it, with words like these: "Dig up, of course, bones already buried; bring a new war upon the tomb, and if this is not enough, tear apart her limbs for birds and beasts to mangle; a woman struck seven times ought to suffer something more than death!" ### Translation notes - Zabulus is a colloquial Latin form of diabolus, "devil". ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 1.13 (CSEL 54:8; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/1-1/#p-1-13). ## Letter 1.14 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/1-1/#p-1-14 - Source: CSEL 54:8 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: The woman is secretly nursed back to health and hidden in a country house, but the law still pursues her. ### Latin text Tali inuidia carnifice confuso clam domi mulier focilatur et, ne forte creber ad ecclesiam medici commeatus suspicionis panderet uiam, cum quibusdam uirginibus ad secretiorem uillulam secto crine transmittitur. ibi paulatim uirili habitu ueste mutata in cicatricem uulnus obducitur. et — o uere ius summum summa malitia! — post tanta miracula adhuc saeuiunt leges. ### English translation (Claude) With the executioner thrown into confusion by such reproach, the woman is secretly nursed back to health at home, and, lest the doctor's frequent visits to the church should open the way to suspicion, her hair is cut and she is sent with some virgins to a more secluded country house. There, gradually, with her clothing changed to a man's dress, her wound closed into a scar. And (O how true it is that the highest law is the highest injustice!) even after such great miracles the laws still rage. ### Extrabiblical texts - Terence, Haut. 796 (Terence): allusion, medium confidence ### Translation notes - "The highest law is the highest injustice" is a proverb, cited in this form by Terence, Heauton Timorumenos 796, and Cicero, De officiis 1.33 (summum ius summa iniuria). ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 1.14 (CSEL 54:8; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/1-1/#p-1-14). ## Letter 1.15 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/1-1/#p-1-15 - Source: CSEL 54:8–10 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome praises Evagrius, who obtained the emperor's pardon so that the woman restored to life was also set free. ### Latin text En quo me gestorum ordo protraxit! iam enim ad Euagrii nostri nomen aduenimus. cuius ego pro Christo laborem si arbitrer a me dici posse, non sapiam, si penitus tacere uelim, uoce in gaudium erumpente non possim. quis enim ualeat digno canere praeconio Auxentium Mediolanii incubantem huius excubiis sepultum paene ante quam mortuum, Romanum episcopum iam paene factionis laqueis inretitum et uicisse aduersarios et non nocuisse superatis? Verum haec ipse equidem spatiis exclusus iniquis praetereo atque aliis post (me) memoranda relinquo. praesentis tantum rei fine contentus sum: imperatorem industria adit, precibus fatigat, merito lenit, sollicitudine promeretur, ut redditam uitae redderet libertati. ### English translation (Claude) See where the course of events has drawn me! For now we have come to the name of our Evagrius. If I thought I could describe his labor for Christ, I should be foolish; if I wished to be wholly silent, I could not, since my voice breaks out in joy. For who could celebrate with fitting praise how, by his vigilance, Auxentius, who brooded over Milan, was buried almost before he was dead, and how the bishop of Rome, already almost caught in the snares of a faction, both overcame his opponents and did not harm those he had overcome? "But these things I myself, shut out by narrow limits, pass over, and leave for others after me to tell." I am content with the end of the present matter: by his diligence Evagrius approaches the emperor, wearies him with entreaties, softens him by his merits, and wins him by his earnestness, so that the woman restored to life was restored to freedom. ### Extrabiblical texts - Virgil, Georg. 4.147-148 (Virgil): quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Auxentius was the Homoian ("Arian") bishop of Milan (d. 374); the bishop of Rome is Damasus, opposed by the faction of Ursinus. The quotation is Virgil, Georgics 4.147-148; "me" is supplied by the editor. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 1.15 (CSEL 54:8–10; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/1-1/#p-1-15). ## Letter 2.1 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/1-1/#p-2-1 - Source: CSEL 54:10 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome longs to join the monks of the desert, whose solitude he calls lovelier than any city. ### Latin text Quam, quam uellem nunc uestro interesse conuentui et. admirandum consortium, licet isti oculi non mereantur aspicere, tota cum exultatione conplecti! spectarem desertum, omni amoeniorem ciuitatem, uiderem desolata ab accolis loca quasi ad quoddam paradisi instar sanctorum coetibus obsideri. ### English translation (Claude) How I wish I could be present at your gathering now, and embrace your wonderful fellowship with all joy, even though these eyes do not deserve to see it! I would look on the desert, lovelier than any city; I would see places abandoned by their inhabitants filled with bands of saints, like a kind of paradise. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 2.1 (CSEL 54:10; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/1-1/#p-2-1). ## Letter 2.2 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/1-1/#p-2-2 - Source: CSEL 54:10–11 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome asks the monks to pray that he may be freed from the world and actually take up the monastic life he desires. ### Latin text uerum quia hoc mea fecere delicta, ne consortio beatorum insereretur obsessum omni crimine caput, idcirco obsecro, quia uos impetrare posse non ambigo, ut me ex istius saeculi tenebris uestro liberetis oratu. et ante dixeram praesens et nunc per litteras uotum indicare non cesso, quod mens mea omni ad id studium cupiditate rapiatur; nunc uestrum est, ut uoluntatem sequatur effectus. meum est, ut uelim; obsecrationum uestrarum est, ut et uelim et possim. ### English translation (Claude) But since my sins have brought it about that a head weighed down with every crime should not be admitted to the fellowship of the blessed, I beg you (for I do not doubt that you can obtain it) to set me free from the darkness of this world by your prayer. I said it before when I was with you, and now I do not cease to make my wish known by letter: my mind is swept toward that way of life with all its desire. Now it is your part to see that the deed follows the will. Mine is to will; your prayers must bring it about that I both will and am able. ### Scripture references - Phil 2:13: echo, low confidence ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 2.2 (CSEL 54:10–11; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/1-1/#p-2-2). ## Letter 2.3 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/1-1/#p-2-3 - Source: CSEL 54:11 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome compares himself to the lost sheep and to the prodigal son who has not yet returned. ### Latin text ego ita sum quasi a cuncto grege morbida aberrans ouis. quod nisi me bonus pastor ad sua stabula umeris inpositum reportarit, lababunt gressus et in ipso conamine uestigia concident adsurgentis. ego sum ille prodigus filius, qui omni, quam mihi pater crediderat, portione profusa necdum me ad genitoris genua submisi necdum coepi prioris a me luxuriae blandimenta depellere. ### English translation (Claude) I am like a sick sheep straying from the whole flock. Unless the good shepherd lays me on his shoulders and carries me back to his fold, my steps will falter, and my feet will give way in the very effort to rise. I am that prodigal son who has squandered the whole portion my father entrusted to me, and I have not yet bowed at my father's knees, nor yet begun to drive away from me the allurements of my former self-indulgence. ### Scripture references - Luke 15:5: allusion, high confidence - Luke 15:13: allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - Luke 15:4-7 (the lost sheep; compare John 10:11) and Luke 15:11-32 (the prodigal son). ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 2.3 (CSEL 54:11; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/1-1/#p-2-3). ## Letter 2.4 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/1-1/#p-2-4 - Source: CSEL 54:11–12 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Caught between his old life and the monastic one, Jerome asks for prayer that the Holy Spirit may bring him to harbor. ### Latin text et quia paululum non tam desiui a uitiis, quam coepi uelle desinere, nunc me nouis diabolus retibus ligat, nunc noua inpedimenta proponens maria undique circumdat et undique pontum, nunc in medio constitutus elemento nec regredi uolo nec progredi possum. superest, ut oratu uestro sancti spiritus aura me prauehat et ad portum optati litoris prosequatur... ### English translation (Claude) And because I have not so much left off my vices as begun to wish to leave them off, the devil now binds me in new nets; now, setting new obstacles before me, he surrounds me with seas on every side and the deep on every side; now, set in the middle of the element, I neither wish to go back nor can go forward. It remains that, by your prayer, the breeze of the Holy Spirit should carry me along and bring me to the harbor of the shore I long for. ### Extrabiblical texts - Virgil, Aen. 3.193 (Virgil): echo, medium confidence ### Translation notes - The seas "on every side" again echo Virgil, Aeneid 3.193. The last verb is marked as doubtful in the digital text (prauehat, probably for peruehat or praeuehat); the sense "carry along" is clear. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 2.4 (CSEL 54:11–12; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/1-1/#p-2-4). ## Letter 3.1 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/1-1/#p-3-1 - Source: CSEL 54:12–13 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome rejoices at news that Rufinus is visiting the monks of Egypt and sends this letter in place of the visit illness prevents. ### Latin text Plus deum tribuere, quam rogatur, et ea saepe concedere, quae nec oculus uidit nec auris audiuit nec in cor hominis ascenderunt, licet ex sacrorum magisterio uoluminum ante cognouerim, tamen in causa propria nunc probaui, Rufine carissime. ego enim, qui audacia satis uota credebam, si uicissitudine litterarum imaginem nobis praesentiae mentiremur, audio te Aegypti secreta penetrare monachorum inuisere choros et caelestem in terris circuire familiam. o si mihi nunc dominus Iesus Christus uel Philippi ad eunuchum uel Ambacum ad Danihelum translationem repente concederet, quam ego nunc arte tua stringerem colla conplexibus, quam illud os, quod mecum uel errauit aliquando uel sapuit, inpressis figerem labiis! uerum quia non mereor et inualidum etiam cum sanum est corpusculum crebri fregere morbi, has mei uicarias et tibi obuias mitto, quae te copula amoris innexum ad me usque perducant. ### English translation (Claude) That God grants more than he is asked, and often bestows "what eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has entered into the heart of man", I had known before from the teaching of the sacred books; but now I have proved it in my own case, dearest Rufinus. For I, who thought my wishes bold enough if by exchanging letters we could give ourselves a make-believe image of each other's presence, hear that you are exploring the hidden places of Egypt, visiting the companies of the monks, and going the rounds of heaven's household on earth. O if the Lord Jesus Christ would now suddenly grant me to be carried off as Philip was to the eunuch, or Habakkuk to Daniel, how tightly I would now clasp your neck in my embrace, how I would press my lips upon that mouth which once went astray with me or grew wise with me! But since I do not deserve it, and frequent illnesses have broken my body, which is feeble even when it is well, I send this letter to take my place and to meet you, that it may bind you with the bond of love and bring you all the way to me. ### Scripture references - 1 Cor 2:9: quotation, high confidence - Acts 8:39: allusion, high confidence ### Extrabiblical texts - Bel 36 (Bel and the Dragon): allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - 1 Cor 2:9 (compare Isa 64:4); Acts 8:26-40 (Philip and the eunuch); Habakkuk carried to Daniel in the lions' den is from Bel and the Dragon 33-39. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 3.1 (CSEL 54:12–13; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/1-1/#p-3-1). ## Letter 3.2 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/1-1/#p-3-2 - Source: CSEL 54:13–14 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome describes how the report that Rufinus was with the monks of Nitria reached him and how he longs to see him. ### Latin text Prima inopinati gaudii ab Heliodoro nuntiata felicitas. non credebam certum, quod certum esse cupiebam, praesertim cum et ille ab alio audisse se diceret et rei nouitas fidem sermonis auferret. rursum suspensam uoto nutantemque mentem quidam Alexandrinus monachus, qui ad Aegyptios confessores et uoluntate iam martyres pio plebis fuerat transmissus obsequio, manifestus ad credulitatem nuntii auctor inpulerat. fateor et in hoc meam labasse sententiam. nam cum et patriam tuam ignoraret et nomen, in eo plus tantum uidebatur adferre, quod eadem adserebat, quae iam alius indicauerat. tandem plenum ueritatis pondus erupit; Rufinum enim Nitriae esse et ad beatum perrexisse Macarium crebra conmeantium multitudo referebat. hic uero tota credulitatis frena laxaui et tunc uere aegrotum esse me dolui. et nisi me adtenuatae corporis uires quadam conpede praepedissent, nec mediae feruor aestatis nec nauigantibus semper incertum mare pia festinatione gradienti ualuisset obsistere. credas mihi uelim, frater, non sic tempestate iactatus portum nauta prospectat, non sic sitientia imbres arua desiderant, non sic curuo adsidens litori anxia filium mater expectat. ### English translation (Claude) The first happiness of this unexpected joy was announced by Heliodorus. I did not believe for certain what I longed to be certain, especially since he said he had heard it from another, and the strangeness of the news took away the credit of the report. Again, when my mind was hanging on the wish and wavering, a certain Alexandrian monk, who had been sent by the devout service of the people to the Egyptian confessors, already martyrs in will, pushed me toward belief as a clear witness to the news. I confess that even here my judgment wavered. For since he knew neither your homeland nor your name, he seemed to add only this, that he said the same as another had already reported. At last the full weight of the truth broke through: a steady crowd of travelers reported that Rufinus was in Nitria and had gone on to the blessed Macarius. Then indeed I let go all the reins of belief, and then I grieved that I was truly ill. And if my weakened bodily strength had not held me back as if with a fetter, neither the heat of midsummer nor the sea, always uncertain for sailors, could have stopped me as I hurried in devoted haste. Believe me, brother: not so does the storm-tossed sailor look out for the harbor, not so do the thirsty fields long for rain, not so does the anxious mother, sitting on the curving shore, wait for her son. ### Translation notes - The "Egyptian confessors" were monks and clergy exiled or persecuted under the emperor Valens in the 370s. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 3.2 (CSEL 54:13–14; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/1-1/#p-3-2). ## Letter 3.3 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/1-1/#p-3-3 - Source: CSEL 54:14–15 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome recounts his journey to Syria, his illnesses, and the deaths of Innocent and Hylas, then turns to good news. ### Latin text Postquam me a tuo latere subitus turbo conuoluit, postquam glutino caritatis haerentem inpia distraxit auulsio, tunc mihi caeruleus supra caput adstitit imber, tunc maria undique et undique caelum. tandem in incerto peregrinationis erranti, cum me Thracia, Pontus atque Bithynia totumque Galatiae uel Cappadociae iter et feruido Cilicum terra fregisset aestu, Syria mihi uelut fidissimus naufrago portus occurrit. ubi ego quicquid morborum esse poterat expertus e duobus oculis unum perdidi; Innocentium enim, partem animae meae, repentinus febrium ardor abstraxit. nunc uno et toto mihi lumine Euagrio nostro fruor, cui ego semper infirmus quidam ad laborem cumulus accessi. erat nobiscum et Hylas sanctae Melaniae famulus, qui puritate morum maculam seruitutis abluerat; et hic necdum obductam rescidit cicatricem. uerum quia de dormientibus contristari apostoli uoce prohibemur et nimia uis maeroris laeto superueniente nuntio temperata est, indicamus tibi, ut, si nescis, discas, si ante cognouisti, pariter gaudeamus. ### English translation (Claude) After a sudden whirlwind tore me from your side, after an impious wrench pulled me apart from you, to whom I clung with the glue of love, then "a dark storm-cloud stood over my head", then there were seas on every side and sky on every side. At last, as I wandered in the uncertainty of travel, when Thrace, Pontus, and Bithynia, and the whole road through Galatia and Cappadocia, and the land of Cilicia with its burning heat had broken me, Syria met me like a most faithful harbor for a shipwrecked man. There, having experienced every sickness there could be, I lost one of my two eyes: a sudden burning fever took from me Innocent, half of my soul. Now I have Evagrius, my one and whole light, to whom I, always sick, have been added as an extra load of labor. There was with us also Hylas, the servant of holy Melania, who by the purity of his life had washed away the stain of slavery; he too has torn open the wound before it had healed. But since we are forbidden by the apostle's word to grieve over those who have fallen asleep, and the excessive force of grief has been tempered by joyful news arriving, I tell it to you, so that if you do not know it you may learn it, and if you knew it before we may rejoice together. ### Scripture references - 1 Thess 4:13: allusion, high confidence ### Extrabiblical texts - Virgil, Aen. 3.193-194 (Virgil): quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - "A dark storm-cloud stood over my head" is Virgil, Aeneid 3.194 (also 5.10), and the seas and sky "on every side" adapt Aeneid 3.193. The apostle's word is 1 Thess 4:13. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 3.3 (CSEL 54:14–15; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/1-1/#p-3-3). ## Letter 3.4 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/1-1/#p-3-4 - Source: CSEL 54:15–16 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome praises their friend Bonosus, who has left wealth and family to live as a hermit on a barren island. ### Latin text Bonosus tuus, immo meus et, ut uerius dicam, noster, scalam praesagatam Iacob somniante iam scandit: portat crucem suam nec de crastino cogitat nec post tergum respicit. seminat in lacrimis, ut in gaudio metat, et sacramento Moysi serpentem in heremo suspendit. cedant huic ueritati tam Graeco quam Romano stilo mendaciis ficta miracula. ecce puer honestis saeculo nobiscum artibus institutus, cui opes adfatim, dignitas adprime inter aequales, contempta matre; sororibus et carissimo sibi germano insulam pelago circumsonante nauifragam, cui asperae cautes et nuda saxa et solitudo terrori est, quasi quidam nouus paradisi colonus insedit. nullus ibi agricolarum, nullus monachorum, ne paruulus quidem quem nosti Onesimus, quo uelut fratre minusculo fruebatur, in tanta uastitate adhaeret lateri comes. solus ibi, immo iam Christo comitante non solus, uidet gloriam dei, quam etiam apostoli nisi in deserto non uiderant. non quidem conspicit turritas urbes, sed in nouae ciuitatis censu dedit nomen suum. horrent sacco membra deformi, sed sic melius obuiam Christo rapietur in nubibus. nulla euriporum amoenitate perfruitur, sed de latere domini aquam uitae bibit. propone tibi ante oculos, amice dulcissime, et in praesentiam rei totus animo ac mente conuertere; tunc poteris laudare uictoriam, cum laborem proeliantis agnoueris. totam circa insulam fremit insanum mare et sinuosis montibus inlisum scopulis aequor reclamat; nullo terra gramine uiret; nullis uernans campus densatur umbraculis; abruptae rupes quasi quondam horroris carcerem claudunt. ille securus, intrepidus et totus de apostolo armatus nunc deum audit, cum diuina relegit, nunc cum deo loquitur, cum dominum rogat, et fortasse ad exemplum Iohannis aliquid uidet, dum in insula commoratur. ### English translation (Claude) Your Bonosus, or rather mine, or to speak more truly ours, is now climbing the ladder foreshown to Jacob in his dream. He carries his cross, takes no thought for tomorrow, and does not look back. He sows in tears, that he may reap in joy, and, as in the mystery of Moses, he lifts up the serpent in the wilderness. Let the miracles invented by lies in Greek and Roman writing give way to this truth. See, a young man trained with us in the arts that the world counts honorable, with wealth in plenty and rank among the first of his peers, has despised his mother, his sisters, and the brother dear to him, and has settled, like a new tiller of paradise, on an island dangerous to ships, with the sea roaring round it, whose rough crags, bare rocks, and solitude are a terror. No farmer is there, no monk; not even little Onesimus, whom you know, and whom he loved like a younger brother, stays by his side as a companion in so vast a wilderness. Alone there, or rather not alone since Christ is with him, he sees the glory of God, which even the apostles did not see except in a desert place. He does not look on towered cities, but he has entered his name in the register of the new city. His limbs bristle in ugly sackcloth, but so he will better be caught up in the clouds to meet Christ. He enjoys no pleasant canals, but he drinks the water of life from the Lord's side. Set this before your eyes, sweetest friend, and turn your whole mind and heart to the scene as if present; then you will be able to praise the victory, when you know the labor of the fighter. All around the island the mad sea roars, and the waters, dashed against the winding cliffs, roar back; the land is green with no grass; no spring field grows thick with shade; the sheer rocks shut it in like a prison of dread. He, secure, fearless, and wholly armed by the apostle, now hears God, when he reads the divine books again, now speaks with God, when he prays to the Lord, and perhaps, like John, sees some vision while he stays on the island. ### Scripture references - Gen 28:12: allusion, high confidence - Luke 9:23: allusion, medium confidence - Matt 6:34: allusion, high confidence - Luke 9:62: allusion, medium confidence - Ps 126:5 (125:5 LXX): allusion, high confidence - Num 21:9: allusion, high confidence - John 3:14: allusion, medium confidence - 1 Thess 4:17: allusion, high confidence - John 19:34: allusion, medium confidence - Eph 6:11: allusion, medium confidence - Rev 1:9: allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - Allusions: Jacob's ladder (Gen 28:12); taking up the cross (Luke 9:23); no thought for tomorrow (Matt 6:34); not looking back (Luke 9:62); sowing in tears (Ps 126:5, LXX 125:5); the bronze serpent (Num 21:8-9; John 3:14); the glory seen on the mountain (Matt 17:1-2); the new city (Heb 11:10; Rev 21:2); caught up in the clouds (1 Thess 4:17); water from Christ's side (John 19:34); the apostle's armor (Eph 6:11-17); John's visions on Patmos (Rev 1:9). ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 3.4 (CSEL 54:15–16; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/1-1/#p-3-4). ## Letter 3.5 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/1-1/#p-3-5 - Source: CSEL 54:16–18 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome describes how Scripture will arm Bonosus against every temptation and prays to share a lowly place among the saints. ### Latin text Quas nunc diabolum nectere credis tricas, quas parare arbitraris insidias? forsitan antiquae fraudis memor famem suadere temptabit. sed iam illi responsum est non in solo pane uiuere hominem. opes forsitan gloriamque proponet, sed dicetur illi: qui cupiunt diuites fieri, incidunt in muscipulam et temptationes, et: mihi gloriatio omnis in Christo est. fessa ieiuniis membra morbo grauante concutiet, sed apostoli repercutietur eloquio: quando infirmor, tunc fortior sum, et:uirtus in infirmitate perficitur. minabitur mortem, sed audiet: cupio dissolui et esse cum Christo. ignita iacula uibrabit, sed excipientur scuto fidei. et, ne multa, inpugnabit satanas, sed tutabitur Christus. gratias tibi, domine Iesu, quod in die tuo habeo, qui pro me te possit rogare. scis ipse — tibi enim patent pectora singulorum, qui cordis arcana rimaris, qui tantae bestiae aluo inclusum prophetam in profundo uides —, ut ego et ille a tenera pariter infantia ad florentem usque adoleuerimus aetatem, ut idem nos nutricum sinus, idem amplexus fouerint baiulorum et, cum post Romana studia ad Rheni semibarbaras ripas eodem cibo, pari frueremur hospitio, ut ego primus coeperim uelle te colere. memento, quaeso, istum bellatorem tuum mecum quondam fuisse tironem. habeo promissum maiestatis tuae: qui docuerit et non fecerit, minimus uocabitur in regno caelorum; < qui autem fecerit et docuerit, hic magnus uocabitur in regno caelorum.) fruatur ille uirtutis corona et ob cotidiana martyria stolatus agnum sequatur, (mihi) — multae sunt mansiones apud patrem et stella ab stella differt in claritate —, mihi concede, ut inter sanctorum calcanea possim leuare caput; [ut] cum ego uoluerim, ille perfecerit; mihi ignoscas, quia inplere non potui, illi tribuas praemium, quod meretur. ### English translation (Claude) What wiles do you think the devil is weaving now, what snares do you suppose he is preparing? Perhaps, remembering his ancient trick, he will try to urge him to hunger. But he has already been answered: man does not live by bread alone. Perhaps he will offer wealth and glory; but it will be said to him: "Those who want to become rich fall into a trap and temptations", and: "All my glorying is in Christ." He will shake limbs worn out by fasting with the weight of disease; but he will be beaten back by the apostle's words: "When I am weak, then I am stronger", and: "Power is made perfect in weakness." He will threaten death; but he will hear: "I desire to depart and be with Christ." He will hurl fiery darts; but they will be caught on the shield of faith. In short, Satan will attack, but Christ will protect. I thank you, Lord Jesus, that in your day I have one who can pray to you for me. You yourself know (for the hearts of all lie open to you, who search the secrets of the heart, who saw the prophet shut in the belly of so great a beast in the deep) how he and I grew up together from tender infancy to the flower of youth, how the same nurses' laps and the same arms of attendants cherished us, and how, when after our studies at Rome we shared the same food and lodging on the half-barbarous banks of the Rhine, I was the first to begin to wish to serve you. Remember, I pray, that this warrior of yours was once a recruit with me. I have the promise of your majesty: "Whoever teaches and does not do will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches will be called great in the kingdom of heaven." Let him enjoy the crown of virtue and, robed for his daily martyrdoms, follow the Lamb; to me (for there are many mansions with the Father, and star differs from star in glory) grant that I may lift my head among the heels of the saints; since I willed and he accomplished, pardon me because I could not fulfill it, and give him the reward he deserves. ### Scripture references - Matt 4:4: quotation, high confidence - 1 Tim 6:9: quotation, high confidence - Gal 6:14: allusion, low confidence - 2 Cor 12:10: quotation, high confidence - 2 Cor 12:9: quotation, high confidence - Phil 1:23: quotation, high confidence - Eph 6:16: allusion, high confidence - Jonah 2:1: allusion, medium confidence - Matt 5:19: quotation, high confidence - Rev 14:4: allusion, high confidence - John 14:2: quotation, high confidence - 1 Cor 15:41: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Quotations: Matt 4:4 (Deut 8:3); 1 Tim 6:9; Gal 6:14 or 2 Cor 10:17 (loosely); 2 Cor 12:10; 2 Cor 12:9; Phil 1:23; Eph 6:16; Jonah 2; Matt 5:19 (the second clause is supplied by the editor); Rev 7:13-14 and 14:4 (following the Lamb); John 14:2; 1 Cor 15:41. The editor deletes an ut before "since I willed". ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 3.5 (CSEL 54:16–18; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/1-1/#p-3-5). ## Letter 3.6 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/1-1/#p-3-6 - Source: CSEL 54:18–19 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome asks Rufinus not to forget their friendship, which he values above any wealth. ### Latin text Plura fortasse, quam epistulae breuitas patiebatur, longo sermone protraxerim, quod mihi semper accidere consueuit,, quando aliquid de Bonosi nostri laude dicendum est. sed ut ad id redeam, unde discesseram, obsecro te, ne amicum, qui diu quaeritur, uix inuenitur, difficile seruatur, pariter cum oculis mens amittat. fulgeat quilibet auro et pompaticis ferculis corusca ex sarcinis metalla radient: caritas non potest conparari; dilectio pretium non habet; amicitia, quae desinere potest, uera numquam fuit. ### English translation (Claude) Perhaps I have drawn this out at greater length than the brevity of a letter allowed, as always happens to me when something must be said in praise of our Bonosus. But to return to where I left off, I beg you not to let your mind lose, together with your eyes, a friend who is long sought, hardly found, and hard to keep. Let anyone glitter with gold and let metals shine from his baggage on showy litters: love cannot be compared with anything; love has no price; a friendship that can end was never true. ### Extrabiblical texts - Sir 6:15 (Sirach): echo, low confidence ### Translation notes - "Love cannot be compared" may echo Sir 6:15 ("nothing can be compared with a faithful friend"). ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 3.6 (CSEL 54:18–19; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/1-1/#p-3-6). ## Letter 4.1 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/1-1/#p-4-1 - Source: CSEL 54:19–20 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome greets Florentius, whose charity to pilgrims, including Heliodorus, he has heard praised, and offers him friendship. ### Latin text Quantus beatitudinis tuae rumor diuersa populorum ora conpleuerit, hinc poteris aestimare, quod ego te ante incipio amare, quam nosse. ut enim apostolus ait: quorundam hominum peccata manifesta sunt praecedentia ad iudicium, ita e contrario tuae dilectionis fama dispergitur, ut non tantum laudandus sit ille, qui te amat, quam scelus putetur facere ille, qui non amat. praetermitto innumerabiles, in quibus Christum sustentasti, pauisti, uestisti, uisitasti: Heliodori fratris a te adiuta necessitas mutorum etiam potest ora laxare. quibus gratiis, quo ille praeconio peregrinationis incommoda a te fota referebat, ut ego ille tardissimus, quoniam intolerabilis languor, pinnatis, ut aiunt, pedibus charta caritatis et uoto te salutauerim et iam conplexus sim! gratulor itaque tibi et, nascentem amicitiam ut dominus foederare dignetur, precor. ### English translation (Claude) How widely the report of your holiness has filled the mouths of different peoples you can judge from this: I begin to love you before I know you. For as the apostle says, "The sins of some men are manifest, going before them to judgment", so, on the contrary, the fame of your love is spread abroad so far that it is not so much that the one who loves you deserves praise as that the one who does not love you is thought to commit a crime. I pass over the countless people in whom you have sustained, fed, clothed, and visited Christ; the need of brother Heliodorus, which you relieved, could loosen even the tongues of the dumb. With what thanks, with what praise did he tell how you cared for him in the hardships of his journey, so that I, slowest of men, since my sickness is unbearable, have greeted you "on winged feet", as they say, by a letter of love and prayer, and have already embraced you! So I congratulate you, and I pray that the Lord may deign to seal the friendship now being born. ### Scripture references - 1 Tim 5:24: quotation, high confidence - Matt 25:36: allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - 1 Tim 5:24; Matt 25:35-36 (Christ fed, clothed, and visited in the needy). ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 4.1 (CSEL 54:19–20; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/1-1/#p-4-1). ## Letter 4.2 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/1-1/#p-4-2 - Source: CSEL 54:20–21 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome asks Florentius to forward a letter to Rufinus, contrasting Rufinus's holiness with his own sinfulness. ### Latin text Et quia frater Rufinus, qui cum sancta Melania ab Aegypto Hierosolymam uenisse narratur, indiuidua mihi germanitatis caritate conexus est, quaeso ut epistulam meam huic tuae epistulae copulatam ei reddere non graueris. noli nos ex eius aestimare uirtutibus. in illo conspicies expressa sanctitatis insignia; ego cinis et uilissimi pars luti et iam fauilla, dum uegetor, satis habeo, si splendorem morum eius inbecillitas oculorum meorum ferre sustineat. ille modo lauit, mundus est et tamquam nix dealbatus; ego cunctis peccatorum sordibus inquinatus diebus ac noctibus opperior cum tremore reddere nouissimum quadrantem. sed tamen quia dominus soluit conpeditos et super humilem et quietum et trementem uerba sua requiescit, forsitan et mihi in sepulchro scelerum iacenti dicat: Hieronyme, ueni foras. sanctus presbyter Euagrius plurimum te salutat; et Martinianum fratrem iuncto salutamus obsequio, quem ego uidere desiderans catena languoris innector. ### English translation (Claude) And since brother Rufinus, who is said to have come from Egypt to Jerusalem with holy Melania, is bound to me by the inseparable love of brotherhood, I ask you not to mind delivering to him my letter joined to this letter of yours. Do not judge me by his virtues. In him you will see the marks of holiness clearly stamped; I am ashes, a scrap of the vilest clay, and already cinders while still alive; it is enough for me if the weakness of my eyes can bear the brightness of his character. He has just now washed, he is clean and made white as snow; I, stained with all the filth of sins, wait day and night with trembling to pay the last farthing. And yet, since the Lord sets the prisoners free, and his words rest upon the humble and quiet one who trembles, perhaps to me also, lying in the tomb of my crimes, he may say: "Jerome, come out." The holy presbyter Evagrius sends you warm greetings; and we greet brother Martinianus together with you, whom I long to see but am held by the chain of sickness. ### Scripture references - Gen 18:27: allusion, medium confidence - Ps 51:7 (50:9 LXX): allusion, medium confidence - Matt 5:26: allusion, high confidence - Ps 146:7 (145:7 LXX): allusion, high confidence - Isa 66:2: allusion, high confidence - John 11:43: allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - Allusions: dust and ashes (Gen 18:27); white as snow (Ps 51:7, LXX 50:9; Isa 1:18); the last farthing (Matt 5:26); the Lord frees prisoners (Ps 146:7, LXX 145:7); resting on the humble (Isa 66:2 in the Old Latin form); "come out" (John 11:43, Lazarus). ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 4.2 (CSEL 54:20–21; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/1-1/#p-4-2). ## Letter 5.1 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/1-1/#p-5-1 - Source: CSEL 54:21 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Writing from the Syrian desert, Jerome asks Florentius to keep up their new friendship by exchanging letters. ### Latin text In ea mihi parte heremi commoranti, quae iuxta Syriam Sarracenis iungitur, tuae dilectionis scripta sunt perlata, quibus lectis ita reaccensus est animus Hierosolymam proficiscendi, ut paene nocuerit proposito, quod profuerit caritati. nunc igitur, quomodo ualeo, pro me tibi litteras repraesento. etsi corpore absens, amore et spiritu uenio inpendio exposcens, ne nascentes amicitias, quae Christi glutino cohaeserunt, aut temporis aut locorum magnitudo diuellat. quin potius foederemus eas reciprocis epistulis; illae inter nos currant, illae se obuient, illae nobiscum loquantur. non multum perditura erit caritas, si tali secum sermone fabuletur. ### English translation (Claude) While I was living in that part of the desert that borders on the Saracens next to Syria, your loving letter was delivered to me. When I read it, my desire to set out for Jerusalem was so rekindled that what helped my love almost harmed my resolution. So now, as best I can, I present myself to you by letter in my stead. Though absent in body, I come in love and spirit, earnestly asking that neither time nor great distance may tear apart a newborn friendship that has been joined by the glue of Christ. Rather, let us seal it by letters back and forth; let them run between us, let them meet one another, let them speak with us. Love will not lose much if it converses with itself in such speech. ### Scripture references - Col 2:5: echo, low confidence ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 5.1 (CSEL 54:21; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/1-1/#p-5-1). ## Letter 5.2 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/1-1/#p-5-2 - Source: CSEL 54:21–23 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome asks Florentius to obtain copies of commentaries by Reticius and Hilary and offers books from his own library in return. ### Latin text Rufinus autem frater, ut scribis, necdum uenit et, si uenerit, non multum proderit desiderio meo, cum eum iam uisurus non sim. ita enim et ille longo a me interuallo separatus est, ut huc non possit currere, et ego arreptae solitudinis terminis arceor, ut coeperit mihi iam non licere, quod nolui. ob hoc et ego obsecro et, ut tu petas, plurimum quaeso, ut tibi beati Reticii Augustodunensis episcopi commentarios ad describendum largiatur, in quibus Canticum Canticorum sublimi ore disseruit. scripsit mihi et quidam de patria supra dicti fratris Rufini Paulus senex Tertulliani suum codicem apud eum esse, quem uehementer repoposcit. et ex hoc quaeso, ut eos libros, quos non habere me breuis subditus edocebit, librarii manu in charta scribi iubeas. interpretationem quoque psalmorum Dauiticorum et prolixum ualde de synodis librum sancti Hilarii, quae ei apud Treueris manu mea ipse descripseram, aeque ut mihi transferas peto. nosti hoc esse Christianae animae pabulum, si in lege domini meditetur die ac nocte. ceteros hospitio recipis, solacio foues, sumptibus iuuas; mihi si rogata praestiteris, multa largitus es. et quoniam tribuente domino multis sacrae bibliothecae codicibus abundamus, impera uicissim: quodcumque uis, mittam. nec putes mihi graue esse, si iubeas: habeo alumnos, qui antiquariae arti seruiant. neque uero beneficium pro eo, quod postulo, polliceor. Heliodorus frater mihi indicauit te multa de scripturis quaerere nec sic inuenire; aut si omnia habes, incipiet sibi caritas uindicare plus petere. ### English translation (Claude) As for brother Rufinus, as you write, he has not yet come, and even if he comes it will not do much for my longing, since I shall not see him now. For he is separated from me by such a long distance that he cannot run here, and I am confined within the bounds of the solitude I have taken up, so that what I did not wish has now begun to be not permitted to me. For this reason I too beg you, and earnestly ask you to request it, that he may let you copy the commentaries of blessed Reticius, bishop of Autun, in which he discussed the Song of Songs in lofty style. Also a certain old man from the homeland of the aforementioned brother Rufinus, Paul, wrote to me that his manuscript of Tertullian is with him, and he urgently asks for it back. Further, I ask you to have the books that the short list below will show I do not possess written out on papyrus by a copyist's hand. I also ask you likewise to send me the interpretation of David's psalms and the very long book On the Synods by holy Hilary, which I copied for him with my own hand at Trier. You know that this is the food of a Christian soul, if it meditates on the law of the Lord day and night. Others you receive with hospitality, cheer with comfort, and help with money; if you grant me what I ask, you will have given much. And since by the Lord's gift I have many books of the sacred library, command me in turn: whatever you wish, I will send. Do not think it a burden to me if you command it; I have pupils who practice the art of copying. Nor am I promising a favor in return for what I ask: brother Heliodorus told me that you look for many things in the Scriptures and do not find them; or if you have everything, love will begin to claim the right to ask for more. ### Scripture references - Ps 1:2: allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - Ps 1:2. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 5.2 (CSEL 54:21–23; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/1-1/#p-5-2). ## Letter 5.3 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/1-1/#p-5-3 - Source: CSEL 54:23–24 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome reports on the man suspected of abducting Florentius's servant and has asked Evagrius to deal with the matter. ### Latin text Magistrum autem pueri tui, de quo dignatus es rescribere, quem plagiatorem esse eius non dubium est, saepe Euagrius presbyter, dum adhuc Antiochiae essem, me praesente corripuit. cui ille respondit: ego nihil timeo. dicit se a domino suo fuisse dimissum et, si uobis placet, ecce hic est; transmittite eum, quo uultis. arbitror me non peccare, si hominem uagum non sinam longius fugire. quapropter quia ego in hac solitudine constitutus non possum agere quod iussisti, rogaui carissimum mihi Euagrium, ut tam tui quam mei causa instanter negotium prosequatur. ### English translation (Claude) As for the man now holding your servant boy (his "master", as you kindly wrote back), who is undoubtedly his kidnapper: the presbyter Evagrius often rebuked him in my presence while I was still at Antioch. He answered him: "I fear nothing." He says that he was released by his master; and if you wish, here he is: send him wherever you want. I think I do no wrong if I do not let a vagrant flee any farther. Therefore, since I, set in this solitude, cannot do what you asked, I have asked my dear Evagrius to pursue the matter urgently for your sake and mine. ### Translation notes - The details are obscure. Magister here seems to mean the man who now holds the boy, whom Jerome calls a kidnapper (plagiator); who claims to have been "released by his master" is not clear in the Latin. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 5.3 (CSEL 54:23–24; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/1-1/#p-5-3). ## Letter 6.1 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/1-1/#p-6-1 - Source: CSEL 54:24–25 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome answers the deacon Julian's complaint that he never writes, asking pardon and pleading serious illness. ### Latin text Antiquus sermo est: mendaces faciunt, ut nec uera dicentibus credatur; quod mihi ego a te obiurgatus de silentio litterarum accidisse uideo. dicam: saepe scripsi, sed neglegentia baiulorum fuit? respondebis: omnium non scribentium uetus ista excusatio est. dicam: non repperi qui epistulas ferret? dices hinc illuc isse quam plurimos. contendam me etiam his dedisse? at illi, quia non reddiderunt, negabunt et erit inter absentes incerta cognitio. quid igitur faciam? sine culpa ueniam postulabo rectius arbitrans pacem loco motus petere, quam aequo gradu certamina concitare; quamquam ita me iugis tam corporis aegrotatio quam animae aegritudo consumpsit, ut morte inminente nec mei paene memor fuerim. quod ne falsum putes, oratorio more post argumenta testes uocabo. ### English translation (Claude) There is an old saying: liars bring it about that no one believes them even when they tell the truth. I see that this has happened to me, reproached by you for not writing. Shall I say, "I often wrote, but the carriers were careless"? You will answer, "That is the old excuse of everyone who does not write." Shall I say, "I found no one to carry letters"? You will say that a great many people went from here to there. Shall I insist that I gave letters even to them? But they, because they did not deliver them, will deny it, and between absent parties the truth will be uncertain. What, then, shall I do? I shall ask pardon without being at fault, thinking it better to give ground and ask for peace than to stir up a contest on equal footing. Although constant sickness of body and illness of soul have so worn me down that, with death at hand, I almost forgot myself. Lest you think this is false, I shall call witnesses after the arguments, in the manner of orators. ### Extrabiblical texts - Cicero, Div. 2.146 (Cicero): echo, low confidence ### Translation notes - The "old saying" resembles Cicero, De divinatione 2.146. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 6.1 (CSEL 54:24–25; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/1-1/#p-6-1). ## Letter 6.2 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/1-1/#p-6-2 - Source: CSEL 54:25–26 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome promises frequent letters, rejoices at his sister's perseverance under Julian's care, and dismisses slander against himself. ### Latin text Sanctus frater Heliodorus hic adfuit, qui, cum mecum heremum uellet incolere, meis sceleribus fugatus abscessit. uerum omnem culpam praesens uerbositas excusabit. nam, ut ait Flaccus in satura: omnibus hoc uitium est cantoribus, inter amicos rogati ut numquam cantent, iniussi numquam desistant. ita te deinceps fascibus obruam litterarum, ut e contrario incipias rogare, ne scribam. sororem meam, filiam in Christo tuam, gaudeo te primum nuntiante in eo permanere, quo coeperat. hic enim, ubi nunc sum, non solum quid agatur in patria, sed an ipsa patria perstet, ignoro. et licet me sinistro Hibera excetra rumore dilaniet, non timebo hominum iudicium habiturus iudicem meum: si fractus inlabatur orbis, inpauidum ferient ruinae. quapropter quaeso ut apostolici memor praecepti, quo docet opus nostrum permanere debere, et tibi a domino praemium in illius salute pares et me de communi in Christo gloria crebris reddas sermonibus laetiorem. ### English translation (Claude) Holy brother Heliodorus was here; he wished to live in the desert with me, but my sins drove him away and he left. But my present talkativeness will excuse all my fault. For, as Flaccus says in his satire: "All singers have this fault: among friends, when asked, they never sing; when not asked, they never stop." So from now on I shall bury you under such bundles of letters that on the contrary you will begin to ask me not to write. I am glad that you are the first to tell me that my sister, your daughter in Christ, is persevering in what she began. For here where I now am, I do not know not only what is happening in my homeland, but whether my homeland itself still stands. And although an Iberian viper tears me with evil rumor, I will not fear the judgment of men, since I shall have my Judge: "if the world should break and fall, its ruins will strike him unafraid." Therefore I ask you, remembering the apostle's precept that teaches that our work ought to endure, to prepare for yourself a reward from the Lord in her salvation, and to make me happier by frequent letters about our common glory in Christ. ### Scripture references - 1 Cor 3:14: allusion, low confidence ### Extrabiblical texts - Horace, Sat. 1.3.1-3 (Horace): quotation, high confidence - Horace, Carm. 3.3.7-8 (Horace): quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Horace, Satires 1.3.1-3 ("Flaccus"); Horace, Odes 3.3.7-8. The "Iberian viper" (Hibera excetra) is an unidentified slanderer. "Our work ought to endure" recalls 1 Cor 3:14. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 6.2 (CSEL 54:25–26; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/1-1/#p-6-2). ## Letter 7.1 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/7-1/#p-7-1 - Source: CSEL 54:26–27 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome greets Chromatius, Jovinus, and Eusebius together and describes his joy at receiving their letter in the desert. ### Latin text Non debet charta diuidere, quos amor mutuus copulauit, nec per singulos officia mei sunt partienda sermonis, cum sic inuicem uos ametis, ut non minus tres caritas iungat, quam duos natura sociauit. quin potius, si rei condicio pateretur, sub uno litterulae apice nomina indiuisa concluderem uestris quoque ita me litteris prouocantibus, ut et in uno tres et in tribus unum putarem. nam postquam sancto Euagrio transmittente in ea ad me heremi parte delatae sunt, quae inter Syros ac Sarracenos uastum limitem ducit, sic gauisus sum, ut illum diem Romanae felicitatis, quo primum Marcelli apud Nolam proelio post Cannensem pugnam superba Hannibalis agmina conciderunt, ego uicerim. et licet supra dictus frater saepe me uisitet atque ita ut sua in Christo uiscera foueat, tamen longo a me spatio seiunctus non minus mihi dereliquit abeundo desiderium, quam adtulerat ueniendo laetitiam. ### English translation (Claude) Paper ought not to divide those whom mutual love has joined, nor should the services of my speech be parceled out to each of you separately, since you love one another so that love unites the three of you no less than nature has joined two. Indeed, if the nature of the thing allowed, I would enclose your undivided names under a single stroke of the pen; and your letter, too, so challenged me that I thought of one in three and three in one. For after it was brought to me, through holy Evagrius, in that part of the desert which draws a vast boundary between the Syrians and the Saracens, I rejoiced so much that I outdid that day of Roman happiness when, after the battle of Cannae, the proud columns of Hannibal first fell at Nola in the battle of Marcellus. And although the aforesaid brother often visits me and cherishes me as his own heart in Christ, yet, separated from me by a long distance, he left me by his going no less longing than he had brought me joy by his coming. ### Translation notes - Chromatius and Eusebius were brothers (the "two" joined by nature); Jovinus was their companion. Marcellus's success at Nola (216 BC) was the first Roman check to Hannibal after Cannae (Livy 23.16). ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 7.1 (CSEL 54:26–27; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/7-1/#p-7-1). ## Letter 7.2 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/7-1/#p-7-2 - Source: CSEL 54:27–28 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome treasures his friends' letter as the only Latin he hears, but playfully complains that it was so short. ### Latin text Nunc cum uestris litteris fabulor, illas amplexor, illae mecum loquuntur, illae hic tantum Latine sciunt. hic enim aut barbarus seni sermo discendus est aut tacendum est. quotienscumque carissimos mihi uultus notae manus referunt inpressa uestigia, totiens aut ego hic non sum aut uos hic estis. credite amori uera dicenti: et cum has scriberem, uos uidebam. quibus hoc primum queror, cur tot interiacentibus spatiis maris atque terrarum tam paruam epistulam miseritis, nisi quod ita merui, qui uobis, ut scribitis, ante non scripsi. chartam defuisse non puto Aegypto ministrante commercia. et si aliqui Ptolomaeus maria clausisset, tamen rex Attalus membranas e Pergamo miserat, ut penuria chartae pellibus pensaretur; unde pergamenarum nomen ad hanc usque diem tradente sibi inuicem posteritate seruatum est. quid igitur? arbitrer baiulum festinasse? quamuis longae epistulae una nox sufficit. an uos aliqua occupatione detentos? nulla necessitas maior est caritate. restant duo, ut aut uos piguerit aut ego non meruerim. e quibus malo uos incessere tarditatis, quam me condemnare non meriti. facilius enim neglegentia emendari potest, quam amor nasci. ### English translation (Claude) Now I talk with your letter, I embrace it, it speaks with me, it alone here knows Latin. For here an old man must either learn a barbarous language or be silent. Every time the familiar marks of your hands bring back the faces so dear to me, either I am not here or you are here. Believe love when it tells the truth: even while I was writing this, I was seeing you. And first I complain to you: why, with so many stretches of sea and land between us, did you send so short a letter? Unless it is what I deserved, since, as you write, I did not write to you before. I do not think paper ran short, with Egypt supplying the trade. And even if some Ptolemy had closed the seas, King Attalus still sent parchments from Pergamum, so that the lack of paper might be made up with skins; hence the name "parchment" has been kept to this day, handed down from generation to generation. What, then? Am I to think the carrier was in a hurry? One night is enough for even a long letter. Or that you were held back by some business? No necessity is greater than love. Two possibilities remain: either you could not be bothered, or I did not deserve it. Of these, I would rather accuse you of slowness than condemn myself as undeserving. For negligence can be corrected more easily than love can be born. ### Extrabiblical texts - Pliny the Elder, Pliny, Nat. 13.70 (Pliny the Elder, Natural History): allusion, medium confidence ### Translation notes - The story of Attalus of Pergamum and the origin of parchment (pergamena) is told by Pliny, Natural History 13.70, citing Varro. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 7.2 (CSEL 54:27–28; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/7-1/#p-7-2). ## Letter 7.3 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/7-1/#p-7-3 - Source: CSEL 54:28–29 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome contrasts Bonosus's triumphant solitude with his own sense of being still captive to sin. ### Latin text Bonosus, ut scribitis, quasi filius lyaco? aquosa petiit, nos pristina contagione sordentes quasi reguli et scorpiones arentia quaeque sectamur. ille iam calcat super colubri caput, nos serpenti terram ex diuina sententia comedenti adhuc cibo sumus. ille iam potest summum graduum psalmum scandere, nobis adhuc in primo ascensu flentibus nescio an dicere aliquando contingat: leuaui oculos meos in montes, unde ueniat auxilium mihi. ille inter minaces saeculi fluctus in tuto insulae, hoc est ecclesiae gremio, sedens ad exemplum Iohannis librum forte iam deuorat, ego in scelerum meorum sepulchro iacens et peccatorum uinculis. conligatus dominicum de euangelio expecto clamorem: Hieronyme, ueni foras. Bonosus, inquam, — quia secundum prophetam omnis diaboli uirtus in lumbo est — trans Euphraten tulit lumbare suum ibi illud in foramine petrae abscondens et postea scissum repperiens cecinit: domine, tu possedisti renes meos; Epistula nincnla mea; tibi sacrificabo hostiam laudis, me uerus Nabuchodonosor ad Babylonem, id est confusionem mentis meae, catenatum duxit; ibi mihi captiuitatis iugum inposuit, ibi ferri circulum innectens de canticis Sion cantare praecepit. cui ego dixi: dominus soluit conpeditos, dominus inluminat caecos; et, ut breuiter coeptam dissimilitudinem finiam; ego ueniam deprecor, ille expectat coronam.- ### English translation (Claude) Bonosus, as you write, like a son of the fish, has made for watery places; we, still filthy with our former contagion, like basilisks and scorpions seek out all dry places. He already treads on the serpent's head; we are still food for the serpent that, by God's sentence, eats earth. He can already climb the highest of the psalms of ascent; we are still weeping at the first ascent, and I do not know whether it will ever be given us to say: "I lifted up my eyes to the mountains, from where my help will come." He, amid the threatening waves of the world, sits safe in an island, that is, in the bosom of the church, and like John is perhaps already devouring the book; I lie in the tomb of my crimes, bound in the chains of my sins, and wait for the Lord's cry from the gospel: "Jerome, come out." Bonosus, I say (since, according to the prophet, all the devil's strength is in the loins), has carried his loincloth across the Euphrates, hiding it there in a hole in the rock, and afterwards, finding it torn, sang: "Lord, you have possessed my reins; you have broken my bonds; to you I will offer the sacrifice of praise." Me the true Nebuchadnezzar has led in chains to Babylon, that is, to the confusion of my mind; there he has put on me the yoke of captivity, there, fastening an iron ring on me, he has ordered me to sing some of the songs of Zion. To him I said: "The Lord sets the prisoners free; the Lord gives light to the blind." And to finish briefly the contrast I began: I beg for pardon; he awaits a crown. ### Scripture references - Deut 8:15: allusion, low confidence - Gen 3:15: allusion, high confidence - Gen 3:14: allusion, high confidence - Ps 121:1 (120:1 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Rev 10:10: allusion, high confidence - John 11:43: allusion, high confidence - Job 40:16 (40:11 LXX): allusion, high confidence - Jer 13:4: allusion, high confidence - Ps 139:13 (138:13 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Ps 116:16 (115:16 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Ps 116:17 (115:17 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Ps 137:3 (136:3 LXX): allusion, high confidence - Ps 146:7 (145:7 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Ps 146:8 (145:8 LXX): quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - "Son of the fish": the digital text is garbled here (lyaco?); Hilberg's text apparently has a Greek word for fish, a play on the Christian ΙΧΘΥΣ symbol and on baptism. Allusions: basilisks and scorpions of the dry places (Deut 8:15; Ps 91:13); the serpent's head and its food of earth (Gen 3:14-15); the psalms of ascent (Pss 120-134), quoting Ps 121:1 (LXX 120:1); John devouring the book (Rev 10:9-10); Lazarus (John 11:43); strength in the loins (Job 40:16, LXX 40:11, of Behemoth, read of the devil); the loincloth hidden by the Euphrates (Jer 13:1-7); Ps 139:13 (LXX 138:13); Ps 116:16-17 (LXX 115:16-17; the words "you have broken" are garbled in the digital text); Ps 137:3 (LXX 136:3); Ps 146:7-8 (LXX 145:7-8). ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 7.3 (CSEL 54:28–29; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/7-1/#p-7-3). ## Letter 7.4 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/7-1/#p-7-4 - Source: CSEL 54:29 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome commends his sister, restored through Julian's care, to his friends and asks for letters, including one from Bishop Valerian, to strengthen her. ### Latin text Soror mea sancti Iuliani in Christo fructus est: ille plantauit, uos rigate, dominus incrementum dabit. hanc mihi Iesus pro eo uulnere, quod diabolus inflixerat, praestitit uiuam reddendo pro mortua. huic ego, ut ait gentilis poeta, omnia etiam tuta timeo. scitis ipsi lubricum adulescentiae iter, in quo et ego lapsus sunt et uos non sine timore transistis. hoc illa cum maxime ingrediens omnium fulcienda praeceptis, omnium est sustentanda solaciis, id est crebris uestrae sanctitudinis epistulis roboranda. et quia caritas omnia sustinet, obsecro ut etiam a papa Valeriano ad eam confortandam litteras exigatis. nostis puellares animos his rebus plerumque solidari, si se intellegant curae esse maioribus. ### English translation (Claude) My sister is the fruit of holy Julian in Christ: he planted, you must water, the Lord will give the increase. Jesus has granted her to me in return for the wound that the devil inflicted, giving her back alive in place of the dead. For her, as the pagan poet says, I fear everything, even what is safe. You yourselves know the slippery path of youth, on which I too fell and which you did not cross without fear. She is just now setting out on it, and must be supported by everyone's precepts and upheld by everyone's comfort, that is, strengthened by frequent letters from your holiness. And since love bears all things, I beg you also to obtain from Pope Valerian a letter to encourage her. You know that girls' minds are generally made firm by this, if they understand that their elders care about them. ### Scripture references - 1 Cor 3:6: allusion, high confidence - 1 Cor 13:7: allusion, medium confidence ### Extrabiblical texts - Virgil, Aen. 4.298 (Virgil): allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - 1 Cor 3:6; 1 Cor 13:7. The pagan poet is Virgil, Aeneid 4.298 (omnia tuta timens). Valerian was bishop of Aquileia; papa was then a title of honor for any bishop. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 7.4 (CSEL 54:29; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/7-1/#p-7-4). ## Letter 7.5 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/7-1/#p-7-5 - Source: CSEL 54:29–30 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome complains of the worldliness of his home town and its unworthy bishop, Lupicinus. ### Latin text In mea enim patria rusticitatis uernacula deus uenter est et de die uiuitur: sanctior est ille, qui ditior est. accessit huic patellae iuxta tritum populi sermone prouerbium dignum operculum, Lupicinus sacerdos — secundum illud quoque, de quo semel in uita Crassum ait risisse Lucilius: similem habent labra lactucam asino cardus comedente —, uidelicet ut perforatam nauem debilis gubernator regat et caecus caecos ducat in foueam talisque sit rector, quales illi qui reguntur. ### English translation (Claude) For in my homeland, where boorishness is native, the belly is god and people live for the day; the richer a man is, the holier he is. To this dish, as the proverb worn by popular use has it, a worthy lid has been added, Lupicinus the priest (like the saying at which, Lucilius says, Crassus laughed once in his life: "the lips have lettuce like themselves when the ass eats thistles"), so that, of course, a feeble pilot steers a ship full of holes, and the blind lead the blind into the pit, and the ruler is such as those he rules. ### Scripture references - Phil 3:19: allusion, high confidence - Matt 15:14: allusion, high confidence ### Extrabiblical texts - Lucilius (Lucilius (satires, fragments)): quotation, medium confidence ### Translation notes - Phil 3:19; Matt 15:14 (Luke 6:39). The Crassus anecdote, from Lucilius, is also told by Cicero, De finibus 5.92. "Sacerdos" here means bishop. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 7.5 (CSEL 54:29–30; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/7-1/#p-7-5). ## Letter 7.6 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/7-1/#p-7-6 - Source: CSEL 54:30–31 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome greets the mother and sisters of his friends, praising their household for its holiness and for having driven Arianism from Aquileia. ### Latin text Matrem communem, quae, cum uobis sanctitate societur, in eo uos praeuenit, quia tales genuit, cuius uere uenter aureus potest dici, eo salutamus honore, quo nostis; una quoque suspiciendas cunctis sorores, quae sexum uicere cum saeculo, quae oleo ad lampadas largiter praeparato sponsi opperiuntur aduentum. o beata domus, in qua morantur Anna uidua, uirgines prophetissae, geminus Samuhel nutritus in templo! o tecta felicia, in quibus cernimus Macchabaeorum martyrum coronis cinctam martyrem matrem! nam licet cotidie Christum confiteamini, dum eius praecepta seruatis, tamen ad priuatam gloriam publica haec accessit uobis et aperta confessio, quod per uos ab urbe uestra Arriani quondam dogmatis uirus exclusum est. et miremini forsitan, quod in fine iam epistulae rursus exorsus sim. quid faciam? uocem pectori negare non ualeo. epistulae breuitas conpellit tacere, desiderium uestri cogit loqui. praeproperus sermo; confusa turbatur oratio; amor ordinem nescit. ### English translation (Claude) Your common mother, who, while she is your partner in holiness, surpasses you in this, that she bore such sons, and whose womb can truly be called golden, we greet with the honor you know; and together with her your sisters, who deserve everyone's admiration, who have conquered their sex together with the world, and who, with oil generously prepared for their lamps, await the coming of the Bridegroom. O blessed house, in which dwell Anna the widow, virgin prophetesses, and a twin Samuel brought up in the temple! O happy roof, under which we see a martyr mother crowned with the crowns of the Maccabean martyrs! For although you confess Christ daily by keeping his commandments, yet to this private glory has been added this public and open confession, that through you the poison of the Arian doctrine was once driven out of your city. And you may be surprised that at the very end of my letter I have begun again. What can I do? I cannot deny my heart its voice. The brevity of a letter compels me to be silent; longing for you forces me to speak. My words are hurried; my speech is confused and disordered; love knows no order. ### Scripture references - Matt 25:4: allusion, high confidence - Luke 2:36: allusion, high confidence - Acts 21:9: allusion, high confidence - 1 Sam 2:18: allusion, medium confidence ### Extrabiblical texts - 2 Macc 7:1 (2 Maccabees): allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - Allusions: the wise virgins (Matt 25:4); Anna the widow (Luke 2:36-37); the virgin daughters of Philip who prophesied (Acts 21:9); Samuel in the temple (1 Sam 2-3); the mother of the seven Maccabean martyrs (2 Macc 7). The "twin Samuel" is the two brothers Chromatius and Eusebius. The Arian (Homoian) teaching was opposed at Aquileia in the 370s. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 7.6 (CSEL 54:30–31; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/7-1/#p-7-6). ## Letter 8.1 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/7-1/#p-8-1 - Source: CSEL 54:31–32 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome opens his letter to Niceas by praising letters as a way of making absent friends present. ### Latin text inquit, res est, quae homines absentes praesentes faciat. nec falsam dedit, quamquam in re non uera, sententiam. quid enim est, ut ita dicam, tam praesens inter absentes, quam per epistulas et adloqui et audire quos diligas? nam et rudes illi Italiae homines, quos cascos Ennius appellat, qui sibi, ut in Rhetoricis Cicero ait, uictu fero uitam requirebant, ante chartae et membranarum usum aut in dedolatis ex ligno codicellis aut in corticibus arborum mutua epistularum adloquia missitabant; unde et portitores earum tabellarios et scriptores a libris arborum librarios uocauere. ### English translation (Claude) "... is the one thing," he says, "that makes absent people present." And he gave no false judgment, though on a matter not true. For what is so present, so to speak, among the absent, as to address and to hear those you love by letter? For even those rough men of Italy whom Ennius calls "Casci", who, as Cicero says in his Rhetoric, "sought their living by wild food," before the use of paper and parchment, used to send each other letters either on tablets planed from wood or on the bark of trees; hence they called their carriers tabellarii and their writers librarii, from the liber (inner bark) of trees. ### Extrabiblical texts - Ennius (Ennius): allusion, medium confidence - Cicero, Inv. 1.2 (Cicero): quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - The opening words of the letter are missing in the digital text; the quotation is from the comic poet Turpilius (not in the site's list of texts), whom Jerome names. Ennius, Annales (the "Casci"); Cicero, De inventione 1.2. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 8.1 (CSEL 54:31–32; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/7-1/#p-8-1). ## Letter 8.2 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/7-1/#p-8-2 - Source: CSEL 54:32–33 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome urges Niceas, who has returned home, to write, even if angry, rather than break off their friendship. ### Latin text quanto igitur nos expolito iam artibus mundo id non debemus omittere, quod sibi praestiterunt, apud quos erat cruda rusticitas et qui humanitatem quodammodo nesciebant! ecce beatus Chromatius cum sancto Eusebio non plus natura quam morum sibi aequalitate germano litterario me prouocauit officio. tu modo a nobis abiens recentem amicitiam scindis potius, quam dissuis, quod prudenter Laelius uetat; nisi forte ita tibi exosus est oriens, ut litteras quoque tuas huc uenire formides. expergiscere, expergiscere, euigila de sommo, praesta unam chartae scedulam caritati inter delicias patriae et communis, quam habuimus, peregrinationis aliquando suspiria. si amas, rescribe; si irasceris, iratus licet scribe. magnum et hoc desiderii habebo solamen, si amici litteras uel indignantis accipiam. ### English translation (Claude) How much more, then, ought we, in a world already refined by the arts, not to neglect what was done by people who lived in raw boorishness and in a way did not know civilization! See, blessed Chromatius, together with holy Eusebius, his brother no more by nature than by likeness of character, has challenged me with the courtesy of a letter. You, having just left us, are cutting a new friendship rather than unstitching it, which Laelius wisely forbids; unless perhaps you so hate the East that you fear even to let your letters come here. Wake up, wake up, rouse yourself from sleep; amid the pleasures of your homeland, give to love a single sheet of paper, and sometimes a sigh for the travels we shared. If you love me, write back; if you are angry, write even in anger. I shall have this great comfort for my longing, if I receive a letter from my friend, even an indignant one. ### Scripture references - Eph 5:14: echo, low confidence ### Extrabiblical texts - Cicero, Amic. 76 (Cicero): allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - Laelius's advice, to unstitch rather than tear a friendship, is from Cicero, De amicitia 76. "Wake up" may echo Eph 5:14. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 8.2 (CSEL 54:32–33; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/7-1/#p-8-2). ## Letter 9.1 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/7-1/#p-9-1 - Source: CSEL 54:33 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome tells Chrysogonus that he constantly speaks of him with affection, as Heliodorus can attest. ### Latin text dorus tibi potuit fideliter nuntiare, qui non minori te diligit amore, quam diligo, ut ego semper in ore meo nomen tuum sonem, ut ad primam quamque confabulationem iucundissimi mihi tui consortii recorder, ut humilitatem admirer, uirtutem efferam, praedicem caritatem. ### English translation (Claude) ... [Helio]dorus could faithfully report to you, who loves you with no less love than I do: that your name is always on my lips, that at every conversation I recall our most pleasant companionship, that I admire your humility, extol your virtue, and proclaim your love. ### Translation notes - The beginning of the letter is missing in the digital text; the first word is the end of the name Heliodorus. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 9.1 (CSEL 54:33; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/7-1/#p-9-1). ## Letter 9.2 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/7-1/#p-9-2 - Source: CSEL 54:33–34 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome reproaches Chrysogonus for forgetting their friendship like a lynx that forgets what it no longer sees. ### Latin text uerum tu, quod natura lynces: insitum habent, ne post tergum respicientes meminerint priorum et mens perdat, quod oculi uidere desielint, ita nostrae necessitudinis penitus oblitus illam epistulam, quam in corde Christianorum scriptam apostolus refert, non praepeti litura, sed imis, quod aiunt, ceris erasisti. ### English translation (Claude) But you, like the lynxes, which by nature, it is said, when they look behind them forget what came before, and their mind loses what their eyes have ceased to see, have so completely forgotten our friendship that you have erased that letter which the apostle says is written on the heart of Christians, not with a quick stroke of the eraser, but, as they say, down to the bottom of the wax. ### Scripture references - 2 Cor 3:3: allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - 2 Cor 3:2-3. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 9.2 (CSEL 54:33–34; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/7-1/#p-9-2). ## Letter 9.3 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/7-1/#p-9-3 - Source: CSEL 54:34 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome describes how the lynx forgets its prey once it has eaten its fill. ### Latin text et illae quidem, quas diximus, ferae sub frondente captantes arboris ramo fugaces e capreas aut timidum, ceruos, animal conprehendunt currentemque frustra praedam, dum hostem suum secura uehit, rabido desuper ore dilaniant et tam diu meminere praedandi, quam diu uenter uacuus siccum fame guttur exasperat; ubi uero sanguine pasta feritas uiscera distenta conpleuerit, cum saturitate succedit obliuio tam diu nescitura, quid capiat, donec memoriam reuocauerit esuries. ### English translation (Claude) Those beasts I spoke of, lying in wait on a leafy branch of a tree, seize the fleeing roe or the timid deer, and tear the prey that runs in vain with ravenous jaws from above while it carries its enemy on its back; and they remember to hunt only as long as an empty belly makes the throat dry with hunger. But when their fierceness, fed with blood, has filled its swollen belly, forgetfulness follows fullness, and it will not know what to catch until hunger brings back memory. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 9.3 (CSEL 54:34; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/7-1/#p-9-3). ## Letter 9.4 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/7-1/#p-9-4 - Source: CSEL 54:34–35 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome asks Chrysogonus why he has dropped their friendship and urges him to write, even if only to say he has no news. ### Latin text tu necdum satiatus e nobis cur finem iungis exordio? cur amittis; antequam teneas? nisi forte neglegentiae semper excusatione socia adseras te non habuisse, quod scriberes, cum hoc ipsum debueris scribere, aliud te non habuisse, quod scriberes. ### English translation (Claude) But you, not yet having had your fill of us, why do you join the end to the beginning? Why do you let go before you hold? Unless perhaps, with the excuse that always accompanies negligence, you claim that you had nothing to write, when you ought to have written just that: that you had nothing else to write. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 9.4 (CSEL 54:34–35; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/7-1/#p-9-4). ## Letter 10.1 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/7-1/#p-10-1 - Source: CSEL 54:35–36 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome begins his letter to the aged Paul by reflecting on how sin has shortened human life since the Fall and the Flood. ### Latin text Humanae uitae breuitas damnatio delictorum est et in ipso saepe lucis exordio mors secuta nascentem labentia cotidie in uitium saecula profitetur. nam cum primum paradisi colonum uiperinis nexibus praepeditum coluber deduxisset ad terras, aeternitas mortalitate mutata in nongentos et eo amplius annos, secundam quodammodo inmortalitatem, maledicti hominis distulerat elogium. exinde paulatim recrudescente peccato totius orbis naufragium gigantum adduxit inpietas. post illud, ut ita dixerim, purgati baptismum mundi in breue tempus hominum uita contracta est. hoc quoque spatium sceleribus nostris semper contra diuina pugnantibus paene perdidimus. quotus enim quisque aut centenariam transgreditur aetatem aut non ad eam sic peruenit, ut peruenisse paeniteat, secundum quod in libro psalmorum scriptura testatur: dies uitae nostrae septuaginta anni, si autem multum, octoginta; quidquid reliquum est, labor et dolor? ### English translation (Claude) The shortness of human life is the condemnation of sins, and death, often following the newborn at the very beginning of life, declares that the ages are sliding daily into vice. For when the snake had brought down to earth the first tiller of paradise, entangled in viper's coils, eternity was exchanged for mortality, yet the sentence on accursed man was put off for nine hundred years and more, a kind of second immortality. From then on, as sin gradually broke out again, the ungodliness of the giants brought on the shipwreck of the whole world. After that baptism, so to speak, of the cleansed world, human life was contracted to a short time. And even this span we have almost lost through our crimes, which always fight against the divine. For how few pass the age of a hundred years, or reach it without regretting that they reached it, as Scripture testifies in the book of Psalms: "The days of our life are seventy years, and if much, eighty; whatever remains is labor and sorrow"? ### Scripture references - Gen 3:14: allusion, medium confidence - Gen 5:5: allusion, medium confidence - Gen 6:4: allusion, high confidence - 1 Pet 3:20: echo, low confidence - Ps 90:10 (89:10 LXX): quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Gen 3 (the Fall); Gen 5 (the long lives before the Flood); Gen 6:4 (the giants); the Flood as a baptism (1 Pet 3:20-21); Ps 90:10 (LXX 89:10). ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 10.1 (CSEL 54:35–36; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/7-1/#p-10-1). ## Letter 10.2 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/7-1/#p-10-2 - Source: CSEL 54:36–37 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome praises the vigorous health of Paul of Concordia, nearly a hundred years old, as a foretaste of the resurrection. ### Latin text Quorsum, ais, ista tam alto repetita principio et ita procul coepta, ut merito quiuis Horatiano de nobis possit sale ludere: et gemino bellum Troianum orditur ab ouo? uidelicet ut senectutem tuam et caput ad Christi similitudinem candidum dignis uocibus praedicem. ecce iam centenarius aetatum circulus uoluitur et tu semper domini praecepta custodiens futurae beatitudines uitae per praesentium exempla meditaris. oculi puro lumine uigent, pedes inprimunt certa uestigia, auditus penetrabilis, dentes candidi, uox canora, corpus solidum et suci plenum. cani cum rubore discrepant, uirtus cum aetate dissentit. non memoriae tenacitatem, ut in plerisque cernimus, antiquior senecta dissoluit, non calidi acumen ingenii frigidus sanguis obtundit, non contractam rugis faciem arata frons asperat, non denique tremula manus per curuos cerae tramites errantem stilum ducit. futurae resurrectionis uirorem in te nobis dominus ostendit, ut peccati sciamus esse, quod ceteri adhuc uiuentes praemoriuntur in carne, iustitiae, quod tu adulescentiam in aliena aetate mentiris. et quamquam multis istam corporis sanitatem, etiam peccatoribus, euenire uideamus, tamen illis hoc diabolus ministrat, ut peccent, tibi dominus praestat, ut gaudeas. ### English translation (Claude) "To what end," you say, "is all this, drawn from so far back and begun so far off that anyone could rightly mock us with Horace's wit: 'he begins the Trojan War from the twin egg'?" To praise in fitting words your old age and your head, white like Christ's. See, the circle of a hundred years is now turning, and you, always keeping the Lord's commandments, meditate on the blessedness of the life to come through the examples of the present. Your eyes are strong with clear sight, your feet press firm steps, your hearing is keen, your teeth white, your voice clear, your body solid and full of vigor. Your ruddy color does not match your white hair; your strength is at odds with your age. Old age has not dissolved the firmness of your memory, as we see in most people; cold blood has not blunted the sharpness of your warm mind; no furrowed brow roughens a face drawn with wrinkles; nor, finally, does a trembling hand guide a wandering pen along crooked paths in the wax. In you the Lord shows us the freshness of the future resurrection, so that we may know that it is due to sin that others, while still alive, die beforehand in the flesh, and due to righteousness that you counterfeit youth at an age not its own. And although we see this bodily health come to many, even sinners, yet to them the devil provides it so that they may sin; to you the Lord grants it so that you may rejoice. ### Scripture references - Rev 1:14: allusion, medium confidence ### Extrabiblical texts - Horace, Ars 147 (Horace): quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Horace, Ars poetica 147 (Leda's egg, from which Helen was born). "White like Christ's": Rev 1:14. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 10.2 (CSEL 54:36–37; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/7-1/#p-10-2). ## Letter 10.3 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/7-1/#p-10-3 - Source: CSEL 54:37–39 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: As the "price" of his praise Jerome asks Paul for books of Fortunatianus, Aurelius Victor, and Novatian, and sends his Life of Paul the hermit. ### Latin text Doctissimi quique Graecorum, de quibus pro Flacco agens luculente Tullius ait: ingenita leuitas et erudita uanitas, regum suorum uel principum laudes accepta mercede dicebant. hoc ego nunc faciens pretium posco pro laudibus. et ne putes modica esse, quae deprecor, margaritam de euangelio postularis, eloquia domini eloquia casta, argentum igne examinatum terrae, purgatum septuplum, scilicet commentarios Fortunatiani et propter notitiam persecutorum Aurelii Victoris historiam simulque epistulas Nouatiani, ut, dum scismatici hominis uenena cognoscimus. libentius sancti martyris Cypriani bibamus antidotum. misimus interim tibi, id est Paulo seni, Paulum seniorem, in quo propter simpliciores quosque multum in deiciendo sermone laborauimus. sed nescio quomodo, etiam si aqua plena sit, tamen eundem odorem lagoena seruat, quo, dum rudis esset, inbuta est. si hoc munusculum placuerit, habemus etiam alia condita, quae cum plurimis orientalibus mercibus ad te, si spiritus sanctus adflauerit, nauigabunt. ### English translation (Claude) All the most learned of the Greeks, of whom Tullius, pleading for Flaccus, splendidly says, "inborn levity and trained vanity", used to speak the praises of their kings or princes for a fee. Doing this now, I ask a price for my praise. And lest you think that what I request is small, I ask of you the pearl of the gospel, "the words of the Lord, pure words, silver tried in the fire, purified from the earth seven times": namely, the commentaries of Fortunatianus, and, for the sake of knowing about the persecutors, the history of Aurelius Victor, and also the letters of Novatian, so that, while we learn the poisons of a schismatic man, we may more gladly drink the antidote of the holy martyr Cyprian. Meanwhile we have sent you, that is, to Paul the old man, Paul the older, on which we have worked hard to lower the style for the sake of simpler readers. But somehow, even if it is full of water, the jar keeps the same smell with which it was steeped when new. If this little gift pleases you, we also have other things stored up, which, with many Eastern wares, will sail to you if the Holy Spirit blows. ### Scripture references - Matt 13:46: allusion, medium confidence - Ps 12:6 (11:7 LXX): quotation, high confidence ### Extrabiblical texts - Cicero, Flac. 9 (Cicero): quotation, high confidence - Horace, Ep. 1.2.69-70 (Horace): allusion, medium confidence ### Translation notes - Cicero, Pro Flacco 9; the pearl (Matt 13:46); Ps 12:6 (LXX and Vulgate 11:7). "Paul the older" is Jerome's Life of Paul, the First Hermit. The jar that keeps its first smell is Horace, Epistles 1.2.69-70. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 10.3 (CSEL 54:37–39; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/7-1/#p-10-3). ## Letter 11.1 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/7-1/#p-11-1 - Source: CSEL 54:39 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome tells the virgins of Emona that he has written in tiny letters because he had only a small sheet. ### Latin text sermonem breui spatio coartaui, quia et uobiscum uolebam prolixius loqui et angustia scedulae cogebat tacere. nunc igitur ingenio est uicta pauperies. minutae quidem litterae, sed confabulatio longa est. et tamen in hoc necessitatis articulo animaduertite caritatem, cum me nec penuria scriptionis ualuit prohibere, ne scriberem. ### English translation (Claude) ... I have compressed my speech into a short space, because I wanted to talk with you at greater length, and the narrowness of the sheet forced me to be silent. So now poverty has been overcome by ingenuity. The letters are tiny, but the conversation is long. And yet, in this pinch of necessity, notice my love, since not even a lack of writing material could stop me from writing. ### Translation notes - The beginning of the letter is missing in the digital text. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 11.1 (CSEL 54:39; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/7-1/#p-11-1). ## Letter 11.2 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/7-1/#p-11-2 - Source: CSEL 54:39 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome reproaches the virgins of Emona for never answering his letters, reminding them that Christ welcomed sinners. ### Latin text uos autem ignoscite, obsecro dolenti; dico enim laesus, dico lacrimans et irascens: ne unum quidem apicem totiens uobis tribuenti officium praestitistis. scio quia nulla communio luci et tenebris est, nulla cum ancillis dei et peccatoribus sociatio; attamen et meretrix domino pedes lacrimis lauit et de dominorum micis canes edunt et ipse saluator non uenit iustos uocare, sed peccatores. ### English translation (Claude) But you, I beg you, forgive a man in pain; for I speak as one hurt, I speak weeping and angry: you have not given even a single stroke of the pen to one who has so often done you this courtesy. I know that there is no fellowship between light and darkness, no partnership between the handmaids of God and sinners; yet a prostitute washed the Lord's feet with her tears, and dogs eat of their masters' crumbs, and the Savior himself did not come to call the righteous, but sinners. ### Scripture references - 2 Cor 6:14: allusion, high confidence - Luke 7:38: allusion, high confidence - Matt 15:27: allusion, high confidence - Matt 9:13: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - 2 Cor 6:14; Luke 7:37-38; Matt 15:27; Matt 9:13. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 11.2 (CSEL 54:39; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/7-1/#p-11-2). ## Letter 11.3 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/7-1/#p-11-3 - Source: CSEL 54:39–40 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome cites Christ's mercy toward sinners and Paul's warnings against judging others. ### Latin text non enim egent sani medico et mauult paenitentiam peccatoris quam mortem et errantem ouiculam suis umeris refert et prodigum filium reuertentem excepit laetus pater. quin potius apostolus ait: nolite iudicare ante tempus. tu enim quis es, qui alienum seruum iudices? suo domino stat aut cadit, et: qui stat, uideat ne cadat, et: inuicem onera uestra portate. ### English translation (Claude) For those who are well do not need a physician; he would rather have the repentance of a sinner than his death; he carries the straying sheep back on his shoulders; and the father gladly welcomed the prodigal son on his return. Indeed, the apostle says: "Do not judge before the time. For who are you, to judge another's servant? To his own master he stands or falls"; and: "Let him who stands take heed lest he fall"; and: "Bear one another's burdens." ### Scripture references - Matt 9:12: quotation, high confidence - Ezek 33:11: allusion, high confidence - Luke 15:5: allusion, high confidence - Luke 15:20: allusion, high confidence - 1 Cor 4:5: quotation, high confidence - Rom 14:4: quotation, high confidence - 1 Cor 10:12: quotation, high confidence - Gal 6:2: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Matt 9:12; Ezek 33:11 (18:23); Luke 15:5; Luke 15:20; 1 Cor 4:5; Rom 14:4; 1 Cor 10:12; Gal 6:2. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 11.3 (CSEL 54:39–40; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/7-1/#p-11-3). ## Letter 11.4 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/7-1/#p-11-4 - Source: CSEL 54:40–41 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome contrasts human judgment with Christ's, citing Peter's restoration and God's joy over one lost sheep. ### Latin text aliter, sorores carissimae, hominum liuor, aliter Christus iudicat. non eadem sententia est tribunalis eius et anguli susurronum. multae hominibus uiae uidentur iustae et postea repperientur prauae, et in testaceis uasculis thesaurus saepe reconditur. Petrum ter negantem amarae in locum suum restituere lacrimae. cui plus dimittitur, plus amat. de toto grege siletur et ob unius morbidi pecudis salutem angeli laetantur in caelo. quod si cui uidetur indignum, a domino audiat: amice, si ego bonus, quare oculus tuus nequam est? ### English translation (Claude) Human envy judges one way, dearest sisters, Christ another. The sentence of his tribunal is not the same as that of the whisperers in a corner. Many ways seem right to men and are later found to be crooked, and treasure is often stored in earthen vessels. Bitter tears restored Peter to his place after his threefold denial. The one who is forgiven more loves more. Nothing is said of the whole flock, and the angels in heaven rejoice over the safety of one sick sheep. And if this seems unfair to anyone, let him hear from the Lord: "Friend, if I am good, why is your eye evil?" ### Scripture references - Prov 14:12: allusion, high confidence - 2 Cor 4:7: allusion, high confidence - Matt 26:75: allusion, high confidence - Luke 7:47: allusion, high confidence - Luke 15:7: allusion, high confidence - Matt 20:15: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Prov 14:12; 2 Cor 4:7; Matt 26:75; Luke 7:47; Luke 15:7; Matt 20:15. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 11.4 (CSEL 54:40–41; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/7-1/#p-11-4). ## Letter 12.1 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/7-1/#p-12-1 - Source: CSEL 54:41 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome begins his letter to the monk Antony with Christ's teaching and example of humility. ### Latin text tate discipulis unum adprehendit e paruulis dicens: quicumque uestrum non fuerit conuersus sicut infans, non potest introire regnum caelorum. quod ne tantum docere nec facere uideretur, inpleuit exemplo, dum discipulorum pedes lauat, dum traditorem osculo excipit, dum loquitur cum Samaritana, dum ad pedes sibi sedente Maria de caelorum disputat regno, dum ab inferis resurgens primum mulierculis apparescit. ### English translation (Claude) ... [when the disciples were disputing about rank, the Lord, teacher of humil]ity, took one of the little children and said: "Whoever of you is not converted like an infant cannot enter the kingdom of heaven." And so that he might not seem only to teach and not to do, he fulfilled it by example: when he washes the disciples' feet, when he receives the traitor with a kiss, when he speaks with the Samaritan woman, when he discusses the kingdom of heaven with Mary sitting at his feet, when, rising from the dead, he appears first to some poor women. ### Scripture references - Matt 18:3: quotation, high confidence - John 13:5: allusion, high confidence - Matt 26:49: allusion, high confidence - John 4:7: allusion, high confidence - Luke 10:39: allusion, high confidence - Matt 28:9: allusion, medium confidence ### Translation notes - The beginning of the letter is missing in the digital text; the bracketed words are supplied from the sense. Matt 18:2-3; John 13:5; Matt 26:49; John 4:7-26; Luke 10:39; Matt 28:9. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 12.1 (CSEL 54:41; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/7-1/#p-12-1). ## Letter 12.2 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/7-1/#p-12-2 - Source: CSEL 54:41–42 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome gives examples of pride brought low, from Satan's fall to the choice of fishermen as apostles. ### Latin text satanas autem ex archangelico fastigio non aliam ob causam nisi ob contrariam humilitati superbiam ruit. et Iudaicus populus primas sibi cathedras et salutationes in foro uindicans deputato antea in stillam situlae gentili populo succedente deletus est. contra sophistas quoque saeculi et sapientes mundi Petrus et Iacobus piscator mittitur, cuius rei causa scriptura ait: superbis deus resistit, humilibus autem dat gratiam. ### English translation (Claude) Satan fell from the height of an archangel for no other reason than pride, the opposite of humility. And the Jewish people, claiming for themselves the chief seats and greetings in the marketplace, were blotted out when the Gentile people, formerly counted as a drop from a bucket, took their place. Peter and James, fishermen, are sent against the sophists of the age and the wise men of the world; for which reason Scripture says: "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble." ### Scripture references - Isa 14:12: allusion, medium confidence - Matt 23:6: allusion, high confidence - Isa 40:15: allusion, high confidence - 1 Cor 1:20: allusion, medium confidence - Jas 4:6: quotation, high confidence - 1 Pet 5:5: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Isa 14:12-15 (read of Satan); Matt 23:6-7; Isa 40:15; 1 Cor 1:20, 27; Jas 4:6 and 1 Pet 5:5 (Prov 3:34). The statement about the Jewish people is Jerome's own; it is translated as written. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 12.2 (CSEL 54:41–42; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/7-1/#p-12-2). ## Letter 12.3 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/7-1/#p-12-3 - Source: CSEL 54:42 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome complains that Antony has not answered any of his ten letters. ### Latin text uide, frater, quale malum sit, quod aduersarium habet deum. ob quod in euangelio et pharisaeus adrogans spernitur et humilis publicanus auditur. decem iam, nisi fallor, epistulas plenas tam officii quam precum misi, cum tu ne muttum quidem facere dignaris et domino loquente cum seruis frater cum fratre non loqueris. nimis, inquies, contumeliose. ### English translation (Claude) See, brother, what an evil it is that has God as its adversary. Because of it, in the gospel, the arrogant Pharisee is rejected and the humble tax collector is heard. I have now sent you, unless I am mistaken, ten letters full of both courtesy and entreaty, while you do not deign even to mutter a word; and while the Lord speaks with his servants, you, a brother, do not speak with your brother. "Very insulting," you will say. ### Scripture references - Luke 18:14: allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - Luke 18:9-14. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 12.3 (CSEL 54:42; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/7-1/#p-12-3). ## Letter 12.4 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/7-1/#p-12-4 - Source: CSEL 54:42 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome restrains his anger and again asks Antony to write to him. ### Latin text crede mihi, nisi stili uerecundia prohiberet, tanta laesus ingererem, ut inciperes mihi rescribere uel iratus. sed quoniam et irasci hominis est et iniuriam non facere Christiani, ad antiquum morem reuertens rursus precor, ut et diligentem te diligas et conseruo sermonem conseruus inpertias. ### English translation (Claude) Believe me, if the restraint of my pen did not forbid it, I would, being hurt, heap on you so much that you would begin to write back to me, even in anger. But since to be angry is human and not to do injury is Christian, I return to my old custom and again pray that you will love one who loves you, and that you, a fellow servant, will share a word with your fellow servant. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 12.4 (CSEL 54:42; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/7-1/#p-12-4). ## Letter 13.1 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/7-1/#p-13-1 - Source: CSEL 54:42–43 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome begins his appeal for reconciliation with his aunt Castorina with Scripture's warnings against hatred and lasting anger. ### Latin text Iohannes idem apostolus et euangelista in epistula sua ait: quicumque odit fratrem suum homicida est, et recte. cum homicidium ex odio saepe nascatur, quicumque odit, etiam si gladio necdum percusserit, animo tamen homicida est. cur, ais, tale principium? scilicet ut ueteri rancore deposito mundum pectoris deo paremus habitaculum. irascimini, inquit Dauid, et nolite peccare. hoc quid uelit intellegi, apostolus plenius interpretatur: sol non occidat super iracundiam uestram. ### English translation (Claude) The same John, apostle and evangelist, says in his letter: "Whoever hates his brother is a murderer"; and rightly. Since murder often springs from hatred, whoever hates, even if he has not yet struck with the sword, is still a murderer in heart. "Why," you say, "such a beginning?" So that, putting away our old rancor, we may prepare a clean dwelling of the heart for God. "Be angry," says David, "and do not sin." What this means the apostle explains more fully: "Do not let the sun go down on your anger." ### Scripture references - 1 John 3:15: quotation, high confidence - Ps 4:4 (4:5 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Eph 4:26: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - 1 John 3:15; Ps 4:4 (LXX and Vulgate 4:5); Eph 4:26. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 13.1 (CSEL 54:42–43; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/7-1/#p-13-1). ## Letter 13.2 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/7-1/#p-13-2 - Source: CSEL 54:43 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome recalls Christ's command to be reconciled before offering one's gift at the altar. ### Latin text quid agimus nos in die iudicii, super quorum ira non unius diei, sed tantorum annorum sol testis occubuit? dominus loquitur in euangelio: si offeres, munus tuum ad altare ibique rememoratus fueris, quia frater tuus habet aliquid aduersum te, relinque ibi munus tuum ante altare et uade prius reconciliari fratri tuo, et sic offeres munus tuum. ### English translation (Claude) What shall we do on the day of judgment, over whose anger the sun has set as witness not for one day but for so many years? The Lord says in the gospel: "If you offer your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go first to be reconciled to your brother, and then you shall offer your gift." ### Scripture references - Matt 5:23: quotation, high confidence - Matt 5:24: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Matt 5:23-24. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 13.2 (CSEL 54:43; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/7-1/#p-13-2). ## Letter 13.3 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/7-1/#p-13-3 - Source: CSEL 54:43 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome laments that their estrangement has made both their offerings and the Lord's Prayer insincere. ### Latin text uae mihi misero, ne dicam et tibi, qui tanto tempore aut non obtuli munus ad altare aut ira permanente sine causa obtuli! quomodo in cotidiana prece umquam diximus: dimitte nobis debita nostra, sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris, animo discordante cum uerbis, oratione dissidente cum factis? ### English translation (Claude) Woe to me, wretch that I am, not to say to you too, who for so long a time have either not offered a gift at the altar, or offered it while anger without cause remained! How could we ever say in the daily prayer, "Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors," with our mind at odds with our words and our prayer at odds with our deeds? ### Scripture references - Matt 5:22: allusion, medium confidence - Matt 6:12: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Matt 5:22 ("without cause", as in the Latin text Jerome knew); Matt 6:12. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 13.3 (CSEL 54:43; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/7-1/#p-13-3). ## Letter 13.4 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/7-1/#p-13-4 - Source: CSEL 54:43–44 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome again asks his aunt for peace, saying that if she refuses, this letter will clear him before Christ. ### Latin text precor itaque, quod et ante annum prioribus litteris rogaueram, ut pacem, quam nobis dominus reliquit, habeamus. et meum desiderium et tuam mentem Christus intuetur: in breui ante tribunal eius reconciliata seu scissa concordia aut praemium recuperabit aut poenam. quod si tu, quod procul absit, nolueris; ego liber ero; epistula me haec, cum lecta fuerit, absoluet. ### English translation (Claude) So I beg you, as I asked a year ago in an earlier letter, that we may have the peace that the Lord left us. Christ sees both my desire and your mind; soon, before his tribunal, harmony restored or broken will receive either reward or punishment. But if you are unwilling (which God forbid), I shall be free; this letter, once it has been read, will acquit me. ### Scripture references - John 14:27: allusion, high confidence - 2 Cor 5:10: allusion, medium confidence ### Translation notes - John 14:27; 2 Cor 5:10. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 13.4 (CSEL 54:43–44; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/7-1/#p-13-4). ## Letter 14.1 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/14-1/#p-14-1 - Source: CSEL 54:44–46 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome invites Heliodorus, as promised, to join him in the desert, trusting Christ to provide. ### Latin text Quanto studio et amore contenderim, ut pariter in heremo moraremur, conscium mutuae caritatis pectus agnoscit. quibus lamentis, quo dolore, quo gemitu te abeuntem prosecutus sim, istae quoque litterae testes sunt, quas lacrimis cernis interlitas. uerum tu quasi paruulus delicatus contemptum rogantis per blandimenta fouisti et ego incautus, quid tunc agerem, nesciebam. tacerem? sed quod ardenter nolebam, moderate dissimulare non poteram. inpensius obsecrarem? sed audire nolebas, quia similiter non amabas. quod unum potuit, spreta caritas fecit. quem praesentem retinere non ualuit, quaerit absentem. quoniam igitur et tu ipse abiens postularas, ut tibi, postquam ad deserta migrassem, inuitatoriam a me scriptam transmitterem, et ego facturum receperam, inuito, iam propera. nolo pristinarum necessitatum recorderis — nudos amat heremus —, nolo te antiquae peregrinationis terreat difficultas. qui in Christo credis, et eius crede sermonibus: quaerite primum regnum dei, et haec omnia adponentur uobis. non pera tibi sumenda, non uirga est; adfatim diues est, qui cum Christo pauper est. ### English translation (Claude) With what eagerness and love I strove that we might live together in the desert, your heart, which knows our mutual love, recognizes. With what laments, what grief, what groans I accompanied you as you left, this letter too bears witness, which you see blotted with tears. But you, like a pampered little child, softened your refusal of my request with coaxing words, and I, off my guard, did not know what to do then. Should I keep silent? But what I passionately did not want, I could not calmly pretend to accept. Should I entreat you more urgently? But you did not wish to listen, because you did not love in the same way. Love, spurned, has done the one thing it could: the one it could not keep when present, it seeks when absent. Since, then, you yourself asked as you were leaving that, once I had moved into the desert, I should send you a letter of invitation, and I promised to do so, I invite you: hurry now. I do not want you to remember your former needs (the desert loves the naked); I do not want the difficulty of our former travels to frighten you. You who believe in Christ, believe his words too: "Seek first the kingdom of God, and all these things will be added to you." You need take no bag, no staff; he is rich enough who is poor with Christ. ### Scripture references - Matt 6:33: quotation, high confidence - Matt 10:10: allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - Matt 6:33; Matt 10:10. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 14.1 (CSEL 54:44–46; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/14-1/#p-14-1). ## Letter 14.2 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/14-1/#p-14-2 - Source: CSEL 54:46–47 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome rebukes Heliodorus as a soldier of Christ who has left the battle for home comforts and urges him to let nothing hold him back. ### Latin text Sed quid ago? rursus inprouidus obsecro? abeant preces, blandimenta discedant; debet amor laesus irasci. qui rogantem contempseras, forsitan audies obiurgantem. quid facis in paterna domo, delicate miles? ubi uallum, ubi fossa, ubi hiemps acta sub pellibus? ecce de caelo tuba canit, ecce cum nubibus debellaturus orbem imperator armatus egreditur, ecce bis acutus gladius ex regis ore procedens obuia quaeque metit: et tu mihi de cubiculo ad aciem, de umbra egrederis ad solem? corpus adsuetum tunica loricae onus non suffert, caput opertum linteo galeam recusat, mollem otio manum durus exasperat capulus. audi edictum regis tui: qui mecum non est, contra me est; et qui mecum non colligit, spargit. recordare tirocinii tui diem, quo Christo in baptismate consepultus in sacramenti uerba iurasti: pro nomine eius non te matri parciturum esse, non patri. ecce aduersarius in pectore tuo Christum conatur occidere; ecce donatiuum, quod militaturus acceperas, hostilia castra suspirant. licet paruulus ex collo pendeat nepos, -licet sparso crine et scissis uestibus ubera, quibus nutrierat, mater ostendat, licet in limine pater iaceat, per calcatum perge patrem, siccis oculis ad uexillum crucis uola! pietatis genus est in hac re esse crudelem. ### English translation (Claude) But what am I doing? Am I, unwisely, entreating again? Away with prayers, away with coaxing; wounded love ought to be angry. You who scorned me when I asked will perhaps listen when I rebuke. What are you doing in your father's house, pampered soldier? Where is the rampart, where the ditch, where the winter spent under hides? See, the trumpet sounds from heaven; see, the armed Emperor comes forth with the clouds to subdue the world; see, the two-edged sword coming from the King's mouth mows down all in its way; and are you coming out from the bedroom to the battle line, from the shade into the sun? A body used to a tunic cannot bear the weight of a breastplate; a head covered with linen refuses a helmet; the hard sword hilt chafes a hand made soft by idleness. Hear the edict of your King: "Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters." Remember the day you enlisted, when, buried with Christ in baptism, you swore the words of the military oath: that for his name you would not spare your mother or your father. See, the enemy in your heart is trying to kill Christ; see, the enemy camp sighs for the bounty you received when you were about to serve. Though your little nephew hang on your neck, though your mother, with hair loose and garments torn, show you the breasts that nursed you, though your father lie on the threshold, go on, trampling over your father; fly dry-eyed to the standard of the cross! In this matter, to be cruel is a kind of piety. ### Scripture references - Matt 24:30: allusion, medium confidence - 1 Thess 4:16: allusion, medium confidence - Rev 1:16: allusion, high confidence - Matt 12:30: quotation, high confidence - Col 2:12: allusion, high confidence - Matt 10:37: allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - Matt 24:30-31; 1 Thess 4:16; Rev 1:16 and 19:15 (the sword from the mouth); Matt 12:30; Rom 6:4 and Col 2:12 (buried with Christ in baptism); Matt 10:37. The "military oath" (sacramentum) is a play on the Latin word for both oath and sacrament. The call to trample over one's father is rhetorical hyperbole, Jerome later described this letter as a youthful rhetorical exercise (Letter 52.1). ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 14.2 (CSEL 54:46–47; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/14-1/#p-14-2). ## Letter 14.3 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/14-1/#p-14-3 - Source: CSEL 54:47–49 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome acknowledges the family ties that hold Heliodorus back but argues from Scripture that love for Christ must come first. ### Latin text Ueniet postea dies, quo uictor reuertaris in patriam, quo Hierosolymam caelestem uir fortis coronatus incedas. tunc municipatum cum Paulo capies, tunc et parentibus tuis eiusdem ciuitatis ius petes, tunc et pro me rogabis, qui, ut uinceres, incitaui. neque uero nescio, qua te nunc dicas conpede praepediri. non est nobis ferreum pectus nec dura praecordia, non ex silice natos Hyrcanae nutriere tigrides. et nos per ista transiuimus. nunc tibi blandis uidua soror haeret lacertis, nunc illi, cum quibus adoleuisti, uernulae aiunt: cui nos seruituros relinquis? nunc et gerula quondam, iam anus, et nutricius, secundus post naturalem pietatis pater, clamitat: morituros expecta paulisper et sepeli. forsitan et laxis uberum pellibus, arata rugis fronte antiquum referens mamma lallare congeminet. dicant, si uolunt, et grammatici: in te omnis domus inclinata recumbit. facile rumpit haec uincula amor Christi et timor gehennae. (at scriptura praecipit parentibus obsequendum: sed quicumque eos supra Christum amat, perdit animam suam. gladium tenet hostis, ut me perimat, et ego de matris lacrimis cogitabo? propter patrem militiam deseram, cui sepulturam Christi causa non debeo, quam etiam omnibus eius causa debeo? domino passuro timide consulens Petrus scandalum fuit. Paulus retinentibus fratribus, ne Hierosolymam pergeret, respondit: quid facitis plorantes et conturbantes cor meum? ego enim non solum ligari, sed et mori in Hierusalem paratus sum pro nomine domini nostri Iesu Christi. aries iste pietatis, quo fides quatitur, euangelii retundendus est muro: mater mea et fratres mei hi sunt, quicumque faciunt uoluntatem patris mei, qui in caelis est. si credunt in Christo, faueant mihi pro eius nomine pugnaturo; si non credunt, mortui sepeliant mortuos suos. ### English translation (Claude) A day will come later when you will return to your homeland as a victor, when you will walk into the heavenly Jerusalem, a brave man crowned. Then you will receive citizenship with Paul; then you will ask the rights of the same city for your parents too; then you will pray for me also, who urged you on to win. Nor am I unaware of the fetter by which you now say you are held back. My breast is not iron, nor my heart hard; I was not born of flint nor nursed by Hyrcanian tigers. I too have gone through these things. Now your widowed sister clings to you with coaxing arms; now the household slaves with whom you grew up say: "To whom are you leaving us to serve?" Now your old nurse, now aged, and your foster father, a second father in affection after your natural one, cry out: "Wait a little till we die, and bury us." Perhaps your mother, too, with slack breasts and wrinkled brow, may repeat the lullaby of old. The grammarians may say, if they like: "On you the whole house leans and rests." The love of Christ and the fear of hell easily break these chains. "But Scripture commands us to obey our parents." Yes, but whoever loves them above Christ loses his soul. The enemy holds a sword to kill me, and shall I think of my mother's tears? Shall I desert my military service for my father's sake, when for Christ's sake I do not owe him burial, which for Christ's sake I owe to all? Peter, timidly advising the Lord when he was about to suffer, was a stumbling block. Paul, when the brothers tried to keep him from going to Jerusalem, answered: "What are you doing, weeping and troubling my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." This battering ram of family affection, by which faith is shaken, must be beaten back by the wall of the gospel: "My mother and my brothers are these: whoever do the will of my Father who is in heaven." If they believe in Christ, let them support me as I go to fight for his name; if they do not believe, "let the dead bury their dead." ### Scripture references - Phil 3:20: echo, low confidence - Eph 6:1: allusion, medium confidence - Matt 10:37: allusion, high confidence - Matt 16:23: allusion, high confidence - Acts 21:13: quotation, high confidence - Matt 12:50: quotation, high confidence - Matt 8:22: quotation, high confidence ### Extrabiblical texts - Virgil, Aen. 4.366-367 (Virgil): allusion, high confidence - Virgil, Aen. 12.59 (Virgil): quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Virgil, Aeneid 4.366-367 (Hyrcanian tigers) and 12.59 (the house leaning on one man). Eph 6:1; Matt 10:37-39; Matt 16:22-23; Acts 21:13; Matt 12:50; Matt 8:22. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 14.3 (CSEL 54:47–49; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/14-1/#p-14-3). ## Letter 14.4 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/14-1/#p-14-4 - Source: CSEL 54:49–50 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome warns Heliodorus that the Christian is always under attack from the devil and his own passions, even when there is no open persecution. ### Latin text Sed hoc, ais, in martyrio. erras, frater, erras, si putas umquam Christianum persecutionem non pati; et nunc cum maxime oppugnaris, si te oppugnari nescis. aduersarius noster tamquam leo rugiens aliquem deuorare quaerens circuit et tu pacem putas? sedet in insidiis cum diuitibus in occultis, ut interficiat innocentem; oculi eius in pauperem respiciunt; insidiatur in occulto sicut leo in spelunca sua; insidiatur, ut rapiat pauperem: et tu frondosae arboris tectus umbraculo molles somnos, futura praeda, carpis? inde me persequitur luxuria, inde auaritia conatur inrumpere, inde uenter meus uult mihi deus esse pro Christo, conpellit libido, ut habitantem in me spiritum sanctum fugem, ut templum eius uiolem, persequitur me, inquam, hostis, cui nomina mille, mille nocendi artes: et ego infelix uictorem me putabo, dum capior? ### English translation (Claude) "But this," you say, "applies in martyrdom." You are wrong, brother, you are wrong if you think that a Christian is ever free from persecution; and you are being attacked most of all now if you do not know that you are being attacked. "Our adversary, like a roaring lion, goes about seeking someone to devour," and do you think it is peace? "He sits in ambush with the rich in secret places, to kill the innocent; his eyes watch for the poor; he lies in wait in secret like a lion in his den; he lies in wait to seize the poor"; and you, sheltered under the shade of a leafy tree, are enjoying soft sleep, a prey to be? On one side self-indulgence pursues me; on another greed tries to break in; on another my belly wants to be my god in place of Christ; lust drives me to put to flight the Holy Spirit who dwells in me, to violate his temple. I am pursued, I say, by an enemy who has a thousand names and a thousand arts of harming; and shall I, unhappy man, think myself the victor while I am being captured? ### Scripture references - 1 Pet 5:8: quotation, high confidence - Ps 10:8 (9:29 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Ps 10:9 (9:30 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Phil 3:19: allusion, high confidence - 1 Cor 6:19: allusion, medium confidence ### Extrabiblical texts - Virgil, Aen. 7.337-338 (Virgil): quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - 1 Pet 5:8; Ps 10:8-9 (LXX and Vulgate 9:29-30); Phil 3:19; 1 Cor 3:16-17 and 6:19. "A thousand names, a thousand arts of harming" is Virgil, Aeneid 7.337-338. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 14.4 (CSEL 54:49–50; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/14-1/#p-14-4). ## Letter 14.5 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/14-1/#p-14-5 - Source: CSEL 54:50–52 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome argues from Paul that sexual immorality and greed are forms of idolatry and that a monk may keep no possessions. ### Latin text Nolo, frater carissime, examinato pondere delictorum minora arbitreris idolatriae crimina esse, quae diximus; immo apostoli disce sententiam, qui ait: hoc enim scitote intellegentes, quia omnis fornicator aut inmundus aut fraudator, quod est idolatria, non habet hereditatem in regno dei et Christi. et quamquam generaliter aduersus deum sapiat, quidquid diaboli est, et, quod diaboli est, idolatria sit, cui omnia idola mancipantur, tamen et in alio loco speciatim nominatimque determinat dicens: mortificate membra uestra, quae in terra sunt, exponentes fornicationem, inmunditiam et concupiscentiam malam et cupiditatem, quae sunt idolorum seruitus, propter quae uenit ira dei. non est tantum in eo seruitus idoli. si quis duobus digitulis tura conprehensa in bustum arae iaciat aut haustum patera fundat merum. neget auaritiam idolatriam, qui potest triginta argenteis dominum uenditum appellare iustitiam; neget sacrilegium in libidine, sed is, qui membra Christi et hostiam uiuam placentem deo cum publicarum libidinum uictimis nefaria conluuione uiolauit; non fateatur idolatras eos, sed similis eorum, qui in actibus apostolorum ex patrimonio suo partem pretii reseruantes praesenti periere uindicta. animaduerte, frater: non tibi licet de tuis quicquam habere. rebus. omnis, inquit dominus, qui non renuntiauerit cunctis, quae possidet, non potest meus. esse discipulus. ### English translation (Claude) I do not want you, dearest brother, weighing the sins, to think that those I have mentioned are lesser offenses than idolatry. Rather, learn the judgment of the apostle, who says: "For know this, understanding that no sexually immoral person, or impure person, or defrauder, which is idolatry, has any inheritance in the kingdom of God and of Christ." And although in general whatever belongs to the devil is hostile to God, and what belongs to the devil is idolatry, to which all idols are bound as slaves, yet in another passage he defines it specifically and by name, saying: "Put to death your members which are on earth, laying aside sexual immorality, impurity, evil desire, and covetousness, which are the service of idols, on account of which the wrath of God comes." The service of an idol does not consist only in taking incense between two fingers and throwing it into the pyre of an altar, or pouring wine from a bowl. Let him deny that greed is idolatry who can call it righteousness that the Lord was sold for thirty pieces of silver. Let him deny that there is sacrilege in lust; but only he may, who has defiled the members of Christ, the living sacrifice pleasing to God, by an unspeakable mingling with the victims of public lust. Let him refuse to admit that defrauders are idolaters; but only one who is like those in the Acts of the Apostles who kept back part of the price of their own property and perished by immediate punishment. Notice, brother: you are not allowed to keep anything of your own possessions. "Everyone," says the Lord, "who does not renounce all that he possesses cannot be my disciple." ### Scripture references - Eph 5:5: quotation, high confidence - Col 3:5: quotation, high confidence - Col 3:6: quotation, high confidence - Matt 26:15: allusion, high confidence - 1 Cor 6:15: allusion, medium confidence - Rom 12:1: allusion, medium confidence - Acts 5:1: allusion, high confidence - Luke 14:33: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Eph 5:5; Col 3:5-6; Matt 26:15; 1 Cor 6:15 and Rom 12:1; Acts 5:1-11 (Ananias and Sapphira); Luke 14:33. Fornicator is rendered "sexually immoral person". ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 14.5 (CSEL 54:50–52; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/14-1/#p-14-5). ## Letter 14.6 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/14-1/#p-14-6 - Source: CSEL 54:52–54 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome urges Heliodorus, who has vowed the perfect life of a monk, to renounce his inheritance and the dangers of the city. ### Latin text Cur timido animo Christianus es? respice cum patre relictum rete, respice surgentem de teloneo publicanum, statim apostolum. filius hominis non habet, ubi caput reclinet: et tu amplas porticus et ingentia tectorum spatia metaris? hereditatem expectas saeculi, coheres Christi? interpretare uocabulum monachi, hoc est nomen tuum: quid facis in turba, qui solus es? et haec ego non integris rate uel mercibus quasi ignaros fluctuum doctus nauta praemoneo, sed quasi nuper naufragio eiectus in litus timida nauigaturis uoce denuntio. in illo aestu Charybdis luxuriae salutem uorat, ibi ore uirgineo ad pudicitiae perpetranda naufragia Scyllaceum renidens libido blanditur; hic barbarum litus, hic diabolus pirata cum sociis portat uincla capiendis. nolite credere, nolite esse securi. licet in morem stagni fusum aequor adrideat, licet uix summa iacentis elementi spiritu terga crispentur, magnus hic campus montes habet, intus inclusum est periculum, intus est hostis. expedite rudentes, uela suspendite. crux antemnae figatur in frontibus: tranquillitas ista tempestas est. quid ergo? quicumque in ciuitate sunt, Christiani non sunt? non est tibi eadem causa, quae ceteris. dominum ausculta dicentem: si uis perfectus esse, uade, uende omnia tua et da pauperibus et ueni, sequere me. tu autem perfectum te esse pollicitus es. nam cum derelicta militia castrasti te propter regnum caelorum, quid aliud quam perfectam sectatus es uitam? perfectus autem seruus Christi nihil praeter Christum habet aut, si praeter Christum habet, perfectus non est. et si perfectus non est, cum se perfectum deo fore pollicitus sit, ante mentitus est. os autem, quod mentitur, occidit animam. igitur, ut concludam, si perfectus es, cur bona paterna desideras? si perfectus non es, dominum fefellisti. diuinis euangelium uocibus tonat: non. potestis duobus dominis seruire, et audet quisquam mendacem Christum facere mamonae et domino seruiendo? uociferatur ille saepe: si quis uult post me uenire, abneget se ipsum et tollat crucem suam et sequatur me. et ego onustus auro arbitror me Christum sequi? qui dicit se in Christo manere, debet, quomodo ille ambulauit, et ipse ambularet. ### English translation (Claude) Why are you a Christian with a fearful heart? Look at the net left behind together with a father; look at the tax collector rising from his booth, at once an apostle. "The Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head"; and are you measuring out broad colonnades and huge spaces of roofed buildings? Do you, a joint heir with Christ, expect an inheritance from the world? Interpret the word "monk", which is your name: what are you doing in a crowd, you who are solitary? And I do not give this warning like an experienced sailor with his ship and cargo intact to those who do not know the waves; rather, like one just cast ashore by shipwreck, I warn those about to sail in a frightened voice. In that surge, the Charybdis of self-indulgence swallows up salvation; there lust, smiling with the virgin face of Scylla, entices to accomplish the shipwreck of chastity; here is a barbarous shore, here the devil, a pirate with his crew, carries chains for those to be captured. Do not believe it, do not be secure. Though the sea, spread out like a pool, smiles, though the back of the sleeping element is barely ruffled by a breath of wind, this great plain has mountains; the danger is shut within; the enemy is within. Loosen the ropes, hoist the sails; let the cross, the yardarm, be fixed on your foreheads: this calm is a storm. "What, then? Are all who live in the city not Christians?" Your case is not the same as the others'. Listen to the Lord saying: "If you wish to be perfect, go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and come, follow me." But you promised to be perfect. For when you left the army and made yourself a eunuch for the kingdom of heaven, what else did you pursue but the perfect life? And a perfect servant of Christ has nothing except Christ; or if he has anything besides Christ, he is not perfect. And if he is not perfect, though he promised God that he would be perfect, he lied before. "But the mouth that lies kills the soul." So, to conclude: if you are perfect, why do you long for your father's goods? If you are not perfect, you have deceived the Lord. The gospel thunders with divine words: "You cannot serve two masters"; and does anyone dare to make Christ a liar by serving both mammon and the Lord? He often cries aloud: "If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me"; and do I, loaded with gold, think that I follow Christ? "He who says he abides in Christ ought himself to walk as he walked." ### Scripture references - Matt 4:22: allusion, high confidence - Matt 9:9: allusion, high confidence - Matt 8:20: quotation, high confidence - Rom 8:17: allusion, medium confidence - Matt 19:21: quotation, high confidence - Matt 19:12: allusion, high confidence - Matt 6:24: quotation, high confidence - Matt 16:24: quotation, high confidence - 1 John 2:6: quotation, high confidence ### Extrabiblical texts - Wis 1:11 (Wisdom of Solomon): quotation, high confidence - Homer, Od. 12 (Homer, Odyssey): allusion, low confidence ### Translation notes - Matt 4:22; Matt 9:9; Matt 8:20; Rom 8:17; Matt 19:21; Matt 19:12 ("made yourself a eunuch", a figure for vowed celibacy); Wis 1:11 ("the mouth that lies kills the soul"); Matt 6:24; Matt 16:24; 1 John 2:6. Charybdis and Scylla are the monsters of Homer, Odyssey 12. "Monk" (monachus) derives from the Greek for "single, alone". ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 14.6 (CSEL 54:52–54; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/14-1/#p-14-6). ## Letter 14.7 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/14-1/#p-14-7 - Source: CSEL 54:54–55 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome argues that a monk cannot be perfect in his homeland, where he will meet contempt and distraction. ### Latin text Quodsi nihil habes, ut responsurum te scio, cur tam bene paratus ad bella non militas? nisi forte in patria tua te arbitraris hoc facere, cum in sua dominus signa non fecerit. et cur id? cum auctoritate sume rationem: nemo propheta in sua patria honorem habet. non quaero, inquies, honorem; sufficit mihi conscientia mea. neque dominus quaerebat, quippe qui, ne a turbis rex constitueretur, aufugit. sed ubi honor non est, ibi contemptus est; ubi contemptus, ibi frequens iniuria; ubi autem iniuria, ibi et indignatio; ubi indignatio, ibi quies nulla; ubi quies non est, ibi mens a proposito saepe deducitur; ubi autem per inquietudinem aliquid aufertur ex studio, minus fit ab eo, quod tollitur, et ubi minus est, perfectum non potest dici. ex hac supputatione illa summa nascitur, monachum perfectum in patria sua esse non posse. perfectum autem esse nolle delinquere est. ### English translation (Claude) But if you have nothing, as I know you will answer, why, so well equipped for war, do you not serve as a soldier? Unless perhaps you think you are doing so in your homeland, although the Lord did no signs in his. And why so? Take the reason with its authority: "No prophet has honor in his own country." "I do not seek honor," you will say; "my conscience is enough for me." Neither did the Lord seek it; indeed he fled so as not to be made king by the crowds. But where there is no honor, there is contempt; where there is contempt, there is frequent injury; where there is injury, there is indignation; where there is indignation, there is no rest; where there is no rest, the mind is often drawn away from its purpose; and where something is taken away from zeal through restlessness, it becomes less by what is taken away; and where there is less, it cannot be called perfect. From this reckoning comes the sum: a monk cannot be perfect in his own homeland. And not to wish to be perfect is to sin. ### Scripture references - Matt 13:58: allusion, high confidence - John 4:44: quotation, high confidence - John 6:15: allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - Matt 13:57-58; John 4:44; John 6:15. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 14.7 (CSEL 54:54–55; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/14-1/#p-14-7). ## Letter 14.8 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/14-1/#p-14-8 - Source: CSEL 54:55–57 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome honors the clergy, who consecrate the Eucharist and exercise discipline, but warns that their office demands the highest standards and brings grave danger to the unworthy. ### Latin text Sed de hoc gradu pulsus prouocabis ad clericos: an de his aliquid audeam dicere, qui certe in suis urbibus commorantur? absit ut quicquam de his sinistrum loquar, qui apostolico gradui succedentes Christi corpus sacro ore conficiunt, per quos nos etiam Christiani sumus, qui claues regni caelorum habentes quodammodo ante iudicii diem iudicant, qui sponsam domini sobria castitate conseruant. sed alia, ut ante praestruxi, monachi causa est, alia clericorum. clerici oues pascunt, ego pascor; illi de altario uiuunt, mihi quasi infructuosae arbori securis ponitur ad radices, si munus ad altare non defero. nec possum obtendere paupertatem, cum in euangelio anum uideam duo, quae sola sibi supererant, aera mittentem. mihi ante presbyterum sedere non licet; illi, si peccauero, licet tradere me satanae in interitum carnis, ut spiritus saluus fiat. et in ueteri quidem lege, quicumque sacerdotibus non obtemperasset, aut extra castra positus lapidabatur a populo aut gladio ceruice subiecta contemptum expiabat cruore. nunc uero inoboediens spiritali mucrone truncatur aut eiectus de ecclesia rabido daemonum ore discerpitur. quod si te quoque ad eundem ordinem pia fratrum blandimenta sollicitant, gaudebo de ascensu, timebo de lapsu. qui episcopatum desiderat, bonum opus desiderat. scimus ista, sed iunge, quod sequitur: oportet autem huiusmodi inreprehensibilem esse, unius uxoris uirum, sobrium, pudicum, prudentem, ornatum, hospitalem, docibilem, non uinolentum, non percussorem, sed modestum. et ceteris de eo, quae sequuntur, explicitis non minorem in tertio gradu adhibuit diligentiam dicens: diaconos similiter pudicos, non bilingues, non multo uino deditos, non turpilucros, habentes mysterium fidei in conscientia pura. et hi autem probentur primum et sic ministrent nullum crimen habentes.; uae illi homini, qui uestem non habens nuptialem ingreditur ad cenam! nihil superest, nisi ut statim audiat: amice, quomodo huc uenisti? et illo obmutescente dicatur ministris: tollite illum pedibus et manibus et mittite eum in tenebras exteriores; ibi erit fletus et stridor dentium. uae illi, qui acceptum talentum in sudario ligans ceteris lucra facientibus id tantum, quod acceperat, reseruarit! ilico indignantis domini clamore ferietur: serue nequam, quare non dedisti pecuniam meam ad mensam, et ego ueniens cum usuris exegissem? id est: deposuisses ad altare, quod ferre non poteras. dum enim tu, ignauus negotiator, denarium tenes, alterius locum, qui pecuniam duplicare poterat, occupasti. quam ob rem sicut, qui bene ministrat, bonum gradum sibi adquirit, ita, qui indigne ad calicem domini accedit, reus erit dominici corporis et sanguinis. ### English translation (Claude) But driven from this position you will appeal to the clergy: shall I dare to say anything about them, who certainly live in their own cities? Far be it from me to say anything unfavorable about those who, succeeding to the apostolic rank, make the body of Christ with their sacred lips; through whom we too are Christians; who, holding the keys of the kingdom of heaven, in a way judge before the day of judgment; who keep the Lord's bride in sober chastity. But, as I said before, the case of a monk is one thing, that of the clergy another. The clergy feed the sheep; I am fed. They live from the altar; for me, like an unfruitful tree, the axe is laid to the root if I do not bring my gift to the altar. Nor can I plead poverty, since in the gospel I see the old woman casting in the two coins that were all she had left. I may not sit in the presence of a presbyter; he, if I sin, may hand me over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved. In the old law, whoever did not obey the priests was either put outside the camp and stoned by the people, or, laying his neck under the sword, atoned for his contempt with his blood. Now the disobedient is cut down by the spiritual sword, or, cast out of the church, is torn to pieces by the ravenous mouth of demons. And if the affectionate coaxing of the brothers also urges you toward the same order, I shall rejoice at your rising and fear your falling. "He who desires the office of bishop desires a good work." We know that; but add what follows: "Such a man must be blameless, the husband of one wife, sober, chaste, prudent, well-behaved, hospitable, apt to teach, not given to wine, not violent, but gentle." And having set out the rest that follows about him, he applied no less care to the third rank, saying: "Deacons likewise must be chaste, not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy for gain, holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience. And let these also first be proved, and so let them serve, having no charge against them." Woe to that man who comes in to the supper without a wedding garment! Nothing remains but that he should hear at once: "Friend, how did you come in here?" and, when he is speechless, that it should be said to the servants: "Take him by the feet and hands and throw him into the outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Woe to him who, binding in a napkin the talent he received, while others made profits, kept only what he had received! At once he will be struck by the cry of his angry master: "Wicked servant, why did you not put my money in the bank, so that when I came I might have collected it with interest?" That is, you should have laid at the altar what you could not carry. For while you, lazy trader, hold on to the coin, you have taken the place of another who could have doubled the money. Therefore, as "he who serves well gains a good standing for himself," so he who approaches the cup of the Lord unworthily "will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord." ### Scripture references - Matt 16:19: allusion, high confidence - John 21:16: allusion, medium confidence - 1 Cor 9:13: allusion, high confidence - Matt 3:10: allusion, high confidence - Mark 12:42: allusion, high confidence - 1 Cor 5:5: quotation, high confidence - Deut 17:12: allusion, medium confidence - 1 Tim 3:1: quotation, high confidence - 1 Tim 3:2: quotation, high confidence - 1 Tim 3:3: quotation, high confidence - 1 Tim 3:8: quotation, high confidence - 1 Tim 3:10: quotation, high confidence - Matt 22:12: quotation, high confidence - Matt 22:13: quotation, high confidence - Luke 19:23: quotation, high confidence - 1 Tim 3:13: quotation, high confidence - 1 Cor 11:27: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Keys (Matt 16:19); the church as bride (2 Cor 11:2); feeding sheep (John 21:16); living from the altar (1 Cor 9:13); the axe at the root (Matt 3:10); the widow's two coins (Mark 12:42); handing over to Satan (1 Cor 5:5); punishment of disobedience in the law (Deut 17:12; Num 15:35); 1 Tim 3:1-3, 8-10; the wedding garment (Matt 22:11-13); the talent (Luke 19:20-23; Matt 25:25-27); 1 Tim 3:13; 1 Cor 11:27. "Make the body of Christ with their sacred lips" refers to the eucharistic consecration by presbyters. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 14.8 (CSEL 54:55–57; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/14-1/#p-14-8). ## Letter 14.9 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/14-1/#p-14-9 - Source: CSEL 54:57–59 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome warns that church office does not make a Christian holy and that the fall of a cleric is more dangerous than that of a monk. ### Latin text Non omnes episcopi episcopi. adtendis Petrum, sed et Iudam considera. Stephanum suspicis, sed et Nicolaum respice, quem dominus in Apocalypsi sua odit; qui tam turpia et nefanda commentus est, ut Ophitarum heresis ex illa radice nascatur. probet se unusquisque et sic accedat. non facit ecclesiastica dignitas Christianum. Cornelius centurio adhuc ethnicus dono spiritus sancti inundatur; presbyteros Danihel puer iudicat; Amos ruborum mora destringens repente propheta est; Dauid pastor adlegitur in regem; minimum discipulum Iesus amat plurimum. inferius, frater, accumbe, ut minore ueniente sursum iubearis accedere. super quem dominus requiescit, nisi super humilem et quietum et trementem uerba sua? cui plus creditur, plus ab eo exigitur. potentes potenter tormenta patientur. nec sibi quisquam de corporis tantum mundi castitate supplaudat, cum omne uerbum otiosum, quodcumque locuti fuerint homines, reddituri sint pro eo rationem in die iudicii, cum etiam conuicium in fratrem homicidii sit reatus. non est facile stare loco Pauli, tenere gradum iam cum Christo regnantium, ne forte ueniat angelus, qui scindat uelum templi tui, qui candelabrum tuum loco moueat. aedificaturus turrem futuri operis sumptus supputa. infatuatum sal ad nihilum est utile, nisi ut proiciatur foras et a porcis conculcetur. monachus si ceciderit, rogabit pro eo sacerdos; pro sacerdotis lapsu quis rogaturus est? ### English translation (Claude) Not all bishops are bishops. You consider Peter; consider Judas too. You look up to Stephen; look also at Nicolas, whom the Lord hates in his Apocalypse, who devised things so shameful and wicked that the heresy of the Ophites sprang from that root. "Let each one examine himself, and so let him approach." Church rank does not make a Christian. Cornelius the centurion, still a pagan, is flooded with the gift of the Holy Spirit; the boy Daniel judges the elders; Amos, stripping mulberries from the brambles, suddenly is a prophet; David the shepherd is chosen as king; Jesus loves most the least of his disciples. Sit lower down, brother, so that when someone lesser comes you may be told to go up higher. On whom does the Lord rest, if not on the humble and quiet one who trembles at his words? From him to whom more is entrusted, more is required. "The mighty will be mightily tormented." Nor let anyone congratulate himself merely on the chastity of a clean body, since men will give account on the day of judgment for every idle word they have spoken, and since even abuse of a brother carries the guilt of murder. It is not easy to stand in the place of Paul, to hold the rank of those already reigning with Christ, lest perhaps an angel come to tear the veil of your temple, to move your lampstand from its place. If you are going to build a tower, count the cost of the work to come. Salt that has lost its savor is good for nothing but to be thrown out and trodden down by swine. If a monk falls, a priest will pray for him; who will pray for the fall of a priest? ### Scripture references - Acts 6:5: allusion, high confidence - Rev 2:6: allusion, high confidence - 1 Cor 11:28: quotation, high confidence - Acts 10:44: allusion, high confidence - Amos 7:14: allusion, high confidence - 1 Sam 16:13: allusion, high confidence - John 13:23: allusion, medium confidence - Luke 14:10: allusion, high confidence - Isa 66:2: quotation, high confidence - Luke 12:48: allusion, high confidence - Matt 12:36: quotation, high confidence - Matt 5:22: allusion, high confidence - Matt 27:51: allusion, medium confidence - Rev 2:5: allusion, high confidence - Luke 14:28: allusion, high confidence - Matt 5:13: allusion, high confidence ### Extrabiblical texts - Sus 50 (Susanna): allusion, high confidence - Wis 6:6 (Wisdom of Solomon): quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Nicolas (Acts 6:5), linked by early writers with the Nicolaitans of Rev 2:6, 15. Also: 1 Cor 11:28; Acts 10:44; Susanna 45-62 (Daniel judging the elders); Amos 7:14; 1 Sam 16:11-13; John 13:23; Luke 14:10; Isa 66:2; Luke 12:48; Wis 6:6 ("the mighty will be mightily tormented"); Matt 12:36; Matt 5:22; Matt 27:51; Rev 2:5; Luke 14:28; Matt 5:13. "Sacerdos" here means a cleric of the higher orders, bishop or presbyter. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 14.9 (CSEL 54:57–59; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/14-1/#p-14-9). ## Letter 14.10 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/14-1/#p-14-10 - Source: CSEL 54:59–61 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: In a famous closing hymn to the desert, Jerome answers every fear of the ascetic life with the promises of Christ. ### Latin text Sed quoniam e scopulosis locis enauigauit oratio et inter cauas spumeis fluctibus cautes fragilis in altum cumba processit, expandenda uela sunt uentis et quaestionum scopulis transuadatis laetantium more nautarum epilogi celeuma cantandum est. o desertum Christi floribus uernans! o solitudo, in qua illi nascuntur lapides, de quibus in Apocalypsi ciuitas magni regis extruitur! o heremus familiari deo gaudens! quid agis, frater, in saeculo, qui maior es mundo? quam diu te tectorum umbrae premunt? quam diu fumeus harum urbium carcer includit? crede mihi, nescio quid plus lucis aspicio. libet sarcina carnis abiecta ad purum aetheris uolare fulgorem. paupertatem times? sed beatos pauperes Christus appellat. labore terreris? sed nemo athleta sine sudoribus coronatur. de cibo cogitas? sed fides famem non sentit. super nudam metuis humum exesa ieiuniis membra conlidere? sed dominus tecum iacet: squalidi capitis horret inculta caesaries? sed caput tuum Christus est. infinita heremi uastitas tenet? sed tu paradisum mente deambula. quotienscumque illuc cogitatione conscenderis. totiens in heremo non eris. scabra sine balneis adtrahitur cutis? sed qui in Christo semel lotus est, non illi necesse est iterum lauare. et, ut breuiter, ad cuncta apostolum audias respondentem: non sunt condignae passiones huius saeculi ad superuenturam gloriam, quae reuelabitur in uobis. delicatus es, carissime, si et hic uis gaudere cum saeculo et postea regnare cum Christo. ### English translation (Claude) But since my speech has sailed out from rocky places, and my frail skiff has made its way into the deep between hollow crags and foaming waves, the sails must be spread to the winds, and, the rocks of questions having been passed, the closing chant must be sung like joyful sailors. O desert, blooming with the flowers of Christ! O solitude, in which are born those stones of which, in the Apocalypse, the city of the great King is built! O wilderness that rejoices in God's intimacy! What are you doing in the world, brother, you who are greater than the world? How long will the shadows of roofs oppress you? How long will the smoky prison of these cities shut you in? Believe me, I see something more of light. It is a joy to throw off the burden of the flesh and fly to the pure brightness of the sky. Do you fear poverty? But Christ calls the poor blessed. Are you frightened by labor? But no athlete is crowned without sweat. Are you thinking of food? But faith does not feel hunger. Do you fear to lay limbs worn away by fasting on the bare ground? But the Lord lies with you. Does the uncombed hair of a squalid head bristle? But your head is Christ. Does the boundless vastness of the desert hold you? But walk in paradise in your mind; every time you climb up there in thought, you will not be in the desert. Does your skin grow rough without baths? But he who has once been washed in Christ has no need to wash again. And, to be brief, hear the apostle's answer to everything: "The sufferings of this age are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come, which will be revealed in you." You are pampered, dearest, if you want both to rejoice here with the world and afterwards to reign with Christ. ### Scripture references - Rev 21:19: allusion, high confidence - Ps 48:2 (47:3 LXX): allusion, medium confidence - Matt 5:3: allusion, high confidence - 1 Cor 11:3: allusion, high confidence - John 13:10: allusion, medium confidence - Rom 8:18: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Rev 21:18-21 (the stones of the city); Ps 48:2 (the city of the great King); Matt 5:3; 1 Cor 11:3; John 13:10 (washed once); Rom 8:18. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 14.10 (CSEL 54:59–61; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/14-1/#p-14-10). ## Letter 14.11 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/14-1/#p-14-11 - Source: CSEL 54:61–62 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome closes with the day of judgment, when the despised Christ will be revealed as Judge and the humble believer will rejoice. ### Latin text Ueniet, ueniet illa dies, qua corruptiuum hoc et mortale incorruptionem induat et inmortalitatem. beatus seruus, quem dominus inuenerit uigilantem. tunc ad uocem tubae pauebit terra cum populis, tu gaudebis. iudicaturo domino lugubre mundus inmugiet; tribus ad tribum ferient pectora; potentissimi quondam reges nudo latere palpitabunt; exhibebitur cum prole sua uere tunc ignitus Iuppiter; adducetur et cum suis stultus Plato discipulis; Aristoteli argumenta non proderunt. tunc tu rusticanus et pauper exultabis, ridebis et dices: ecce crucifixus deus meus, ecce iudex, qui obuolutus pannis in praesepio uagiit. hic est ille operarii et quaestuariae filius, hic, qui matris gestatus sinu hominem deus fugit in Aegyptum, hic uestitus coccino, hic sentibus coronatus, hic magus daemonium habens et Samarites. cerne manus, Iudaee, quas fixeras; cerne latus, Romane, quod foderas. uidete corpus, an idem sit, quod dicebatis clam nocte tulisse discipulos. ut haec tibi, frater. dicere. ut his interesse contingat, qui nunc labor durus est?. ### English translation (Claude) It will come, that day will come, when this corruptible and mortal body will put on incorruption and immortality. Blessed is the servant whom the Lord finds watching. Then at the sound of the trumpet the earth with its peoples will tremble; you will rejoice. When the Lord comes to judge, the world will bellow in mourning; tribe after tribe will beat their breasts; kings once most mighty will quiver with their sides bare; Jupiter will then be shown with his offspring, truly on fire; foolish Plato will be led in with his disciples; Aristotle's arguments will be of no use. Then you, a rustic and poor, will exult; you will laugh and say: "See my crucified God, see the Judge who, wrapped in rags, wailed in a manger. This is the son of the workman and of the woman who worked for wages; this is he who, carried in his mother's bosom, God though he was, fled from man into Egypt; this is he who was clothed in scarlet, crowned with thorns; this is he who was called a magician with a demon, and a Samaritan. See the hands, Jew, which you nailed; see the side, Roman, which you pierced. Look at the body, whether it is the same one which you said the disciples stole secretly by night." That it may be given you, brother, to say these things and to be present at them, what labor is now hard? ### Scripture references - 1 Cor 15:53: quotation, high confidence - Luke 12:37: allusion, high confidence - 1 Thess 4:16: allusion, medium confidence - Matt 24:30: allusion, high confidence - Luke 2:7: allusion, high confidence - Matt 13:55: allusion, high confidence - Matt 2:14: allusion, high confidence - Matt 27:28: allusion, high confidence - John 8:48: allusion, high confidence - John 20:27: allusion, high confidence - John 19:34: allusion, high confidence - Matt 28:13: allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - 1 Cor 15:53; Luke 12:37; 1 Thess 4:16; Matt 24:30; Luke 2:7; Matt 13:55; Matt 2:13-14; Matt 27:28-29; John 8:48 and Mark 3:22; John 20:27; John 19:34; Matt 28:13. "The woman who worked for wages" (quaestuaria) is how Christ's enemies might describe his mother; Jerome is voicing their contempt to reverse it. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 14.11 (CSEL 54:61–62; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/14-1/#p-14-11). ## Letter 15.1 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/14-1/#p-15-1 - Source: CSEL 54:62–63 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Amid the divisions of the Eastern church, Jerome turns to Pope Damasus and the Roman see as the guardian of the faith. ### Latin text Quoniam uetusto oriens inter se populorum furore conlisus indiscissam domini tunicam et desuper textam minutatim per frusta discerpit et Christi uineam exterminant uulpes, ut inter lacus contritos, qui aquam non habent, difficile, ubi fons signatus et hortus ille conclusus sit, possit intellegi, ideo mihi cathedram Petri et fidem apostolico ore laudatam censui consulendam inde nunc meae animae postulans cibum, unde olim Christi uestimenta suscepi. neque uero tanta uastitas liquentis elementi et interiacens longitudo terrarum me a pretiosae margaritae potuit inquisitione prohibere. ubicumque fuerit corpus, illuc congregabuntur et aquilae. profligato a subole mala patrimonio apud uos solos incorrupta patrum seruatur hereditas. ibi caespite terra fecundo dominici seminis puritatem centeno fructu refert; hic obruta sulcis frumenta in lolium auenasque degenerant. nunc in occidente sol iustitiae oritur; in oriente autem lucifer ille, qui ceciderat, super sidera posuit thronum suum. uos estis lux mundi, uos sal terrae, uos uasa aurea et argentea; hic testacea uasa uel lignea uirgam ferream et aeternum opperiuntur incendium. ### English translation (Claude) Since the East, dashed against itself by the age-old frenzy of its peoples, is tearing into shreds, piece by piece, the Lord's seamless tunic woven from the top, and foxes are ravaging the vineyard of Christ, so that among broken cisterns that hold no water it is hard to understand where the sealed fountain and that enclosed garden are, I have therefore thought I should consult the chair of Peter and the faith praised by the apostle's mouth, seeking food for my soul now from the place where I once received the garments of Christ. Neither the great expanse of the watery element nor the long stretch of lands in between could keep me from seeking the precious pearl. "Wherever the body is, there the eagles will be gathered." The inheritance has been squandered by an evil offspring; among you alone the heritage of the fathers is kept uncorrupted. There the earth, with fertile soil, returns the purity of the Lord's seed a hundredfold; here the grain buried in the furrows degenerates into darnel and wild oats. Now in the west the sun of righteousness rises; but in the east that Lucifer who had fallen has set his throne above the stars. You are the light of the world, you the salt of the earth, you the vessels of gold and silver; here the vessels of clay or wood await the rod of iron and eternal fire. ### Scripture references - John 19:23: allusion, high confidence - Song 2:15: allusion, high confidence - Jer 2:13: allusion, high confidence - Song 4:12: allusion, high confidence - Rom 1:8: allusion, high confidence - Matt 13:46: allusion, high confidence - Matt 24:28: quotation, high confidence - Matt 13:8: allusion, medium confidence - Matt 13:25: allusion, medium confidence - Mal 4:2 (3:20 LXX): allusion, high confidence - Isa 14:13: allusion, high confidence - Matt 5:14: quotation, high confidence - Matt 5:13: quotation, high confidence - 2 Tim 2:20: allusion, high confidence - Ps 2:9: allusion, medium confidence ### Translation notes - John 19:23; Song 2:15; Jer 2:13; Song 4:12; Rom 1:8 (the faith of the Romans praised by Paul); Matt 13:45-46; Matt 24:28; Matt 13:8, 25; Mal 4:2 (LXX 3:20); Isa 14:12-13; Matt 5:13-14; 2 Tim 2:20; Ps 2:9. Jerome had been baptized at Rome ("received the garments of Christ"). He is writing from the Syrian desert during the schism of Antioch (ca. 376-377). ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 15.1 (CSEL 54:62–63; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/14-1/#p-15-1). ## Letter 15.2 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/14-1/#p-15-2 - Source: CSEL 54:63–64 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome declares his communion with the see of Peter and refuses to side with any of the rival bishops of Antioch until Damasus directs him. ### Latin text Quamquam igitur tui me terreat magnitudo, tamen inuitat humanitas. a sacerdote uictima salutem, a pastore praesidium ouis flagito. facessat inuidia, Romani culminis recedat ambitio: cum successore piscatoris et discipulo crucis loquor. ego nullum primum nisi Christum sequens beatitudini tuae, id est cathedrae Petri, communione consocior. super illam petram aedificatam ecclesiam scio. quicumque extra hanc domum agnum comederit, profanus est. si quis in Noe arca non fuerit, periet regnante diluuio. et quia pro facinoribus meis ad eam solitudinem conmigraui, quae Syriam iuncto barbariae fine determinat, nec possum sanctum domini tot interiacentibus spatiis a sanctimonia tua semper expetere, ideo hic collegas tuos Aegyptios confessores sequor et sub onerariis nauibus parua nauicula delitesco. non noui Vitalem, Meletium respuo, ignoro Paulinum. quicumque tecum non colligit, spargit, hoc est, qui Christi non est, antichristi est. ### English translation (Claude) Although, then, your greatness frightens me, your kindness invites me. From the priest I, the victim, ask for salvation; from the shepherd I, the sheep, ask for protection. Let envy depart, let the ambition of Roman eminence withdraw: I speak with the successor of the fisherman and the disciple of the cross. Following no one first but Christ, I am joined in communion with your blessedness, that is, with the chair of Peter. I know that the church is built on that rock. Whoever eats the lamb outside this house is profane. If anyone is not in the ark of Noah, he will perish when the flood prevails. And since, because of my crimes, I have moved to this solitude that marks the border of Syria where it joins the barbarians' territory, and cannot always seek from your holiness, across such great distances, the holy thing of the Lord, I therefore follow here your colleagues, the Egyptian confessors, and hide my small boat among the great merchant ships. I do not know Vitalis, I reject Meletius, I am ignorant of Paulinus. Whoever does not gather with you scatters; that is, whoever is not of Christ is of Antichrist. ### Scripture references - Matt 16:18: allusion, high confidence - Exod 12:46: allusion, high confidence - Gen 7:23: allusion, high confidence - Matt 12:30: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Matt 16:18; Exod 12:46 (the lamb eaten in one house); Gen 7:23; Matt 12:30. "The holy thing of the Lord" is probably the Eucharist (compare Matt 7:6). Vitalis, Meletius, and Paulinus were the rival claimants to the see of Antioch. The "Egyptian confessors" were bishops exiled from Egypt, in communion with Rome. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 15.2 (CSEL 54:63–64; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/14-1/#p-15-2). ## Letter 15.3 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/14-1/#p-15-3 - Source: CSEL 54:64–65 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome complains that a party at Antioch demands that he confess "three hypostases", a term he fears implies three substances. ### Latin text Nunc igitur — pro dolor! — post Nicenam fidem, post Alexandrinum iuncto pariter occidente decretum trium ύποστάεν ab Arrianorum prole, Campensibus, nouellum a me, homine Romano, nomen exigitur. qui ista, quaeso, apostoli prodidere? quis nouus magister gentium Paulus haec docuit? interrogamus, quid tres hypostases posse arbitrentur intellegi: tres personas subsistentes aiunt. respondemus nos ita credere: non sufficit sensus, ipsum nomen efflagitant, quia nescio quid ueneni in syllabis latet. clamamus: si quis tres hypostases ut tria ἐνυπόστατα, hoc est ut tres subsistentes personas, non confitetur, anathema sit et, quia uocabula non edicimus, heretici iudicamur. si quis autem hypostasin usian intellegens non in tribus personis unam hypostasin dicit, alienus a Christo est et sub hac confessione uobiscum pariter cauterio unionis inurimur. ### English translation (Claude) Now then (alas!), after the faith of Nicaea, after the decree of Alexandria with which the West likewise agreed, a new term, "three hypostases," is demanded of me, a Roman, by the offspring of the Arians, the Campenses. Which apostles, I ask, handed this down? What new Paul, teacher of the Gentiles, taught it? We ask what they think "three hypostases" can be understood to mean: "three subsisting persons," they say. We answer that this is what we believe: the meaning is not enough; they demand the word itself, because some poison lurks in its syllables. We cry out: "If anyone does not confess three hypostases as three enhypostata, that is, as three subsisting persons, let him be anathema"; and because we do not pronounce the words, we are judged heretics. But if anyone, understanding hypostasis as ousia, does not say one hypostasis in three persons, he is a stranger to Christ; and under this confession we are branded together with you with the iron of union. ### Scripture references - 1 Tim 2:7: allusion, low confidence ### Translation notes - Jerome's Latin mind equated hypostasis with ousia (substantia, "substance"), so "three hypostases" sounded to him like three substances; the Meletian party at Antioch used it to mean three subsisting persons, as Jerome himself reports. The "decree of Alexandria" is the synod of 362. "Campenses" (people "of the plain") is Jerome's name for the party at Antioch meeting outside the city. The Greek word for "hypostases" is garbled in the digital text. "Branded with the iron of union": accused of Sabellianism, which confused the Persons. Translated as written; Jerome's view reflects the terminology debates of the 370s. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 15.3 (CSEL 54:64–65; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/14-1/#p-15-3). ## Letter 15.4 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/14-1/#p-15-4 - Source: CSEL 54:65–67 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome asks Damasus to rule whether he must say "three hypostases", arguing that the term implies three natures and professing one substance in three coequal persons. ### Latin text Decernite, obsecro: si placet, non timebo tres hypostases dicere; si iubetis, condatur noua post Nicenam fides et similibus uerbis cum Arrianis confiteamur orthodoxi. tota saecularium litterarum schola nihil aliud hypostasin nisi usian nouit. et quisquam, rogo, ore sacrilego tres substantias praedicabit? una est dei sola natura, quae uere est — ad id enim, quod subsistit, non habet aliunde, sed suum est —, cetera, quae creata sunt, etiamsi uidentur esse, non sunt, quia aliquando non fuerunt et potest rursus non esse, quod non fuit. deus solus, qui aeternus est, hoc. est, qui exordium non habet, essentiae nomen uere tenet. idcirco et ad Moysen de rubo loquitur: ego sum, qui sum, et rursum: qui est, misit me. erant utique tunc angeli, caelum, terra uel maria: et quomodo commune nomen essentiae proprium sibi uindicat deus? sed quia illa sola est infecta natura et in tribus personis deitas una subsistit, quae est uere, una natura est: quisque tria esse, hoc est tres ύποστάσεlς, dicit, sub nomine pietatis tres naturas conatur adserere. et si ita est, cur ab Arrio parietibus -separamur perfidia copulati? iungatur cum beatitudine tua Ursinus, cum Ambrosio societur Auxentius. absit hoc a Romana fide: sacrilegium tantum religiosa populorum corda non hauriant. sufficiat nobis dicere unam substantiam, tres personas subsistentes perfectas, aequales, coaeternas; taceantur tres hypostases, si placet, et una teneatur. non bonae suspicionis est, cum in eodem sensu uerba dissentiunt. sufficiat nobis memorata credulitas aut, si rectum putatis, scribite tres hypostases cum interpretationibus suis debere nos dicere. non negamus, sed, mihi credite, uenenum sub melle latet. transfigurauit se angelus satanae in angelum lucis: bene interpretantur hypostasin, et cum id, quod ipsi exponunt, habere me dicam, hereticus iudicor. quid tam anxie unum uerbum tenent? quid sub ambiguo sermone latitant? si sic credunt, ut interpretantur, non damno, quod retinent; si sic credo, ut ipsi sentire se simulant, permittant mihi meis uerbis suum sensum loqui. ### English translation (Claude) Decide, I beg you: if you approve, I will not be afraid to say three hypostases; if you command it, let a new creed be composed after Nicaea, and let us, the orthodox, confess in words like the Arians'. The whole school of secular learning knows hypostasis as nothing other than ousia. And will anyone, I ask, preach three substances with sacrilegious mouth? There is one sole nature of God, which truly is; for what it has in order to subsist, it has not from elsewhere, but it is its own. All else, which is created, even though it seems to be, is not, because at one time it was not, and what was not can again not be. God alone, who is eternal, that is, who has no beginning, truly holds the name of being. That is why he says to Moses from the bush: "I am who am"; and again: "He who is has sent me." Surely there were angels then, heaven, earth, and seas; how then does God claim for himself as his own the common name of being? But because that alone is the uncreated nature, and in three persons one deity subsists, which truly is, and is one nature, whoever says there are three, that is, three hypostases, is trying under the name of piety to assert three natures. And if that is so, why are we separated from Arius by walls, when we are joined with him in unbelief? Let Ursinus be joined with your blessedness, let Auxentius be associated with Ambrose. Far be this from the Roman faith: may the devout hearts of the peoples not drink in so great a sacrilege. Let it be enough for us to say one substance, three subsisting persons, perfect, equal, coeternal; let three hypostases be passed over in silence, if you please, and one be held. It is not a good sign when words disagree while the meaning is the same. Let the belief I have described be enough for us; or, if you think it right, write that we ought to say three hypostases, with their explanations. We do not refuse; but, believe me, poison lurks under the honey. "The angel of Satan has transformed himself into an angel of light." They explain hypostasis well, and yet when I say that I hold what they themselves set out, I am judged a heretic. Why do they cling so anxiously to one word? Why do they hide under ambiguous language? If they believe as they explain, I do not condemn what they hold; if I believe as they pretend to think, let them allow me to express their meaning in my own words. ### Scripture references - Exod 3:14: quotation, high confidence - 2 Cor 11:14: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Exod 3:14; 2 Cor 11:14. Ursinus was Damasus's rival for the see of Rome; Auxentius the Homoian bishop of Milan before Ambrose. Jerome's argument rests on the Latin equation hypostasis = substantia; translated as written. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 15.4 (CSEL 54:65–67; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/14-1/#p-15-4). ## Letter 15.5 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/14-1/#p-15-5 - Source: CSEL 54:67–68 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome asks Damasus for a ruling on the term and for guidance on which bishop of Antioch to recognize. ### Latin text Quam ob rem obtestor beatitudinem tuam per crucifixum, mundi salutem, per homousiam trinitatem, ut mihi epistulis tuis siue tacendarum siue dicendarum hypostaseon detur auctoritas. et ne forte obscuritas, in quo dego, loci fallat baiulos litterarum, ad Euagrium presbyterum, quem optime nosti, dignare scripta transmittere. simul etiam, cui apud Antiochiam debeam communicare, significes, quia Campenses, cum Tarsensibus hereticis copulantur, nihil aliud ambiunt, quam ut auctoritate communionis uestrae fulti tres hypostases cum antiquo sensu praedicent. ### English translation (Claude) Therefore I adjure your blessedness by the Crucified, the salvation of the world, and by the consubstantial Trinity, to give me by your letter authority either to keep silent about the hypostases or to speak of them. And lest the obscurity of the place where I live mislead the carriers of the letter, please send what you write to the presbyter Evagrius, whom you know very well. Tell me also with whom I ought to be in communion at Antioch, because the Campenses, joined with the heretics of Tarsus, seek nothing else than to preach three hypostases in the old sense, supported by the authority of communion with you. ### Translation notes - "In the old sense": that is, in the sense of three substances, as Jerome fears. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 15.5 (CSEL 54:67–68; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/14-1/#p-15-5). ## Letter 16.1 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/14-1/#p-16-1 - Source: CSEL 54:68–69 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome begins a second appeal to Damasus with scriptural examples of persistence rewarded and of God's mercy to the lowly. ### Latin text Inportuna in euangelio mulier tandem meruit audiri et clauso cum seruis ostio, media licet nocte, ab amico amicus panes accepit; deus ipse, qui nullis contra se superari uiribus potest, publicani precibus uincitur; Nineue ciuitas, quae peccato periit, fletibus stetit. quorsum ista tam longo repetita prooemio? uidelicet, ut paruum magnus aspicias, ut diues pastor morbidam non contemnas ouem. Christus in paradisum de cruce latronem tulit et, ne quis aliquando seram conuersionem putaret, fecit homicidii poena martyrium. Christus, inquam, prodigum filium reuertentem laetus amplectitur et nonaginta nouem sanis pecudibus derelictis una ouicula, quae remanserat, umeris boni pastoris aduehitur. Paulus ex persecutore fit praedicator; oculis carnalibus excaecatur, ut mente plus uideat, et qui uinctos Christi famulos ducebat ad concilium Iudaeorum, ipse postea de Christi uinculis gloriatur. ### English translation (Claude) The persistent woman in the gospel at last deserved to be heard, and when the door had been shut with the servants inside, though it was midnight, a friend received loaves from a friend. God himself, who cannot be overcome by any powers set against him, is conquered by the prayers of a tax collector. The city of Nineveh, which perished by sin, stood by its tears. To what end this long preamble? So that you, great as you are, may look upon me, small as I am; so that, a rich shepherd, you may not despise a sick sheep. Christ carried the robber from the cross into paradise, and, so that no one might ever think conversion too late, he turned the punishment for murder into martyrdom. Christ, I say, joyfully embraces the prodigal son when he returns, and, leaving the ninety-nine healthy sheep, the one little sheep that had been left behind is carried home on the shoulders of the good shepherd. Paul from a persecutor becomes a preacher; he is blinded in his bodily eyes so that he may see more with his mind; and he who led Christ's servants bound to the council of the Jews afterwards himself glories in the chains of Christ. ### Scripture references - Luke 18:5: allusion, medium confidence - Luke 11:7: allusion, high confidence - Luke 18:13: allusion, high confidence - Jonah 3:10: allusion, high confidence - Luke 23:43: allusion, high confidence - Luke 15:20: allusion, high confidence - Luke 15:5: allusion, high confidence - Acts 9:8: allusion, high confidence - Eph 3:1: allusion, medium confidence ### Translation notes - The persistent woman (Matt 15:22-28 or Luke 18:1-8); Luke 11:5-8; Luke 18:13-14; Jonah 3:5-10; Luke 23:43; Luke 15:20; Luke 15:4-5; Acts 9:1-8; Acts 26:10; Eph 3:1. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 16.1 (CSEL 54:68–69; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/14-1/#p-16-1). ## Letter 16.2 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/14-1/#p-16-2 - Source: CSEL 54:69–70 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Pressed by Arians and the three rival factions at Antioch, Jerome again asks Damasus to tell him with whom to be in communion. ### Latin text Ego igitur, ut ante iam scripsi, Christi uestem in Romana urbe suscipiens nunc barbaro Syriae limite teneor. et ne putes alterius hanc de me fuisse sententiam, quid mererer, ipse constitui. uerum, ut ait gentilis poeta: caelum, non animum mutat, qui trans mare currit, ita me incessabilis inimicus post tergum secutus est, ut maiora in solitudine bella nunc patiar. hinc enim praesidiis fulta mundi Arriana rabies fremit; hinc in tres partes scissa ecclesia ad se rapere festinat. monachorum circa commanentium antiqua in me surgit auctoritas. ego interim clamito: si quis cathedrae Petri iungitur, meus est. Meletius, Vitalis atque Paulinus tibi haerere se dicunt: possem credere, si hoc unus adsereret; nunc aut. duo mentiuntur aut omnes. idcirco obtestor beatitudinem tuam per crucem domini, per necessarium fidei nostrae decus, passionem: ita, qui apostolos honore sequeris, sequaris et merito, ita in solio cum duodecim iudicaturis sedeas, ita te alius senem cum Petro cingat, ita municipatum caeli cum Paulo consequaris, ut mihi litteris tuis, apud quem in Syria debeam communicare, significes. noli despicere animam, pro qua Christus est mortuus. ### English translation (Claude) I, then, as I wrote before, having received the garment of Christ in the city of Rome, am now held on the barbarous frontier of Syria. And lest you think this sentence was passed on me by someone else, I myself decided what I deserved. But, as the pagan poet says, "he changes his sky, not his mind, who runs across the sea"; so the unceasing enemy has followed close behind me, so that I now suffer greater wars in solitude. For on one side the Arian madness rages, supported by the protection of the world; on another the church, split into three parts, hastens to seize me for itself. The long-standing authority of the monks living around me rises against me. Meanwhile I keep crying out: "If anyone is joined to the chair of Peter, he is mine." Meletius, Vitalis, and Paulinus all say that they cleave to you. I could believe it if only one of them claimed it; as it is, either two are lying or all three. Therefore I adjure your blessedness by the cross of the Lord, by the necessary glory of our faith, the Passion: so may you, who follow the apostles in honor, follow them also in merit; so may you sit on a throne with the Twelve who will judge; so may another gird you in old age with Peter; so may you obtain citizenship of heaven with Paul: tell me by letter with whom I ought to be in communion in Syria. Do not despise a soul for which Christ died. ### Scripture references - Matt 19:28: allusion, high confidence - John 21:18: allusion, high confidence - Phil 3:20: allusion, medium confidence - Rom 14:15: allusion, high confidence ### Extrabiblical texts - Horace, Ep. 1.11.27 (Horace): quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Horace, Epistles 1.11.27. Matt 19:28; John 21:18; Phil 3:20; Rom 14:15. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 16.2 (CSEL 54:69–70; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/14-1/#p-16-2). ## Letter 17.1 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/14-1/#p-17-1 - Source: CSEL 54:70 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome breaks his resolve of silence to answer the presbyter Mark about the attacks on him in the desert. ### Latin text Decreueram quidem utendum mihi psalmistae uoce dicentis: cum consisteret aduersum me peccator, obmutui et humiliatus sum et silui a bonis et iterum: ego uero tamquam surdus non audiebam et tamquam mutus non aperiens os suum factus sum ut homo non audiens, sed quoniam caritas omnia superat et propositum uincit affectus, non tam iniuriam facientibus reddo uicem, quam tibi respondeo postulanti. apud Christianos enim non qui patitur, ut ait quidam, sed qui facit contumeliam, miser est. ### English translation (Claude) I had indeed decided to use the words of the psalmist, who says: "When the sinner stood against me, I was dumb and humbled, and kept silent even from good things"; and again: "But I, like a deaf man, did not hear, and like a mute who does not open his mouth; I became like a man who does not hear." But since love overcomes all things and affection conquers resolve, I am not so much paying back those who wrong me as answering you at your request. For among Christians, as someone has said, it is not the one who suffers an insult who is wretched, but the one who inflicts it. ### Scripture references - Ps 39:2 (38:3 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Ps 38:13 (37:14 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Ps 38:14 (37:15 LXX): quotation, high confidence - 1 Cor 13:7: echo, low confidence ### Translation notes - Ps 39:1-2 (LXX and Vulgate 38:2-3); Ps 38:13-14 (LXX and Vulgate 37:14-15); 1 Cor 13:7. The saying at the end is unidentified. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 17.1 (CSEL 54:70; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/14-1/#p-17-1). ## Letter 17.2 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/14-1/#p-17-2 - Source: CSEL 54:70–72 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome protests that the monks of the desert brand him a heretic, though his Trinitarian faith is that of Damasus and Peter of Alexandria. ### Latin text Et primo quidem, antequam de fide mea, quam optime nosti, tecum loquar, aduersus barbariam istius loci uersu cogor clamare uulgato: quod genus hoc hominum? quaeue hunc tam barbara morem permittit patria? hospitio prohibemur arenae. bella cient primaque netant consistere terra et cetera. quae idcirco de gentili poeta sumpsimus, ut qui Christi pacem non seruat, pacem saltim discat ab ethnico. hereticus uocor homousiam praedicans trinitatem; Sabellianae inpietatis arguor tres subsistentes, ueras, integras perfectasque personas indefessa uoce pronuntians. si ab Arrianis, merito; si ab orthodoxis, qui huiusmodi arguunt fidem, esse orthodoxi desierunt aut, si eis placet, hereticum me cum occidente, hereticum cum Aegypto, hoc est cum Damaso Petroque, condemnent. quid unum hominem exceptis sociis criminantur? si riuus tenuiter effluit, non est aluei culpa, sed fontis. pudet dicere: de cauernis cellularum damnamus orbem, si in sacco et cinere uolutati de episcopis sententiam ferimus. quid facit sub tunica paenitentis regius animus? catena, sordes et comae non sunt diadematis signa, sed fletus. permittant mihi, quaeso, nihil loqui. cur eum lacerant, qui non meretur inuidiam? hereticus sum: quid ad te? quiesce, iam dictum est. plane times, ne eloquentissimus homo in Syro sermone uel Graeco ecclesias circumeam, populos seducam, scisma conficiam. nihil alicui praeripui, nihil otiosus accipio. manu cotidie et proprio sudore quaerimus cibum scientes ab apostolo scriptum esse: qui autem non operatur, nec manducet. ### English translation (Claude) And first, before I speak with you about my faith, which you know very well, I am compelled to cry out against the barbarism of this place in a familiar verse: "What race of men is this? What land so barbarous allows this custom? We are denied the welcome of the sand; they stir up war and forbid us to set foot on the edge of the land," and so on. I have taken these lines from a pagan poet so that he who does not keep the peace of Christ may at least learn peace from a heathen. I am called a heretic for preaching the consubstantial Trinity; I am accused of Sabellian impiety while proclaiming with untiring voice three subsisting, true, whole, and perfect persons. If this is from Arians, it is deserved; if from the orthodox, those who accuse such a faith have ceased to be orthodox; or, if they please, let them condemn me as a heretic together with the West, a heretic together with Egypt, that is, together with Damasus and Peter. Why do they accuse one man and leave out his companions? If the stream flows thin, the fault is not in the channel but in the spring. I am ashamed to say it: from the caves of our cells we condemn the world; rolling in sackcloth and ashes, we pass sentence on bishops. What is a kingly spirit doing under a penitent's tunic? Chains, filth, and long hair are signs not of a diadem but of weeping. Let them allow me, I beg, to say nothing. Why do they tear to pieces one who does not deserve their envy? "I am a heretic": what is that to you? Be quiet; enough has been said. You are clearly afraid that I, a most eloquent man in Syriac or Greek, will go round the churches, lead peoples astray, and cause a schism. I have taken nothing from anyone; I receive nothing in idleness. We seek our food daily with our hands and our own sweat, knowing that it is written by the apostle: "He who does not work, let him not eat." ### Scripture references - 2 Thess 3:10: quotation, high confidence ### Extrabiblical texts - Virgil, Aen. 1.539-541 (Virgil): quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Virgil, Aeneid 1.539-541. Damasus of Rome and Peter of Alexandria were the standard of orthodox communion (compare the edict of Theodosius, 380). "A most eloquent man in Syriac" is irony: Jerome barely knew the language. 2 Thess 3:10. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 17.2 (CSEL 54:70–72; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/14-1/#p-17-2). ## Letter 17.3 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/14-1/#p-17-3 - Source: CSEL 54:72–73 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Hounded by demands to confess his faith, Jerome announces that he will leave the desert after the winter. ### Latin text Haec, uenerabilis et sancte pater, cum quali gemitu, cum quali dolore conscripserim, testis est Iesus. tacui, numquid semper tacebo? dicit dominus. non mihi conceditur unus angulus heremi. cotidie exposcor fidem, quasi sine fide renatus sim. confiteor, ut uolunt: non placet. subscribo: non credunt. unum tantum placet, ut hinc recedam. iam iam cedo. abruperunt a me partem animae meae, carissimos fratres. ecce discedere cupiunt, immo discedunt melius esse dicentes inter feras habitare, quam cum talibus Christianis; et ego ipse, nisi me et corporis inbecillitas et hiemis retineret asperitas, modo fugerem. uerumtamen, dum uernum tempus adueniat, obsecro, ut paucis mihi mensibus heremi concedatur hospitium; aut si et hoc tardum uidetur, abscedo. domini est terra et plenitudo eius. ascendant soli caelum, propter illos tantum Christus mortuus sit, habeant, possideant, glorientur; mihi autem absit gloriari nisi in cruce domini nostri Iesu Christi, per quem mihi mundus crucifixus est et ego mundo. ### English translation (Claude) With what groaning, with what grief I have written this, venerable and holy father, Jesus is witness. "I have kept silent; shall I always keep silent?" says the Lord. Not one corner of the desert is granted me. Every day I am asked for my faith, as if I had been reborn without faith. I confess it as they wish: it does not satisfy them. I sign: they do not believe. One thing only pleases them: that I leave here. Now, now I am leaving. They have torn from me part of my soul, my dearest brothers. See, they want to leave, or rather they are leaving, saying it is better to live among wild beasts than with such Christians. And I myself would flee at once, if weakness of body and the harshness of winter did not hold me back. Yet, until spring comes, I beg that the hospitality of the desert be granted me for a few months; or, if even this seems too long, I am leaving. "The earth is the Lord's and its fullness." Let them alone ascend to heaven; let Christ have died for them alone; let them have, possess, and glory. "But far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world has been crucified to me and I to the world." ### Scripture references - Isa 42:14: quotation, high confidence - Ps 24:1 (23:1 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Gal 6:14: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Isa 42:14 (in the Greek form); Ps 24:1 (LXX and Vulgate 23:1); Gal 6:14. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 17.3 (CSEL 54:72–73; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/14-1/#p-17-3). ## Letter 17.4 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/14-1/#p-17-4 - Source: CSEL 54:73 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome says he has given his written confession of faith to Cyril and sends greetings. ### Latin text De fide autem quod dignatus es scribere, sancto Cyrillo dedi conscriptam fidem. qui sic non credit, alienus a Christo est. ceterum ego fidei meae testes habeo aures tuas et beati fratris Zenobii, quem tecum omnes, qui hic sumus, plurimum salutamus. ### English translation (Claude) As for the faith about which you kindly wrote, I have given a written statement of faith to holy Cyril. Whoever does not believe thus is a stranger to Christ. For the rest, I have as witnesses of my faith your ears and those of blessed brother Zenobius, whom all of us here greet warmly together with you. ### Translation notes - Cyril is probably Cyril of Jerusalem. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 17.4 (CSEL 54:73; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/14-1/#p-17-4). ## Letter 19.1 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/14-1/#p-19-1 - Source: CSEL 54:103–104 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Pope Damasus asks Jerome to explain from the Hebrew what "Hosanna" means, since commentators disagree. ### Latin text Commentaria cum legerem Graeco Latinoque sermone in euangeliorum interpretatione a nostris, id est orthodoxis, uiris olim ac nuper scripta de eo, quod legitur: osanna filio Dauid, non solum diuersa, sed etiam contraria sibimet proferunt. dilectionis tuae ardenti illo strenuitatis ingenio abscisis opinionibus ambiguitatibusque subplosis, quid se habeat apud Hebraeos, uiuo sensu scribas, ut hoc, sicut et de multis, tibi curae nostrae in Christo Iesu gratias referant. ### English translation (Claude) When I read the commentaries written, in Greek and in Latin, by our own men, that is, orthodox men, long ago and recently, in interpreting the Gospels, on the passage that reads "Hosanna to the Son of David", they set out opinions not only different but even contradictory. May your love, with that ardent and energetic mind of yours, cut away the opinions and clap down the ambiguities, and write with living sense what it means among the Hebrews, so that, for this as for many other things, our cares in Christ Jesus may render you thanks. ### Scripture references - Matt 21:9: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - This letter is from Damasus to Jerome. Matt 21:9. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 19.1 (CSEL 54:103–104; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/14-1/#p-19-1). ## Letter 20.1 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/20-1/#p-20-1 - Source: CSEL 54:104 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome answers Damasus by rejecting earlier explanations of "Hosanna", including Hilary's "redemption of the house of David". ### Latin text Multi super hoc sermone diuersa finxerunt, e quibus noster Hilarius in commentariis Mathei ita posuit: osanna Hebraico sermone significatur redemptio domus Dauid. primum redemptio lingua Hebraea pheduth> interpretatur, deinde domus beth, dauid uero in hoc loco non esse nomen insertum omnibus patet. alii opinati sunt osanna gloriam dici — porro gloria chabod appellatur —, nonnulli gratiam, cum gratia thoda siue anna nuncupetur. ### English translation (Claude) Many have invented different explanations of this word. Among them our Hilary, in his commentary on Matthew, put it thus: "Hosanna in the Hebrew language means 'the redemption of the house of David'." But in the first place, "redemption" in the Hebrew language is rendered pheduth; next, "house" is beth; and that "David" is not included in this word is plain to everyone. Others have thought that hosanna means "glory"; but "glory" is called chabod. Some have said "grace"; but "grace" is called thoda or anna. ### Translation notes - Hilary of Poitiers, Commentary on Matthew 21.3. Jerome's Hebrew transliterations are given as he wrote them. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 20.1 (CSEL 54:104; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/20-1/#p-20-1). ## Letter 20.2 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/20-1/#p-20-2 - Source: CSEL 54:104–106 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome sets out the Gospel accounts of the cry "Hosanna" and proposes to go back to the Hebrew source. ### Latin text Restat ergo, ut omissis opinionum riuulis ad ipsum fontem, unde ab euangelistis sumptum est, recurramus. nam quomodo illud neque in Graecis neque in Latinis codicibus possumus inuenire: ut conpleretur id, quod dictum est per prophetas: quoniam Nazaraeus uocabitur, et illud: ex Aegypto uocaui filium meum, ita et nunc ex Hebraeis codicibus ueritas exprimenda est, unde in hanc uocem uulgus et maxime consona inter se paruulorum turba proruperit dicente Matheo: turbae autem, quae praecedebant et quae sequebantur, clamabant dicentes: osanna filio Dauid; benedictus, qui uenit in nomine domini, osanna in excelsis. Marcus uero ita posuit: clamabant dicentes: osanna, benedictus, qui uenit in nomine domini; benedictum, quod uenit in nomine domini, regnum patris nostri Dauid, osanna in excelsis. Iohannes quoque pari uoce consentit: et clamabant: osanna, benedictus, qui uenit in nomine domini, rex Israhel. solus Lucas uerbum osanna non posuit in reliqua interpretationis parte consentiens: benedictus, qui uenit rex in nomine domini, pax in caelo et gloria in excelsis. igitur, ut diximus, ipsa Hebraea uerba ponenda sunt et omnium interpretum opinio digerenda, quo facilius, quid super hoc sentiendum sit, ex retractatione cunctorum ipse sibi lector inueniat. ### English translation (Claude) It remains, then, to leave the streams of opinion and run back to the very source from which the evangelists took it. For just as we cannot find in Greek or Latin manuscripts the words "that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled: He shall be called a Nazarene," or "Out of Egypt I called my son," so now too the truth must be drawn from the Hebrew manuscripts, as to why the crowd, and especially the band of little children in perfect agreement, broke out into this cry. Matthew says: "And the crowds that went before and that followed cried out, saying: Hosanna to the Son of David; blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord; hosanna in the highest." Mark put it thus: "They cried out, saying: Hosanna; blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord; blessed is the kingdom of our father David that comes in the name of the Lord; hosanna in the highest." John also agrees with the same cry: "And they cried out: Hosanna; blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel." Luke alone did not put the word hosanna, agreeing in the rest of the rendering: "Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord; peace in heaven and glory in the highest." Therefore, as we said, the Hebrew words themselves must be set down and the opinion of all the translators set out, so that from a review of them all the reader may more easily find for himself what to think on the matter. ### Scripture references - Matt 2:23: quotation, high confidence - Matt 2:15: quotation, high confidence - Hos 11:1: allusion, high confidence - Matt 21:9: quotation, high confidence - Mark 11:9: quotation, high confidence - Mark 11:10: quotation, high confidence - John 12:13: quotation, high confidence - Luke 19:38: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Matt 2:23; Matt 2:15 (Hos 11:1, whose Hebrew wording Matthew follows, not the Greek); Matt 21:9; Mark 11:9-10; John 12:13; Luke 19:38. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 20.2 (CSEL 54:104–106; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/20-1/#p-20-2). ## Letter 20.3 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/20-1/#p-20-3 - Source: CSEL 54:106–107 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Comparing the Hebrew of Ps 118:25 with the Greek versions, Jerome explains that hosanna means "save" and that anna is a particle of entreaty. ### Latin text In centesimo septimo decimo psalmo, ubi nos legimus: o domine, saluum [me fac, o domine, bene prospera; benedictus, qui uenit in nomine domini, in Hebraeo legitur: anna adonai, osianna, anna adonai, aslianna; baruch abba basem adonai. quod Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion et quinta editio, ne quid.in Latino mutare uideamur, ita exprimunt: w δή y.6pts, owaov δή, w svj ϰóριε, εύόδωσον δή εύλογητὸς o ἐρχόμενς ev όνόμαπ ϰυριου. sola sexta editio cum interpretibus septuaginta ita congruit, ut, ubi ceteri posuerant w δή, illa scripserit w. et quia osianna, quod nos corrupte propter ignorantiam dicimus osanna, saluifica siue saluum fac exprimatur, omnium interpretatione signatum est; nunc illud in cura est, quid sine adiectione saluandi solus anna sermo significet. sciendumque. quia in hoc loco ter dicatur anna; et primum quidem ac secundum eisdem litteris scribitur, aleph, nun, he, tertium uero heth, nun, he. Symmachus igitur, qui in centesimo septimo decimo psalmo cum omnium interpretatione consenserat, ut nobis manifestiorem tribueret intellectum, in centesimo quinto decimo psalmo; ubi dicitur: o domine, libera animam meam, ita interpretatus est: obsecro, domine, libera animam meam. ubi autem Septuaginta w et ille obsecro* transtulerunt, Aquila et ceteris editionibus w δή interpretantibus, in Hebraeo scribis anna, uerum ita, ut in principio aleph habeat, non heth. ex quo animaduertimus, si ex aleph scribatur anna, significari obsecro, si autem ex heth, esse coniunctionem siue interiectionem, quae apud Graecos ponitur δή et est in aomv δή, cuius interpretationem Latinus sermo non exprimit. ### English translation (Claude) In Psalm 117, where we read, "O Lord, save, O Lord, prosper well; blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord," in the Hebrew we read: anna adonai, osianna, anna adonai, aslianna; baruch abba basem adonai. Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion, and the fifth edition render this (to avoid seeming to change anything in the Latin) as: "O now, Lord, save now; O now, Lord, prosper now; blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord." Only the sixth edition agrees with the Seventy translators, writing "O" where the others had put "O now". And since osianna, which through ignorance we say in the corrupt form osanna, means "save" or "make safe", as all the translations show, the question now is what the word anna by itself, without the addition of "save", means. And it should be known that in this place anna is said three times; the first and second are written with the same letters, aleph, nun, he, but the third with heth, nun, he. Symmachus, then, who in Psalm 117 agreed with the rendering of all the others, gave us a clearer understanding in Psalm 115, where it says, "O Lord, deliver my soul", translating it: "I beseech you, Lord, deliver my soul." And where the Seventy translated "O" and he "I beseech", while Aquila and the other editions render "O now", in the Hebrew anna is written, but with aleph at the beginning, not heth. From this we notice that if anna is written with aleph, it means "I beseech"; but if with heth, it is a conjunction or interjection, which the Greeks render as δή, as in σῶσον δή ("save now"), for which the Latin language has no equivalent. ### Scripture references - Ps 118:25 (117:25 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Ps 118:26 (117:26 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Ps 116:4 (114:4 LXX): quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Ps 118:25-26 (LXX and Vulgate 117:25-26); Ps 116:4 (LXX and Vulgate 114:4; Jerome counts it as Psalm 115). The Greek quotations are badly garbled in the digital text and are rendered by their evident sense (ὦ δή κύριε, σῶσον δή ...). The "fifth" and "sixth" editions are anonymous Greek versions in Origen's Hexapla. The digital text has an editor's bracket before "me fac" (the editor deletes "me"). Jerome's statements about the Hebrew spelling are translated as written. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 20.3 (CSEL 54:106–107; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/20-1/#p-20-3). ## Letter 20.4 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/20-1/#p-20-4 - Source: CSEL 54:107–108 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome explains that the crowd took the cry from Ps 118, a well-known messianic psalm, and why Luke omits the untranslatable word. ### Latin text Sed quoniam hae minutiae et istiusmodi disputationis arcanum propter barbariam linguae pariter ac litterarum legenti molestiam tribuunt, ad explanandi conpendium uenio, ut dicam de centesimo septimo decimo psalmo, qui manifeste de Christo prophetat et in synagogis Iudaeorum celeberrime legebatur, unde et populis notior erat, hos uersus esse adsumptos, quod ille, qui repromittebatur de genere Dauid, uenerit saluaturus Israhel dicente Dauid: lapidem, quem reprobauerunt aedificantes, hic factus est in caput anguli. a domino factus est hoc et est mirabilis in oculis nostris. haec est dies, quam fecit dominus: exultemus et laetemur in ea. o domine, saluum fac, o domine, bene prospera; benedictus, qui uenit in nomine domini. benediximus uos de, domo domini; deus dominus et inluxit nobis. unde et euangelistarum scriptura commemorat pharisaeos et scribas haec indignatos, quod uiderunt populum psalmi prophetiam super Christo intellegere conpletam et clamantes paruulos: osianna filio Dauid, dixisse ei: audis, quid isti loquuntur? et Iesum respondisse: numquam legistis, quia ex ore infantium et lactantium perfecisti laudem? centesimum septimum decimum psalmum octaui psalmi adsertione firmantem. et de eo quidem, quod facile exprimi poterat: benedictus, qui uenit in nomine domini, omnium euangelistarum scriptura consentit; de uerbo uero osianna, quia in Graecum non poterant transferre sermonem, sicuti et in alleluia et in amen et in plerisque factum uidemus, ipsum Hebraeum posuerunt dicentes osianna. Lucas igitur, qui inter omnes euangelistas Graeci sermonis eruditissimus fuit, quippe ut medicus et qui in Graecis euangelium scripserit, quia se uidit proprietatem sermonis transferre non posse, melius arbitratus est tacere, quam id ponere, quod legenti faceret quaestionem. ### English translation (Claude) But since these minutiae, and the hidden depths of a discussion of this kind, weary the reader because of the strangeness of the language and the letters alike, I come to a short explanation. I say that Psalm 117, which clearly prophesies of Christ and was read very often in the synagogues of the Jews, so that it was better known to the people, is where these verses were taken from: because he who was promised from the family of David had come to save Israel, as David says: "The stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner. This was done by the Lord, and it is wonderful in our eyes. This is the day which the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. O Lord, save, O Lord, prosper well; blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. We have blessed you from the house of the Lord; the Lord is God, and he has shone upon us." Hence the writings of the evangelists also record that the Pharisees and scribes were indignant because they saw that the people understood the prophecy of the psalm to be fulfilled in Christ, and the children crying out, "Hosanna to the Son of David"; and that they said to him, "Do you hear what these are saying?" and that Jesus answered, "Have you never read: Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babes you have perfected praise?" confirming Psalm 117 by the testimony of Psalm 8. And on what could easily be rendered, "blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord", the writings of all the evangelists agree; but the word osianna, because they could not translate it into Greek, as we see was done also with alleluia and amen and many others, they set down in the Hebrew itself, saying osianna. Luke, then, who among all the evangelists was the most learned in the Greek language, being a physician and one who wrote his gospel among Greeks, saw that he could not render the proper sense of the word and thought it better to leave it out than to put down something that would raise a question for the reader. ### Scripture references - Ps 118:22 (117:22 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Ps 118:23 (117:23 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Ps 118:24 (117:24 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Ps 118:25 (117:25 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Ps 118:26 (117:26 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Ps 118:27 (117:27 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Matt 21:15: allusion, high confidence - Matt 21:16: quotation, high confidence - Ps 8:2 (8:3 LXX): quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Ps 118:22-27 (LXX and Vulgate 117:22-27); Matt 21:15-16; Ps 8:2 (LXX and Vulgate 8:3). ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 20.4 (CSEL 54:107–108; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/20-1/#p-20-4). ## Letter 20.5 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/20-1/#p-20-5 - Source: CSEL 54:108–110 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome concludes that hosanna combines "save" with an interjection of entreaty, meaning "save, I beseech you". ### Latin text Ad summam, sicuti nos in lingua Latina habemus et. interiectiones quasdam, ut in exultando dicamus ua et in admirando papae et in dolendo heu et, quando silentium nolumus imperare, strictis dentibus spiritum coartamus et cogimus in sonandum st, ita et Hebraei inter reliquas proprietates linguae suae habent interiectionem, ut, quando uolunt dominum deprecari ponant uerbum petentis affectu et dicant anna domine, quod Septuaginta dixerunt o domine! osi ergo saluifica interpretatur, anna interiectio deprecantis est. si ex his duobus uelis conpositum uerbum facere, dices osianna siue, ut nos loquimur, osanna media uocali littera elisa, sicuti facere solemus in uersibus, quando mene incepto desistere uictam scandimus men incepto. aleph quippe, littera prima uerbi sequentis, extremam prioris uerbi inueniens exclusit. quapropter, ut ad quaestionis originem reuertamur, ubi nos legimus in Latino: o domine, saluum fac, o domine, bene conplace; benedictus, qui uenit in nomine domini, iuxta Hebraeum sensum legere possumus: obsecro, domine, saluum fac, (obsecro); obsecro, domine, prospera, obsecro; benedictus, qui uenit in nomine domini. saluum autem fac dicitur, ut subaudiamus populum tuum Israhel siue generaliter mundum. denique Matheus, qui euangelium Hebraeo sermone conscripsit, ita posuit: osianna barrama, id est osanna in excelsis, quod saluatore nascente salus in caelum usque, id est etiam ad excelsa, peruenerit pace facta non solum in terra, sed et in caelo, ut iam dici aliquando cessaret: inebriatus est gladius meus in caelo. ### English translation (Claude) In sum, just as we in the Latin language have certain interjections, so that in exulting we say ua, in wondering papae, in grieving heu, and, when we want to command silence, we press our breath through clenched teeth and force out the sound st, so the Hebrews too, among the other features of their language, have an interjection, so that when they wish to entreat the Lord they put in a word expressing the feeling of one who asks and say anna domine, which the Seventy rendered "O Lord". Osi, then, means "save"; anna is the interjection of one entreating. If you want to make one compound word of these two, you will say osianna, or, as we pronounce it, osanna, with the middle vowel elided, as we usually do in verse when we scan mene incepto desistere victam as men incepto. For aleph, the first letter of the following word, finding the last letter of the preceding word, shut it out. Therefore, to return to the origin of the question: where we read in Latin, "O Lord, save, O Lord, grant success; blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord," according to the Hebrew sense we can read: "I beseech you, Lord, save, I beseech you; I beseech you, Lord, prosper, I beseech you; blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord." "Save" is said so that we understand "your people Israel" or, in general, "the world". Finally Matthew, who wrote his gospel in the Hebrew language, put it thus: osianna barrama, that is, "hosanna in the highest", because when the Savior was born salvation reached even to heaven, that is, even to the heights, peace being made not only on earth but also in heaven, so that at last it would cease to be said: "My sword has been made drunk in heaven." ### Scripture references - Ps 118:25 (117:25 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Matt 21:9: allusion, high confidence - Isa 34:5: quotation, high confidence ### Extrabiblical texts - Virgil, Aen. 1.37 (Virgil): quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Virgil, Aeneid 1.37, scanned with elision. Ps 118:25-26 (LXX and Vulgate 117:25-26); Isa 34:5. Jerome, with early tradition, holds that Matthew first wrote in Hebrew; translated as written. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 20.5 (CSEL 54:108–110; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/20-1/#p-20-5). ## Letter 20.6 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/20-1/#p-20-6 - Source: CSEL 54:110–111 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome ends by defending his detailed treatment as better than inventing an easy answer. ### Latin text Haec interim iuxta mediocritatem sensus mei breuiter strictimque dictaui. ceterum sciat beatitudo tua in istiusmodi disputationibus molestiam in legendo non debere subrepere, quia facile et nos potuimus aliquid ementiri, quod ex una uoce solueret quaestionem, sicuti et ceteros fecisse monstrauimus. sed magis condecet ob ueritatem laborare paulisper et peregrino aurem adcommodare sermoni, quam de aliena lingua fictam ferre sententiam.. ### English translation (Claude) Meanwhile I have dictated this briefly and concisely, according to the modest measure of my understanding. But let your blessedness know that in discussions of this kind weariness ought not to creep in as one reads, for we too could easily have made up something that would solve the question in a single word, as we have shown others did. But it is far more fitting to labor a little for the truth and lend one's ear to a foreign language than to offer a made-up opinion about another tongue. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 20.6 (CSEL 54:110–111; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/20-1/#p-20-6). ## Letter 21.1 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/20-1/#p-21-1 - Source: CSEL 54:111–112 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome restates Damasus's questions about the parable of the prodigal son, especially how the elder brother can represent either the Jews or the righteous. ### Latin text Beatitudinis tuae interrogatio disputatio fuit et sic quaesisse quaerenda uiam est dedisse quaesitis. sapienter quippe interroganti sapientia reputabitur. ais: quis est iste in euangelio pater, qui duobus filiis substantiam diuidit? qui duo filii? qui maior quiue minor? quomodo iunior acceptam substantiam cum meretricibus dissipat, fame facta a principe regionis praeponitur porcis, siliquas comedit, ad patrem redit, accipit anulum, stolam et immolatur ei uitulus saginatus? qui sit maior frater et quomodo de agro ueniens susceptioni fratris inuideat? et cetera, quae in euangelio plenius explicantur. addis insuper: scio multos diuersa in hac lectione dixisse et fratrem maiorem Iudaeum, minorem aestimasse gentilem. sed quaero, quomodo Iudaico populo possit aptari: ecce tot annis seruio tibi et numquam mandatum tuum praeteriui, et numquam dedisti mihi haedum, ut cum amicis meis epularer, et illud: fili, tu mecum es semper et omnia mea tua sunt. si autem, ais, de iusto et peccatore uoluerimus esse parabolam, iusto non poterit conuenire, ut de salute alterius, et fratris maxime, contristetur. si enim inuidia diaboli mors introiuit in orbem terrarum et imitantur eum, qui sunt ex parte ipsius, numquam personae iusti tam inmanis inuidia poterit coaptari, ut foris steterit et clementissimo patri rigidus obstiterit solusque liuore cruciatus laetitiae domus interesse noluerit. ### English translation (Claude) Your blessedness's question was itself a discussion, and to have asked what should be asked in this way is to have shown the way to the answers. For "to one who asks wisely, wisdom will be reckoned." You say: "Who is the father in the gospel who divides his property between two sons? Who are the two sons? Which is the elder and which the younger? How does the younger squander the property he received with prostitutes, and, when famine comes, is set over the pigs by the ruler of the region, eat pods, return to his father, receive a ring and a robe, and have the fatted calf killed for him? Who is the elder brother, and how, coming from the field, does he envy his brother's welcome?" and the rest that is more fully set out in the gospel. You add further: "I know that many have said different things about this reading, and have taken the elder brother to be the Jew and the younger the Gentile. But I ask how it can fit the Jewish people: 'See, I have served you so many years and never transgressed your command, and you never gave me a kid, that I might feast with my friends,' and: 'Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.' But if," you say, "we take the parable to be about the righteous man and the sinner, it cannot suit the righteous man to be saddened by the salvation of another, and above all of a brother. For if through the envy of the devil death entered the world, and those who are on his side imitate him, such monstrous envy can never be fitted to the person of a righteous man, that he should stand outside, harshly resist a most merciful father, and alone, tormented by jealousy, refuse to share the joy of the house." ### Scripture references - Prov 17:28: allusion, medium confidence - Luke 15:11: allusion, high confidence - Luke 15:29: quotation, high confidence - Luke 15:31: quotation, high confidence ### Extrabiblical texts - Wis 2:24 (Wisdom of Solomon): quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Prov 17:28 (in the Greek form); Luke 15:11-32; Wis 2:24. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 21.1 (CSEL 54:111–112; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/20-1/#p-21-1). ## Letter 21.2 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/20-1/#p-21-2 - Source: CSEL 54:112–115 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome explains that the parable answers the Pharisees' complaint that Jesus ate with sinners, and sets it against the severity of the law and the mercy of the gospel. ### Latin text Itaque, sicut in ceteris parabolis, quae non sunt a saluatore dissertae, quam ob causam dictae sint, solemus inquirere, ita et in hac facere debemus, quare dominus in istiusmodi uerba proruperit et ob quam interrogationem responsionis similitudo prolata sit. scribae et pharisaei mussitabant dicentes: quare hic peccatores recipit et uescitur cum eis? superior quippe sermo praemiserat: erant autem accedentes ad eum omnes publicani et peccatores audire eum. itaque hinc omnis inuidia, cur, quos legis praecepta damnarent, eorum confabulationem atque conuiuium dominus non uitaret. et haec Lucas; ceterum Mattheus ita loquitur: cum autem discumberent in domo, ecce multi peccatores et publicani uenientes recumbebant cum Iesu et discipulis eius. quod uidentes pharisaei dicebant discipulis eius: quare cum publicanis et peccatoribus manducat magister uester? qui audiens dixit: non necesse habent sani medicum, sed male habentes. euntes autem discite, quid sit: misericordiam uolo et non sacrificium. non ueni uocare iustos, sed peccatores. Marcus quoque in eadem uerba consentit. igitur, ut diximus, omnis ex lege quaestio nascebatur. lex quippe iusti tenax clementiam non habebat, sed, quicumque adulter, homicida, fraudator et, ut breuiter dicam, mortali crimine tenebatur, nulla uenia paenitentiae laxabatur a crimine, oculum pro oculo, dentem pro dente, animam pro anima iubebatur exsoluere. omnes itaque declinauerunt, simul inutiles facti sunt; non erat, qui faceret bonum, non erat usque ad unum. ubi autem abundauit peccatum, superabundauit gratia et misit deus filium suum factum ex muliere, qui destructo medio pariete fecit utrumque unum et austeritatem legis euangelii gratia temperauit. unde et Paulus ad ecclesias scribens: gratia uobis, inquit, et pax a deo patre et domino Iesu Christo: gratia, quae non ex merito retributa, sed ex donante concessa est; pax uero, qua reconciliati deo sumus, habentes propitiatorium dominum Iesum, qui donauit nobis delicta nostra et deleuit, quod erat chirographum mortis contra nos, adfigens illud cruci, et principatus et potestates fecit ostentui triumphans eas in ligno. quae autem potest maior esse clementia, quam ut filius dei hominis filius nasceretur, decem mensum fastidia sustineret, partus expectaret aduentum, inuolueretur pannis, subiceretur parentibus, per singulas adoleret aetates et post contumelias uocum, alapas et flagella crucis quoque pro nobis fieret maledictum, ut nos a maledicto legis absolueret patri factus oboediens usque ad mortem, et id opere conpleret, quod ante ex persona mediatoris fuerat deprecatus dicens: pater, uolo, ut, quomodo ego et tu unum sumus, et isti in nobis unum sint? ergo, quia ad hoc uenerat, ut, quod erat inpossibile legis, quia nemo ex ea iustificabatur, ineffabili misericordia uinceret, publicanos et peccatores ad paenitentiam prouocabat conuiuium quoque eorum expetens, ut et inter conuiuia docerentur, sicuti manifestum esse poterit ei, qui euangelia sollicita mente perlegerit, quomodo et cibus eius et potus et deambulatio et uniuersa, quae gessit, salutem hominum procurarint. hoc uidentes scribae et pharisaei aduersum legem eum facere dicebant: ecce homo uorax et uini potator, amicus publicanorum et peccatorum. nam et ante reprehenderant, quare curaret in sabbatis dominus. ergo, ut hanc eorum accusationem clementiae ratione superaret, tres parabolas posuit, e quibus una est nonaginta nouem ouium in montibus relictarum et unius perditae, quae pastoris umeris est reuecta, alia dragmae, quam mulier accenso lumine perquisiuit et inuenta ea uicinas ad laetitiam conuocauit dicens: congratulamini -mihi, quia inueni dragmam, quam perdideram, tertia uero duorum filiorum, de qua ut disputarem pauca, iussisti. ### English translation (Claude) So, as with the other parables that were not explained by the Savior, we usually ask why they were spoken, so we must do with this one: why the Lord broke out into words like these, and in answer to what question the likeness was put forward. The scribes and Pharisees were muttering, saying: "Why does this man receive sinners and eat with them?" For the preceding passage had said: "All the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to him to hear him." Hence all their resentment: why did the Lord not avoid conversation and table fellowship with those whom the precepts of the law condemned? That is Luke; Matthew speaks thus: "And as they reclined at table in the house, see, many sinners and tax collectors came and reclined with Jesus and his disciples. And the Pharisees, seeing it, said to his disciples: Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? Hearing it he said: Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means: I desire mercy and not sacrifice. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners." Mark also agrees in the same words. So, as we said, the whole question arose from the law. For the law, holding fast to justice, had no clemency: whoever was guilty of a mortal crime, adultery, murder, fraud, in short, was released from his crime by no pardon for repentance, but was ordered to pay eye for eye, tooth for tooth, life for life. "All have turned aside, together they have become useless; there was none who did good, not even one." "But where sin abounded, grace abounded all the more," and God "sent his Son, made of a woman," who, having broken down the dividing wall, "made both one," and tempered the severity of the law by the grace of the gospel. Hence Paul too, writing to the churches, says: "Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ": grace, which is not repaid for merit but granted by the giver; and peace, by which we have been reconciled to God, having the Lord Jesus as our propitiation, who forgave us our sins and "blotted out the bond of death that was against us, nailing it to the cross, and made a show of the principalities and powers, triumphing over them on the tree." What greater clemency can there be than that the Son of God should be born a son of man, endure the discomforts of ten months, await the coming of birth, be wrapped in rags, be subject to his parents, grow up through each stage of life, and, after insulting words, blows, and scourgings, become for us also the curse of the cross, to free us from the curse of the law, "made obedient to the Father even to death", and fulfill in deed what he had earlier prayed as mediator, saying: "Father, I will that, as I and you are one, so these may be one in us"? Therefore, since he had come for this purpose, to overcome by unspeakable mercy what was impossible for the law, because no one was justified by it, he called tax collectors and sinners to repentance, even seeking their table fellowship so that they might be taught at meals, as will be clear to anyone who reads the Gospels attentively: how his food and drink and walking and everything he did served the salvation of men. Seeing this, the scribes and Pharisees said he was acting against the law: "See, a glutton and a wine drinker, a friend of tax collectors and sinners." For they had earlier blamed the Lord for healing on the Sabbath. So, to overcome this accusation of theirs by the reasoning of mercy, he set out three parables: one of the ninety-nine sheep left on the mountains and the one lost sheep, which was carried back on the shepherd's shoulders; another of the drachma, which the woman searched for with a lamp lit, and when she found it called her neighbors to rejoice, saying, "Rejoice with me, for I have found the drachma I had lost"; and the third of the two sons, about which you have told me to discuss a few things. ### Scripture references - Luke 15:2: quotation, high confidence - Luke 15:1: quotation, high confidence - Matt 9:10: quotation, high confidence - Matt 9:11: quotation, high confidence - Matt 9:12: quotation, high confidence - Matt 9:13: quotation, high confidence - Hos 6:6: quotation, high confidence - Mark 2:16: allusion, high confidence - Exod 21:24: allusion, high confidence - Ps 14:3 (13:3 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Rom 3:12: quotation, medium confidence - Rom 5:20: quotation, high confidence - Gal 4:4: quotation, high confidence - Eph 2:14: quotation, high confidence - Rom 1:7: quotation, high confidence - Col 2:14: quotation, high confidence - Col 2:15: quotation, high confidence - Luke 2:7: allusion, high confidence - Luke 2:51: allusion, high confidence - Gal 3:13: allusion, high confidence - Phil 2:8: quotation, high confidence - John 17:21: quotation, high confidence - Rom 8:3: allusion, high confidence - Gal 2:16: allusion, medium confidence - Matt 11:19: quotation, high confidence - Luke 15:4: allusion, high confidence - Luke 15:9: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Luke 15:1-2; Matt 9:10-13 (Hos 6:6); Mark 2:15-17; Exod 21:24; Ps 14:3 (LXX and Vulgate 13:3; Rom 3:12); Rom 5:20; Gal 4:4; Eph 2:14; Rom 1:7; Col 2:14-15; Luke 2:7, 51; Gal 3:13; Phil 2:8; John 17:21; Rom 8:3; Gal 2:16; Matt 11:19; Luke 15:4-9. Jerome's statement that the law allowed no pardon for repentance is his own characterization; translated as written. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 21.2 (CSEL 54:112–115; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/20-1/#p-21-2). ## Letter 21.3 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/20-1/#p-21-3 - Source: CSEL 54:115–117 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome rejects Tertullian's Montanist claim that the tax collectors were Gentiles and holds that they stand for sinners of every kind, Jew and Gentile. ### Latin text Et de oue quidem ac dragma, licet ad unum pertineant intellectum, non est istius temporis disputatio; hoc tantum dixisse sufficiat ob id has parabolas esse propositas, ut, quomodo ibi in inuentione pecoris et dragmae laetitia est angelorum et circum manentium uicinarum, sic in publicanorum peccatorumque paenitentia omnium debere esse laetitiam, quibus non sit necessaria paenitentia. unde uehementer admiror Tertullianum in eo libro, quem de pudicitia aduersum paenitentiam scripsit et sententiam ueterem noua opinione dissoluit, hoc uoluisse sentire, quod publicani et peccatores, qui cum domino uescebantur, ethnici fuerint dicente scriptura: non erit uectigal pendens ex Israhel; quasi uero et Mattheus non ex circumcisione fuerit publicanus et ille, qui cum pharisaeo in templo orans oculos ad caelum non audebat erigere, non ex Israhel fuerit publicanus ac non Lucas memoret: et omnis populus audiens et publicani iustificauerunt dominum baptizati baptismo Iohannis, aut cuiquam credibile possit uideri ethnicum templum ingressum aut dominum cum ethnicis habuisse conuiuium, cum id maxime cauerit, ne legem soluere uideretur, et primum uenerit ad oues perditas domus Israhel, Chananaeae quoque deprecanti pro filiae salute responderit: non oportet tollere panem filiorum et dare eum canibus et alibi discipulis praeceperit: in uiam gentium ne abieritis et in ciuitates Samaritanorum ne introieritis. ex quibus omnibus edocemur in publicanis non tam gentilium quam generaliter omnium peccatorum, id est, qui erant et de gentibus et de Iudaeis, accipi posse personas. ille autem, quia iuxta insanas feminas suas id dogmatis defendebat, quo Christianos nollet recipi paenitentes, frustra argumentatus est publicanos Iudaeos non fuisse, ut in persona eorum gentilium tantum populus possit intellegi. itaque, ne longum faciam, ipsa euangelii uerba proponam et in modum commentatoris, quid mihi uideatur, ad singula quaeque subnectam. - ### English translation (Claude) About the sheep and the drachma, although they bear on the same meaning, this is not the time for discussion; let it be enough to have said that these parables were put forward so that, just as there is joy among the angels and the neighbors round about at the finding of the sheep and the drachma, so at the repentance of tax collectors and sinners there ought to be joy among all who have no need of repentance. Hence I greatly wonder at Tertullian, who, in the book he wrote On Modesty against repentance, dissolving the ancient view by a new opinion, chose to hold that the tax collectors and sinners who ate with the Lord were heathen, since Scripture says: "There shall be no one paying tribute from Israel"; as if Matthew, the tax collector, were not of the circumcision, and as if the tax collector who, praying in the temple with the Pharisee, did not dare lift his eyes to heaven, were not a tax collector from Israel; and as if Luke did not record: "And all the people hearing, and the tax collectors, justified God, having been baptized with the baptism of John"; or as if anyone could believe that a heathen entered the temple, or that the Lord shared table fellowship with heathen, when he took the greatest care not to seem to abolish the law, and came first to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and answered the Canaanite woman who pleaded for her daughter's health, "It is not right to take the children's bread and give it to the dogs," and elsewhere commanded his disciples: "Do not go on the road of the Gentiles, and do not enter the cities of the Samaritans." From all this we are taught that by the tax collectors we can understand not so much Gentiles as sinners of every kind, that is, those who were both from the Gentiles and from the Jews. But he, because he defended this doctrine according to his mad women, so that he would not have Christians received when they repented, argued in vain that the tax collectors were not Jews, so that only the Gentile people could be understood in their person. So, not to be long, I will set out the words of the gospel themselves and, in the manner of a commentator, add what I think on each point. ### Scripture references - Luke 15:7: allusion, high confidence - Luke 15:10: allusion, high confidence - Deut 23:17 (23:18 LXX): quotation, medium confidence - Matt 9:9: allusion, high confidence - Luke 18:13: allusion, high confidence - Luke 7:29: quotation, high confidence - Matt 5:17: allusion, medium confidence - Matt 15:24: allusion, high confidence - Matt 15:26: quotation, high confidence - Matt 10:5: quotation, high confidence ### Extrabiblical texts - Tertullian, Pud. 9 (On Modesty): allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - Luke 15:7, 10; Tertullian, On Modesty 9; Deut 23:17 (LXX 23:18, in a form found in the Greek); Matt 9:9; Luke 18:13; Luke 7:29; Matt 5:17; Matt 15:24, 26; Matt 10:5. The "mad women" are the Montanist prophetesses Prisca and Maximilla; translated as written. Tertullian's On Modesty denies that the church may reconcile certain grave sinners. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 21.3 (CSEL 54:115–117; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/20-1/#p-21-3). ## Letter 21.4 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/20-1/#p-21-4 - Source: CSEL 54:117 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome interprets the father as God and the two sons as the two peoples called by God. ### Latin text Homo quidam habebat duos filios. hominem deum dici multis testimoniis adprobatur, ut ibi: duorum hominum testimonium uerum est. ego de me testimonium dico et pater, qui me misit. in alia parabola pastor, in alia pater familias nuncupatur, in alia uineam locat, in alia inuitat ad nuptias et diuersis similitudinibus rem significat eandem, ut Iudaeorum superbiam reprobet et in commune omnium peccatorum, siue gentilium siue Israhel, paenitentiam probet. quod autem ait duos filios, omnes paene scripturae de duorum uocatione populorum plenae sunt sacramentis. ### English translation (Claude) "A certain man had two sons." That God is called a man is proved by many testimonies, as here: "The testimony of two men is true. I bear witness about myself, and the Father who sent me." In one parable he is called a shepherd, in another the master of the house; in another he lets out a vineyard, in another he invites to a wedding; and by different likenesses he signifies the same thing, so as to condemn the pride of the Jews and to approve the repentance of all sinners in common, whether Gentiles or Israel. And when he says "two sons", almost all the Scriptures are full of mysteries about the calling of the two peoples. ### Scripture references - Luke 15:11: quotation, high confidence - John 8:17: quotation, high confidence - John 8:18: quotation, high confidence - Matt 20:1: allusion, medium confidence - Matt 21:33: allusion, medium confidence - Matt 22:2: allusion, medium confidence ### Translation notes - Luke 15:11; John 8:17-18. The parables alluded to are the lost sheep (Luke 15:4), the householder (Matt 20:1), the vineyard (Matt 21:33), and the wedding feast (Matt 22:2). ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 21.4 (CSEL 54:117; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/20-1/#p-21-4). ## Letter 21.5 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/20-1/#p-21-5 - Source: CSEL 54:117–118 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome interprets the father's property as the natural gifts of reason and life that God gives to all. ### Latin text Et dixit illi adulescentior: pater, da mihi portionem substantiae, quae me contingit. substantia dei est omne, quod uiuimus, sapimus, cogitamus, in uerba prorumpimus. hoc deus aequaliter uniuersis et in commune largitus est euangelista dicente: erat lux uera, quae inluminat omnem hominem uenientem in mundum. iste est dexter oculus, qui ab scandalis obseruandus est; haec lucerna corporis; hoc talentum, quod non est in sudario conligandum, id est delicate otioseque tractandum, nec in terra defodiendum, terrenis scilicet cogitationibus obscurandum. ### English translation (Claude) "And the younger said to him: Father, give me the portion of property that falls to me." God's property is everything by which we live, have understanding, think, and break out into words. This God has bestowed equally on all and in common, as the evangelist says: "That was the true light, which enlightens every man coming into the world." This is the right eye, which must be guarded from causes of stumbling; this is the lamp of the body; this is the talent which must not be tied up in a napkin, that is, handled with softness and idleness, nor buried in the earth, that is, darkened by earthly thoughts. ### Scripture references - Luke 15:12: quotation, high confidence - John 1:9: quotation, high confidence - Matt 5:29: allusion, high confidence - Matt 6:22: allusion, high confidence - Luke 19:20: allusion, high confidence - Matt 25:18: allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - Luke 15:12; John 1:9; Matt 5:29; Matt 6:22; Luke 19:20; Matt 25:18. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 21.5 (CSEL 54:117–118; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/20-1/#p-21-5). ## Letter 21.6 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/20-1/#p-21-6 - Source: CSEL 54:118 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome explains the dividing of the property as God's gift of free will to humanity. ### Latin text Qui diuisit eis substantiam. significantius in Graeco legitur δlειλεν αύτοις tdv p(ov, id est, dedit liberum arbitrium, dedit mentis propriae uoluntatem, ut uiueret unusquisque non ex imperio dei, sed ex obsequio suo, id est non ex necessitate, sed ex uoluntate, ut uirtus haberet locum, ut a ceteris animantibus distaremus, dum ad exemplum dei permissum est nobis facere, quod uelimus. unde et in peccatores aequum iudicium et in sanctos aut in iustos praemium retribuetur. ### English translation (Claude) "And he divided his property between them." In the Greek it reads more significantly, "he divided to them his living", that is, he gave free will, he gave the will of one's own mind, so that each might live not by God's command but by his own obedience, that is, not by necessity but by will, so that virtue might have a place and we might differ from the other animals, since, after the example of God, we are permitted to do what we wish. Hence a just judgment will be rendered on sinners, and a reward on the holy or the righteous. ### Scripture references - Luke 15:12: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Luke 15:12. The Greek (διεῖλεν αὐτοῖς τὸν βίον) is garbled in the digital text. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 21.6 (CSEL 54:118; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/20-1/#p-21-6). ## Letter 21.7 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/20-1/#p-21-7 - Source: CSEL 54:118 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome explains that the son's departure to a far country signifies estrangement from God in will, not in place. ### Latin text Et non post multos dies collectis omnibus adulescentior filius peregre profectus est in regionem longinquam. si deus tenet caelum palmo et terram pugillo et Hieremias dicit: deus adpropinquans et non deus de longinquo, per Dauid quoque, quia nullus absque eo locus sit, praedicatur, quomodo filius peregre proficiscitur et a patre discedit? sciendum igitur non locorum spatiis, sed affectu aut esse nos cum deo aut ab eo abscedere. quomodo enim ad discipulos loquitur: ecce ego uobiscum sum omnibus diebus usque ad consummationem saeculi, ita ad eos, qui sui iactantiam praeferunt et esse cum domino non merentur, dicit: discedite a me, non noui uos, qui operamini iniquitatem. ### English translation (Claude) "And not many days later, gathering everything together, the younger son set out abroad into a far country." If God holds the heaven in his palm and the earth in his fist, and Jeremiah says, "A God who is near, and not a God far off," and through David too it is proclaimed that there is no place without him, how does the son go abroad and depart from the father? It must be understood, then, that we are either with God or depart from him not by distances of place but by disposition. For just as he says to the disciples, "See, I am with you all days, to the end of the age," so to those who display their own boastfulness and do not deserve to be with the Lord he says: "Depart from me, I do not know you, you who work iniquity." ### Scripture references - Luke 15:13: quotation, high confidence - Isa 40:12: allusion, high confidence - Jer 23:23: quotation, high confidence - Ps 139:8 (138:8 LXX): allusion, medium confidence - Matt 28:20: quotation, high confidence - Matt 7:23: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Luke 15:13; Isa 40:12; Jer 23:23; Ps 139:7-10 (LXX and Vulgate 138:7-10); Matt 28:20; Matt 7:23 (Luke 13:27). ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 21.7 (CSEL 54:118; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/20-1/#p-21-7). ## Letter 21.8 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/20-1/#p-21-8 - Source: CSEL 54:118–119 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome compares the prodigal's departure with Cain's exile and the building of the tower of Babel. ### Latin text Recessit ergo iunior filius cum sua substantia a patre et peregre profectus est. et Cain egressus a facie dei habitauit in terra Naid, quod interpretatur fluctuatio. quicumque a deo recedit, statim saeculi fluctibus quatitur et mouentur pedes eius. nam postquam moti sunt homines ab oriente et a uero lumine recesserunt, tunc aduersum deum inpietatis suae aedificauere turrem, tunc dogmatum superbias confinxerunt uolentes curiositate non licita in ipsius caeli alta penetrare. et uocatus est locus ille Babel, id est confusio. ### English translation (Claude) So the younger son withdrew from the father with his property and set out abroad. Cain too, going out from the presence of God, dwelt in the land of Naid, which is interpreted "tossing". Whoever withdraws from God is at once shaken by the waves of the world, and his feet are moved. For after men moved from the east and withdrew from the true light, then they built against God the tower of their ungodliness, then they invented proud doctrines, wishing by unlawful curiosity to penetrate the heights of heaven itself. And that place was called Babel, that is, confusion. ### Scripture references - Gen 4:16: allusion, high confidence - Ps 73:2 (72:2 LXX): allusion, medium confidence - Gen 11:2: allusion, high confidence - Gen 11:9: allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - Gen 4:16 (Naid, the Greek form of Nod); Ps 73:2 (LXX and Vulgate 72:2); Gen 11:2-9. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 21.8 (CSEL 54:118–119; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/20-1/#p-21-8). ## Letter 21.9 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/20-1/#p-21-9 - Source: CSEL 54:119 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome describes self-indulgence as squandering God's gifts. ### Latin text Et ibi dissipauit substantiam suam uiuens luxuriose. luxuria inimica deo, inimica uirtutibus perdit omnem substantiam patris et ad praesens uoluptate deleniens futuram cogitari non sinit paupertatem. ### English translation (Claude) "And there he squandered his property, living extravagantly." Self-indulgence, the enemy of God and of the virtues, wastes all the father's property, and, soothing for the present with pleasure, does not let one think of poverty to come. ### Scripture references - Luke 15:13: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Luke 15:13. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 21.9 (CSEL 54:119; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/20-1/#p-21-9). ## Letter 21.10 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/20-1/#p-21-10 - Source: CSEL 54:119–120 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome interprets the famine as the spiritual want of those who turn from God to idols. ### Latin text Cumque consumpsisset omnia, facta est fames ualida per regionem illam. a patre acceperat facultates, ut inuisibilia eius per ea, quae sunt uisibilia, cognosceret et ex pulchritudine creaturarum consequenter intellegeret creatorem. qui ueritatem in iniustitia detinens et pro deo idola colens naturae bona uniuersa consumpsit et consumptis omnibus coepit egere uirtutibus derelicto fonte uirtutum. facta est fames ualida per regionem illam. omnis locus, quem patre incolimus absente, famis, penuriae, egestatis est. famis autem μετά ἐϰτάσεως ualidae haec est regio, de qua dicitur per prophetam: qui habitatis in regione umbrae mortis, lux fulgebit super uos. at contra... alia est regio, quam possessuri sumus mundi corde atque uiuentes, quam sanctus desiderat dicens: credo uidere bona domini in regione uiuentium. ### English translation (Claude) "And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that region." He had received resources from the father so that he might know his invisible things through the things that are visible, and from the beauty of creatures might accordingly understand the Creator. But holding down the truth in unrighteousness and worshiping idols instead of God, he used up all the goods of nature, and, having used up everything, he began to be in want of virtues, having abandoned the fountain of virtues. "A severe famine arose in that region." Every place we inhabit in the father's absence is a place of famine, want, and need. And this is the region of severe famine, of which it is said by the prophet: "You who dwell in the region of the shadow of death, light will shine on you." On the contrary, there is another region, which we shall possess, the pure in heart and the living, which the holy one longs for, saying: "I believe that I shall see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living." ### Scripture references - Luke 15:14: quotation, high confidence - Rom 1:20: allusion, high confidence - Rom 1:18: allusion, high confidence - Rom 1:25: allusion, high confidence - Isa 9:2 (9:1 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Matt 5:8: allusion, medium confidence - Ps 27:13 (26:13 LXX): quotation, high confidence ### Extrabiblical texts - Wis 13:5 (Wisdom of Solomon): allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - Luke 15:14; Rom 1:20; Wis 13:5; Rom 1:18, 25; Isa 9:2 (in the Greek form; LXX 9:1); Matt 5:8; Ps 27:13 (LXX and Vulgate 26:13). A Greek phrase describing the famine is garbled in the digital text. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 21.10 (CSEL 54:119–120; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/20-1/#p-21-10). ## Letter 21.11 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/20-1/#p-21-11 - Source: CSEL 54:120 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome interprets the ruler to whom the prodigal attaches himself as the devil, known in Scripture by many names. ### Latin text Et ipse coepit egere et abiit et coniunxit se uni de principibus regionis illius. deserto nutricio, qui ad primam uocem bona ei fuerat cuncta largitus, iunxit se principi mundi huius, id est diabolo, rectori tenebrarum istarum, quem nunc inimicum hominem, nunc iudicem iniquitatis, nunc draconem, nunc satan, nunc malleum, nunc perdicem, nunc Belial, nunc rugientem leonem, nunc Leuiathan, nunc tenninim et multis aliis uocabulis scriptura cognominat. quod autem ait uni de principibus: plures esse intellegendum est, qui per istum uolitent aerem et diuersorum fraude uitiorum genus hominum suae subiciant seruituti. ### English translation (Claude) "And he began to be in want, and went and joined himself to one of the rulers of that region." Abandoning the one who nourished him, who at his first word had lavished all good things on him, he joined himself to the ruler of this world, that is, the devil, the governor of this darkness, whom Scripture calls now the enemy, now the judge of iniquity, now the dragon, now Satan, now the hammer, now the partridge, now Belial, now the roaring lion, now Leviathan, now tanninim, and by many other names. And when it says "one of the rulers", we must understand that there are many who fly through this air and by the deceit of various vices subject the human race to their slavery. ### Scripture references - Luke 15:15: quotation, high confidence - John 12:31: allusion, high confidence - Eph 6:12: allusion, high confidence - Matt 13:28: allusion, medium confidence - Luke 18:6: allusion, medium confidence - Rev 12:9: allusion, high confidence - Jer 50:23: allusion, medium confidence - Jer 17:11: allusion, medium confidence - 2 Cor 6:15: allusion, high confidence - 1 Pet 5:8: allusion, high confidence - Job 41:1: allusion, medium confidence - Eph 2:2: allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - Luke 15:14-15; John 12:31; Eph 6:12; Matt 13:28; Luke 18:6; Rev 12:9; Jer 50:23; Jer 17:11 (the partridge); 2 Cor 6:15; 1 Pet 5:8; Job 41:1; Eph 2:2. Tanninim is the Hebrew for "sea monsters". ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 21.11 (CSEL 54:120; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/20-1/#p-21-11). ## Letter 21.12 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/20-1/#p-21-12 - Source: CSEL 54:120–121 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome interprets the pigs as the demons who feed on idolatrous sacrifice and on the death of human souls. ### Latin text Qui misit illum in agro suo, ut pasceret porcos. porcus animal inmundum, quod caeno et sordibus delectatur. talis est daemonum multitudo, quae per idola manu facta cruore pecudum et uictimis pascitur et nouissime saginatiore quadam hostia, ipsius hominis morte, saturatur. misit ergo eum in possessionem suam, id est suum effecit esse famulum, ut pasceret porcos immolans eis animam suam. ### English translation (Claude) "And he sent him into his field to feed pigs." The pig is an unclean animal that delights in mud and filth. Such is the multitude of demons, which through idols made by hand feeds on the blood of beasts and on victims, and is finally sated with a kind of fatter offering, the death of man himself. So he sent him into his estate, that is, he made him his servant, to feed pigs, offering his own soul to them. ### Scripture references - Luke 15:15: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Luke 15:15. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 21.12 (CSEL 54:120–121; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/20-1/#p-21-12). ## Letter 21.13 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/20-1/#p-21-13 - Source: CSEL 54:121–124 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome interprets the pigs' pods as the vices, and also the pagan literature, that feed demons, and warns clergy against reading the classics for pleasure. ### Latin text Et cupiebat saturare uentrem suum de siliquis porcorum, et nemo illi dabat. id, quod in Ezechiele cum increpatione dicitur ad Hierusalem: et factum est in te peruersum ultra mulieres in fornicatione tua, et post te non sunt fornicatae in eo, quod dedisti mercedes, et mercedes tibi non sunt datae, uidemus in filio minore conpletum. substantiam suam in regione principis perdidit et post perditas facultates missus ad porcos egestate contabuit. daemonum cibus est ebrietas, luxuria, fornicatio et uniuersa uitia. haec blanda sunt et lasciua et sensus uoluptate demulcent statimque, ut apparuerint, ad usum sui prouocant. quibus ideo luxuriosus adulescens non poterat saturari, quia semper uoluptas famem sui habet et transacta non satiat. et satanas, cum aliquem sua arte deceperit et proprium ei iugum inposuerit, ultra ad uitiorum abundantiam non procurat sciens esse iam mortuum, sicuti multos idolatras uidemus pannis, miseria, egestate confectos. hi sunt, in quibus propheticus sermo conpletur: omnibus meretricibus dantur mercedes, tu autem dedisti mercedes omnibus amatoribus tuis et non accepisti mercedes. possumus autem et aliter siliquas interpretari. daemonum cibus est carmina poetarum, saecularis sapientia, rhetoricorum pompa uerborum. haec sua omnes suauitate delectant et, dum aures uersibus dulci modulatione currentibus rapiunt, animam quoque penetrant et pectoris interna deuinciunt. uerum ubi cum summo studio fuerint ac labore perlecta, nihil aliud nisi inanem sonum et sermonum strepitum suis lectoribus tribuunt: nulla ibi saturitas ueritatis, nulla iustitiae refectio repperitur. studiosi earum in fame ueri, in uirtutum penuria perseuerant. huius sapientiae typus et in Deuteronomio sub mulieris captiuae figura describitur, de qua diuina uox praecipit, ut, si Israhelites eam habere uoluerit uxorem, caluitium ei faciat, ungues praesecet, pilos auferat et, cum munda fuerit effecta, tunc transeat in uictoris amplexus. haec si secundum litteram intellegimus, nonne ridicula sunt? atqui et nos hoc facere solemus, quando philosophos legimus, quando in manus nostras libri ueniunt sapientiae saecularis: si quid in eis utile repperimus, ad nostrum dogma conuertimus, si quid uero superfluum, de idolis, de amore, de cura saecularium rerum, haec radimus, his caluitium indicimus, haec in unguium morem ferro acutissimo desecamus. unde et apostolus prohibet, ne in idolo quis recumbat, dicens: uidete autem, ne haec licentia uestra offendiculum fiat infirmibus. si enim quis uiderit eum, qui habet scientiam, in idolio. recumbentem, nonne conscientia eius, cum sit infirma, aedificabitur ad manducandum idolothyta et peribit, qui infirmus est, in tua scientia frater, propter quem Christus mortuus est? nonne tibi uidetur sub aliis uerbis dicere, ne legas philosophos, oratores, poetas, ne in eorum lectione requiescas? nec nobis blandiamur, si his, quae sunt scripta, non credimus, cum aliorum conscientia uulneretur et putemur probare, quae, dum legimus, non reprobamus. alioquin quale erit, ut aestimemus apostolum eius, qui uescebatur in idolio, scientiam conprobasse et eum dixisse perfectum, quem sciret de idolothytis manducare? absit, ut de ore Christiano sonet Iuppiter omnipotens et mehercule et mecastor et cetera magis portenta quam numina. at nunc etiam sacerdotes dei omissis euangeliis et prophetis uidemus comoedias legere, amatoria bucolicorum uersuum uerba cantare, tenere Vergilium et id, quod in pueris necessitatis est, crimen in se facere uoluntatis. cauendum igitur, ne captiuam habere uelimus uxorem, ne in idolio recumbamus; aut, si certe fuerimus eius amore decepti, mundemus eam et omni sordium horrore purgemus, ne scandalum patiatur frater, pro quo Christus est mortuus, cum ex uoce Christiani carmina in idolorum laudes conposita audierit personare. ### English translation (Claude) "And he longed to fill his belly with the pods the pigs ate, and no one gave him any." What is said in Ezekiel with rebuke to Jerusalem, "And in you there was perversity beyond women in your fornication, and after you they have not committed fornication, in that you gave payments and no payments were given to you," we see fulfilled in the younger son. He lost his property in the ruler's region, and after losing his means he was sent to the pigs and wasted away in want. The food of demons is drunkenness, self-indulgence, sexual immorality, and all vices. These are alluring and wanton, and they soothe the senses with pleasure, and as soon as they appear they invite one to use them. The dissolute young man could not be filled with them because pleasure always hungers for itself and, once past, does not satisfy. And Satan, when he has deceived someone by his art and laid his own yoke on him, takes no further trouble to supply abundant vices, knowing that he is already dead, just as we see many idolaters worn out by rags, misery, and want. These are the ones in whom the prophetic word is fulfilled: "Payments are given to all prostitutes, but you gave payments to all your lovers and received no payments." But we can also interpret the pods in another way. The food of demons is the songs of the poets, worldly wisdom, the pomp of the rhetoricians' words. These delight everyone with their sweetness, and while they captivate the ears with verses flowing in sweet measure, they also penetrate the soul and bind the inner heart. But when they have been read through with the greatest zeal and labor, they give their readers nothing but empty sound and the clatter of words: no fullness of truth, no refreshment of righteousness is found there. Their devotees remain in hunger for the truth and in poverty of virtues. A type of this wisdom is also described in Deuteronomy under the figure of the captive woman, about whom the divine voice commands that, if an Israelite wishes to have her as wife, he must shave her head, cut her nails, and remove her hair, and when she has been made clean, then she may pass into the victor's embrace. If we understand this according to the letter, is it not ridiculous? Yet we too usually do this when we read the philosophers, when books of worldly wisdom come into our hands: if we find anything useful in them, we convert it to our own teaching; but if anything superfluous, about idols, about love, about care for worldly things, these we shave off, on these we impose baldness, these we cut away with a very sharp blade like nails. Hence the apostle too forbids anyone to recline at table in an idol's temple, saying: "But see that this liberty of yours does not become a stumbling block to the weak. For if someone sees one who has knowledge reclining in an idol's temple, will not his conscience, since it is weak, be built up to eat food offered to idols, and the weak brother perish by your knowledge, for whom Christ died?" Does he not seem to you to say in other words that you should not read the philosophers, orators, and poets, nor rest in reading them? And let us not flatter ourselves that we do not believe what is written in them, since the conscience of others is wounded, and we are thought to approve what we do not disapprove while we read it. Otherwise, how could we suppose that the apostle approved the knowledge of one who ate in an idol's temple and called perfect one whom he knew to eat food offered to idols? Far be it that from a Christian mouth should sound "almighty Jupiter" and "by Hercules" and "by Castor" and the rest, portents rather than divinities. But now we see even priests of God, leaving aside the Gospels and the prophets, reading comedies, singing the love words of pastoral verses, holding Virgil in their hands, and making into a sin of choice what for boys is a matter of necessity. We must take care, then, not to wish to have the captive woman as wife, not to recline in an idol's temple; or, if we have certainly been deceived by love of her, let us cleanse her and purge her of all the horror of filth, lest the brother for whom Christ died suffer scandal when he hears songs composed in praise of idols resounding from the voice of a Christian. ### Scripture references - Luke 15:16: quotation, high confidence - Ezek 16:34: quotation, high confidence - Ezek 16:33: quotation, high confidence - Deut 21:12: allusion, high confidence - 1 Cor 8:9: quotation, high confidence - 1 Cor 8:10: quotation, high confidence - 1 Cor 8:11: quotation, high confidence ### Extrabiblical texts - Virgil (Virgil): allusion, medium confidence ### Translation notes - Luke 15:16; Ezek 16:34, 33; Deut 21:10-13 (the captive woman, a favorite figure of Jerome's for the use of pagan learning); 1 Cor 8:9-11. "Holding Virgil" refers to reading the pastoral poems (Eclogues); the Aeneid and Eclogues were school texts. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 21.13 (CSEL 54:121–124; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/20-1/#p-21-13). ## Letter 21.14 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/20-1/#p-21-14 - Source: CSEL 54:124–125 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome interprets the hired servants as those who obey God's law only for earthly reward, and contrasts fear with love. ### Latin text In se autem conuersus dixit: quanti mercennarii patris mei abundant pane, ego autem hic fame pereo! mercennarios secundum alium intellectum eos aduertimus ex Iudaeis, qui ob praesentia tantum bona legis praecepta custodiunt, id est iusti sunt et misericordes, non ob ipsam iustitiam et ob ipsum misericordiae bonum, sed ut a deo terrenae fertilitatis et longae uitae praemium consequantur. qui autem ista desiderat, metu conpellitur ad obsequium praeceptorum, ne eorum praeuaricatione, quae iussa sunt, careat concupitis. porro, ubi metus est, non est dilectio. perfecta quippe dilectio foras mittit timorem. nam qui diligit, non ideo imperata custodit, quia aut timore poenarum aut praemii auiditate conpellitur, sed quia hoc ipsum, quod a deo iubetur, est optimum. sensus itaque iste est: quanti ex Iudaeis ob praesentia tantum bona a dei obsequio non recedunt, et ego egestate conficior ### English translation (Claude) "And coming to himself he said: How many of my father's hired servants have bread in abundance, but I am perishing here from hunger!" In another sense we take the hired servants to be those of the Jews who keep the precepts of the law only for the sake of present goods; that is, they are righteous and merciful not for the sake of righteousness itself and the good of mercy itself, but in order to receive from God the reward of earthly abundance and long life. Whoever desires these is driven to obey the precepts by fear, lest by transgressing what is commanded he lose what he longs for. But where there is fear, there is no love, for "perfect love casts out fear." For whoever loves keeps what is commanded not because he is driven by fear of punishment or greed for reward, but because what God commands is itself the best. So the sense is this: "How many of the Jews do not withdraw from obedience to God, only for the sake of present goods, and I am worn away by want!" ### Scripture references - Luke 15:17: quotation, high confidence - 1 John 4:18: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Luke 15:17; 1 John 4:18. The characterization of "those of the Jews" is Jerome's allegory; translated as written. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 21.14 (CSEL 54:124–125; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/20-1/#p-21-14). ## Letter 21.15 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/20-1/#p-21-15 - Source: CSEL 54:125 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome notes that the prodigal must "rise", since sinners lie fallen and the righteous stand before God. ### Latin text Surgens ibo ad patrem meum. pulchre ait surgens; patre quippe absente non steterat. peccatorum iacere, stare iustorum est. ad Moysen dicitur: tu uero hic sta mecum; et in centesimo tricesimo tertio psalmo: ecce nunc benedicite dominum, omnes serui domini, qui statis in domo domini, ad benedictionem domini stantes propheta in domo domini cohortatur. ### English translation (Claude) "Rising, I will go to my father." He rightly says "rising"; for while his father was absent he had not been standing. To lie down belongs to sinners, to stand to the righteous. To Moses it is said: "But you, stand here with me"; and in Psalm 133: "See now, bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord, who stand in the house of the Lord": the prophet exhorts those standing in the house of the Lord to bless the Lord. ### Scripture references - Luke 15:18: quotation, high confidence - Deut 5:31: quotation, high confidence - Ps 134:1 (133:1 LXX): quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Luke 15:18; Deut 5:31; Ps 134:1 (LXX and Vulgate 133:1). ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 21.15 (CSEL 54:125; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/20-1/#p-21-15). ## Letter 21.16 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/20-1/#p-21-16 - Source: CSEL 54:125 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome explains the prodigal's confession as sin against the heavenly Jerusalem and against God through idolatry. ### Latin text Et dicam illi: pater, peccaui in caelum et coram te; iam non sum dignus uocari filius tuus. peccauerat in caelum, qui Hierusalem caelestem reliquerat matrem; peccauerat coram patre, qui conditore deserto fuerat ligna ueneratus; non erat dignus uocari filius dei, qui seruus esse maluerat idolorum. omnis enim, qui peccatum facit, de diabolo patre natus est. ### English translation (Claude) "And I will say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son." He had sinned against heaven, since he had left his mother, the heavenly Jerusalem; he had sinned before the father, since, deserting the Creator, he had worshiped wood; he was not worthy to be called a son of God, since he had preferred to be a slave of idols. "For everyone who commits sin is born of the devil as father." ### Scripture references - Luke 15:18: quotation, high confidence - Luke 15:19: quotation, high confidence - Gal 4:26: allusion, high confidence - Jer 2:27: allusion, medium confidence - 1 John 3:8: quotation, medium confidence ### Translation notes - Luke 15:18-19; Gal 4:26; Jer 2:27; 1 John 3:8 (loosely combined with John 8:44). ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 21.16 (CSEL 54:125; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/20-1/#p-21-16). ## Letter 21.17 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/20-1/#p-21-17 - Source: CSEL 54:125 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome paraphrases the prodigal's request to be made a hired servant. ### Latin text Fac me sicut unum ex mercennariis tuis. fac me, inquit, sicut unum ex Iudaeis, qui te ob praesentium tantum rerum promissa uenerantur. recipe filium paenitentem, qui mercennariis tuis peccantibus saepissime pepercisti. ### English translation (Claude) "Make me as one of your hired servants." "Make me," he says, "like one of the Jews, who worship you only for the promises of present things. Receive a repentant son, you who have so very often spared your hired servants when they sinned." ### Scripture references - Luke 15:19: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Luke 15:19. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 21.17 (CSEL 54:125; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/20-1/#p-21-17). ## Letter 21.18 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/20-1/#p-21-18 - Source: CSEL 54:125–126 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome says we return to God as soon as we turn from sin in repentance. ### Latin text Et uenit usque ad patrem suum. uenimus ad patrem, quando a porcorum recedimus pastione, secundum illud: statim ut conuersus ingemueris, saluus eris. ### English translation (Claude) "And he came to his father." We come to the father when we withdraw from feeding pigs, according to the saying: "As soon as you turn and groan, you will be saved." ### Scripture references - Luke 15:20: quotation, high confidence - Isa 30:15: quotation, medium confidence ### Translation notes - Luke 15:20; Isa 30:15 (in the Greek form). ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 21.18 (CSEL 54:125–126; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/20-1/#p-21-18). ## Letter 21.19 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/20-1/#p-21-19 - Source: CSEL 54:126 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome interprets the father's running to meet his son as God's prevenient grace in the incarnation of the Word. ### Latin text Cumque adhuc longe esset, uidit eum pater eius et misericordia motus est. antequam dignis operibus et uera paenitentia ad patrem rediret antiquum, deus, apud quem cuncta futura iam facta sunt et qui omnium est praescius futurorum, ad eius praecurrit aduentum et per uerbum suum, quod carnem sumpsit ex uirgine, reditum filii iunioris anticipat. ### English translation (Claude) "And while he was still far off, his father saw him and was moved with compassion." Before he returned to his former father by worthy works and true repentance, God, with whom all future things are already done and who foreknows all that is to come, ran ahead to meet his coming, and through his Word, who took flesh from the virgin, anticipated the return of the younger son. ### Scripture references - Luke 15:20: quotation, high confidence - John 1:14: allusion, medium confidence ### Translation notes - Luke 15:20; John 1:14. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 21.19 (CSEL 54:126; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/20-1/#p-21-19). ## Letter 21.20 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/20-1/#p-21-20 - Source: CSEL 54:126 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome interprets the father's embrace as the incarnation and the placing of Christ's easy yoke on the believer by grace. ### Latin text Et procurrens incubuit super collum ipsius. ante uenit ad terras, quam ille domum confessionis intraret, incubuit super collum ipsius, id est corpus sumpsit humanum, et, sicuti super pectus Iohannes recubuit, qui secretorum eius effectus est particeps, ita et iugum suum leue, id est mandatorum suorum facilia praecepta, ex gratia magis quam ex merito super iuniorem filium conlocauit. ### English translation (Claude) "And running to him, he fell upon his neck." He came to earth before the son entered the house of confession; he fell upon his neck, that is, he took a human body; and just as John, who became a sharer in his secrets, leaned upon his breast, so he laid his light yoke, that is, the easy precepts of his commandments, upon the younger son, by grace rather than for merit. ### Scripture references - Luke 15:20: quotation, high confidence - John 13:25: allusion, high confidence - Matt 11:30: allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - Luke 15:20; John 13:25; Matt 11:30. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 21.20 (CSEL 54:126; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/20-1/#p-21-20). ## Letter 21.21 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/20-1/#p-21-21 - Source: CSEL 54:126–127 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome interprets the father's kiss as the incarnation longed for by the church in the Song of Songs. ### Latin text Et osculatus est eum iuxta illud, quod in Cantico Canticorum ecclesia de sponsi precatur aduentu: osculetur me ab osculis oris sui, nolo mihi, dicens, per Moysen, nolo per prophetas loquatur; ipse meum corpus adsumat, ipse me osculetur in carne, ut et illud quoque, quod in Esaia scriptum est, huic sententiae coaptemus: si quaeris, quaere et ad me habita in saltu. et ibi quippe flens ecclesia clamare iubetur ex Seir, quia Seir pilosus> et hispidus interpretatur, ut antiquum gentilium significet horrorem illa pariter similitudine respondente: nigra sum et speciosa filia Hierusalem. ### English translation (Claude) "And he kissed him," in accordance with what the church prays in the Song of Songs about the coming of the Bridegroom: "Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth." "I do not want him," she says, "to speak to me through Moses, I do not want him to speak through the prophets; let him take my body himself, let him kiss me himself in the flesh." So that we may also fit to this sense what is written in Isaiah: "If you seek, seek, and dwell with me in the forest." For there the church is told to cry out weeping from Seir, because Seir is interpreted "hairy" and "shaggy", signifying the former roughness of the Gentiles, with that likeness corresponding to it: "I am black and beautiful, daughter of Jerusalem." ### Scripture references - Luke 15:20: quotation, high confidence - Song 1:2 (1:1 Vulg.): quotation, high confidence - Isa 21:12: quotation, medium confidence - Song 1:5 (1:4 Vulg.): quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Luke 15:20; Song 1:2 (Vulgate 1:1); Isa 21:11-12 (in the Greek form); Song 1:5 (Vulgate 1:4). ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 21.21 (CSEL 54:126–127; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/20-1/#p-21-21). ## Letter 21.22 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/20-1/#p-21-22 - Source: CSEL 54:127 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome notes that even the unworthy son calls God "Father", against those who restrict the name to the saints. ### Latin text Dixit autem illi filius: pater, peccaui in caelum et coram te; iam non sum dignus uocari filius tuus. dicit se dignum non esse filium nuncupari et tamen ex naturae uoce, ex illa substantia, quam illi pater fuerat aliquando largitus, in nomen trepidus ueritatis erumpit: pater, inquiens, peccaui in caelum. frustra igitur quidam argumentantur nomen patris in sanctos tantummodo conuenire, cum etiam hic deum patrem uocet, qui se filii nomine confitetur indignum; nisi forte ideo patrem audet uocare, quia plena mente conuersus est. ### English translation (Claude) "And the son said to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son." He says he is not worthy to be called a son, and yet, from the voice of nature, from that substance which the father had once given him, he breaks out trembling into the name of truth, saying, "Father, I have sinned against heaven." So some argue in vain that the name "father" applies only to the saints, since here too the one who confesses himself unworthy of the name of son calls God father; unless perhaps he dares to call him father because he has turned with his whole mind. ### Scripture references - Luke 15:21: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Luke 15:21. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 21.22 (CSEL 54:127; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/20-1/#p-21-22). ## Letter 21.23 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/20-1/#p-21-23 - Source: CSEL 54:127 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome interprets the first robe as the garment of the Holy Spirit lost by Adam. ### Latin text Dixit autem pater ad pueros suos: celerius proferte stolam priorem, stolam, quam Adam peccando perdiderat, stolam, quae in alia parabola indumentum dicitur nuptiale, id est uestem spiritus sancti, quam qui non habuerit, non potest regis interesse conuiuio. ### English translation (Claude) "But the father said to his servants: Quickly bring out the first robe": the robe which Adam lost by sinning, the robe which in another parable is called the wedding garment, that is, the garment of the Holy Spirit; whoever does not have it cannot share in the king's banquet. ### Scripture references - Luke 15:22: quotation, high confidence - Matt 22:11: allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - Luke 15:22; Matt 22:11-12. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 21.23 (CSEL 54:127; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/20-1/#p-21-23). ## Letter 21.24 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/21-24/#p-21-24 - Source: CSEL 54:127–128 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome interprets the ring as the seal of the Holy Spirit, restoring the likeness of Christ and marking works of righteousness. ### Latin text Et date anulum in manu illius, signaculum similitudinis Christi secundum illud: credentes signati estis spiritu repromissionis sancto. et ad principem dicitur Tyri, qui similitudinem conditoris amiserat: tu es resignaculum similitudinis et corona decoris, in deliciis paradisi dei natus es. Esaias quoque de hoc signaculo loquitur: tunc manifesti erunt, qui signantur. hoc signaculum in manu datur, quando opera iustitiae scriptura significat, ut ibi: factum est uerbum domini in manu Aggei prophetae; et ad Hierusalem: ornaui te, inquit, ornamento et inposui tibi armillas circa manus tuas. rursum ad eum uirum, qui indutus est podere, alius locus signaculi demonstratur: pertransi mediam Hierusalem et da signum in frontibus uirorum gementium et dolentium in omnibus iniquitatibus, quae fiunt in medio eorum. quare? ut postea possint dicere: signatum est super nos lumen uultus tui, domine. ### English translation (Claude) "And put a ring on his hand": the seal of likeness to Christ, according to the saying: "Believing, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise." And to the prince of Tyre, who had lost the likeness of the Creator, it is said: "You are the seal of likeness and a crown of beauty; you were born in the delights of the paradise of God." Isaiah too speaks of this seal: "Then those who are sealed will be manifest." This seal is given on the hand, since Scripture signifies works of righteousness by it, as there: "The word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet"; and to Jerusalem: "I adorned you with ornaments and put bracelets on your hands." Again, to the man clothed in the long robe another place of the seal is shown: "Pass through the midst of Jerusalem and put a sign on the foreheads of the men who groan and grieve over all the iniquities that are done in their midst." Why? So that afterwards they may say: "The light of your face has been sealed upon us, O Lord." ### Scripture references - Luke 15:22: quotation, high confidence - Eph 1:13: quotation, high confidence - Ezek 28:12: quotation, high confidence - Ezek 28:13: quotation, high confidence - Isa 8:16: quotation, medium confidence - Hag 1:1: quotation, high confidence - Ezek 16:11: quotation, high confidence - Ezek 9:4: quotation, high confidence - Ps 4:6 (4:7 LXX): quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Luke 15:22; Eph 1:13; Ezek 28:12-13; Isa 8:16 (in the Greek form); Hag 1:1; Ezek 16:11; Ezek 9:4; Ps 4:6 (LXX and Vulgate 4:7). ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 21.24 (CSEL 54:127–128; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/21-24/#p-21-24). ## Letter 21.25 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/21-24/#p-21-25 - Source: CSEL 54:128–129 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome interprets the shoes as preparation for the Passover and for proclaiming the gospel of peace. ### Latin text Et calciamenta in pedibus eius. sponsi quippe perdiderat dignitatem. nudis pedibus pascha celebrare non poterat. haec sunt calciamenta, de quibus dominus ait: et calceaui te hyacinthum. et calciamenta in pedibus eius, necubi coluber insidians plantam gradientis inuaderet, ut super scorpiones et serpentes securius ambularet, ut praepararetur ad euangelium pacis iam non ingrediens secundum carnem, sed secundum spiritum, et dictum ei propheticum conueniret: quam speciosi pedes euangelizantium pacem, euangelizantium bona! ### English translation (Claude) "And shoes on his feet." For he had lost the dignity of the Bridegroom; he could not celebrate the Passover with bare feet. These are the shoes of which the Lord says: "And I shod you with hyacinth." "And shoes on his feet," so that the snake lying in wait might nowhere attack the sole of the one walking, that he might walk more safely over scorpions and serpents, that he might be prepared for the gospel of peace, no longer walking according to the flesh but according to the spirit, and that the prophetic word might suit him: "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of peace, who bring good news of good things!" ### Scripture references - Luke 15:22: quotation, high confidence - Exod 12:11: allusion, high confidence - Ezek 16:10: quotation, high confidence - Luke 10:19: allusion, high confidence - Eph 6:15: allusion, high confidence - Rom 8:4: allusion, medium confidence - Rom 10:15: quotation, high confidence - Isa 52:7: allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - Luke 15:22; Exod 12:11; Ezek 16:10; Gen 3:15; Luke 10:19; Eph 6:15; Rom 8:4; Isa 52:7 (Rom 10:15). ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 21.25 (CSEL 54:128–129; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/21-24/#p-21-25). ## Letter 21.26 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/21-24/#p-21-26 - Source: CSEL 54:129 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome interprets the fatted calf as Christ, whose flesh and blood believers receive daily in the Eucharist. ### Latin text Et adferte uitulum saginatum et occidite, et manducemus et epulemur, quoniam hic filius meus mortuus fuerat et reuixit, perierat et inuentus est. uitulus saginatus, qui ad paenitentium immolatur salutem, ipse saluator est, cuius cotidie carne pascimur, cruore potamur. fidelis mecum lector intellegis, qua pinguedine saturati in ructum laudum eius erumpimus dicentes: eructauit cor meum uerbum bonum, dico ego opera mea regi, licet quidam superstitiose magis quam uere non considerantes textum psalmi ex patris persona hoc arbitrentur intellegi. quod autem ait: epulemur, quoniam hic filius meus mortuus fuerat et reuixit, perierat et inuentus est, ad eundem superioris parabolae pertinet sensum, in qua dicitur: sic, dico uobis, gaudium erit coram angelis dei super unum peccatorem paenitentiam agentem. ### English translation (Claude) "And bring the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and feast, because this son of mine was dead and has come back to life, was lost and is found." The fatted calf that is sacrificed for the salvation of penitents is the Savior himself, on whose flesh we feed daily and whose blood we drink. You, faithful reader, understand with me with what richness we are filled when we burst out in the overflow of his praises, saying: "My heart has poured forth a good word; I speak my works to the king"; although some, more superstitiously than truly, not considering the context of the psalm, think this is to be understood as spoken in the person of the Father. And when he says, "Let us feast, because this son of mine was dead and has come back to life, was lost and is found," it has the same sense as the preceding parable, where it is said: "So, I tell you, there will be joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents." ### Scripture references - Luke 15:23: quotation, high confidence - Luke 15:24: quotation, high confidence - Ps 45:1 (44:2 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Luke 15:10: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Luke 15:23-24; Ps 45:1 (LXX and Vulgate 44:2), which some interpreters read as spoken by the Father about the Son; Luke 15:10. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 21.26 (CSEL 54:129; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/21-24/#p-21-26). ## Letter 21.27 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/21-24/#p-21-27 - Source: CSEL 54:129 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome sees the feast as the daily Eucharist in which Christ is offered for believers. ### Latin text Et coeperunt epulari. hoc conuiuium cotidie celebratur, cotidie pater filium recipit: semper Christus credentibus immolatur. ### English translation (Claude) "And they began to feast." This banquet is celebrated daily; daily the father receives the son; Christ is always sacrificed for believers. ### Scripture references - Luke 15:24: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Luke 15:24. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 21.27 (CSEL 54:129; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/21-24/#p-21-27). ## Letter 21.28 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/21-24/#p-21-28 - Source: CSEL 54:129–131 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome turns to the elder son, whom some take as the saints and others as the Jews, and links him with those who refuse the invitation to the feast. ### Latin text Erat autem filius illius senior in agro. hucusque de persona iunioris filii disputatum est, quem secundum praesentem parabolam in publicanis et peccatoribus, qui a domino ad paenitentiam prouocabantur, debemus accipere, secundum mysticos autem intellectus de futura quoque uocatione gentium prophetari. nunc ad seniorem filium sermo transgreditur, quem multi simpliciter ad omnium sanctorum personam, multi proprie ad Iudaeos referunt. et de sanctis quidem non difficilis interpretatio est in eo, quod dicitur: numquam mandatum tuum praeteriui, licet illud uideatur obsistere, quod reuersioni fratris inuideat. in Iudaeos autem cum liuor in fratris salute conueniat, hoc repugnat, quod numquam se dicat eius praeterisse mandatum; de quibus quid nobis uideatur, suis locis conabimur explanare. erat autem filius illius senior in agro, in terrenis operibus labore desudans, longe a gratia spiritus sancti, a consilio patris extorris. hic est, qui ait: agrum emi et necesse habeo exire et uidere illum; rogo te, habe me excusatum; hic, qui iuga bouum conparat quinque et legis onere depressus terrenorum sensuum uoluptate perfruitur; hic, qui uxore ducta ire ad nuptias non potest et effectus caro nequaquam unum esse cum spiritu; in huius personam etiam illius parabolae operarii congruunt, in qua prima, tertia, sexta, nona hora, id est uocationibus uariis, mittuntur ad uineam et indignantur sibi undecimae horae operarios coaequari. ### English translation (Claude) "But his elder son was in the field." Up to this point we have discussed the person of the younger son, whom, according to the present parable, we must take to be the tax collectors and sinners who were called to repentance by the Lord, and, according to the mystical senses, to be a prophecy also of the future calling of the Gentiles. Now the discussion passes to the elder son, whom many refer simply to the person of all the saints, and many specifically to the Jews. As regards the saints, the interpretation is not difficult in the words, "I have never transgressed your command," though his envy at his brother's return seems to stand against it. As regards the Jews, while jealousy at a brother's salvation fits them, it conflicts with this, that he says he never transgressed his command. What we think about these we shall try to explain in their places. "But his elder son was in the field," sweating with toil in earthly works, far from the grace of the Holy Spirit, an exile from the father's counsel. This is the one who says: "I have bought a field and must go out and see it; I ask you, have me excused"; this is the one who buys five yoke of oxen and, weighed down by the burden of the law, enjoys the pleasure of the earthly senses; this is the one who, having married a wife, cannot go to the wedding, and, having become flesh, can in no way be one with the spirit. To his person also belong the workers of that parable in which they are sent into the vineyard at the first, third, sixth, and ninth hours, that is, by different callings, and are indignant that the workers of the eleventh hour are made equal to them. ### Scripture references - Luke 15:25: quotation, high confidence - Luke 15:29: quotation, high confidence - Luke 14:18: quotation, high confidence - Luke 14:19: allusion, high confidence - Luke 14:20: allusion, high confidence - 1 Cor 6:17: allusion, medium confidence - Matt 20:12: allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - Luke 15:25, 29; Luke 14:18-20; 1 Cor 6:17; Matt 20:1-12. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 21.28 (CSEL 54:129–131; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/21-24/#p-21-28). ## Letter 21.29 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/21-24/#p-21-29 - Source: CSEL 54:131 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome explains that "symphony" in the parable means harmonious singing, not an instrument. ### Latin text Et cum ueniret, adpropinquauit domui et audiuit symphoniam et.chorum. illud, quod in quodam psalmo superscribitur pro meleth, huic sensui conuenit, siquidem meleth chorus in unum concinens dicitur. male autem quidam de Latinis symphoniam putant esse genus organi, cum concors in dei laudem concentus ex hoc uocabulo significetur; symphonia quippe consonantia exprimitur in Latinum. ### English translation (Claude) "And as he came, he drew near to the house and heard music and dancing." What is written at the head of a certain psalm, "for maeleth", fits this sense, since maeleth means a chorus singing together as one. Some Latin writers wrongly think symphonia is a kind of instrument, whereas this word signifies harmonious singing together in praise of God; for symphonia is rendered in Latin as "consonance". ### Scripture references - Luke 15:25: quotation, high confidence - Ps 88:1 (87:1 LXX): allusion, medium confidence ### Translation notes - Luke 15:25; the title of Ps 88 (LXX and Vulgate 87), "for maeleth". ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 21.29 (CSEL 54:131; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/21-24/#p-21-29). ## Letter 21.30 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/21-24/#p-21-30 - Source: CSEL 54:131 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome applies the elder son's question to Israel's incomprehension at the calling of the Gentiles. ### Latin text Et uocauit unum de pueris et interrogauit, quidnam essent haec. et nunc interrogat Israhel, quare deus in gentium adsumptione laetetur, et aemulatione cruciatus paternam scire non potest uoluntatem. ### English translation (Claude) "And he called one of the servants and asked what these things were." Even now Israel asks why God rejoices in taking up the Gentiles, and, tormented by jealousy, cannot know the father's will. ### Scripture references - Luke 15:26: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Luke 15:26. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 21.30 (CSEL 54:131; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/21-24/#p-21-30). ## Letter 21.31 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/21-24/#p-21-31 - Source: CSEL 54:131 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome explains the joy of the feast as the salvation of Gentiles and sinners, in which all creation shares except Israel. ### Latin text Qui ait illi, quoniam frater tuus uenit et occidit pater tuus uitulum saginatum, quoniam incolumem illum recepit. causa laetitiae, quod pari in dei laudes toto orbe uoce concinitur, salus est gentium, salus est peccatorum. laetantur angeli, omnis in gaudium creatura consentit et de solo dicitur Israhel: ### English translation (Claude) "He said to him: Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has received him safe." The cause of joy, that praises of God are sung with one voice throughout the whole world, is the salvation of the Gentiles, the salvation of sinners. The angels rejoice, all creation agrees in joy, and of Israel alone it is said: ... ### Scripture references - Luke 15:27: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Luke 15:27. The section ends mid-sentence in the digital text; what follows is the next verse of the parable (15:28). ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 21.31 (CSEL 54:131; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/21-24/#p-21-31). ## Letter 21.32 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/21-24/#p-21-32 - Source: CSEL 54:131–132 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome compares the elder son's refusal to enter with those who stand outside the church. ### Latin text Iratus autem noluit intrare. irascitur se absente fratrem esse susceptum, irascitur eum uiuere, quem putabat extinctum. et nunc foris stat Israhel, et nunc discipulis euangelia in ecclesia audientibus mater eius et fratres foris stant quaerentes eum. ### English translation (Claude) "But he was angry and would not go in." He is angry that his brother was received in his absence; he is angry that he lives whom he thought dead. Even now Israel stands outside, and even now, while the disciples hear the Gospels in the church, his mother and brothers stand outside seeking him. ### Scripture references - Luke 15:28: quotation, high confidence - Matt 12:46: allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - Luke 15:28; Matt 12:46-47. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 21.32 (CSEL 54:131–132; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/21-24/#p-21-32). ## Letter 21.33 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/21-24/#p-21-33 - Source: CSEL 54:132 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome sees the father's entreaty in the apostles' preaching of reconciliation. ### Latin text Egressus autem pater illius coepit rogare eum. quam benignus et clemens pater! rogat filium, ut laetitiae domus particeps fiat; rogat autem per apostolos, euangelii praedicatores. e quibus Paulus ait: precamur pro Christo, reconciliamini deo, et alibi: uobis primum oportebat adnuntiare uerbum domini, sed, quia indignos uos iudicastis, ecce conuertimur ad gentes. ### English translation (Claude) "But his father came out and began to entreat him." How kind and merciful a father! He begs his son to share the joy of the house; and he begs through the apostles, the preachers of the gospel. One of them, Paul, says: "We beseech you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God"; and elsewhere: "It was necessary that the word of the Lord be spoken first to you; but since you judge yourselves unworthy, see, we turn to the Gentiles." ### Scripture references - Luke 15:28: quotation, high confidence - 2 Cor 5:20: quotation, high confidence - Acts 13:46: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Luke 15:28; 2 Cor 5:20; Acts 13:46. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 21.33 (CSEL 54:132; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/21-24/#p-21-33). ## Letter 21.34 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/21-24/#p-21-34 - Source: CSEL 54:132–134 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome argues that the elder son's claim never to have disobeyed is a boast like the Pharisee's, and that the father's reply implies mercy, not approval. ### Latin text Ipse autem respondens ait patri suo: ecce tot annis seruio tibi. pater supplex ad concordiam deprecatur, ille iustitiam, quae in lege est, sequens dei iustitiae non subicitur. porro quae maior iustitia dei, quam ignoscere paenitentibus, filium seruare redeuntem? ecce tot annis seruio tibi et numquam mandatum tuum praeteriui. quasi hoc ipsum non sit praeterire mandatum, saluti alterius inuidere, ante deum se iactare iustitiae, cum nemo coram eo mundus sit. quis enim laetabitur castum se habere cor, nec si unius quidem fuerit diei? Dauid confitetur et dicit: ecce enim in iniquitatibus conceptus sum et in delictis concepit me mater mea, et in alio loco: si iniquitates adtendis,, domine, quis sustinebit? et hic dicit numquam se praeterisse mandatum, totiens ob idolatriam captiuitatibus traditus. ecce tot annis seruio tibi et numquam mandatum tuum praeteriui. hoc est, quod Paulus apostolus loquitur: quid ergo dicimus? quia gentes, quae non sectabantur iustitiam, adprehenderunt iustitiam, iustitiam autem, quae ex fide est; Israhel uero sectando legem iustitiae ad legem iustitiae non peruenit. quare? quia non ex fide, sed quasi ex operibus legis. potest ergo et ex eius persona dici, qui iuxta eundem apostolum in iustitia, quae ex lege est, sine reprehensione uersatus sit, licet mihi uideatur magis se iactare Iudaeus quam uera dicere ad exemplum illius pharisaei: deus, gratias ago tibi, quia non sum sicut ceteri homines, raptores, iniusti, adulteri, et sicut hic publicanus. oro te, nonne tibi uidetur ea, quae ille de publicano dixerat, dicere iste de fratre: hic, qui comedit omnem substantiam suam uiuens cum meretricibus? ad id autem, quod ait: mandatum tuum numquam praeteriui, patris sermo non congruit; non enim confirmauit uera esse, quae dixerat filius, sed irascentem alia ratione conpescuit: fili, tu mecum es semper. numquid ait: bene quidem dicis et fecisti cuncta, quae iusseram? sed: mecum es, inquit, semper. mecum es lege, qua stringeris; mecum es, dum mihi et in captiuitatibus erudiris; mecum es, non quia mea praecepta conpleueris, sed quod te in longam regionem abire non passus sim; mecum es ad extremum secundum illud, quod locutus sum ad Dauid: si dereliquerint filii eius legem meam et in iudiciis meis non ambulauerint, si iustificationes meas profanauerint et mandata mea non custodierint, uisitabo in uirga iniquitates eorum et in flagellis iniustitias eorum; misericordiam autem meam non auferam ab eo. quo testimonio et id, in quo filius senior gloriatur, falsum esse conuincitur, dum in dei iudiciis non ambulauit et eius mandata non fecit. et, quomodo ista non faciens cum patre semper fuerit, edocemur: dum peccans uisitatur in uirga et uisitato misericordia non negatur. nec mirandum est patri eum ausum fuisse mentiri, qui fratri potuit.inuidere, maxime cum in die iudicii quidam inpudentius mentiantur: nonne in nomine tuo comedimus et bibimus et uirtutes multas fecimus, daemonia eiecimus? quid uero sit: et omnia mea tua sunt, suo loco, congruentius explicabitur. ### English translation (Claude) "But he answered his father: See, so many years I have served you." The father humbly begs for harmony; the son, following the righteousness that is in the law, does not submit to the righteousness of God. And what greater righteousness of God is there than to pardon penitents and to save a returning son? "See, so many years I have served you, and I have never transgressed your command": as if this very thing were not transgressing the command, to envy another's salvation and to boast of one's righteousness before God, when no one is clean in his sight. For who will rejoice that he has a chaste heart, even if his life were but one day? David confesses and says: "For see, I was conceived in iniquities, and in sins my mother conceived me"; and in another place: "If you mark iniquities, Lord, who will endure?" And this one says he never transgressed the command, though he was so often handed over to captivity for idolatry. "See, so many years I have served you, and I have never transgressed your command." This is what the apostle Paul says: "What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have attained righteousness, the righteousness that is by faith; but Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness. Why? Because it was not by faith, but as if by works of the law." So it can also be said in the person of one who, according to the same apostle, lived blamelessly in the righteousness that is from the law; although to me the Jew seems rather to boast than to tell the truth, after the example of that Pharisee: "God, I thank you that I am not like other men, robbers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector." Tell me, does not this man seem to you to say of his brother what the Pharisee said of the tax collector: "This one, who has devoured all his property living with prostitutes"? But the father's words do not agree with his claim, "I have never transgressed your command"; for he did not confirm that what the son said was true, but calmed his anger in another way: "Son, you are always with me." Did he say, "You speak well, and you have done everything I commanded"? No, but: "You are always with me." You are with me by the law that binds you; you are with me while you are disciplined by me even in captivities; you are with me not because you fulfilled my precepts, but because I did not let you go away into a far country; you are with me, finally, according to what I said to David: "If his sons forsake my law and do not walk in my judgments, if they profane my statutes and do not keep my commandments, I will visit their iniquities with the rod and their injustices with scourges; but my mercy I will not take away from him." By this testimony what the elder son boasts of is also proved false, since he did not walk in God's judgments and did not do his commandments; and we are taught how, not doing these things, he was always with the father: while, sinning, he is visited with the rod, and mercy is not denied him when visited. Nor is it surprising that he dared to lie to his father, since he could envy his brother, especially since on the day of judgment some will lie even more shamelessly: "Did we not eat and drink in your name, and do many mighty works, and cast out demons?" What "and all that is mine is yours" means will be explained more fittingly in its place. ### Scripture references - Luke 15:29: quotation, high confidence - Rom 10:3: allusion, high confidence - Job 14:4: quotation, medium confidence - Ps 51:5 (50:7 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Ps 130:3 (129:3 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Rom 9:30: quotation, high confidence - Rom 9:31: quotation, high confidence - Rom 9:32: quotation, high confidence - Phil 3:6: allusion, high confidence - Luke 18:11: quotation, high confidence - Luke 15:30: quotation, high confidence - Luke 15:31: quotation, high confidence - Ps 89:30 (88:31 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Ps 89:32 (88:33 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Ps 89:33 (88:34 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Matt 7:22: quotation, high confidence - Luke 13:26: allusion, medium confidence ### Translation notes - Luke 15:29-31; Rom 10:3; Job 14:4-5 (in the Greek form); Ps 51:5 (LXX and Vulgate 50:7); Ps 130:3 (LXX and Vulgate 129:3); Rom 9:30-32; Phil 3:6; Luke 18:11; Ps 89:30-33 (LXX and Vulgate 88:31-34); Matt 7:22 and Luke 13:26. The polemical application to "the Jew" is Jerome's; translated as written. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 21.34 (CSEL 54:132–134; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/21-24/#p-21-34). ## Letter 21.35 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/21-24/#p-21-35 - Source: CSEL 54:134–136 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome voices Israel's complaint that no redeemer died for it, answers that Christ the Lamb has been offered to it too, and warns of the Antichrist. ### Latin text Et numquam dedisti mihi haedum, ut cum amicis meis epularer. tantus, inquit Israhel, sanguis effusus est, tot hominum caesa sunt milia, et nullus eorum nostrae extitit salutis redemptor. ipse Iosias, qui placuit in conspectu tuo, et nuper Macchabaei, qui pro tua hereditate pugnabant, contra fas sanctitatis hostium gladiis interempti sunt, et nullus cruor nobis reddidit libertatem: ecce adhuc Romano imperio subiacemus. non propheta, non sacerdos, non iustus quisquam immolatus est nobis, et pro luxurioso filio, id est pro gentibus, pro peccatoribus totius creaturae gloriosus sanguis effusus est; cumque merentibus minora non dederis, inmeritis maiora tribuisti. numquam dedisti mihi haedum, ut cum amicis meis epularer. erras, Israhel; dic potius: ut tecum epularer. aut potest tibi aliqua esse iocunditas nisi patre tecum celebrante conuiuium? saltem exemplo docere praesenti. reuerso filio iuniore et pater laetatur et pueri. manducemus, ait, et epulemur, non manducate et epulamini. at tu ea mente, qua inuides fratri, qua a patris recedis aspectu et semper in agro es, nunc quoque uis absente eo inire conuiuium. numquam dedisti mihi haedum. numquam pater deteriora dat munera. habes uitulum immolatum: ingredere, manduca cum fratre. quid haedum quaeris, cui agnus est missus? et, ne simules te nescire, quod missus est, Iohannes tibi eum in heremo demonstrat: ecce agnus dei, ecce, qui tollit peccata mundi. et pater quidem quasi clemens et paenitentiam tribuens te hortatur ad uitulum non immolans haedum, quem stare scit a sinistris. tu uero in fine saeculi ipse tibi es haedum immolaturus antichristum et cum amicis tuis, spiritibus inmundis, eius carne saturandus expleto uaticinio: tu confregisti capita draconis; dedisti eum escam populis Aethiopibus. ### English translation (Claude) "And you never gave me a kid, that I might feast with my friends." "So much blood," Israel says, "has been shed, so many thousands of men have been slain, and none of them has become the redeemer of our salvation. Josiah himself, who pleased you in your sight, and recently the Maccabees, who fought for your inheritance, were killed by the swords of enemies, against the right of holiness, and no blood has given us back our freedom: see, we are still subject to Roman rule. No prophet, no priest, no righteous man has been sacrificed for us; and for the dissolute son, that is, for the Gentiles, for the sinners of the whole creation, glorious blood has been shed; and while you did not give lesser things to the deserving, you have granted greater things to the undeserving." "You never gave me a kid, that I might feast with my friends." You are wrong, Israel; say rather, "that I might feast with you." Or can there be any joy for you unless the father celebrates the banquet with you? Learn at least from the present example: when the younger son returned, both the father and the servants rejoice. "Let us eat," he says, "and feast," not "eat and feast." But you, with the mind with which you envy your brother, with which you withdraw from the father's sight and are always in the field, want even now to go to a banquet in his absence. "You never gave me a kid." The father never gives worse gifts. You have the calf that was sacrificed: come in, eat with your brother. Why do you ask for a kid, when the lamb has been sent to you? And lest you pretend not to know that he has been sent, John points him out to you in the desert: "See the Lamb of God, see him who takes away the sin of the world." And the father, merciful and granting repentance, urges you to the calf and does not sacrifice the kid, which he knows stands on the left. But you, at the end of the age, will sacrifice for yourself a kid, the Antichrist, and will be glutted on his flesh with your friends, the unclean spirits, and the prophecy will be fulfilled: "You crushed the heads of the dragon; you gave him as food to the peoples of Ethiopia." ### Scripture references - Luke 15:29: quotation, high confidence - 2 Kgs 23:29: allusion, high confidence - Luke 15:23: quotation, high confidence - Matt 25:33: allusion, high confidence - John 1:29: quotation, high confidence - Ps 74:14 (73:14 LXX): quotation, high confidence ### Extrabiblical texts - 1 Macc 9:18 (1 Maccabees): allusion, medium confidence ### Translation notes - Luke 15:29; 2 Kgs 23:29 (Josiah); the Maccabean martyrs (1 Macc 2-9); Luke 15:23; Matt 25:33 (the goats on the left); John 1:29; Ps 74:14 (LXX and Vulgate 73:14). The polemical allegory about Israel and the Antichrist is Jerome's; translated as written. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 21.35 (CSEL 54:134–136; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/21-24/#p-21-35). ## Letter 21.36 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/21-24/#p-21-36 - Source: CSEL 54:136 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome says the elder son's complaint admits that the fatted calf, Christ, has been slain. ### Latin text Cum autem filius tuus hic, qui comedit omnem facultatem suam uiuens cum meretricibus, uenit, et occidisti ei uitulum saginatum. confitetur et nunc Israhel saginatum uitulum fuisse, qui caesus est; intellegunt uenisse Christum, sed torquentur inuidia et nolunt fratre non pereunte saluari. ### English translation (Claude) "But when this son of yours came, who has devoured all his means living with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him." Even now Israel confesses that the one who was slain was the fatted calf; they understand that Christ has come, but they are tormented by envy and do not want to be saved unless their brother perishes. ### Scripture references - Luke 15:30: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Luke 15:30. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 21.36 (CSEL 54:136; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/21-24/#p-21-36). ## Letter 21.37 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/21-24/#p-21-37 - Source: CSEL 54:136–137 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome interprets "all that is mine" as the law and the Scriptures given to Israel, noting that "all" in Scripture often means "most". ### Latin text Ipse autem dixit illi: fili, tu mecum es semper et omnia mea tua sunt. filium uocat, licet intrare nolentem. quomodo autem dei omnia Iudaeorum sunt? numquid angeli, throni, dominationes ceteraeque uirtutes? omnia ergo intellegamus legem, prophetas, eloquia diuina. haec ei dedit, ut in lege eius meditaretur die ac nocte, secundum illum canonem, quem saepe exposuimus, scripturarum omnia non ad totum referenda esse, sed ad partem maximam, ut ibi: omnes declinauerunt, simul inutiles facti sunt, et alibi: omnes, qui uenerunt ante me, fures fuerunt et latrones, et Paulus ad Corinthios: omnibus, inquit, omnia factus sum, ut omnes lucrifacerem, et ad Philippenses: omnes enim, quae sua sunt, quaerunt, non ea, quae sunt Christi Iesu. quamquam nihil umquam illi negasse credendus sit, quem ad esum uituli cohortatur. ### English translation (Claude) "But he said to him: Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours." He calls him son, though he refuses to come in. But how are all God's things the Jews'? Surely not the angels, thrones, dominions, and the other powers? So let us understand "all" as the law, the prophets, the divine oracles. These he gave him, so that he might meditate on his law day and night; according to the rule we have often explained, that "all" in the Scriptures is not always to be referred to the whole, but to the greatest part, as here: "All have turned aside, together they have become useless"; and elsewhere: "All who came before me were thieves and robbers"; and Paul to the Corinthians: "I have become all things to all, that I might win all"; and to the Philippians: "For all seek their own things, not the things of Christ Jesus." Although it must be believed that the father never denied anything to the one whom he urges to eat the calf. ### Scripture references - Luke 15:31: quotation, high confidence - Ps 1:2: allusion, high confidence - Ps 14:3 (13:3 LXX): quotation, high confidence - John 10:8: quotation, high confidence - 1 Cor 9:22: quotation, high confidence - Phil 2:21: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Luke 15:31; Ps 1:2; Ps 14:3 (LXX and Vulgate 13:3); John 10:8; 1 Cor 9:22; Phil 2:21. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 21.37 (CSEL 54:136–137; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/21-24/#p-21-37). ## Letter 21.38 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/21-24/#p-21-38 - Source: CSEL 54:137 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome notes that all three parables of Luke 15 end alike, signifying God's welcome of repentant sinners. ### Latin text Epulari nos oportet et gaudere, quoniam hic frater tuus mortuus fuerat et reuixit, perierat et inuentus est. confidamus igitur et nos uiuere posse per paenitentiam, qui fueramus mortui per delicta. et hic quidem ipse filius reuertitur; in superioribus uero, in oue scilicet et in dragma, quod errarat, adfertur et, quod perierat, inuenitur. et simili tres parabolae fine clauduntur, dum et in ista ponitur: perierat et inuentus est, ut intellegamus diuersis similitudinibus de eadem peccatorum susceptione signatum. ### English translation (Claude) "We had to feast and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come back to life, was lost and is found." Let us too, then, be confident that we, who were dead through sins, can live through repentance. And here the son himself returns; but in the earlier parables, that is, of the sheep and the drachma, what had strayed is carried back, and what was lost is found. And the three parables close with a similar ending, since in this one too it is put, "was lost and is found," so that we may understand that the same receiving of sinners is signified by different likenesses. ### Scripture references - Luke 15:32: quotation, high confidence - Luke 15:6: allusion, high confidence - Luke 15:9: allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - Luke 15:32; Luke 15:6, 9. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 21.38 (CSEL 54:137; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/21-24/#p-21-38). ## Letter 21.39 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/21-24/#p-21-39 - Source: CSEL 54:137–139 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Taking the elder son as a righteous man, Jerome explains his envy by the imperfection of all human righteousness compared with God's. ### Latin text Et haec quidem in ethnici persona dicta sint et Iudaei; uideamus autem, quomodo super sancto generaliter et peccatore parabola ista possit intellegi. et de ceteris quin iusto conueniant, non ambigitur; illud est, in quo legenti scrupulus commouetur, cur iustus saluti peccatoris inuideat et in tantum iracundia repleatur, ut nec fratris misericordia nec patris precibus nec totius domus iocunditate superetur. ad quod breuiter respondebimus omnem mundi istius iustitiam ad dei conparationem non esse iustitiam. quomodo enim ex peccatis Hierusalem Sodoma iustificatur, non quo ipsa sit iusta, sed quo maioribus delictis fiant minora delicta iustitia, ita et hominum uniuersa iustitia non est, deo conlata, iustitia. denique Paulus, qui dixerat: quotquot ergo perfecti, hoc sapimus, in alio loco confitetur et clamitat: o profundum diuitiarum sapientiae et scientiae dei, quam inscrutabilia iudicia eius et inuestigabiles uiae eius! et alibi: ex parte cognoscimus et ex parte prophetamus, et: nunc per speculum uidemus in aenigmate, et ad Romanos: miser ego homo, quis me liberabit de corpore mortis huius? ex quibus omnibus edocemur dei solius perfectam esse iustitiam, qui.solem suum oriri facit super iustos et iniustos et dat pluuiam serotinam et matutinam merentibus pariter et non merentibus, qui de uicis, angulis et plateis inuitat ad nuptias et ouem, quae ad exemplum filii paenitentis redire ipsa non poterat uel nolebat, quaerit et inuenit et inuentam suis umeris reportat. multum enim errando laborauerat. ### English translation (Claude) Let this be said, then, in the person of the Gentile and the Jew; but let us see how this parable can be understood of the saint in general and the sinner. That the rest fits the righteous man is not in doubt; the point that troubles the reader is why a righteous man should envy a sinner's salvation and be so filled with anger that he is overcome neither by his brother's mercy nor by his father's prayers nor by the joy of the whole house. To this we shall answer briefly that all the righteousness of this world is not righteousness in comparison with God. For just as Sodom is justified by the sins of Jerusalem, not because it is itself righteous, but because lesser sins become righteousness by comparison with greater, so all human righteousness is not righteousness when compared with God. Finally Paul, who had said, "As many, then, as are perfect, let us think this," in another place confesses and cries out: "O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God; how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out!" and elsewhere: "We know in part and we prophesy in part," and "Now we see through a mirror in an enigma," and to the Romans: "Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from the body of this death?" From all this we are taught that God's righteousness alone is perfect, who makes his sun rise on the righteous and the unrighteous, and gives the late and the early rain to the deserving and the undeserving alike, who invites to the wedding from the streets, corners, and squares, and who seeks and finds the sheep, which, unlike the repentant son, could not or would not return by itself, and when he has found it carries it back on his shoulders; for it had labored much in its wandering. ### Scripture references - Ezek 16:52: allusion, high confidence - Phil 3:15: quotation, high confidence - Rom 11:33: quotation, high confidence - 1 Cor 13:9: quotation, high confidence - 1 Cor 13:12: quotation, high confidence - Rom 7:24: quotation, high confidence - Matt 5:45: allusion, high confidence - Joel 2:23: allusion, medium confidence - Luke 14:21: allusion, high confidence - Luke 15:5: allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - Ezek 16:51-52; Phil 3:15; Rom 11:33; 1 Cor 13:9, 12; Rom 7:24; Matt 5:45; Joel 2:23 (Deut 11:14); Luke 14:21; Luke 15:5. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 21.39 (CSEL 54:137–139; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/21-24/#p-21-39). ## Letter 21.40 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/21-24/#p-21-40 - Source: CSEL 54:139–141 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome argues from the apostles' indignation and the parable of the laborers that envy can touch even the righteous, since only God is perfectly righteous. ### Latin text Ut autem doceamur in sanctos quoque cadere posse inuidiam et soli deo puram clementiam derelinqui, filiorum Zebedei consideremus exemplum, pro quibus cum mater mota pietatis affectu nimis grandia postulasset, reliqui decem discipuli indignati sunt. et Iesus aduocans eos dixit: scitis, quia principes gentium dominantur eorum et, qui maiores sunt, potestatem exercent in eis. non ita erit inter uos, sed quicumque uestrum uoluerit maior esse, fiat uester minister et, quicumque uoluerit inter uos esse primus, fiat uester seruus; quomodo et filius hominis non uenit ministrari, sed ministrare et dare animam suam redemptionem pro multis. nulli periculosum, nulli uideatur esse blasphemum, quod et in apostolis inuidiae malum diximus potuisse subrepere, cum etiam de angelis hoc putemus. sidera quippe non sunt munda in conspectu eius et contra angelos suos peruersum quid intellexit et in psalmis dicitur: non iustificabitur in conspectu eius omnis uiuens. non ait non iustificabitur omnis homo, sed omnis uiuens, id est non euangelista, non apostolus, non propheta, - ad maiora conscendo - non angelus, non throni, non dominationes, non potestates ceteraeque uirtutes. solus deus est, in quo peccatum non cadit; cetera, cum sint liberi arbitrii, iuxta quod et homo ad imaginem et similitudinem dei factus est, in utramque partem possunt suam flectere uoluntatem. quodsi hac sententia non adduceris, saltem illius auctoritate parabolae commouere, in qua per totam diem operarii mittuntur ad uineam. et in prima hora uocatur Adam, Abel, Seth; in tertia Noe; in sexta Abraham; in nona Moyses; in undecima gentilium populus, cui dicitur: quid hic statis tota die otiosi? et ille respondit: nemo nos conduxit. quod autem extrema hora nostri sit saluatoris aduentus, testis est Iohannes apostolus dicens: fratres, nouissima hora est. etenim, sicut audistis, quia antichristus uenit, nunc antichristi multi facti sunt, propter quod cognoscimus, quia nouissima hora est. si haec displicet interpretatio, sequor, quocumque duxeris, ita tamen, ut eos, qui uocati sunt primi, iustos esse fatearis. quod cum obtinuero, illud inferam: et quomodo iusti murmurauerunt aduersus patrem familias dicentes: hi, qui nouissimi uenerunt et una hora fecerunt, aequales illos nobis fecisti, qui portauimus pondus diei et ardorem? uidentur quidem iuste dicere non aequalem debere esse mercedem eius, qui a prima hora ad noctem usque sudauerit, et eius, qui una hora sit in labore uersatus, sed ipsa iustitia habet in se liuorem, cur alterius inuideat felicitati. denique et dominus oculum in eis arguit inuidentem dicens: aut oculus tuus nequam est, quia ego bonus sum? unde et ab apostolo solus iustus, solus dicitur inmortalis, non quo et angeli iniusti sint et mortales, sed quo ipse sit inmortalis et iustus, cui conlata uniuersa iustitia iniquitas inuenitur. ### English translation (Claude) And so that we may learn that envy can fall even on the saints and that pure mercy is left to God alone, let us consider the example of the sons of Zebedee: when their mother, moved by affection, asked for something too great for them, the other ten disciples were indignant. "And Jesus called them and said: You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you; but whoever of you wishes to be greater, let him be your minister, and whoever wishes to be first among you, let him be your servant; just as the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." Let it seem dangerous to no one, blasphemous to no one, that we have said the evil of envy could creep in even among the apostles, since we think this even of the angels. For "the stars are not clean in his sight," and "against his angels he perceived something perverse"; and in the psalms it is said: "No one living will be justified in his sight." He does not say "no man will be justified", but "no one living", that is, not an evangelist, not an apostle, not a prophet, and (I climb higher) not an angel, not thrones, not dominions, not powers and the other virtues. God alone is the one in whom sin does not fall; the rest, since they have free will, as man too was made in the image and likeness of God, can turn their will either way. But if you are not led by this view, at least be moved by the authority of that parable in which workers are sent into the vineyard throughout the whole day. At the first hour Adam, Abel, and Seth are called; at the third, Noah; at the sixth, Abraham; at the ninth, Moses; at the eleventh, the people of the Gentiles, to whom it is said: "Why do you stand here idle all day?" And they answered: "No one has hired us." That our Savior's coming is the last hour, the apostle John is witness, saying: "Brothers, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that Antichrist is coming, now many antichrists have arisen; by this we know that it is the last hour." If this interpretation displeases you, I follow wherever you lead, provided you admit that those who were called first are righteous. When I have obtained this, I shall infer: how then did the righteous murmur against the master of the house, saying: "These who came last and worked one hour, you have made them equal to us, who have borne the burden of the day and the heat"? They seem indeed to say justly that the wage of one who sweated from the first hour until night ought not to be equal to that of one who was at work for one hour; but that very righteousness has envy in it, in that it envies another's happiness. Finally the Lord rebukes the envious eye in them, saying: "Or is your eye evil because I am good?" Hence the apostle calls him alone righteous, alone immortal; not that the angels are unrighteous and mortal, but that he is immortal and righteous in comparison with whom all righteousness is found to be iniquity. ### Scripture references - Matt 20:24: allusion, high confidence - Matt 20:25: quotation, high confidence - Matt 20:26: quotation, high confidence - Matt 20:27: quotation, high confidence - Matt 20:28: quotation, high confidence - Job 25:5: quotation, high confidence - Job 4:18: quotation, high confidence - Ps 143:2 (142:2 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Gen 1:26: allusion, high confidence - Matt 20:6: quotation, high confidence - Matt 20:7: quotation, high confidence - 1 John 2:18: quotation, high confidence - Matt 20:12: quotation, high confidence - Matt 20:15: quotation, high confidence - 1 Tim 6:16: allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - Matt 20:20-28; Job 25:5; Job 4:18; Ps 143:2 (LXX and Vulgate 142:2); Gen 1:26; Matt 20:1-15; 1 John 2:18; 1 Tim 6:16. "Bonus sum" is read for the digital text's "bonus eum". ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 21.40 (CSEL 54:139–141; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/21-24/#p-21-40). ## Letter 21.41 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/21-24/#p-21-41 - Source: CSEL 54:141–142 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome shows that the laborers accept equal wages among themselves but resent only the last-hired, a figure of the Gentiles. ### Latin text Ut autem in hac eadem parabola, quam nunc proposuimus, iniustitiam intellegas conductorum, adtende paulisper. qui prima hora conductus est, plus meretur ab eo, qui hora tertia est missus ad uineam; rursum horae tertiae operarius sextae horae operarium antecedit et sextae horae nonae horae uincit operarium. quomodo igitur nouissimo omnes inuident et eandem in se iustitiam non requirunt? tu, qui hora nona conductus es, cur inuides ei, qui undecima hora est missus in uineam? quodcumque responderis, quamuis diuersum adserueris laborem, ut et praemium maius in diuerso labore merearis, eidem apud sextum sententiae subiacebis. et tu, qui hora sexta conductus es, nouissimo inuides, cur tecum denarium, id est aequalem consequatur salutem, licet salutis pro labore diuersa sit gloria. eadem de te tertius potest dicere et de tertio rursum primus uerum ipsi inter se ob non aequalem laborem et uocationis spatia diuersa aequale praemium libenter accipiunt; in nouissimo tantum operario, id est in gentium salute, discordant et domino iniuriam faciunt et sub omnibus parabolis arguuntur inuidiae. ### English translation (Claude) And so that you may understand the injustice of the hired workers in this same parable we have set before us, pay attention a little. The one hired at the first hour deserves more than the one sent into the vineyard at the third hour; again the worker of the third hour comes before the worker of the sixth, and the one of the sixth surpasses the worker of the ninth. How is it, then, that all envy the last, and do not demand the same justice among themselves? You who were hired at the ninth hour, why do you envy the one sent into the vineyard at the eleventh? Whatever you answer, however much you assert that the labor was different, so that in different labor you deserve a greater reward, you will be subject to the same judgment from the man of the sixth hour. And you, hired at the sixth hour, envy the last because he receives the denarius with you, that is, equal salvation, although the glory of salvation differs according to labor. The man of the third hour can say the same of you, and again the first of the third. Yet among themselves, despite unequal labor and different lengths of calling, they gladly accept an equal reward; only in the last worker, that is, in the salvation of the Gentiles, do they disagree, do wrong to the master, and are convicted of envy under all the parables. ### Scripture references - Matt 20:9: allusion, high confidence - Matt 20:10: allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - Matt 20:1-16. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 21.41 (CSEL 54:141–142; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/21-24/#p-21-41). ## Letter 21.42 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/21-24/#p-21-42 - Source: CSEL 54:142–143 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome apologizes for his unpolished, dictated style, saying that in church matters meaning matters more than words. ### Latin text Non ambigo, quin inculta tibi nostrae paruitatis uideatur oratio; sed saepe causatus sum excoli non posse sermonem, nisi quem propria manus limauerit. itaque ignosce dolentibus oculis, id est ignosce dictanti, maxime cum. in ecclesiasticis rebus non quaerantur uerba, sed sensus, id est panibus sit uita sustentanda, non siliquis. ### English translation (Claude) I do not doubt that the speech of my littleness will seem unpolished to you; but I have often pleaded that speech cannot be refined unless one's own hand has polished it. So forgive my aching eyes, that is, forgive one who dictates, especially since in church matters it is not words that are sought but meaning; that is, life must be sustained by bread, not by pods. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 21.42 (CSEL 54:142–143; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/21-24/#p-21-42). ## Letter 22.1 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/21-24/#p-22-1 - Source: CSEL 54:143–145 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome opens his treatise to the virgin Eustochium with Ps 45: the soul must forget its father's house to be the bride of Christ the King. ### Latin text Audi, filia, et uide et inclina aurem tuam et obliuiscere populum tuum et domum patris tui; et concupiscet rex decorem tuum. in quadragesimo quarto psalmo deus ad animam loquitur humanam, ut secundum exemplum Abrahae exiens de terra sua et de cognatione sua relinquat Chaldaeos, qui quasi daemonia interpretantur, et habitet in regione uiuentium, quam alibi propheta suspirat dicens: credo uidere bona domini in terra uiuentium. uerum non sufficit tibi exire de patria, nisi obliuiscaris populi et domum patris tui et carne contempta sponsi iungaris amplexibus. ne respexeris, inquit, retro nec steteris in tota circa regione; in montem saluum te fac, ne forte conprehendaris. non expedit adprehenso aratro respicere post tergum nec de agro reuerti domum nec post Christi tunicam ad tollendum aliud uestimentum tecta descendere. grande miraculum: pater filiam cohortatur: (ne memineris patris. uos de patre diabolo estis et desideria patris uestri uultis facere dicitur ad Iudaeos et alibi: qui facit peccatum, de diabolo est. tali primum parente generati nigri sumus et post paenitentiam necdum culmine uirtutis ascenso dicimus: nigra sum et speciosa filia Hierusalem. exiui de domo infantiae meae, oblita sum patris, renascor in Christo. quid pro hoc mercedis accipio? sequitur: et concupiscet rex decorem tuum. hoc ergo illud magnum est sacramentum: propter hoc relinquet homo patrem et matrem et adhaerebit uxori suae et erunt ambo — in carne una? iam non, ut ibi, in una carne, sed spiritu. non est sponsus tuus adrogans, non superbus: Aethiopissam duxit uxorem. statim ut uolueris sapientiam ueri audire Salomonis et ad eum ueneris, confitebitur tibi cuncta, quae nouit, et inducet te rex in cubiculum suum et mirum in modum colore mutato sermo tibi ille conueniet: quae est ista, quae ascendit dealbata? ### English translation (Claude) "Hear, daughter, and see, and incline your ear, and forget your people and your father's house; and the king will desire your beauty." In the forty-fourth psalm God speaks to the human soul, that, after the example of Abraham, going out from its land and its kindred, it may leave the Chaldeans, whose name is interpreted "as it were demons", and dwell in the land of the living, for which the prophet sighs elsewhere, saying: "I believe that I shall see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living." But it is not enough for you to go out from your homeland unless you forget your people and your father's house, and, despising the flesh, are joined to the Bridegroom's embrace. "Do not look back," he says, "nor stay anywhere in the surrounding region; save yourself on the mountain, lest you be caught." It does not help, having put your hand to the plow, to look back, or to return home from the field, or, after putting on Christ's tunic, to come down from the housetop to fetch another garment. A great wonder: a father urges his daughter not to remember her father! "You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father," is said to the Jews; and elsewhere: "He who commits sin is of the devil." Born first of such a parent, we are black, and after repentance, not yet having climbed to the summit of virtue, we say: "I am black and beautiful, daughter of Jerusalem." I have gone out from the house of my childhood, I have forgotten my father, I am reborn in Christ. What reward do I receive for this? It follows: "And the king will desire your beauty." This, then, is that great mystery: "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife, and the two will be" (in one flesh? No longer, as there, in one flesh, but in spirit). Your Bridegroom is not arrogant, not proud: he married an Ethiopian wife. As soon as you are willing to hear the wisdom of the true Solomon and come to him, he will confess to you all he knows, and the king will bring you into his chamber, and, your color wonderfully changed, those words will suit you: "Who is she who comes up made white?" ### Scripture references - Ps 45:10 (44:11 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Ps 45:11 (44:12 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Gen 12:1: allusion, high confidence - Ps 27:13 (26:13 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Gen 19:17: quotation, high confidence - Luke 9:62: allusion, high confidence - Mark 13:16: allusion, high confidence - Mark 13:15: allusion, high confidence - John 8:44: quotation, high confidence - 1 John 3:8: quotation, high confidence - Song 1:5 (1:4 Vulg.): quotation, high confidence - Eph 5:31: quotation, high confidence - Eph 5:32: allusion, high confidence - Num 12:1: allusion, high confidence - 1 Kgs 10:3: allusion, medium confidence - Song 1:4 (1:3 Vulg.): allusion, high confidence - Song 8:5: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Ps 45:10-11 (LXX and Vulgate 44:11-12); Gen 12:1; Ps 27:13 (LXX and Vulgate 26:13); Gen 19:17; Luke 9:62; Mark 13:15-16; John 8:44; 1 John 3:8; Song 1:5 (Vulgate 1:4); Eph 5:31-32 (Gen 2:24); Num 12:1 (Moses's Ethiopian wife, a figure of Christ and the church); 1 Kgs 10:1-3; Song 1:4 (Vulgate 1:3); Song 8:5 (in the Greek form). Letter 22 (ca. 384) is Jerome's treatise on virginity; it is translated as written, including its comparisons of virginity and marriage. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 22.1 (CSEL 54:143–145; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/21-24/#p-22-1). ## Letter 22.2 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/21-24/#p-22-2 - Source: CSEL 54:145–146 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome tells Eustochium that he writes not to praise virginity or disparage marriage but to warn her of the dangers to her vow. ### Latin text Haec idcirco, mi domina Eustochium — dominam quippe debeo uocare sponsam domini mei —, ut ex ipso principio lectionis agnosceres non me nunc laudes uirginitatis esse dicturum, quam probasti optime, eam cum secuta es, nec enumeraturum molestias nuptiarum, quomodo uterus intumescat, infans uagiat, cruciet paelex, domus cura sollicitet et omnia, quae putantur bona, mors extrema praecidat — habent enim et maritatae ordinem suum, honorabiles nuptias et cubile inmaculatum —, sed ut intellegeres tibi exeunti de Sodoma timendum esse Loth uxoris exemplum. nulla in hoc libello adulatio — adulator quippe blandus inimicus est —, nulla erit rhetorici pompa sermonis, quae te iam inter angelos statuat et beatitudine uirginitatis exposita mundum subiciat pedibus tuis. ### English translation (Claude) I write this, my lady Eustochium (for I must call the bride of my Lord "lady"), so that from the very beginning of your reading you may recognize that I am not now going to speak the praises of virginity, which you have shown you approve most highly by following it; nor to list the troubles of marriage: how the womb swells, the infant wails, the concubine torments, the care of the house worries, and how death at last cuts off all that are thought good things (for married women too have their own rank, "honorable marriage and the bed undefiled"); but so that you may understand that, as you go out from Sodom, you must fear the example of Lot's wife. There will be no flattery in this little book (for a flatterer is a smooth-spoken enemy), no pomp of rhetorical speech to set you already among the angels and, by setting out the blessedness of virginity, put the world under your feet. ### Scripture references - Heb 13:4: quotation, high confidence - Gen 19:26: allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - Heb 13:4; Gen 19:26 (Luke 17:32). ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 22.2 (CSEL 54:145–146; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/21-24/#p-22-2). ## Letter 22.3 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/21-24/#p-22-3 - Source: CSEL 54:146–148 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome warns Eustochium that the Christian life is a constant spiritual battle, in which God's help is greater than all the enemy's forces. ### Latin text Nolo tibi uenire superbiam de proposito, sed timorem. onusta incedis auro, latro uitandus est. stadium est haec uita mortalibus: hic contendimus, ut alibi coronemur. nemo inter serpentes et scorpiones securus ingreditur. inebriatus est, inquit dominus, gladius meus in caelo, et tu pacem arbitraris in terra, quae tribulos generat et spinas, quam serpens comedit? non est nobis conluctatio aduersus carnem et sanguinem, sed aduersus principatus et potestates huius mundi et harum tenebrarum, aduersus spiritalia nequitiae in caelestibus. magnis inimicorum circumdamur agminibus, hostium plena sunt omnia. caro fragilis et cinis futura post modicum pugnat sola cum pluribus. cum autem fuerit dissoluta et uenerit princeps mundi istius et inuenerit in ea nihil, tunc secura audies per prophetam: non timebis a timore nocturno, a sagitta uolante per diem, a negotio perambulante in tenebris, ab incursu et daemonio meridiano. cadent a latere tuo mille et decem milia a dextris tuis, ad te autem non adpropinquabit. quodsi eorum te multitudo turbauerit et ad singula incitamenta uitiorum coeperis aestuare et dixerit tibi cogitatio tua: quid faciemus?, respondebit Heliseus: noli timere, quoniam plures nobiscum sunt, quam cum illis, et orabit et dicet: domine, adaperi oculos puellae tuae et uideat. et apertis oculis uidebis igneum currum, qui te ad exemplum Heliae in astra sustollat, et tunc laeta cantabis: anima nostra quasi passer erepta est de laqueo uenantium: laqueus contritus est et nos liberati sumus. ### English translation (Claude) I do not want pride to come to you from your resolve, but fear. You walk laden with gold; you must beware of the robber. This life is a racecourse for mortals: here we contend, that we may be crowned elsewhere. No one walks safely among serpents and scorpions. "My sword," says the Lord, "has been made drunk in heaven," and do you think there is peace on earth, which brings forth thorns and thistles, which the serpent eats? "Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities and powers of this world and of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places." We are surrounded by great columns of enemies; all things are full of foes. The frail flesh, soon to be ashes, fights alone against many. But when it has been dissolved, and the prince of this world has come and found nothing in it, then, secure, you will hear through the prophet: "You will not fear the terror of the night, the arrow that flies by day, the business that walks in darkness, the attack and the noonday demon. A thousand will fall at your side and ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you." But if their multitude troubles you, and at every enticement of the vices you begin to burn, and your thought says to you, "What shall we do?", Elisha will answer: "Do not fear, for those with us are more than those with them"; and he will pray and say: "Lord, open the eyes of your girl, and let her see." And with your eyes opened you will see the fiery chariot that will lift you to the stars like Elijah, and then you will sing joyfully: "Our soul has escaped like a sparrow from the snare of the fowlers; the snare is broken, and we are set free." ### Scripture references - 1 Cor 9:24: allusion, high confidence - Ezek 2:6: allusion, medium confidence - Isa 34:5: quotation, high confidence - Gen 3:18: allusion, high confidence - Gen 3:14: allusion, high confidence - Eph 6:12: quotation, high confidence - John 14:30: allusion, high confidence - Ps 91:5 (90:5 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Ps 91:6 (90:6 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Ps 91:7 (90:7 LXX): quotation, high confidence - 2 Kgs 6:16: quotation, high confidence - 2 Kgs 6:17: quotation, high confidence - 2 Kgs 2:11: allusion, high confidence - Ps 124:7 (123:7 LXX): quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - 1 Cor 9:24-25; Ezek 2:6 and Luke 10:19; Isa 34:5; Gen 3:18, 14; Eph 6:12; John 14:30; Ps 91:5-7 (LXX and Vulgate 90:5-7, with the "noonday demon" of the Greek); 2 Kgs 6:16-17; 2 Kgs 2:11; Ps 124:7 (LXX and Vulgate 123:7). ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 22.3 (CSEL 54:146–148; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/21-24/#p-22-3). ## Letter 22.4 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/21-24/#p-22-4 - Source: CSEL 54:148–149 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome warns that the devil seeks especially to devour those within the church, as he fell himself and caused others to fall. ### Latin text Quamdiu hoc fragili corpusculo continemur, quamdiu habemus thesaurum istum in uasis fictilibus et concupiscit spiritus aduersus carnem et caro aduersus spiritum, nulla est certa uictoria. aduersarius noster diabolus tamquam leo rugiens aliquid deuorare quaerens circuit. posuisti, ait Dauid, tenebras et facta est nox. in ipsa pertransibunt omnes bestiae siluae, catuli leonum rugientes, ut rapiant et quaerant a deo escam sibi. non quaerit diabolus homines infideles, non eos, qui foris sunt et quorum carnes rex in olla succendit Assyrius: de ecclesia Christi rapere festinat. escae eius secundum Ambacum electae sunt: Iob subuertere cupit et deuorato Iuda ad cribrandos apostolos expetit potestatem. non uenit saluator pacem mittere super terram, sed gladium. cecidit lucifer, qui mane oriebatur, et ille, qui in paradiso deliciarum nutritus est, meruit audire: si alte feraris ut aquila, inde te detraham, dicit dominus. dixerat enim in corde suo: super sidera caeli ponam sedem meam et ero similis altissimo. unde cotidie ad eos, qui per scalam Iacob somniante descendunt, loquitur deus: ego dixi: dii estis et filii altissimi omnes. uos autem sicut homines moriemini et tamquam unus de principibus cadetis. cecidit enim primus diabolus et, cum stet deus in synagoga deorum, in medio autem deos discernat, apostolus eis, qui dii esse desinunt, scribit: ubi enim in uobis sunt dissensiones et aemulationes, nonne homines estis et secundum hominem ambulatis? ### English translation (Claude) As long as we are held in this frail little body, as long as we have this treasure in earthen vessels, and the spirit lusts against the flesh and the flesh against the spirit, there is no sure victory. "Our adversary the devil, like a roaring lion, goes about seeking something to devour." "You have made darkness," says David, "and it was night. In it all the beasts of the forest will pass through, the lions' whelps roaring to seize and to seek their food from God." The devil does not seek unbelievers, not those who are outside, whose flesh the Assyrian king roasts in the pot; he hurries to snatch from the church of Christ. His food, according to Habakkuk, is choice. He longs to overthrow Job, and, having devoured Judas, he asks for power to sift the apostles. The Savior did not come to send peace upon the earth, but a sword. Lucifer fell, who rose in the morning; and he who was nourished in the paradise of delights deserved to hear: "If you are raised on high like an eagle, I will bring you down from there, says the Lord." For he had said in his heart: "I will set my throne above the stars of heaven, and I will be like the Most High." Hence daily God says to those who descend by the ladder of Jacob's dream: "I said: You are gods, and all of you sons of the Most High. But you will die like men and fall like one of the princes." For the devil fell first; and since God stands in the assembly of the gods and judges among the gods, the apostle writes to those who cease to be gods: "For where there are divisions and rivalries among you, are you not men, and walking according to man?" ### Scripture references - 2 Cor 4:7: allusion, high confidence - Gal 5:17: allusion, high confidence - 1 Pet 5:8: quotation, high confidence - Ps 104:20 (103:20 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Ps 104:21 (103:21 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Hab 1:16: allusion, medium confidence - Job 1:11: allusion, medium confidence - Luke 22:31: allusion, high confidence - Matt 10:34: allusion, high confidence - Isa 14:12: allusion, high confidence - Ezek 28:13: allusion, high confidence - Obad 1:4: quotation, high confidence - Isa 14:13: quotation, high confidence - Isa 14:14: quotation, high confidence - Gen 28:12: allusion, medium confidence - Ps 82:6 (81:6 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Ps 82:7 (81:7 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Ps 82:1 (81:1 LXX): allusion, high confidence - 1 Cor 3:3: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - 2 Cor 4:7; Gal 5:17; 1 Pet 5:8; Ps 104:20-21 (LXX and Vulgate 103:20-21); the Assyrian king's pot is unidentified (compare Ezek 24:3-5); Hab 1:16 (in the Greek form); Job 1-2; Luke 22:3, 31; Matt 10:34; Isa 14:12; Ezek 28:13; Obad 4; Isa 14:13-14; Gen 28:12; Ps 82:6-7 and 82:1 (LXX and Vulgate 81:6-7, 81:1); 1 Cor 3:3. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 22.4 (CSEL 54:148–149; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/21-24/#p-22-4). ## Letter 22.5 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/21-24/#p-22-5 - Source: CSEL 54:149–150 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome warns Eustochium that if even Paul had to struggle with the flesh, she must guard her virginity in mind as well as body. ### Latin text Si Paulus apostolus, uas electionis et praeparatus in euangelium Christi, ob carnis aculeos et incentiua uitiorum reprimit corpus suum et seruituti subicit, ne aliis praedicans ipse reprobus inueniatur, et tamen uidet aliam legem in membris suis repugnantem legi mentis suae et captiuantem se in lege peccati, si post nuditatem, ieiunia, famem, carcerem, flagella, supplicia in semet uersus exclamat: infelix ego homo, quis me liberabit de corpore mortis huius?, tu te putas securam esse debere? caue, quaeso, ne quando de te dicat deus: uirgo Israhel cecidit; non est, qui suscitet eam. audenter loquor: cum omnia deus possit, suscitare uirginem non potest post ruinam. ualet quidem liberare de poena, sed non ualet coronare corruptam. timeamus illam prophetiam, ne in nobis etiam conpleatur: et uirgines bonae deficient. obserua, quid dicat: et uirgines bonae deficient: quia sunt et uirgines malae. qui uiderit, inquit, mulierem ad concupiscendum, iam moechatus est eam in corde suo. perit ergo et mente uirginitas. istae sunt uirgines malae, uirgines carne, non spiritu, uirgines stultae, quae oleum non habentes excluduntur ab sponso. ### English translation (Claude) If the apostle Paul, a chosen vessel prepared for the gospel of Christ, because of the goads of the flesh and the incitements of vice, subdues his body and brings it into subjection, lest, having preached to others, he himself be found reprobate, and yet sees another law in his members warring against the law of his mind and taking him captive in the law of sin; if, after nakedness, fasts, hunger, prison, scourgings, and punishments, he turns on himself and cries out, "Unhappy man that I am, who will deliver me from the body of this death?", do you think you ought to be secure? Beware, I beg you, lest God should ever say of you: "The virgin of Israel has fallen; there is none to raise her up." I speak boldly: though God can do all things, he cannot raise up a virgin after her fall. He is able indeed to free her from punishment, but he is not able to crown one who has been corrupted. Let us fear that prophecy, lest it be fulfilled in us too: "And good virgins will fail." Notice what it says: "good virgins will fail", for there are also bad virgins. "Whoever," he says, "looks at a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart." So virginity perishes even in the mind. These are the bad virgins, virgins in flesh, not in spirit, the foolish virgins who, having no oil, are shut out by the Bridegroom. ### Scripture references - Acts 9:15: allusion, high confidence - 1 Cor 9:27: allusion, high confidence - Rom 7:23: allusion, high confidence - 2 Cor 11:27: allusion, high confidence - Rom 7:24: quotation, high confidence - Amos 5:2: quotation, high confidence - Amos 8:13: quotation, high confidence - Matt 5:28: quotation, high confidence - Matt 25:3: allusion, high confidence - Matt 25:10: allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - Acts 9:15; 1 Cor 9:27; Rom 7:23-24; 2 Cor 11:23-27; Amos 5:2; Amos 8:13 (in the Greek form); Matt 5:28; Matt 25:1-12. "He cannot raise up a virgin after her fall" means, as Jerome explains, that God can forgive but cannot restore the crown of virginity; translated as written. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 22.5 (CSEL 54:149–150; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/21-24/#p-22-5). ## Letter 22.6 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/21-24/#p-22-6 - Source: CSEL 54:150–152 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome describes in prophetic images the shame of a consecrated virgin who falls, and urges Eustochium to crush sinful thoughts at their first stirring. ### Latin text Si autem et illae uirgines uirgines sunt, ob alias tamen culpas uirginitate corporum non saluantur, quid fiet illis, quae prostituerunt membra Christi et mutauerunt templum sancti spiritus in lupanar? ilico audient: descende, sede in terra, uirgo filia Babylonis, sede in terra: non est thronus filiae Chaldaeorum; non uocaberis ultra mollis et delicata. accipe molam, mole farinam, discoperi uelamentum, denuda crura tua, transi flumina et reuelabitur ignominia tua et apparebunt obprobria tua, et hoc post dei filii thalamos, post oscula fratruelis et sponsi illa, de qua quondam sermo propheticus concinebat: adstitit regina a dextris tuis in uestitu deaurato, circumdata uarietate. nudabitur et posteriora eius ponentur in facie ipsius; sedebit ad aquas solitudinis et posita base diuaricabit pedes suos omni transeunti et usque ad uerticem polluetur. rectius fuerat homini subisse coniugium, ambulasse per plana, quam ad altiora tendentem in profundum inferi cadere. non fiat, obsecro, ciuitas meretrix fidelis Sion, ne post trinitatis hospitium ibi daemones saltent et sirenae nidificent et hiricii. non soluatur fascia pectoralis, sed statim ut libido titillauerit sensum, ut blandum uoluptatis incendium dulci nos calore perfuderit, erumpamus in uocem: dominus auxiliator meus, non timebo, quid faciat mihi caro. cum paululum interior homo inter uitia atque uirtutes coeperit fluctuare, dicito: quare tristis es, anima mea, et quare conturbas me? spera in domino, quoniam confitebor illi, salutare uultus mei et deus meus. nolo sinas cogitationem crescere; nihil in te Babylonium, nihil confusionis adolescat. dum paruus est hostis, interfice; nequitia elidatur in semine. audi psalmistam loquentem: filia Babylonis misera, beatus, qui retribuet tibi retributionem tuam; beatus, qui tenebit et adlidet paruulos tuos ad petram. quia ergo inpossibile est in sensum hominis non inruere notum medullarum calorem, ille laudatur, ille praedicatur beatus, qui, statim ut coeperit cogitare, interficit cogitatus et elidit eos ad petram; petra autem est Christus. ### English translation (Claude) But if those virgins too, who are virgins, are not saved by the virginity of their bodies because of other faults, what will become of those who have prostituted the members of Christ and changed the temple of the Holy Spirit into a brothel? At once they will hear: "Come down, sit in the dust, virgin daughter of Babylon; sit on the ground; there is no throne for the daughter of the Chaldeans; you will no longer be called soft and delicate. Take the millstone, grind meal, uncover your veil, bare your legs, cross the rivers, and your shame will be uncovered and your disgrace will appear"; and this after the bridal chambers of the Son of God, after the kisses of her kinsman and bridegroom, she of whom the prophetic word once sang: "The queen stood at your right hand in a robe of gold, clothed in many colors." She will be stripped, and her skirts will be thrown over her face; she will sit by the waters of solitude, and, setting down her pitcher, she will spread her feet to everyone passing by, and will be defiled to the crown of her head. It would have been better for her to have submitted to marriage, to have walked on level ground, than, straining for the heights, to fall into the depth of hell. Let not, I beg you, the faithful city Zion become a harlot, lest after the Trinity has been her guest demons dance there and sirens and hedgehogs nest. Let not the band of the breast be loosed; but as soon as lust tickles the senses, as soon as the soft fire of pleasure pours its sweet heat over us, let us burst out with the words: "The Lord is my helper; I will not fear what the flesh can do to me." When the inner man begins to waver a little between vices and virtues, say: "Why are you sad, my soul, and why do you trouble me? Hope in the Lord, for I will confess to him, the salvation of my countenance and my God." I do not want you to let a thought grow; let nothing of Babylon, nothing of confusion, grow up in you. Kill the enemy while he is small; let wickedness be crushed in the seed. Hear the psalmist saying: "Wretched daughter of Babylon, blessed is he who will repay you your repayment; blessed is he who will take and dash your little ones against the rock." Since, then, it is impossible that the familiar heat of the marrow should not rush into a person's senses, he is praised, he is proclaimed blessed, who, as soon as he begins to have such thoughts, kills them and dashes them against the rock; and the rock is Christ. ### Scripture references - 1 Cor 6:15: allusion, high confidence - 1 Cor 6:19: allusion, high confidence - Isa 47:1: quotation, high confidence - Isa 47:2: quotation, high confidence - Isa 47:3: quotation, high confidence - Ps 45:9 (44:10 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Jer 13:26: quotation, high confidence - Ezek 16:25: quotation, high confidence - Isa 1:21: allusion, high confidence - Isa 13:21: allusion, high confidence - Ps 118:6 (117:6 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Ps 42:5 (41:6 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Ps 137:8 (136:8 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Ps 137:9 (136:9 LXX): quotation, high confidence - 1 Cor 10:4: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - 1 Cor 6:15, 19; Isa 47:1-3; Ps 45:9 (LXX and Vulgate 44:10); Jer 13:26; Ezek 16:25; Isa 1:21; Isa 13:21-22 and 34:14 (in the Greek form, with sirens and hedgehogs); Ps 118:6 (LXX and Vulgate 117:6, with "flesh" for "man"); Ps 42:5 (LXX and Vulgate 41:6); Ps 137:8-9 (LXX and Vulgate 136:8-9); 1 Cor 10:4. "Better ... to have submitted to marriage" presents marriage as the safer course compared with a broken vow; translated as written. "Setting down her pitcher" renders posita basi (digital text base); the sense of the word is uncertain. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 22.6 (CSEL 54:150–152; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/21-24/#p-22-6). ## Letter 22.7 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-7/#p-22-7 - Source: CSEL 54:152–154 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome recounts how, even in the harshest desert life, he was tormented by memories of Rome and sexual temptation, and found relief only in prayer and fasting. ### Latin text O quotiens in heremo constitutus et in illa uasta solitudine, quae exusta solis ardoribus horridum monachis praestat habitaculum, putaui me Romanis interesse deliciis! sedebam solus, quia amaritudine repletus eram. horrebam sacco membra deformis, squalida cutis situm Aethiopicae carnis adduxerat. cotidie lacrimae, cotidie gemitus et, si quando repugnantem somnus inminens oppressisset, nuda humo uix ossa haerentia conlidebam. de cibis uero et potu taceo, cum etiam languentes aqua frigida utantur et coctum aliquid accepisse luxuriae sit. ille igitur ego, qui ob gehennae metum tali me carcere ipse damnaueram, scorpionum tantum socius et ferarum, saepe choris intereram puellarum. pallebant ora ieiuniis et mens desideriis aestuabat in frigido corpore et ante hominem suum iam carne praemortua sola libidinum incendia bulliebant. itaque omni auxilio destitutus ad Iesu iacebam pedes, rigabam lacrimis, crine tergebam et repugnantem carnem ebdomadarum inedia subiugabam. non erubesco infelicitatis meae, quin potius plango non esse, quod fuerim. memini me clamantem diem crebro iunxisse cum nocte nec prius a pectoris cessasse uerberibus, quam domino rediret increpante tranquillitas. ipsam quoque cellulam meam quasi cogitationum consciam pertimescebam et mihimet iratus et rigidus solus deserta penetrabam. sicubi concaua uallium, aspera montium, rupium praerupta cernebam, ibi meae orationi locus, illud miserrimae carnis ergastulum; et, ut mihi ipse testis est dominus, post multas lacrimas, post caelo oculos inhaerentes nonnumquam uidebar mihi interesse agminibus angelorum et laetus gaudensque cantabam: post te in odorem unguentorum tuorum currimus. ### English translation (Claude) O how often, when I was living in the desert, in that vast solitude which, burnt by the heat of the sun, offers a dreadful dwelling to monks, did I think I was among the pleasures of Rome! I sat alone, because I was filled with bitterness. My limbs were rough in unsightly sackcloth; my filthy skin had taken on the color of an Ethiopian's flesh. Every day tears, every day groans; and if ever sleep overcame me against my resistance, I bruised my bones, which scarcely held together, on the bare ground. Of food and drink I say nothing, since even the sick use cold water there, and to have taken anything cooked is luxury. I, then, who for fear of hell had condemned myself to such a prison, with only scorpions and wild beasts for company, often found myself among dancing girls. My face was pale with fasting, and my mind burned with desires in a cold body; in a man already dead in the flesh, only the fires of lust boiled. So, destitute of all help, I lay at Jesus' feet, watered them with tears, wiped them with my hair, and subdued my rebellious flesh with weeks of fasting. I do not blush at my unhappiness; rather, I lament that I am not what I was. I remember that, crying out, I often joined day to night, and did not stop beating my breast until calm returned at the Lord's rebuke. I even feared my own little cell, as if it knew my thoughts, and, angry and stern with myself, I went alone into the desert. Wherever I saw a hollow valley, a rugged mountain, a steep cliff, there was my place of prayer, there the prison-house of my most wretched flesh; and, as the Lord himself is my witness, after many tears, after my eyes had been fixed on heaven, I sometimes seemed to myself to be among the hosts of angels, and, glad and rejoicing, I sang: "We run after you in the fragrance of your ointments." ### Scripture references - Jer 15:17: quotation, high confidence - Luke 7:38: allusion, high confidence - Song 1:4 (1:3 Vulg.): quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Jer 15:17; Luke 7:38; Song 1:3-4 (Vulgate 1:3). ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 22.7 (CSEL 54:152–154; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-7/#p-22-7). ## Letter 22.8 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-7/#p-22-8 - Source: CSEL 54:154–156 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome urges Eustochium to avoid wine as the chief kindler of lust, citing Timothy's permitted medicine and the drunkenness of Noah and Lot. ### Latin text Si autem haec sustinent illi, qui exeso corpore solis cogitationibus oppugnantur, quid patitur puella, quae deliciis fruitur? nempe illud apostoli: uiuens mortua est. si quid itaque in me potest esse consilii, si experto creditur, hoc primum moneo, hoc obtestor, ut sponsa Christi uinum fugiat pro ueneno. haec aduersus adulescentiam prima arma sunt daemonum. non sic auaritia quatit, inflat superbia, delectat ambitio. facile aliis caremus uitiis; hic hostis intus inclusus est. quocumque pergimus, nobiscum portamus inimicum. -uinum et adulescentia duplex incendium uoluptatis. quid oleum flammae adicimus? quid ardenti corpusculo fomenta ignium ministramus? Paulus ad Timotheum: iam noli, inquit, aquam bibere, sed uinum modicum utere propter stomachum et frequentes tuas infirmitates. uide, quibus causis uini potio concedatur: uix hoc stomachi dolor et frequens meretur infirmitas. et ne nobis forsitan de aegrotationibus blandiremur, modicum praecepit esse sumendum, medici potius consilio quam apostoli -licet et apostolus sit medicus spiritalis — et, ne Timotheus inbecillitate superatus euangelii praedicandi non posset habere discursus. alioquin se dixisse meminerat et: uinum, in quo est luxuria, et: bonum est homini uinum non bibere et carnem non manducare. Noe uinum bibit et inebriatus est rudi adhuc saeculo; et tunc primum plantauit uineam: inebriare uinum forsitan nesciebat. et ut intellegas scripturae in omnibus sacramentum — margarita quippe est. sermo dei et ex omni parte forari potest — post ebrietatem nudatio femorum subsecuta est, libido iuncta luxuriae. prius uenter et statim cetera; manducauit enim populus et bibit, et surrexerunt ludere. Loth, amicus dei, in monte saluatus et de tot milibus populis solus iustus inuentus inebriatur a filiabus suis; et licet putarent genus hominum defecisse et hoc facerent liberorum magis desiderio quam libidinis, tamen uirum iustum sciebant hoc nisi ebrium non esse facturum; denique, quid fecerit, ignorauit: et — quamquam uoluntas non sit in crimine, error in culpa est — inde nascuntur Moabitae et Ammanitae, inimici Israhel, qui usque ad quartam et decimam progeniem et usque in aeternum non ingrediuntur ecclesiam dei. ### English translation (Claude) But if those endure this who, with bodies wasted, are attacked only by thoughts, what does a girl suffer who enjoys luxuries? Surely that word of the apostle: "Living, she is dead." So if there can be any counsel in me, if one who has experienced it is believed, this I advise first, this I adjure, that the bride of Christ flee wine as poison. These are the first weapons of the demons against youth. Greed does not shake us so, pride does not puff us up so, ambition does not delight us so. We easily do without other vices; this enemy is shut up within. Wherever we go, we carry the enemy with us. Wine and youth are a double fire of pleasure. Why do we add oil to the flame? Why do we supply fuel for fire to a burning body? Paul says to Timothy: "No longer drink water, but use a little wine for your stomach and your frequent illnesses." See for what reasons the drinking of wine is allowed: even pain of the stomach and frequent illness scarcely earn it. And lest we should perhaps flatter ourselves with our sicknesses, he commanded that a little be taken, by the advice of a physician rather than of an apostle (although the apostle too is a spiritual physician), and so that Timothy, overcome by weakness, might still be able to travel about preaching the gospel. Otherwise he remembered that he had also said, "wine, in which is dissipation", and, "It is good not to drink wine and not to eat meat." Noah drank wine and was made drunk in an age still rude; and he was then the first to plant a vineyard; perhaps he did not know that wine makes one drunk. And so that you may understand the mystery of Scripture in all things (for the word of God is a pearl and can be pierced from every side), after drunkenness came the uncovering of the thighs: lust joined to dissipation. First the belly, and at once the rest; for "the people ate and drank, and rose up to play." Lot, the friend of God, saved on the mountain and found alone righteous out of so many thousands of people, is made drunk by his daughters; and although they thought the human race had died out and did this more from desire for children than from lust, yet they knew that a righteous man would not do this unless drunk. In the end he did not know what he had done; and (although will was not in the crime, error is in the fault) from this were born the Moabites and Ammonites, enemies of Israel, who do not enter the assembly of God to the fourteenth generation and for ever. ### Scripture references - 1 Tim 5:6: quotation, high confidence - 1 Tim 5:23: quotation, high confidence - Eph 5:18: quotation, high confidence - Rom 14:21: quotation, high confidence - Gen 9:21: allusion, high confidence - Exod 32:6: quotation, high confidence - Gen 19:33: allusion, high confidence - Deut 23:3: allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - 1 Tim 5:6; 1 Tim 5:23; Eph 5:18; Rom 14:21; Gen 9:20-21; Exod 32:6 (1 Cor 10:7); Gen 19:30-38; Deut 23:3 (Jerome's "fourteenth" generation for the Hebrew and Greek "tenth"). ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 22.8 (CSEL 54:154–156; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-7/#p-22-8). ## Letter 22.9 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-7/#p-22-9 - Source: CSEL 54:156–157 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome cites Elijah, Elisha, and Daniel as examples of the simple fare God gives his servants. ### Latin text Helias, cum Iezabel fugeret et sub quercu fessus iaceret, ueniente ad se angelo suscitatur et dicitur ei: surge et manduca. et respexit, et ecce ad caput eius panis olyrae et uas aquae. reuera non poterat deus conditum ei merum mittere et ex oleo cibos et carnes contusione mutatas? Heliseus filios prophetarum inuitat ad prandium et herbis agrestibus eos alens consonum prandentium audit clamorem: mors in olla. homo dei. non iratus est cocis — lautioris enim mensae consuetudinem non habebat -, sed farina desuper iacta amaritudinem dulcorauit eadem spiritus uirtute, qua Moyses mutauerat Merra. necnon et illos, qui ad se conprehendendum uenerant, oculis pariter ac mente caecatos, cum Samariam nescios induxisset, qualibus epulis refici imperarit, ausculta: pone eis panem et aquam: et manducent et bibant et remittantur ad dominum suum. potuit et Danihelo de regis ferculis opulentior mensa transferri, sed Ambacum messorum prandium portat, arbitror, rusticanum. ideoque et desideriorum uir appellatus est, quia panem desiderii non manducauit et uinum concupiscentiae non bibit. ### English translation (Claude) Elijah, when he fled from Jezebel and lay weary under an oak, is roused by an angel who comes to him, and is told: "Rise and eat." "And he looked, and behold, at his head a loaf of olyra and a jar of water." Surely God could have sent him spiced wine and food made with oil and meats pounded and changed? Elisha invites the sons of the prophets to a meal, and, feeding them on wild herbs, hears the cry of the diners in unison: "Death in the pot, man of God!" He was not angry with the cooks (for he was not used to a more luxurious table), but, throwing meal on it, he sweetened the bitterness by the same power of the Spirit by which Moses had changed Marah. Hear, too, with what fare he ordered those who had come to seize him to be refreshed, when, blinded in eyes and mind alike, he had led them unaware into Samaria: "Set bread and water before them; let them eat and drink and be sent back to their master." A richer table might also have been brought to Daniel from the king's dishes; but Habakkuk carries the reapers' meal, a rustic one, I think. And therefore he was called "a man of desires", because he did not eat the bread of desire and did not drink the wine of lust. ### Scripture references - 1 Kgs 19:5: quotation, high confidence - 1 Kgs 19:6: quotation, high confidence - 2 Kgs 4:40: quotation, high confidence - 2 Kgs 4:41: allusion, high confidence - Exod 15:25: allusion, high confidence - 2 Kgs 6:22: quotation, high confidence - Dan 1:8: allusion, high confidence - Dan 10:11: allusion, high confidence - Dan 10:3: allusion, high confidence ### Extrabiblical texts - Bel 33 (Bel and the Dragon): allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - 1 Kgs 19:4-6 (olyra, a kind of grain, from the Greek); 2 Kgs 4:38-41; Exod 15:23-25; 2 Kgs 6:18-22; Dan 1:8; Bel and the Dragon 33-39 (Habakkuk); Dan 10:11 and 10:3 ("man of desires" in the Greek and Latin). ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 22.9 (CSEL 54:156–157; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-7/#p-22-9). ## Letter 22.10 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-7/#p-22-10 - Source: CSEL 54:157–158 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome summarizes Scripture's condemnation of gluttony and commends fasting as the way back to paradise. ### Latin text Innumerabilia sunt scripturis respersa diuinis, quae gulam damnent et simplices cibos praebeant; uerum quia nunc non est propositum de ieiuniis disputare et uniuersa exsequi sui est tituli et uoluminis, haec sufficiant pauca de plurimis. alioquin ad exemplum horam poteris tibi ipsa colligere, quomodo et primus de paradiso homo uentri magis oboediens quam deo in hanc lacrimarum deiectus est uallem et ipsum dominum fame satanas temptauerit in deserto et apostolus clamitet: esca uentri et uenter escae, deus autem et hunc et illa destruet, et de luxuriosis: quorum deus uenter est. id enim colit unusquisque, quod diligit. ex quo sollicite prouidendum est, ut, quos saturitas de paradiso expulit, reducat esuries. ### English translation (Claude) Countless passages are scattered through the divine Scriptures that condemn gluttony and commend simple food; but since it is not my purpose now to discuss fasting, and to go through everything belongs to a work and a volume of its own, let these few out of many be enough. Otherwise, following this example, you can gather for yourself how the first man, obeying his belly rather than God, was cast out of paradise into this valley of tears; how Satan tempted the Lord himself with hunger in the desert; how the apostle cries out, "Food for the belly and the belly for food, but God will destroy both it and them," and of the self-indulgent, "whose god is their belly." For everyone worships what he loves. From this we must carefully see to it that hunger may bring back those whom fullness drove out of paradise. ### Scripture references - Gen 3:6: allusion, high confidence - Ps 84:6 (83:7 LXX): allusion, medium confidence - Matt 4:3: allusion, high confidence - 1 Cor 6:13: quotation, high confidence - Phil 3:19: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Gen 3:6; Ps 84:6 (LXX and Vulgate 83:7); Matt 4:2-3; 1 Cor 6:13; Phil 3:19. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 22.10 (CSEL 54:157–158; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-7/#p-22-10). ## Letter 22.11 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-7/#p-22-11 - Source: CSEL 54:158–159 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome explains that the devil's chief power over people lies in sexual desire, citing Job and many scriptural references to the loins. ### Latin text Quodsi uolueris respondere te nobili stirpe generatam, semper in deliciis, semper in plumis, non posse a uino et esculentioribus cibis abstinere nec his legibus uiuere districtius, respondebo: uiue ergo lege tua, quae dei non potes. non quo deus, uniuersitatis creator et dominus, intestinorum nostrorum rugitu et inanitate uentris pulmonumque delectetur ardore, sed quo aliter pudicitia tuta esse non possit. Iob deo carus et testimonio ipsius inmaculatus et simplex, audi, quid de diabolo suspicetur: uirtus eius in lumbis et potestas eius in umbilico. honeste uiri mulierisque genitalia inmutatis sunt appellata nominibus. unde et de lumbis Dauid super sedem eius promittitur esse sessurus; et septuaginta et quinque animae introierunt Aegyptum, quae exierunt de femore Iacob, et postquam conluctante deo latitudo femoris eius emarcuit, a liberorum opere cessauit; et qui pascha facturus est, accinctis mortificatisque lumbis facere praecipitur; et ad Iob dicit deus: accingere sicut uir lumbos tuos; et Iohannes zona pellicia cingitur; et apostoli iubentur accinctis lumbis habere in manibus euangelii lucernas. ad Hierusalem uero, quae respersa sanguine in campo inuenitur erroris, in Ezechiel dicitur: non est praecisus umbilicus tuus. omnis igitur aduersus uiros diaboli uirtus in lumbis est, omnis in umbilico contra feminas fortitudo. ### English translation (Claude) But if you wish to answer that, born of a noble family, always among luxuries, always among feather beds, you cannot abstain from wine and richer foods or live more strictly by these rules, I shall answer: then live by your own law, since you cannot live by God's. Not that God, the Creator and Lord of the universe, takes delight in the rumbling of our intestines, the emptiness of our belly, and the burning of our lungs, but because chastity cannot otherwise be safe. Hear what Job, dear to God and by God's own testimony blameless and simple, suspects about the devil: "His strength is in his loins, and his power in his navel." The genital organs of man and woman have been named decently under changed names. Hence it is promised that from the loins of David one would sit upon his throne; and the seventy-five souls who entered Egypt came out of Jacob's thigh; and after the breadth of his thigh withered when God wrestled with him, he ceased from begetting children; and whoever is to keep the Passover is commanded to do it with loins girded and mortified; and God says to Job, "Gird your loins like a man"; and John is girded with a leather belt; and the apostles are commanded to have their loins girded and the lamps of the gospel in their hands. And to Jerusalem, which is found spattered with blood in the field of error, it is said in Ezekiel: "Your navel was not cut." So all the devil's strength against men is in the loins, all his force against women in the navel. ### Scripture references - Job 40:16 (40:11 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Ps 132:11 (131:11 LXX): allusion, high confidence - Gen 46:26: allusion, high confidence - Gen 32:25: allusion, high confidence - Exod 12:11: allusion, high confidence - Job 38:3: quotation, high confidence - Matt 3:4: allusion, high confidence - Luke 12:35: allusion, high confidence - Ezek 16:4: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Job 40:16 (LXX 40:11); Ps 132:11 (LXX and Vulgate 131:11); Gen 46:26-27 and Exod 1:5 (seventy-five in the Greek); Gen 32:25; Exod 12:11; Job 38:3; Matt 3:4; Luke 12:35; Ezek 16:4-6. The claim that Jacob ceased begetting children after the wrestling is Jerome's own inference. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 22.11 (CSEL 54:158–159; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-7/#p-22-11). ## Letter 22.12 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-7/#p-22-12 - Source: CSEL 54:159–160 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome cites Samson, David, Solomon, and Amnon as strong men brought down by sexual desire. ### Latin text Vis scire ita esse, ut dicimus? accipe exempla. Sampson leone fortior, saxo durior et qui unus et nudus mille est persecutus armatos, in Dalilae mollescit amplexibus; Dauid secundum cor domini electus et qui uenturum Christum sancto saepe ore cantauerat, postquam deambulans super tectum domus suae Bersabee captus est nuditate, adulterio iunxit homicidium. ubi et illud breuiter adtende, quod nullus sit, etiam in domo, tutus aspectus. quapropter ad deum paenitens loquitur: tibi soli peccaui et malum coram te feci. rex enim alium non timebat. Salomon, per quem se cecinit ipsa sapientia, qui disputauit a cedro Libani usque ad hysopum, quae exit per parietem, recessit a domino, quia amator mulierum fuit. et ne aliquis etiam de sanguinis sibi propinquitate confideret, in inlicitum Thamar sororis Amnon frater exarsit incendium. ### English translation (Claude) Do you want to know that it is as I say? Take examples. Samson, stronger than a lion, harder than rock, who alone and unarmed pursued a thousand armed men, grows soft in Delilah's embraces. David, chosen after the Lord's own heart, who had often sung of the coming Christ with holy lips, after he was captivated by Bathsheba's nakedness as he walked on the roof of his house, added murder to adultery. Notice briefly here too that no glance is safe, even at home. Therefore, repenting, he says to God: "Against you only have I sinned and done evil in your sight"; for as king he feared no one else. Solomon, through whom Wisdom herself sang, who discoursed from the cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop that comes out of the wall, departed from the Lord because he was a lover of women. And lest anyone should trust even in kinship of blood, Amnon the brother burned with unlawful fire for his sister Tamar. ### Scripture references - Judg 15:15: allusion, high confidence - Judg 16:19: allusion, high confidence - 1 Sam 13:14: allusion, high confidence - 2 Sam 11:2: allusion, high confidence - 2 Sam 11:15: allusion, high confidence - Ps 51:4 (50:6 LXX): quotation, high confidence - 1 Kgs 4:33: allusion, high confidence - 1 Kgs 11:1: allusion, high confidence - 2 Sam 13:14: allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - Judg 15:15-16; Judg 16:4-21; 1 Sam 13:14 (Acts 13:22); 2 Sam 11:2-17; Ps 51:4 (LXX and Vulgate 50:6); 1 Kgs 4:33; 1 Kgs 11:1-4; 2 Sam 13:1-14. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 22.12 (CSEL 54:159–160; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-7/#p-22-12). ## Letter 22.13 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-7/#p-22-13 - Source: CSEL 54:160–161 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome denounces professed virgins who live immorally, conceal pregnancies, procure contraception and abortion, and excuse themselves with Scripture. ### Latin text Piget dicere, quot cotidie uirgines ruant, quantas de suo gremio mater perdat ecclesia, super quot sidera superbus inimicus ponat thronum suum, quot petras excauet et habitet coluber in foraminibus earum. uideas plerasque uiduas ante quam nuptas infelicem conscientiam mentita tantum ueste protegere, quas nisi tumor uteri et infantum prodiderit uagitus, erecta ceruice et ludentibus pedibus incedunt. aliae uero sterilitatem praebibunt et necdum sati hominis homicidium faciunt. nonnullae, cum se senserint concepisse de scelere, aborti uenena meditantur et frequenter etiam ipsae commortuae trium criminum reae ad inferos perducuntur, homicidae sui, Christi adulterae, necdum nati filii parricidae. istae sunt, quae solent dicere: omnia munda mundis. sufficit mihi conscientia mea. cor mundum desiderat deus. cur me abstineam a cibis, quos deus creauit ad utendum? et si quando lepidae et festiuae nolunt uideri et se mero ingurgitauerint, ebrietati sacrilegium copulantes aiunt: absit, ut ego me a Christi sanguine abstineam. et quam uiderint tristem atque pallentem, miseram et monacham et Manicheam uocant, et consequenter; tali enim proposito ieiunium heresis est. hae sunt, quae per publicum notabiliter incedunt et furtiuis oculorum nutibus adulescentium gregem post se trahunt, quae semper audiunt per prophetam: facies meretricis facta est tibi, inpudorata es tu. purpura tantum in ueste sit tenuis et laxius, ut crines decidant, ligatum caput, soccus uilior et per umeros maforte uolitans, strictae manicae bracchiis adhaerentes et solutis genibus fractus incessus: haec est apud illas tota uirginitas. habeant istiusmodi laudatores suos et sub uirginali nomine lucrosius pereant: libenter talibus non placemus. ### English translation (Claude) It pains me to say how many virgins fall every day, how many mother church loses from her bosom, over how many stars the proud enemy sets his throne, how many rocks the snake hollows out to live in their holes. You may see many women, widows before they are brides, trying to cover their unhappy conscience only with a lying garment; unless a swelling womb or the wailing of infants betrays them, they walk with head erect and tripping feet. Others drink sterility beforehand and commit murder on a human being not yet conceived. Some, when they feel that they have conceived in sin, plan poisons for abortion, and often, dying themselves as well, are brought down to hell guilty of three crimes: murderers of themselves, adulteresses against Christ, and killers of their unborn child. These are the ones who usually say: "To the pure all things are pure. My conscience is enough for me. God desires a clean heart. Why should I abstain from foods that God created to be used?" And if ever they want to appear witty and merry and have drenched themselves with wine, joining sacrilege to drunkenness they say: "Far be it from me to abstain from the blood of Christ." And any woman they see sad and pale they call a wretch, a nun, and a Manichaean, and consistently so; for to such a way of life fasting is heresy. These are the ones who walk conspicuously in public and with stolen glances draw a crowd of young men after them, who always hear from the prophet: "You have the face of a prostitute; you have become shameless." Let there only be a thin purple stripe in their dress, the head bound loosely so that the hair falls down, a cheaper slipper, a veil fluttering from the shoulders, tight sleeves clinging to the arms, and a mincing walk with loose knees: this is all their virginity. Let women of this kind have their admirers and perish more profitably under the name of virgin; we are glad not to please such. ### Scripture references - Isa 14:13: allusion, high confidence - Titus 1:15: quotation, high confidence - Ps 51:10 (50:12 LXX): allusion, medium confidence - 1 Tim 4:3: allusion, high confidence - Jer 3:3: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Isa 14:13; Titus 1:15; Ps 51:10 (LXX and Vulgate 50:12); 1 Tim 4:3; Jer 3:3. Jerome counts contraception and abortion as murder, as many early writers did; translated as written. "Manichaean" was used as an insult for ascetics because the Manichaeans rejected marriage and certain foods. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 22.13 (CSEL 54:160–161; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-7/#p-22-13). ## Letter 22.14 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-7/#p-22-14 - Source: CSEL 54:161–162 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome condemns the practice of celibate men and women living together as "spiritual" partners (agapetae). ### Latin text Pudet dicere, pro nefas! triste, sed uerum est: unde in ecclesias agapetarum pestis introiit? unde sine nuptiis aliud nomen uxorum? immo unde nouum concubinarum genus? plus inferam: unde meretrices uniuirae? eadem domo, uno cubiculo, saepe uno tenentur et lectulo, et suspiciosos nos uocant, si aliquid aestimemus. frater sororem uirginem deserit, caelibem spernit uirgo germanum, et, cum in eodem proposito esse se simulent, quaerunt alienorum spiritale solacium, ut domi habeant carnale commercium. istiusmodi homines in Prouerbiis Salomonis arguit deus dicens: alligabit quis ignem in sinu et uestimenta eius non conburentur? aut ambulabit supra carbones ignis et pedes illius non ardebunt? ### English translation (Claude) I am ashamed to say it (what wickedness!); it is sad but true: from where did the plague of the agapetae enter the churches? From where comes this other name for wives without marriage? Or rather, from where this new kind of concubine? I will say more: from where come prostitutes of one man? They are kept in the same house, one bedroom, often one bed, and they call us suspicious if we think anything of it. A brother deserts his virgin sister; a virgin scorns her celibate brother; and while they pretend to be in the same way of life, they seek the spiritual comfort of strangers, so as to have carnal intercourse at home. God rebukes such people in the Proverbs of Solomon, saying: "Will a man bind fire in his bosom and his clothes not be burned? Or will he walk on coals of fire and his feet not be scorched?" ### Scripture references - Prov 6:27: quotation, high confidence - Prov 6:28: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Prov 6:27-28. The agapetae ("beloved"), or subintroductae, were virgins who lived with celibate men in supposedly spiritual companionship, a practice repeatedly condemned by councils. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 22.14 (CSEL 54:161–162; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-7/#p-22-14). ## Letter 22.15 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-7/#p-22-15 - Source: CSEL 54:162–163 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome turns to Eustochium herself, citing her widowed sister Blesilla as an example of marriage's uncertainties and of widowhood's lesser but real reward. ### Latin text Explosis igitur et exterminatis his, quae nolunt esse uirgines, sed uideri, nunc ad te mihi omnis dirigitur oratio, quae quanto prima Romanae urbis uirgo nobilis esse coepisti, tanto tibi amplius laborandum est, ne et praesentibus bonis careas et futuris. et quidem molestias nuptiarum et incerta coniugii de domestico exemplo didicisti, cum soror tua Blesilla aetate maior, sed proposito minor, post acceptum maritum septimo mense uiduata est. o infelix humana condicio et futuri nescia! et uirginitatis coronam et nuptiarum perdidit uoluptatem. et quamquam secundum pudicitiae gradum teneat, tamen quas illam per momenta sustinere aestimas cruces spectantem cotidie in sorore, quod ipsa perdiderit, et, cum difficilius experta careat uoluptate, minorem continentiae habere mercedem? sit tamen et illa secura, sit gaudens: centesimus et sexagesimus fructus de uno sunt semine castitatis. ### English translation (Claude) Having hissed off the stage and driven away those who do not wish to be virgins but only to seem so, I now direct my whole speech to you, who, as you have begun to be the first noble virgin of the city of Rome, must work all the harder not to lose both present and future goods. You have indeed learned the troubles of marriage and the uncertainties of wedlock from an example at home, when your sister Blesilla, older in age but less advanced in resolve, was widowed in the seventh month after taking a husband. O unhappy human condition, ignorant of the future! She lost both the crown of virginity and the pleasure of marriage. And although she holds the second rank of chastity, yet what crosses do you think she endures every moment, seeing daily in her sister what she herself has lost, and, while it is harder for her to do without a pleasure she has experienced, receiving a lesser reward for her continence? Yet let her too be secure, let her rejoice: the hundredfold and the sixtyfold fruit come from one seed of chastity. ### Scripture references - Matt 13:8: allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - Matt 13:8, 23 (the hundredfold and sixtyfold fruit, which Jerome applies to virginity and widowhood). ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 22.15 (CSEL 54:162–163; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-7/#p-22-15). ## Letter 22.16 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-7/#p-22-16 - Source: CSEL 54:163–164 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome warns Eustochium against the society of worldly married women and of rich widows who flaunt their freedom and patronize fawning clergy. ### Latin text Nolo habeas consortia matronarum, nolo ad nobilium accedas domos, nolo te frequenter uidere, quod contemnens uirgo esse uoluisti. si sibi solent adplaudere mulierculae de iudicibus uiris et in aliqua positis dignitate, si ad imperatoris uxorem concurrit ambitio salutantum, cur tu facias iniuriam uiro tuo? ad hominis coniugem dei sponsa quid properas? disce in hac parte superbiam sanctam, scito te illis esse meliorem. neque uero earum te tantum cupio declinare congressus, quae maritorum inflantur honoribus, quas eunuchorum greges saepiunt et in quarum uestibus adtenuata in filum metalla texuntur, sed etiam eas fuge, quas uiduas necessitas fecit, non quo mortem optare debuerint maritorum, sed quo datam occasionem pudicitiae libenter arripere. nunc uero tantum ueste mutata pristina non mutatur ambitio. praecedit caueas basternarum ordo semiuir et rubentibus buccis cutis farsa distenditur, ut eas putes maritos non amisisse, sed quaerere. plena adulatoribus domus, plena conuiuis. clerici ipsi, quos et magisterio esse oportuerat et timori, osculantur capita patronarum et extenta manu, ut benedicere eos putes uelle, si nescias, pretium accipiunt salutandi. illae interim, quae sacerdotes suo uident indigere praesidio, eriguntur in superbiam et, quia maritorum expertae dominatum uiduitatis praeferunt libertatem, castae uocantur et nonnae et post cenam dubiam apostolos somniant. ### English translation (Claude) I do not want you to keep company with married ladies; I do not want you to go to the houses of the nobility; I do not want you to see often what you despised when you chose to be a virgin. If silly women pride themselves on husbands who are judges or hold some high office, if the crowd of callers rushes ambitiously to the emperor's wife, why should you insult your husband? Why do you, the bride of God, hurry to the wife of a man? Learn in this respect a holy pride; know that you are better than they. Nor do I want you to avoid only the company of those who are puffed up by their husbands' honors, whom troops of eunuchs surround, and in whose dresses metals beaten into thread are woven; but flee also those whom necessity has made widows: not that they ought to have wished for their husbands' death, but that they ought gladly to have seized the opportunity for chastity that was given them. As it is, only their dress is changed; their former ambition is not. A troop of half-men goes before the cages of their litters, and with red cheeks their well-fed skin is stretched tight, so that you would think they had not lost husbands but were looking for them. The house is full of flatterers, full of guests. The clergy themselves, who ought to inspire both instruction and awe, kiss the heads of their patronesses, and, with hand outstretched, so that you would think, if you did not know, that they wished to bless them, they receive a fee for their greeting. Meanwhile the women, seeing that the priests need their patronage, are lifted up in pride, and because, having experienced the rule of husbands, they prefer the freedom of widowhood, they are called chaste and nuns, and after a doubtful supper they dream of the apostles. ### Translation notes - "Nonnae" ("nuns") is one of the earliest attestations of the word. The satire of worldly clergy and widows is Jerome's own; translated as written. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 22.16 (CSEL 54:163–164; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-7/#p-22-16). ## Letter 22.17 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-7/#p-22-17 - Source: CSEL 54:164–166 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome counsels Eustochium to keep ascetic companions, stay at home, fast, pray, and read Scripture, overcoming bodily desire with love for Christ. ### Latin text Sint tibi sociae, quas uideris quod ieiunia tenuant, quibus pallor in facie est, quas et aetas probauit et uita, quae cotidie in cordibus suis canunt: ubi pascis? ubi cubas in meridie? quae ex affectu dicunt: cupio dissolui et esse cum Christo. esto subiecta parentibus: imitare sponsum tuum. rarus sit egressus in publicum: martyres tibi quaerantur in cubiculo tuo. numquam causa deerit procedendi, si semper, quando (necesse, quando non) necesse est, processura sis. moderatus cibus et numquam uenter repletus. plurimae quippe sunt, quae, cum uino sint sobriae, ciborum largitate sunt ebriae. ad orationem tibi nocte surgenti non indigestio ructum faciat, sed inanitas. crebrius lege et disce quam plurima. tenenti codicem somnus obrepat et cadentem faciem pagina sancta suscipiat. sint tibi cotidiana ieiunia et refectio satietatem fugiens. nihil prodest biduo triduoque transmisso uacuum portare uentrem, si pariter obruitur, si conpensatur saturitate ieiunium. ilico mens repleta torpescit et inrigata humus spinas libidinum germinat. si quando senseris exteriorem hominem florem adulescentiae suspirare et accepto cibo cum te in lectulo conpositam dulcis libidinum pompa concusserit, arripe scutum fidei, in quo ignitae diaboli extinguuntur sagittae. omnes adulterantes, quasi clibanus corda eorum. at tu Christi comitata uestigiis et sermonibus. eius intenta dic: nonne cor nostrum erat ardens in uia, cum aperiret nobis Iesus scripturas? et illud: ignitum eloquium tuum, et seruus tuus dilexit illud. difficile est humanam animam non amare et necesse est, ut in quoscumque mens nostra trahatur affectus, carnis amor spiritus amore superatur; desiderium desiderio restinguitur. quidquid inde minuitur, hinc crescit. quin potius semper ingemina: super lectum meum in noctibus quaesiui, quem dilexit anima mea. mortificate, ait apostolus, membra uestra super terram. unde et ipse confidenter aiebat: uiuo autem iam non ego, uiuit autem in me Christus. qui mortificauit membra sua et in imagine perambulabat, non timet dicere: factus sum tamquam uter in pruina; quidquid enim in me fuit umoris, excoctum est, et: infirmata sunt in ieiunio genua mea, et: oblitus sum manducare panem meum; a uoce gemitus mei adhaesit os meum carni meae. ### English translation (Claude) Let your companions be women whom you see thin with fasting, pale of face, proved by age and by life, who sing daily in their hearts, "Where do you feed your flock? Where do you rest at noon?", who say from the heart, "I desire to depart and be with Christ." Be subject to your parents; imitate your Bridegroom. Go out in public rarely; seek the martyrs in your own room. You will never lack a reason to go out if you are always going to go out whenever it is necessary (and whenever it is not). Let your food be moderate and your stomach never full. For there are very many women who, though sober as to wine, are drunk with an abundance of food. When you rise at night to pray, let it be emptiness, not indigestion, that makes you belch. Read often, and learn as much as possible. Let sleep creep over you as you hold the book, and let the sacred page catch your drooping face. Let your fasts be daily, and your refreshment such as avoids satiety. It does no good to carry an empty stomach for two or three days if the fast is then overwhelmed and made up for by a surfeit. At once the mind, filled up, grows dull, and the watered ground sprouts the thorns of lust. If ever you feel the outer man sighing for the flower of youth, and, after you have eaten and lie down on your bed, the sweet procession of desires shakes you, seize the shield of faith, by which the fiery arrows of the devil are quenched. "All are adulterers; their hearts are like an oven." But you, following the footsteps of Christ and intent on his words, say: "Was not our heart burning on the way, when Jesus opened the Scriptures to us?" and: "Your word is fiery, and your servant has loved it." It is hard for the human soul not to love, and our mind must be drawn into some affection or other. Love of the flesh is overcome by love of the spirit; desire is quenched by desire; whatever is taken from the one grows in the other. Rather, keep repeating: "On my bed by night I sought him whom my soul loved." "Put to death," says the apostle, "your members that are on earth." Hence he himself confidently said: "I live, yet no longer I, but Christ lives in me." He who has put his members to death and walks in the image is not afraid to say: "I have become like a wineskin in the frost; for whatever moisture was in me has been boiled away"; and: "My knees are weak through fasting"; and: "I forgot to eat my bread; at the sound of my groaning my bone has cleaved to my flesh." ### Scripture references - Song 1:7 (1:6 Vulg.): quotation, high confidence - Phil 1:23: quotation, high confidence - Luke 2:51: allusion, medium confidence - Eph 6:16: allusion, high confidence - Hos 7:4: quotation, high confidence - Luke 24:32: quotation, high confidence - Ps 119:140 (118:140 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Song 3:1: quotation, high confidence - Col 3:5: quotation, high confidence - Gal 2:20: quotation, high confidence - Ps 39:6 (38:7 LXX): allusion, medium confidence - Ps 119:83 (118:83 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Ps 109:24 (108:24 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Ps 102:4 (101:5 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Ps 102:5 (101:6 LXX): quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Song 1:7 (Vulgate 1:6); Phil 1:23; Luke 2:51; Eph 6:16; Hos 7:4; Luke 24:32; Ps 119:140 (LXX and Vulgate 118:140); Song 3:1; Col 3:5; Gal 2:20; Ps 39:6 (LXX and Vulgate 38:7); Ps 119:83 (LXX and Vulgate 118:83); Ps 109:24 (LXX and Vulgate 108:24); Ps 102:4-5 (LXX and Vulgate 101:5-6). "And whenever it is not" is supplied by the editor. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 22.17 (CSEL 54:164–166; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-7/#p-22-17). ## Letter 22.18 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-7/#p-22-18 - Source: CSEL 54:166–168 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome urges Eustochium to watchful prayer and tears, and argues that the virgin is free from the curse on woman and from marriage, which ends in death. ### Latin text Esto cicada noctium. laua per singulas noctes lectum tuum, in lacrimis stratum tuum riga. uigila et flere sicut passer in solitudine. psalle spiritu, psalle et mente: benedic, anima mea, dominum et ne obliuiscaris omnes retributiones eius, qui propitiatur cunctis iniquitatibus tuis, qui sanat omnes infirmitates tuas et redimit ex corruptione uitam tuam. quis nostrum ex corde dicere potest: quia cinerem quasi panem manducaui et potionem meam cum fletu miscebam? an non flendum est, non gemendum, cum me rursus serpens inuitat ad inlicitos cibos? cum de paradiso uirginitatis eiectum tunicis uult uestire pelliciis, quas Helias ad paradisum rediens proiecit in terram? quid mihi et uoluptati, quae in breui perit? quid cum hoc dulci et mortifero carmine sirenarum? nolo illi subiacere sententiae, quae in hominem est lata damnatum: in doloribus et anxietatibus paries, mulier — lex ista non mea est —, et ad uirum conuersio tua. sit conuersio illius ad maritum, quae uirum non habet Christum, et ad extremum morte morieris finis iste coniugii: meum propositum sine sexu est. habeant nuptiae suum tempus et titulum: mihi uirginitas in Maria dedicatur et Christo. ### English translation (Claude) Be a cicada of the nights. Wash your bed every night; water your couch with tears. Keep watch and be like a sparrow alone. Sing with the spirit, sing also with the mind: "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and do not forget all his benefits, who is merciful to all your iniquities, who heals all your infirmities, and redeems your life from corruption." Which of us can say from the heart: "For I have eaten ashes like bread and mingled my drink with weeping"? Should I not weep, should I not groan, when the serpent again invites me to forbidden food, when he wants to clothe me, cast out of the paradise of virginity, with the tunics of skin which Elijah, returning to paradise, threw to the earth? What have I to do with pleasure, which soon perishes? What with this sweet and deadly song of the sirens? I do not want to be subject to that sentence passed on condemned man: "In pains and anxieties you will bear children, woman" (that law is not mine) "and your turning will be to your husband." Let her turning be to her husband who does not have Christ as her husband; and finally, "you will die the death": that is the end of marriage. My way of life is without sex. Let marriage have its time and its title; for me virginity is consecrated in Mary and in Christ. ### Scripture references - Ps 6:6 (6:7 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Ps 102:7 (101:8 LXX): quotation, high confidence - 1 Cor 14:15: quotation, high confidence - Ps 103:2 (102:2 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Ps 103:3 (102:3 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Ps 103:4 (102:4 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Ps 102:9 (101:10 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Gen 3:21: allusion, high confidence - 2 Kgs 2:13: allusion, medium confidence - Gen 3:16: quotation, high confidence - Gen 2:17: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Ps 6:6 (LXX and Vulgate 6:7); Ps 102:7 (LXX and Vulgate 101:8); 1 Cor 14:15; Ps 103:2-4 (LXX and Vulgate 102:2-4); Ps 102:9 (LXX and Vulgate 101:10); Gen 3:21; 2 Kgs 2:13 (Elijah's mantle, read as the "tunic of skin"); Gen 3:16; Gen 2:17. The contrast of marriage and virginity is Jerome's own; translated as written. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 22.18 (CSEL 54:166–168; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-7/#p-22-18). ## Letter 22.19 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-7/#p-22-19 - Source: CSEL 54:168–170 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome insists that preferring virginity does not disparage marriage, which he places second, and argues from Scripture that virginity belongs to paradise and marriage to the fallen state. ### Latin text Dicat aliquis: (et audes nuptiis detrahere, quae a domino benedictae sunt? non est detrahere nuptiis, cum illis uirginitas antefertur. nemo malum bono conparat. glorientur et nuptae, cum a uirginibus sunt secundae. crescite, ait, et multiplicamini et replete terram. crescat et multiplicetur ille, qui inpleturus est terram: tuum agmen in caelis est. crescite et multiplicamini. hoc expletur edictum post paradisum et nuditatem et ficus folia auspicantia pruriginem nuptiarum. nubat et nubatur ille, qui in sudore faciei comedit panem suum, cui terra tribulos generat et spinas, cuius herba sentibus suffocatur: meum semen centena fruge fecundum est. non omnes capiunt uerbum dei, sed hi, quibus datum est. alium eunuchum necessitas faciat, me uoluntas. tempus amplexandi et tempus abstinendi manus a conplexu; tempus mittendi lapides et tempus colligendi. postquam de duritia nationum generati sunt filii Abraham, coeperunt sancti lapides uolui super terram. pertranseunt quippe mundi istius. turbines et in curru dei rotarum celeritate uoluuntur. consuant tunicas, qui inconsutam desursum tunicam perdiderunt, quos uagitus delectat infantum in ipso lucis exordio fletu lugente, quod nati sunt. Eua in paradiso uirgo fuit; post pellicias tunicas initium nuptiarum. tua regio paradisus. serua, quod nata es, et dic: reuertere, anima mea, in requiem tuam. et ut scias uirginitatem esse naturae, nuptias post delictum: uirgo nascitur caro de nuptiis in fructu reddens, quod in radice perdiderat. exi uirga de radice Iesse et flos de radice ascendet. uirga mater est domini, simplex, pura, sinceris nullo extrinsecus germine cohaerente et ad similitudinem dei unione fecunda. uirgae flos Christus est dicens: ego flos campi et lilium conuallium. qui et in alio loco lapis praedicatur abscisus de monte sine manibus significante prophetia uirginem nasciturum esse de uirgine. manus quippe accipiuntur pro opere nuptiarum, ut ibi: sinistra eius sub capite meo et dextera eius amplexabitur me. in huius sensus congruit uoluntatem etiam illud, quod animalia, quae a Noe bina in arcam inducuntur, inmunda sunt — inpar numerus est mundus —; quod Moyses et Iesus Naue nudis in sanctam terram pedibus iubentur incedere et discipuli sine calciamentorum onere et uinculis pellium ad praedicationem euangelii destinantur; quod milites uestimentis Iesu sorte diuisis caligas non habuere, quas tollerent. nec enim poterat habere dominus, quod prohibuerat in seruis. ### English translation (Claude) Someone will say: "And do you dare to disparage marriage, which was blessed by the Lord?" It is not disparaging marriage when virginity is preferred to it. No one compares an evil with a good. Let married women too glory, since they come second after virgins. "Increase," he says, "and multiply and fill the earth." Let him increase and multiply who is going to fill the earth; your company is in heaven. "Increase and multiply": this command is fulfilled after paradise and nakedness and the fig leaves that signal the itch of marriage. Let him marry and be given in marriage who eats his bread in the sweat of his brow, for whom the earth brings forth thorns and thistles, whose crop is choked with briars; my seed is fertile with a hundredfold yield. "Not all receive the word of God, but those to whom it is given." Let necessity make one man a eunuch, my will make me one. "A time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones." After the children of Abraham were raised up from the hardness of the Gentiles, holy stones began to roll upon the earth. For they pass through the whirlwinds of this world and roll in the chariot of God with the speed of wheels. Let those stitch tunics who have lost the seamless tunic woven from above, who delight in the wailing of infants, which laments at the very beginning of life that they were born. Eve was a virgin in paradise; after the tunics of skin came the beginning of marriage. Your country is paradise. Keep what you were born, and say: "Return, my soul, to your rest." And that you may know that virginity belongs to nature and marriage came after the fault: virgin flesh is born of marriage, restoring in the fruit what it had lost in the root. "A rod will come forth from the root of Jesse, and a flower will rise from the root." The rod is the mother of the Lord, simple, pure, genuine, with no shoot from outside clinging to it, and fruitful in oneness after the likeness of God. The flower of the rod is Christ, who says: "I am the flower of the field and the lily of the valleys." In another place too he is proclaimed as the stone cut out of the mountain without hands, the prophecy signifying that a virgin would be born of a virgin. For "hands" are taken for the act of marriage, as there: "His left hand is under my head, and his right hand will embrace me." With the intent of this meaning agrees also the fact that the animals brought into the ark by Noah in pairs are unclean (an odd number is clean); that Moses and Joshua son of Nun are commanded to walk on holy ground with bare feet; that the disciples are sent to preach the gospel without the burden of shoes and the bonds of leather; that the soldiers, when Jesus' garments were divided by lot, had no boots to take. For the Lord could not have what he had forbidden to his servants. ### Scripture references - Gen 1:28: quotation, high confidence - Gen 3:7: allusion, high confidence - Gen 3:19: allusion, high confidence - Gen 3:18: allusion, high confidence - Matt 13:8: allusion, high confidence - Matt 19:11: quotation, high confidence - Matt 19:12: allusion, high confidence - Eccl 3:5: quotation, high confidence - Matt 3:9: allusion, high confidence - Zech 9:16: allusion, medium confidence - Ezek 1:15: allusion, low confidence - John 19:23: allusion, high confidence - Gen 3:21: allusion, high confidence - Ps 116:7 (114:7 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Isa 11:1: quotation, high confidence - Song 2:1: quotation, high confidence - Dan 2:34: allusion, high confidence - Song 2:6: quotation, high confidence - Gen 7:2: allusion, high confidence - Exod 3:5: allusion, high confidence - Josh 5:15: allusion, high confidence - Matt 10:10: allusion, high confidence - John 19:24: allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - Gen 1:28; Gen 3:7; Gen 3:18-19; Matt 13:8; Matt 19:11-12; Eccl 3:5; Matt 3:9; Zech 9:16 (in the Greek form: holy stones rolling on the earth); Ezek 1:15-21; John 19:23; Gen 3:21; Ps 116:7 (LXX and Vulgate 114:7); Isa 11:1; Song 2:1; Dan 2:34, 45; Song 2:6; Gen 7:2; Exod 3:5; Josh 5:15; Matt 10:10; John 19:23-24. Jerome's ranking of virginity above marriage and his claim that marriage began after the Fall are translated as written; he affirms that marriage is blessed by God and "second". ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 22.19 (CSEL 54:168–170; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-7/#p-22-19). ## Letter 22.20 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-7/#p-22-20 - Source: CSEL 54:170–171 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome praises marriage because it brings forth virgins, and explains that Paul gave no command about virginity so that it would be freely chosen and marriage not condemned. ### Latin text Laudo nuptias, laudo coniugium, sed quia mihi uirgines generant: lego de spinis rosas, de terra aurum, de conca margaritum. numquid, qui arat, tota die arabit? nonne et laboris sui fruge laetabitur? plus honorantur nuptiae, quando, quod de illis nascitur, plus amatur. quid inuides, mater, filiae? tuo lacte nutrita est, tuis educta uisceribus in tuo adoleuit sinu, tu illam sedula pietate seruasti: indignaris, quod noluit militis uxor esse, sed regis? grande tibi beneficium praestitit: socrus dei esse coepisti. de uirginibus, inquit apostolus, praeceptum domini non habeo: cur? quia, et ipse ut esset uirgo, non fuit imperii, sed propriae uoluntatis. neque enim audiendi sunt, qui eum uxorem habuisse confingunt, cum de continentia disserens et suadens perpetuam castitatem intulerit: uolo autem omnes esse sicut me ipsum, et infra: dico autem innuptis et uiduis: bonum est illis, si sic permaneant, sicut et ego, et in alio loco: numquid non habemus potestatem uxores circumducendi sicut et ceteri apostoli? quare ergo non habet domini de uirginitate praeceptum? quia maioris est mercis, quod non cogitur et offertur, quia, si fuisset uirginitas imperata, nuptiae uidebantur ablatae et durissimum erat contra naturam cogere angelorumque uitam ab hominibus extorquere et id quodam modo damnare, quod conditum est. ### English translation (Claude) I praise marriage, I praise wedlock, but because it produces virgins for me: I gather roses from thorns, gold from the earth, the pearl from the shell. "Will the one who plows plow all day?" Will he not also rejoice in the fruit of his labor? Marriage is honored the more when what is born of it is loved the more. Why, mother, do you begrudge your daughter? She was nourished with your milk, brought forth from your womb, grew up in your bosom; you guarded her with devoted affection. Are you indignant that she did not want to be the wife of a soldier, but of the King? She has done you a great kindness: you have begun to be the mother-in-law of God. "Concerning virgins," says the apostle, "I have no command of the Lord." Why? Because his own virginity, too, was not a matter of command but of his own will. For those are not to be listened to who pretend that he had a wife, since, discussing continence and urging perpetual chastity, he added: "I wish that all were as I myself am"; and further on: "I say to the unmarried and to widows: it is good for them if they remain so, even as I"; and in another place: "Have we not the right to take wives about with us, as the other apostles?" Why, then, does he have no command of the Lord concerning virginity? Because what is offered without being compelled deserves a greater reward; because, if virginity had been commanded, marriage would have seemed abolished; and it would have been very harsh to force nature and to extort from human beings the life of angels, and in a way to condemn what had been created. ### Scripture references - Isa 28:24: quotation, high confidence - 1 Cor 7:25: quotation, high confidence - 1 Cor 7:7: quotation, high confidence - 1 Cor 7:8: quotation, high confidence - 1 Cor 9:5: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Isa 28:24; 1 Cor 7:25; 1 Cor 7:7-8; 1 Cor 9:5. Jerome holds that Paul was unmarried, against those who claimed otherwise. His view of marriage as good but lower than virginity is translated as written. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 22.20 (CSEL 54:170–171; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-7/#p-22-20). ## Letter 22.21 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-7/#p-22-21 - Source: CSEL 54:171–174 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome contrasts the Old Testament blessing of children with the gospel's call to virginity, which began with Mary and is commended by Paul. ### Latin text Alia fuit in ueteri lege felicitas. beatus, qui habet semen in Sion et domesticos in Hierusalem, et maledicta sterilis, quae non pariebat, et: filii tui sicut nouella oliuarum in circuitu mensae tuae, et repromissio diuitiarum, et: non erit infirmus in tribubus tuis. nunc dicitur: ne te lignum arbitreris aridum; habes locum pro filiis et filiabus in caelestibus sempiternum; nunc benedicuntur pauperes et Lazarus diuiti praefertur in purpura; nunc, qui infirmus est, fortior est. uacuus erat orbis et, ut de typis taceam, sola erat benedictio liberorum. propterea et Abraham iam senex Cetturae copulatur et Iacob mandragoris redimitur et conclusam uuluam in ecclesiae figuram Rachel pulchra conqueritur. paulatim uero increscente segete messor inmissus est. uirgo Helias, Helisaeus uirgo, uirgines multi filii prophetarum. Hieremiae dicitur: et tu accipias uxorem. sanctificatus in utero captiuitate propinquante uxorem prohibetur accipere. aliis uerbis id ipsud apostolus loquitur: existimo ergo hoc bonum esse propter instantem necessitatem, quoniam bonum est homini sic esse. quae est ista necessitas, quae auferet gaudia nuptiarum? tempus breuiatum est; reliquum est, ut et qui habent uxores sic sint, quasi non habentes. in proximo est Nabuchodonosor: promouit se leo de cubili suo. quo mihi superbissimo regi seruitura coniugia? quo paruulos, quos propheta conploret dicens: adhaesit lingua lactantis ad faucem ipsius in siti. paruuli postulauerunt panem et, qui frangeret eis, non erat? inueniebatur ergo, ut diximus, in uiris tantum hoc continentiae bonum et in doloribus iugiter Eua pariebat. postquam uero uirgo concepit in utero et peperit nobis puerum, cuius principatus in umero eius, deum fortem, patrem futuri saeculi, soluta maledictio est. mors per Euam, uita per Mariam. ideoque et ditius uirginitatis donum fluxit in feminas, quia coepit a femina. statim ut filius dei ingressus est super terram, nouam sibi familiam instituit, ut, qui ab angelis adorabatur in caelo, haberet angelos et in terris. tunc Olofernae caput Iudith continens amputauit; tunc Aman, quod interpretatur iniquitas, suo igne conbustus est; tunc Iacobus et Iohannes relicto patre, rete, nauicula secuti sunt saluatorem affectum sanguinis et uincula saeculi et curam domus pariter relinquentes; tunc primum auditum est: qui uult uenire post me, neget se ipsum sibi et tollat crucem suam et sequatur me. nemo enim miles cum uxore pergit ad proelium. discipulo ad sepulturam patris ire cupienti non permittitur. uulpes foueas habent et uolucres caeli nidos; filius autem hominis non habet, ubi caput reclinet: ne forsitan contristeris, si anguste manseris. qui sine uxore est, sollicitus est ea, quae domini sunt, quomodo placeat deo, qui autem cum uxore est, sollicitus est, quae sunt huius mundi, quomodo placeat uxori. diuisa est mulier et uirgo: quae non est nupta, cogitat, quae sunt domini, ut sit sancta corpore et spiritu; nam quae nupta est, cogitat, quae sunt mundi, quomodo placeat uiro. ### English translation (Claude) In the old law there was a different happiness: "Blessed is he who has seed in Zion and a household in Jerusalem"; and "Cursed is the barren woman who did not bear"; and "Your children like olive shoots around your table"; and the promise of riches; and "There will be no one feeble among your tribes." Now it is said: "Do not think yourself a dry tree; you have an everlasting place in heaven instead of sons and daughters." Now the poor are blessed, and Lazarus is preferred to the rich man in purple; now he who is weak is stronger. The world was empty, and, to say nothing of the types, the only blessing was that of children. For this reason Abraham, already old, is joined to Keturah, and Jacob is bought with mandrakes, and beautiful Rachel, a figure of the church, complains of her closed womb. But gradually, as the crop grew, the reaper was sent in. Elijah was a virgin, Elisha a virgin, many of the sons of the prophets virgins. To Jeremiah it is said: "And you shall not take a wife." He who was sanctified in the womb is forbidden to take a wife as the captivity draws near. In other words the apostle says the same: "I think, then, that this is good because of the present necessity, that it is good for a man to be so." What is this necessity that takes away the joys of marriage? "The time is short; it remains that those who have wives be as though they had none." Nebuchadnezzar is near; the lion has come up from his lair. What use to me are marriages that will serve a most proud king? What use little children, whom the prophet laments, saying: "The tongue of the nursing child cleaved to its throat in thirst; the little ones asked for bread, and there was no one to break it for them"? So, as we said, this good of continence was found only among men, and Eve continually bore children in pain. But after a virgin conceived in the womb and bore us a child, "whose government is upon his shoulder, mighty God, Father of the age to come," the curse was loosed. Death through Eve, life through Mary. And therefore the gift of virginity has flowed more richly to women, because it began from a woman. As soon as the Son of God entered upon the earth, he established a new household for himself, so that he who was adored by angels in heaven might have angels on earth too. Then the continent Judith cut off the head of Holofernes; then Haman, whose name is interpreted "iniquity", was burned in his own fire; then James and John, leaving father, net, and boat, followed the Savior, leaving behind alike the affection of blood, the bonds of the world, and the care of the household; then first it was heard: "Whoever wishes to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." For no soldier goes to battle with his wife. A disciple who wishes to go to his father's burial is not permitted. "Foxes have holes and the birds of the sky nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head": so do not be sad if you live in narrow quarters. "He who is without a wife is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to please God; but he who is with a wife is anxious about the things of this world, how to please his wife. The married woman and the virgin are divided: she who is not married thinks about the things of the Lord, that she may be holy in body and spirit; but she who is married thinks about the things of the world, how to please her husband." ### Scripture references - Isa 31:9: quotation, medium confidence - Ps 128:3 (127:3 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Ps 105:37 (104:37 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Isa 56:3: allusion, high confidence - Isa 56:5: allusion, high confidence - Luke 6:20: allusion, high confidence - Luke 16:19: allusion, high confidence - 2 Cor 12:10: allusion, medium confidence - Gen 25:1: allusion, high confidence - Gen 30:16: allusion, high confidence - Gen 30:1: allusion, high confidence - Jer 16:2: quotation, high confidence - Jer 1:5: allusion, high confidence - 1 Cor 7:26: quotation, high confidence - 1 Cor 7:29: quotation, high confidence - Jer 4:7: quotation, high confidence - Lam 4:4: quotation, high confidence - Isa 7:14: allusion, high confidence - Isa 9:6: quotation, high confidence - Esth 7:10: allusion, medium confidence - Matt 4:22: allusion, high confidence - Matt 16:24: quotation, high confidence - 2 Tim 2:4: allusion, medium confidence - Matt 8:21: allusion, high confidence - Matt 8:20: quotation, high confidence - 1 Cor 7:32: quotation, high confidence - 1 Cor 7:33: quotation, high confidence - 1 Cor 7:34: quotation, high confidence ### Extrabiblical texts - Jdt 13:8 (Judith): allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - Isa 31:9 (in the Greek form); Exod 23:26 and Deut 7:14 (loosely); Ps 128:3 (LXX and Vulgate 127:3); Ps 105:37 (LXX and Vulgate 104:37); Isa 56:3-5; Luke 6:20; Luke 16:19-25; 2 Cor 12:10; Gen 25:1; Gen 30:14-16; Gen 30:1; Jer 16:2; Jer 1:5; 1 Cor 7:26, 29; Jer 4:7; Lam 4:4; Isa 7:14; Isa 9:6 (in the Greek form); Judith 13:8; Esther 7:10 (Haman); Matt 4:21-22; Matt 16:24; 2 Tim 2:4; Matt 8:21-22; Matt 8:20; 1 Cor 7:32-34. "Death through Eve, life through Mary" is a patristic commonplace. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 22.21 (CSEL 54:171–174; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-7/#p-22-21). ## Letter 22.22 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-7/#p-22-22 - Source: CSEL 54:174–175 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome refers Eustochium to his own work against Helvidius and to earlier writers on virginity, and argues that marital relations hinder continual prayer. ### Latin text Quantas molestias habeant nuptiae et quot sollicitudinibus uinciantur, in eo libro, quem aduersus Heluidium de beatae Mariae perpetua uirginitate edidimus, puto breuiter expressum. nunc eadem replicare perlongum est et, si cui placet, de illo potest haurire fonticulo. uerum, ne penitus uidear omisisse, nunc dicam, quod, cum apostolus sine intermissione orare nos iubeat et, qui in coniugio debitum soluit, orare non possit, aut oramus semper et uirgines sumus, aut orare desinimus, ut coniugio seruiamus. et si nupserit, inquit, uirgo, non peccat; tribulationem tamen carnis habebunt huiusmodi. et in principio libelli praefatus sum me de angustiis nuptiarum aut nihil omnino aut pauca dicturum et nunc eadem admoneo. at, si tibi placet scire, quot molestiis uirgo libera, quot uxor adstricta sit, lege Tertulliani ad amicum philosophum et de uirginitate alios libellos et beati Cypriani uolumen egregium et papae Damasi super hac re uersu prosaque conposita et Ambrosii nostri quae nuper ad sororem scripsit opuscula. in quibus tanto se fudit eloquio, ut, quidquid ad laudem uirginum pertinet, exquisierit, ordinarit, expresserit. ### English translation (Claude) How many troubles marriage has and by how many anxieties it is bound, I think I have briefly expressed in the book I published against Helvidius on the perpetual virginity of blessed Mary. To repeat the same things now would take very long, and anyone who wishes can draw from that little spring. But lest I seem to have left it out entirely, I will now say this: since the apostle commands us to pray without ceasing, and one who pays the debt in marriage cannot pray, either we pray always and are virgins, or we stop praying in order to serve marriage. "And if a virgin marries," he says, "she does not sin; yet such will have trouble in the flesh." At the beginning of this little book I said beforehand that I would say nothing, or only a little, about the difficulties of marriage, and I give the same warning now. But if you wish to know from how many troubles a virgin is free and by how many a wife is bound, read Tertullian's To a Philosopher Friend and his other little books on virginity, and blessed Cyprian's excellent volume, and what Pope Damasus composed on this subject in verse and prose, and the little works our Ambrose recently wrote to his sister. In these he has poured himself out with such eloquence that he has sought out, set in order, and expressed whatever belongs to the praise of virgins. ### Scripture references - 1 Thess 5:17: allusion, high confidence - 1 Cor 7:5: allusion, high confidence - 1 Cor 7:28: quotation, high confidence ### Extrabiblical texts - Cyprian, Hab. virg. (On the Dress of Virgins): allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - Jerome, Against Helvidius 20-22; 1 Thess 5:17; 1 Cor 7:5; 1 Cor 7:28. Tertullian's To a Philosopher Friend is lost; Cyprian's work is On the Dress of Virgins; Ambrose's is On Virgins (377). The argument that marital intercourse prevents prayer is Jerome's reading of 1 Cor 7:5; translated as written. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 22.22 (CSEL 54:174–175; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-7/#p-22-22). ## Letter 22.23 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-7/#p-22-23 - Source: CSEL 54:175–176 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome urges Eustochium to guard her virginity like the sacred vessels of the temple, not displaying herself in public. ### Latin text Nobis diuerso tramite inceditur: uirginitatem non efferimus, sed seruamus. nec sufficit scire, quod bonum est, nisi custodiatur adtentius, quod electum est, quia illud iudicii est, hoc laboris, et illud commune cum pluribus, hoc cum paucis. qui perseuerauerit, inquit, usque ad finem, hic saluus erit et: multi uocati, pauci autem electi. itaque obtestor te coram deo et Christo Iesu et electis angelis eius, ne uasa templi, quae solis sacerdotibus uidere concessum est, facile in publicum proferas, ne sacrarium dei quisquam profanus inspiciat. Ozias arcam, quam non licebat, adtingens subita morte prostratus est. neque enim aureum uas et argenteum tam carum deo fuit, quam templum corporis uirginalis. praecessit umbra, nunc ueritas est. tu quidem simpliciter loqueris et ignotos quoque blanda non despicis, sed aliter inpudici uident oculi. non norunt animae pulchritudinem considerare, sed corporum. Ezechias thesaurum dei monstrat Assyriis, sed Assyrii uidere, quod cuperent. denique frequentibus bellis Iudaea conuulsa uasa primum domini capta atque translata sunt et inter epulas et concubinarum greges, quia palma uitiorum est honesta polluere, Baltasar potat in fialis. ### English translation (Claude) We walk by a different path: we do not extol virginity but guard it. Nor is it enough to know what is good unless what has been chosen is guarded more attentively; for the one is a matter of judgment, the other of labor, and the one is shared with many, the other with few. "He who perseveres to the end," he says, "will be saved"; and: "Many are called, but few are chosen." So I adjure you before God and Christ Jesus and his chosen angels not to bring out easily into public the vessels of the temple, which only priests are allowed to see, lest any profane person look into God's sanctuary. Uzzah, touching the ark, which was not permitted, was struck down by sudden death. For no gold or silver vessel was so dear to God as the temple of a virgin's body. The shadow went before; now is the truth. You, indeed, speak simply and in your kindness do not despise even strangers; but unchaste eyes see otherwise. They do not know how to consider the beauty of souls, only of bodies. Hezekiah shows God's treasure to the Assyrians, but the Assyrians saw what they would covet. Finally, when Judea was torn by frequent wars, the vessels of the Lord were the first to be seized and carried off, and amid banquets and crowds of concubines (for the prize of the vices is to defile what is honorable) Belshazzar drinks from the bowls. ### Scripture references - Matt 24:13: quotation, high confidence - Matt 22:14: quotation, high confidence - 1 Tim 5:21: allusion, high confidence - 2 Sam 6:7: allusion, high confidence - 1 Cor 3:16: allusion, medium confidence - Heb 10:1: allusion, low confidence - 2 Kgs 20:13: allusion, high confidence - Dan 5:2: allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - Matt 24:13; Matt 22:14; 1 Tim 5:21; 2 Sam 6:6-7 (Uzzah, called "Ozias" in the Latin); 1 Cor 3:16; Heb 10:1; 2 Kgs 20:13 (the envoys were in fact Babylonian); Dan 5:2-3. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 22.23 (CSEL 54:175–176; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-7/#p-22-23). ## Letter 22.24 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-7/#p-22-24 - Source: CSEL 54:176–178 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome warns Eustochium against flattery and worldly distractions, urging her to be like the ark of the covenant and like Mary at the Lord's feet. ### Latin text Ne declines aurem tuam in uerba mala. saepe indecens aliquid loquentes temptant mentis arbitrium. si libenter audias, uirgo, quod dicitur, si ad ridicula quaeque soluaris, quidquid dixeris, laudant; quidquid negaueris, negant. facetam uocant et sanctam et in qua nullus sit dolus, ecce uera Christi ancilla dicentes, ecce tota simplicitas, non ut illa horrida, turpis, rusticana, terribilis et quae ideo forsitan maritum inuenire non potuit. naturali ducimur malo: adulatoribus nostris libenter fauemus et, quamquam nos respondeamus indignos et calidus rubor ora perfundat, tamen ad laudem suam intrinsecus anima laetatur. sponsa Christi arca est testamenti extrinsecus et intrinsecus deaurata, custos legis domini. sicut in illa nihil aliud fuit nisi tabulae testamenti, ita et in te nullus sit extrinsecus cogitatus. super hoc propitiatorio quasi super cherubim sedere uult dominus. mittit discipulos suos, ut in pullo asinae curis te saecularibus soluant, ut paleas et lateres Aegypti derelinquens Moysen sequaris in heremo et terram repromissionis introeas. nemo sit, qui prohibeat, non mater, non soror, cognata, germanus; dominus te necessariam habet. quod si uoluerint inpedire, timeant flagella Pharaonis, qui populum dei ad colendum eum nolens dimittere passus est illa, quae scripta sunt. Iesus ingressus templum omnia, quae templi non erant, proiecit. deus enim zelotes est et non uult domum patris fieri speluncam latronum. alioquin, ubi aera numerantur, ubi sunt caueae columbarum et simplicitas enecatur, ubi in pectore uirginali saecularium negotiorum cura aestuat, statim uelum templi scinditur; sponsus consurgit iratus et dicit: relinquetur uobis domus uestra deserta. lege euangelium et uide, quomodo Maria ad pedes domini sedens Marthae studio praeferatur- et certe Martha sedulo hospitalitatis officio domino atque discipulis conuiuium praeparabat –: Martha, inquit, Martha, sollicita es et turbaris circa plurima; pauca autem necessaria sunt aut unum. Maria bonam partem elegit, quae non auferetur ab ea. esto et tu Maria, cibis praeferto doctrinam. sorores tuae cursitent et quaerant, quomodo Christum hospitem habeant; tu insemel saeculi onere proiecto sede ad pedes domini et dic: inueni eum, quem quaerebat anima mea; tenebo eum et non dimittam eum, et ille respondeat: una est columba mea, perfecta mea; una est matri suae, electa genitrici suae, caelesti uidelicet Hierusalem. I ### English translation (Claude) "Do not incline your ear to evil words." People often test the mind's judgment by saying something improper. If you, a virgin, listen gladly to what is said, if you relax at every joke, they praise whatever you say and deny whatever you deny. They call you witty and holy and one in whom there is no guile: "See," they say, "a true handmaid of Christ, see, all simplicity; not like that rough, ugly, rustic, frightful woman, who perhaps could not find a husband for that very reason." We are led by a natural evil: we readily favor our flatterers, and although we answer that we are unworthy and a warm blush spreads over our face, yet inwardly the soul rejoices at its own praise. The bride of Christ is the ark of the covenant, gilded outside and inside, the guardian of the law of the Lord. As in the ark there was nothing but the tablets of the covenant, so in you let there be no thought from outside. On this mercy seat, as on the cherubim, the Lord wishes to sit. He sends his disciples to loose you from worldly cares, as on the foal of an ass, so that, leaving the straw and bricks of Egypt, you may follow Moses in the desert and enter the land of promise. Let no one hinder you, not mother, not sister, kinswoman, or brother: the Lord has need of you. And if they wish to hinder you, let them fear the plagues of Pharaoh, who, unwilling to let God's people go to worship him, suffered what is written. Jesus entered the temple and cast out everything that did not belong to the temple. For God is jealous and does not want his Father's house to become a den of robbers. Otherwise, where money is counted, where there are cages of doves and simplicity is killed, where concern for worldly business seethes in a virgin's heart, at once the veil of the temple is torn, the Bridegroom rises in anger and says: "Your house will be left to you desolate." Read the gospel and see how Mary, sitting at the Lord's feet, is preferred to the zeal of Martha (and Martha was certainly preparing a meal for the Lord and his disciples in the diligent service of hospitality): "Martha, Martha," he says, "you are anxious and troubled about many things; but few things are needed, or one. Mary has chosen the good part, which will not be taken from her." Be Mary too; put teaching before food. Let your sisters run about and seek how to receive Christ as a guest; you, having once for all thrown off the burden of the world, sit at the Lord's feet and say: "I have found him whom my soul sought; I will hold him and will not let him go." And let him answer: "My dove, my perfect one, is one; she is the only one of her mother, the chosen one of her who bore her," that is, of the heavenly Jerusalem. ### Scripture references - Ps 141:4 (140:4 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Exod 25:11: allusion, high confidence - Exod 25:22: allusion, high confidence - Matt 21:2: allusion, high confidence - Matt 21:3: quotation, high confidence - Exod 5:7: allusion, high confidence - Matt 21:12: allusion, high confidence - Matt 21:13: allusion, high confidence - Exod 20:5: allusion, medium confidence - Matt 27:51: allusion, high confidence - Matt 23:38: quotation, high confidence - Luke 10:39: allusion, high confidence - Luke 10:41: quotation, high confidence - Luke 10:42: quotation, high confidence - Song 3:4: quotation, high confidence - Song 6:9 (6:8 Vulg.): quotation, high confidence - Gal 4:26: allusion, medium confidence ### Translation notes - Ps 141:4 (LXX and Vulgate 140:4); Exod 25:10-22; Matt 21:2-3; Exod 5:7; Exod 7-12; Matt 21:12-13; Exod 20:5; Matt 27:51; Matt 23:38; Luke 10:39-42 ("few things are needed, or one" follows a variant reading); Song 3:4; Song 6:9 (Vulgate 6:8); Gal 4:26. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 22.24 (CSEL 54:176–178; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-7/#p-22-24). ## Letter 22.25 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-25/#p-22-25 - Source: CSEL 54:178–181 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Using the Song of Songs, Jerome urges Eustochium to meet Christ in the privacy of her room and not to seek him in public, where she will be exposed to danger. ### Latin text Semper te cubiculi tui secreta custodiant, semper tecum sponsus ludat intrinsecus. oras: loqueris ad sponsum; legis: ille tibi loquitur et, cum te somnus oppresserit, ueniet post parietem et mittet manum suam per foramen et tanget uentrem tuum, et tremefacta consurges et dices: uulnerata caritatis ego sum, et rursus ab eo audies: hortus conclusus soror mea sponsa; hortus conclusus, fons signatus. caue ne domum exeas, ne uelis uidere filias regionis alienae, quamuis fratres habeas patriarchas et Israhel parente laeteris: Dina egressa corrumpitur. nolo te sponsum quaerere per plateas, nolo circumire angulos ciuitatis. dicas licet: surgam et circumibo in ciuitate, in foro et in plateis et quaeram, quem dilexit anima mea, et interroges: numquid, quem dilexit anima mea, uidistis? nemo tibi respondere dignabitur. sponsus in plateis non potest inueniri — arta et angusta uia est, quae ducit ad uitam -; denique sequitur: quaesiui eum et non inueni eum, uocaui eum et non respondit mihi. atque utinam non inuenisse sufficiat! uulneraberis, nudaberis et gemebunda narrabis: inuenerunt me custodes qui circumeunt ciuitatem; percusserunt me, uulnerauerunt me, tulerunt theristrum meum a me. si autem hoc exiens patitur illa, quae dixerat: ego dormio et cor meum uigilat et: fasciculus stactae fratruelis meus mihi, in medio uberum meorum commorabitur, quid de nobis fiet, quae adhuc adulescentulae sumus, quae sponsa intrante cum sponso remanemus extrinsecus? zelotypus est Iesus, non uult ab aliis uideri faciem tuam. excuses licet atque causeris: adducto uelamine ora contexi, te quaesiui, tibi dixi: adnuntia mihi. quem dilexit anima mea, ubi pascis. ubi cubas in meridie, ne quando fiam sicut cooperta super greges sodalium tuorum, indignabitur, tumebit et dicet: si non cognoueris temet ipsam, o pulchra in mulieribus, egredere tu in uestigiis gregum et pasce haedos tuos in tabernaculis pastorum. sis, inquit, pulchra et inter omnes mulieres species tua diligatur ab sponso, nisi te cognoueris et omni custodia seruaueris cor tuum, nisi oculos iuuenum fugeris, egredieris de thalamo meo et pasces haedos, qui staturi sunt a sinistris. ### English translation (Claude) Let the privacy of your room always guard you; let the Bridegroom always play with you within. Do you pray? You speak to the Bridegroom. Do you read? He speaks to you; and when sleep overcomes you, he will come behind the wall and put his hand through the opening and touch your body, and you will rise trembling and say: "I am wounded with love"; and again you will hear from him: "A garden enclosed is my sister, my bride; a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed." Take care not to go out of the house, not to wish to see the daughters of a foreign land, even though you have patriarchs as brothers and rejoice in Israel as your father: Dinah went out and was violated. I do not want you to seek the Bridegroom in the streets; I do not want you to go round the corners of the city. You may say, "I will rise and go about the city, in the market and in the streets, and seek him whom my soul loved," and ask, "Have you seen him whom my soul loved?" No one will deign to answer you. The Bridegroom cannot be found in the streets ("narrow and strait is the way that leads to life"); and so it follows: "I sought him and did not find him; I called him and he did not answer me." And would that not finding him were enough! You will be wounded, stripped, and you will tell with groaning: "The watchmen who go about the city found me; they struck me, they wounded me, they took my veil from me." But if she suffers this when she goes out, she who had said, "I sleep, but my heart wakes," and "A bundle of myrrh is my beloved to me; he will lie between my breasts," what will become of us, who are still young girls, who remain outside while the bride goes in with the Bridegroom? Jesus is jealous; he does not want your face to be seen by others. You may make excuses and plead: "I drew my veil over my face; I sought you, I said to you: Tell me, you whom my soul loved, where you feed your flock, where you rest at noon, lest I become like one veiled beside the flocks of your companions." He will be indignant, he will swell with anger, and say: "If you do not know yourself, O fairest among women, go out in the tracks of the flocks and feed your kids beside the shepherds' tents." "You may be fair," he says, "and your beauty may be loved by the Bridegroom above all women; but unless you know yourself and guard your heart with all watchfulness, unless you flee the eyes of young men, you will go out of my bridal chamber and feed the kids that are to stand on the left." ### Scripture references - Matt 6:6: allusion, medium confidence - Song 5:4: quotation, high confidence - Song 2:5: quotation, high confidence - Song 4:12: quotation, high confidence - Gen 34:2: allusion, high confidence - Song 3:2: quotation, high confidence - Song 3:3: quotation, high confidence - Matt 7:14: quotation, high confidence - Song 5:6: quotation, high confidence - Song 5:7: quotation, high confidence - Song 5:2: quotation, high confidence - Song 1:13 (1:12 Vulg.): quotation, high confidence - Song 1:7 (1:6 Vulg.): quotation, high confidence - Song 1:8 (1:7 Vulg.): quotation, high confidence - Prov 4:23: allusion, high confidence - Matt 25:33: allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - Matt 6:6; Song 5:4 (in the Latin form); Song 2:5; Song 4:12; Gen 34:1-2; Song 3:2-3; Matt 7:14; Song 5:6-7; Song 5:2; Song 1:13 (Vulgate 1:12); Song 1:7-8 (Vulgate 1:6-7); Prov 4:23; Matt 25:33. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 22.25 (CSEL 54:178–181; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-25/#p-22-25). ## Letter 22.26 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-25/#p-22-26 - Source: CSEL 54:181–182 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome urges Eustochium to stay within in prayer, opening her heart to Christ and closing it to the devil. ### Latin text Itaque, mi Eustochia, filia, domina, conserua, germana, — aliud enim aetatis, aliud meriti, illud religionis, hoc caritatis est nomen — audi Esaiam loquentem: populus meus, intra in cubicula tua, claude ostium tuum, abscondere pusillum quantulum, donec pertranseat ira domini. foris uagentur uirgines stultae, tu intrinsecus esto cum sponso, quia, si ostium cluseris et secundum euangelii praeceptum in occulto oraueris patrem tuum, ueniet et pulsabit et dicet: ecce ego sto ante ianuam et pulso. si quis mihi aperuerit, intrabo et cenabo cum eo et ipse mecum, et tu statim sollicita respondebis: uox fratruelis mei pulsantis: aperi mihi, soror mea, proxima mea, columba mea, perfecta mea. nec est, quod dicas: dispoliaui me tunicam meam, quomodo induar eam? laui pedes meos, quomodo inquinabo eos? ilico surge et aperi, ne te remorante pertranseat et postea conqueraris dicens: aperui ego fratrueli meo, fratruelis meus pertransiit. quid enim necesse est, ut cordis tui ostia clausa sint sponso? aperiantur Christo, claudantur diabolo secundum illud: si spiritus potestatem habentis ascenderit super te, locum ne dederis ei. Danihel in cenaculo suo — neque enim manere poterat in humili — fenestras ad Hierusalem apertas habuit: et tu habeto fenestras apertas, sed unde lumen introeat, unde uideas ciuitatem dei. ne aperias illas fenestras, de quibus dicitur: mors intrauit per fenestras uestras. ### English translation (Claude) So, my Eustochium, daughter, lady, fellow servant, sister (the first name belongs to age, the second to merit, the third to religion, the last to love), hear Isaiah saying: "My people, enter your rooms, shut your door, hide yourself a little while, until the wrath of the Lord passes." Let the foolish virgins wander outside; you be within with the Bridegroom; because, if you shut the door and, according to the precept of the gospel, pray to your Father in secret, he will come and knock and say: "See, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone opens to me, I will come in and dine with him, and he with me." And you will at once answer eagerly: "The voice of my beloved knocking: Open to me, my sister, my near one, my dove, my perfect one." Nor is there reason to say: "I have put off my tunic; how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet; how shall I soil them?" Rise at once and open, lest, while you delay, he pass by, and afterwards you complain, saying: "I opened to my beloved; my beloved had passed by." For what need is there that the doors of your heart be shut to the Bridegroom? Let them be opened to Christ and shut to the devil, according to the saying: "If the spirit of one who has power rises up against you, do not give him place." Daniel in his upper room (for he could not remain below) had windows open toward Jerusalem; you too have open windows, but those by which light may come in and from which you may see the city of God. Do not open those windows of which it is said: "Death has come in through your windows." ### Scripture references - Isa 26:20: quotation, high confidence - Matt 25:11: allusion, medium confidence - Matt 6:6: allusion, high confidence - Rev 3:20: quotation, high confidence - Song 5:2: quotation, high confidence - Song 5:3: quotation, high confidence - Song 5:6: quotation, high confidence - Eccl 10:4: quotation, high confidence - Dan 6:10: allusion, high confidence - Jer 9:21: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Isa 26:20; Matt 25:1-12; Matt 6:6; Rev 3:20; Song 5:2-3, 6; Eccl 10:4; Dan 6:10; Jer 9:21. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 22.26 (CSEL 54:181–182; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-25/#p-22-26). ## Letter 22.27 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-25/#p-22-27 - Source: CSEL 54:182–185 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome warns Eustochium against vainglory, especially the subtle pride of ostentatious humility and showy asceticism. ### Latin text Illud quoque tibi uitandum est cautius, ne uanae gloriae ardore capiaris. quomodo, inquit Iesus, potestis credere gloriam ab hominibus accipientes? uide, quale malum sit, quod qui habuerit, non potest, credere. nos uero dicamus: quoniam gloriatio mea es tu, et: qui gloriatur, in domino glorietur, et: si adhuc hominibus placerem, Christi seruus non essem, et: mihi absit gloriari, nisi in cruce domini mei Iesu Christi, per quem mihi mundus crucifixus est et ego mundo, et illud: in te laudabimur tota die, et: in domino laudabitur anima mea. cum facis elemosynam, deus solus uideat. cum ieiunas, laeta sit facies tua. uestis nec satis munda nec sordida et nulla diuersitate notabilis, ne ad te obuia praetereuntium turba consistat et digito demonstreris. frater est mortuus, sororis est corpusculum deducendum: caue ne, dum hoc saepius facis, ipsa moriaris. ne satis religiosa uelis uideri nec plus humilis, quam necesse est. ne gloriam fugiendo quaeras. plures enim paupertatis, misericordiae atque ieiunii arbitros declinantes in hoc ipso placere cupiunt, quod placere contemnunt; et mirum in modum laus, dum uitatur, adpetitur. ceteris perturbationibus, quibus mens hominis gaudet, aegrescit, sperat et metuit, plures inuenio extraneos; hoc uitio pauci admodum sunt qui caruerint, et ille est optimus, qui quasi in pulchro corpore rara naeuorum sorde respergitur. neque uero moneo, ne de diuitiis glorieris, ne de generis nobilitate te iactes, ne te ceteris praeferas: scio humilitatem tuam, scio te ex affectu dicere: domine, non est exaltatum cor meum neque elati sunt oculi mei. noui et apud te et apud matrem tuam superbiam, per quam diabolus cecidit, locum penitus non habere. unde et super ea scribere supersedi. stultissimum quippe est docere, quod nouerit ille, quem doceas. sed ne hoc ipsud tibi iactantiam generet, quod saeculi iactantiam contempsisti, ne cogitatio tacita subrepat, ut, quia in auratis uestibus placere desisti, placere coneris in sordibus et, quando in conuentu fratrum ueneris uel sororum, humili sedeas scabello, te causeris indignam, uocem ex industria quasi confecta ieiuniis tenues et deficientis imitata gressum umeris innitaris alterius. sunt quippe nonnullae exterminantes facies suas, ut pareant hominibus ieiunare; quae, statim ut aliquem uiderint, ingemescunt, demittunt supercilium et operta facie uix unum oculum liberant ad uidendum; uestis pulla, cingulum sacceum et sordidis manibus pedibusque uenter solus, quia uideri non potest, aestuat cibo; his cotidie psalmus ille cantatur: deus dissipauit ossa hominum sibi placentium. aliae uirili habitu, ueste mutata, erubescunt feminae esse, quod natae sunt, crinem amputant et inpudenter erigunt facies eunuchinas. sunt, quae ciliciis uestiuntur et cucullis fabrefactis, ut ad infantiam redeant, imitantur noctuas et bubones. ### English translation (Claude) You must also avoid more carefully being caught by the fever of vainglory. "How can you believe," says Jesus, "who receive glory from men?" See what an evil it is, that whoever has it cannot believe. But let us say: "For you are my glory"; and: "Let him who glories glory in the Lord"; and: "If I still pleased men, I would not be a servant of Christ"; and: "Far be it from me to glory except in the cross of my Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world has been crucified to me and I to the world"; and that: "In you we shall be praised all day long"; and: "In the Lord my soul shall be praised." When you give alms, let God alone see. When you fast, let your face be cheerful. Let your clothing be neither too neat nor dirty, and marked by no peculiarity, so that the crowd of passersby does not stop to look at you and point you out with the finger. A brother has died; a sister's body must be escorted to burial: take care that, while you do this too often, you do not die yourself. Do not wish to seem too religious, nor more humble than necessary. Do not seek glory by fleeing it. For many who avoid witnesses of their poverty, mercy, and fasting wish to please by this very contempt of pleasing; and, strangely, praise is sought while it is shunned. From the other passions by which the human mind rejoices, grieves, hopes, and fears, I find many free; from this vice very few are exempt, and he is best who, like a beautiful body, is sprinkled with only a rare blemish. Nor do I warn you not to glory in riches, not to boast of the nobility of your family, not to set yourself above others: I know your humility; I know that you say from the heart, "Lord, my heart is not lifted up, nor are my eyes raised high." I know that in you and in your mother pride, by which the devil fell, has no place at all. Therefore I have not written about it; for it is most foolish to teach one what he already knows. But lest this very thing, that you have despised the boasting of the world, breed boasting in you; lest the silent thought creep in that, since you have ceased to please in golden garments, you should try to please in rags, and, when you come to a gathering of brothers or sisters, sit on a low stool, plead that you are unworthy, deliberately make your voice faint as if worn out by fasting, and, imitating the gait of one who is fainting, lean on another's shoulders. For there are some women who disfigure their faces so that they may appear to men to be fasting; who, as soon as they see anyone, groan, lower their eyebrows, and, with their face covered, free scarcely one eye to see; their dress is dark, their girdle sackcloth, their hands and feet dirty; only their stomach, because it cannot be seen, seethes with food. To them that psalm is sung daily: "God has scattered the bones of those who please themselves." Others, changing their dress for a man's garb, are ashamed to be women, as they were born; they cut off their hair and shamelessly lift up the faces of eunuchs. There are some who are clothed in goat's hair and hoods made for the purpose, so that they return to infancy and imitate night owls and screech owls. ### Scripture references - John 5:44: quotation, high confidence - Ps 3:3 (3:4 LXX): quotation, medium confidence - 1 Cor 1:31: quotation, high confidence - Gal 1:10: quotation, high confidence - Gal 6:14: quotation, high confidence - Ps 44:8 (43:9 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Ps 34:2 (33:3 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Matt 6:3: allusion, high confidence - Matt 6:17: allusion, high confidence - Ps 131:1 (130:1 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Matt 6:16: allusion, high confidence - Ps 53:5 (52:6 LXX): quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - John 5:44; Ps 3:3 (LXX and Vulgate 3:4); 1 Cor 1:31; Gal 1:10; Gal 6:14; Ps 44:8 (LXX and Vulgate 43:9); Ps 34:2 (LXX and Vulgate 33:3); Matt 6:3-4, 16-17; Ps 131:1 (LXX and Vulgate 130:1); Isa 14:12-14; Ps 53:5 (LXX and Vulgate 52:6, in the Greek form). ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 22.27 (CSEL 54:182–185; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-25/#p-22-27). ## Letter 22.28 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-25/#p-22-28 - Source: CSEL 54:185–186 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome warns Eustochium against fraudulent male ascetics and worldly clergy who frequent the houses of rich women, describing one notorious example. ### Latin text Sed ne tantum uidear disputare de feminis, uiros quoque fuge, quos uideris catenatos, quibus feminei contra apostolum crines, hircorum barba, nigrum pallium et nudi in patientiam frigoris pedes. haec omnia argumenta sunt diaboli. talem olim Antimum. talem nuper Sofronium Roma congemuit. qui postquam nobilium introierint domos et deceperint mulierculas oneratas peccatis, semper discentes et numquam ad scientiam ueritatis peruenientes, tristitiam simulant et quasi longa ieiunia furtiuis noctium cibis protrahunt; pudet reliqua dicere, ne uidear inuehi potius quam monere. sunt alii — de mei ordinis hominibus loquor —, qui ideo ad presbyterium et diaconatum ambiunt, ut mulieres licentius uideant. omnis his cura de uestibus, si bene oleant, si pes laxa pelle non folleat. crines calamistri uestigio rotantur, digiti de anulis radiant et, ne plantas umidior uia spargat, uix inprimunt summa uestigia. tales cum uideris, sponsos magis aestimato quam clericos. quidam in hoc omne studium uitamque posuerunt, ut matronarum nomina, domos moresque cognoscant. e quibus unum, qui. huius artis est princeps, breuiter strictimque describam, quo facilius magistro cognito discipulos recognoscas. cum sole festinus exsurgit; salutandi ei ordo disponitur; uiarum conpendia requiruntur et paene usque ad cubilia dormientium senex inportunus ingreditur. si puluillum uiderit, si mantele elegans, si aliquid domesticae supellectilis, laudat, miratur, adtrectat et se his indigere conquerens non tam inpetrat quam extorquet, quia singulae metuunt ueredarium urbis offendere. huic inimica castitas, inimica ieiunia; prandium nidoribus probat et altilis, γέρων uulgo ποππόζωv nominatur. os barbarum et procax et in conuicia semper armatum. quocumque te uerteris, primus in facie est. quidquid nouum insonuerit, aut auctor aut exaggerator est famae. equi per horarum momenta mutantur tam nitidi, tam feroces, ut illum Thracii regis putes esse germanum. ### English translation (Claude) But lest I seem to discuss only women, flee also men whom you see in chains, with women's hair, against the apostle, a goat's beard, a black cloak, and bare feet to endure the cold. All these are marks of the devil. Such a one Rome once groaned over in Antimus, and recently in Sophronius. After they have entered the houses of the nobility and deceived silly women laden with sins, "always learning and never coming to the knowledge of the truth," they feign sadness and, as it were, prolong long fasts with secret meals at night. I am ashamed to say the rest, lest I seem to rail rather than to warn. There are others (I speak of men of my own order) who seek the presbyterate and diaconate precisely in order to see women more freely. All their care is for their clothes, whether they smell good, whether their foot is snug in a tight shoe. Their hair is curled by the trace of the curling iron, their fingers flash with rings, and lest the wet road splash their soles, they barely touch the ground with the tips of their toes. When you see such men, think of them as bridegrooms rather than clergy. Some have devoted all their zeal and life to learning the names, houses, and characters of married ladies. One of these, who is the master of this art, I will describe briefly and concisely, so that, having recognized the master, you may more easily recognize the disciples. He rises in haste with the sun; the order of his calls is arranged; shortcuts are sought out; and the troublesome old man almost enters the bedrooms of those still asleep. If he sees a cushion, a fine napkin, or some piece of household furniture, he praises it, admires it, handles it, and, complaining that he lacks such things, he does not so much obtain as extort them, since every woman fears to offend the city's courier of gossip. Chastity is his enemy, fasting his enemy; he judges a dinner by its smell, and by the fattened fowl; he is commonly called "the old smacker." His mouth is barbarous and impudent, always armed for abuse. Wherever you turn, he is the first before your face. Whatever news is heard, he is either its author or its exaggerator. He changes horses every hour, so sleek and so spirited that you would think him a brother of the Thracian king. ### Scripture references - 1 Cor 11:14: allusion, high confidence - 2 Tim 3:6: quotation, high confidence - 2 Tim 3:7: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - 1 Cor 11:14; 2 Tim 3:6-7. Antimus and Sophronius are otherwise unknown. The Greek nickname is garbled in the digital text; it appears to mean an old man who makes a smacking or clucking sound. The "Thracian king" is Diomedes, whose horses were famous. The satire of clergy is Jerome's own; translated as written. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 22.28 (CSEL 54:185–186; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-25/#p-22-28). ## Letter 22.29 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-25/#p-22-29 - Source: CSEL 54:186–189 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome advises Eustochium on companions, humility toward her maidservants, and avoiding idle widows and affected speech, and asks what pagan literature has to do with Scripture. ### Latin text Variis callidus hostis pugnat insidiis. sapientior erat coluber omnibus bestiis, quas fecerat dominus deus super terram. unde et apostolus: non, inquit, ignoramus eius astutias. nec affectatae sordes nec exquisitae munditiae conueniunt Christianis. si quid ignoras, si quid de scripturis dubitas, interroga eum, quem uita commendat, excusat aetas, fama non reprobat, qui possit dicere: desponsaui enim uos uni uiro, uirginem castam exhibere Christo. aut si non est, qui possit exponere, melius est aliquid nescire securam, quam cum periculo discere. memento, quoniam in medio laqueorum ambulas et multae ueteranae uirgines castitatis indubitatam in ipso mortis limine coronam perdidere de manibus. si quae ancillae sunt comites propositi tui, ne erigaris aduersus eas, ne infleris ut domina. unum sponsum habere coepistis, simul psallitis Christo, simul corpus accipitis, cur mensa diuersa sit? prouocentur et aliae. honor uirginum sit inuitatio ceterarum. quodsi aliquam senseris infirmiorem in fide, suscipe, consolare, blandire et pudicitiam illius fac lucrum tuum. si qua simulat fugiens seruitutem, huic aperte apostolum lege: melius est enim nubere quam uri. eas autem uirgines uiduasque, quae otiosae et curiosae domus circumeunt matronarum, quae rubore frontis adtrito parasitos uicere mimorum, quasi quasdam pestes abice. corrumpunt mores bonos confabulationes pessimae. nulla illis nisi uentris cura est et quae uentri proxima. istiusmodi hortari solent et dicere: mi catella, rebus tuis utere et uiue, dum uiuis, et: numquid filiis tuis seruas? uinosae atque lasciuae quiduis mali insinuant ac ferreas quoque mentes ad delicias molliunt et, cum luxuriatae fuerint in Christo, nubere uolunt habentes damnationem, quia primam fidem inritam fecerunt. nec tibi diserta multum uelis uideri aut lyricis festiua carminibus metro ludere. non delumbem matronarum saliuam delicata secteris, quae nunc strictis dentibus, nunc labiis dissolutis balbutientem linguam in dimidiata uerba moderantur rusticum putantes omne, quod nascitur. adeo illis adulterium etiam linguae placet. quae enim communicatio luci ad tenebras? qui consensus Christo et Belial? quid facit cum psalterio Horatius? cum euangeliis Maro? cum apostolo Cicero? nonne scandalizatur frater, si te uiderit in idolio recumbentem? et licet omnia munda mundis et nihil reiciendum sit, quod cum gratiarum actione percipitur, tamen simul bibere non debemus calicem Christi et calicem daemoniorum. referam tibi meae infelicitatis historiam. ### English translation (Claude) The cunning enemy fights with various snares. "The serpent was wiser than all the beasts that the Lord God had made on the earth." Hence the apostle too says: "We are not ignorant of his devices." Neither affected dirtiness nor studied elegance befits Christians. If there is anything you do not know, if you have any doubt about the Scriptures, ask someone whom his life commends, whom his age excuses, whom his reputation does not reprove, who can say: "For I have betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ." Or if there is no one who can explain it, it is better to be safely ignorant of something than to learn it with danger. Remember that you walk in the midst of snares, and many veteran virgins have lost from their hands, on the very threshold of death, the crown of chastity that seemed beyond doubt. If any maidservants are companions of your resolve, do not lift yourself up against them, do not be puffed up as their mistress. You have begun to have one Bridegroom, you sing psalms to Christ together, you receive the Body together: why should your table be different? Let others be invited too. Let the honor paid to virgins be an invitation to the rest. And if you perceive one weaker in faith, take her up, comfort her, speak kindly to her, and make her chastity your gain. If any woman pretends in order to escape servitude, read the apostle openly to her: "It is better to marry than to burn." But those virgins and widows who, idle and curious, go round the houses of married ladies, who, having worn away the blush from their foreheads, have outdone the parasites of the mimes, cast away like plagues. "Evil conversations corrupt good morals." They care for nothing but the belly and what is next to the belly. Women of this kind are accustomed to urge and say: "My little puppy, enjoy your means and live while you live," and, "Are you saving for your children?" Given to wine and wantonness, they insinuate every kind of evil and soften even iron minds to luxury; and "when they have grown wanton against Christ, they want to marry, incurring condemnation because they have made void their first faith." Do not wish to seem very eloquent or to play with meter in merry lyric songs. Do not, out of delicacy, follow the languid lisp of married ladies, who, now with clenched teeth, now with lips relaxed, moderate their stammering tongue into half-words, thinking everything natural rustic. So much do they delight in adultery even of the tongue. "For what fellowship has light with darkness? What agreement has Christ with Belial?" What has Horace to do with the Psalter? Virgil with the Gospels? Cicero with the apostle? Is not a brother scandalized if he sees you reclining in an idol's temple? And although "to the pure all things are pure" and "nothing is to be rejected that is received with thanksgiving," yet we ought not to drink the cup of Christ and the cup of demons together. I will tell you the story of my own unhappiness. ### Scripture references - Gen 3:1: quotation, high confidence - 2 Cor 2:11: quotation, high confidence - 2 Cor 11:2: quotation, high confidence - 1 Cor 7:9: quotation, high confidence - 1 Tim 5:13: allusion, high confidence - 1 Cor 15:33: quotation, high confidence - 1 Tim 5:11: quotation, high confidence - 1 Tim 5:12: quotation, high confidence - 2 Cor 6:14: quotation, high confidence - 2 Cor 6:15: quotation, high confidence - 1 Cor 8:10: allusion, high confidence - Titus 1:15: quotation, high confidence - 1 Tim 4:4: quotation, high confidence - 1 Cor 10:21: allusion, high confidence ### Extrabiblical texts - Sir 9:13 (Sirach): allusion, medium confidence - Menander (Menander (fragments)): echo, medium confidence - Horace (Horace): allusion, medium confidence - Virgil (Virgil): allusion, medium confidence - Cicero (Cicero): allusion, medium confidence ### Translation notes - Gen 3:1; 2 Cor 2:11; 2 Cor 11:2; Sir 9:13; 1 Cor 7:9; 1 Tim 5:13; 1 Cor 15:33 (a line of Menander); 1 Tim 5:11-12; 2 Cor 6:14-15; 1 Cor 8:10; Titus 1:15; 1 Tim 4:4; 1 Cor 10:21. "You receive the Body together": the Eucharist. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 22.29 (CSEL 54:186–189; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-25/#p-22-29). ## Letter 22.30 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-25/#p-22-30 - Source: CSEL 54:189–191 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome tells of his famous dream, in which Christ the Judge condemned him as "a Ciceronian, not a Christian" for his love of the classics. ### Latin text Cum ante annos plurimos domo, parentibus, sorore, cognatis et, quod his difficilius est, consuetudine lautioris cibi propter caelorum me regna castrassem et Hierosolymam militaturus pergerem, bybliotheca, quam mihi Romae summo studio ac labore confeceram. carere non poteram. itaque miser ego lecturus Tullium ieiunabam. post noctium crebras uigilias, post lacrimas, quas mihi praeteritorum recordatio peccatorum ex imis uisceribus eruebat, Plautus sumebatur in manibus. si quando in memet reuersus prophetam legere coepissem, sermo horrebat incultus et, quia lumen caecis oculis non uidebam, non oculorum putabam culpam esse, sed solis. dum ita me antiquus serpens inluderet, in media ferme quadragesima medullis infusa febris corpus inuasit exhaustum et sine ulla requie — quod dictu quoque incredibile sit — sic infelicia membra depasta est, ut ossibus uix haererem. interim parabantur exsequiae et uitalis animae calor toto frigente iam corpore in solo tantum tepente pectusculo palpitabat, cum subito raptus in spiritu ad tribunal iudicis pertrahor, ubi tantum luminis et tantum erat ex circumstantium claritate fulgoris, ut proiectus in terram sursum aspicere non auderem. interrogatus condicionem Christianum me esse respondi. et ille, qui residebat: mentiris, ait, Ciceronianus es, non Christianus; ubi thesaurus tuus, ibi et cor tuum. ilico obmutui et inter uerbera — nam caedi me iusserat — conscientiae magis igne torquebar illum mecum uersiculum reputans: in inferno autem quis confitebitur tibi? clamare tamen coepi et heiulans dicere: miserere mei, domine, miserere mei. haec uox inter flagella resonabat. tandem ad praesidentis genua prouoluti, qui adstiterant, precabantur, ut ueniam tribueret adulescentiae, ut errori locum paenitentiae commodaret exacturus deinde cruciatum, si gentilium litterarum libros aliquando legissem. ego, qui tanto constrictus articulo uellem etiam maiora promittere, deiurare coepi et nomen eius obtestans dicere: Domine, si umquam habuero codices saeculares, si legero, te negaui. in haec sacramenti uerba dimissus reuertor ad superos et mirantibus cunctis oculos aperio tanto lacrimarum imbre perfusos, ut etiam incredulis fidem facerent ex dolore. nec uero sopor ille fuerat aut uana somnia, quibus saepe deludimur. teste est tribunal, ante quod iacui, iudicium teste est, quod timui — ita mihi numquam contingat talem incidere quaestionem! —, liuentes habuisse me scapulas, plagas sensisse post somnum et tanto dehinc studio diuina legisse, quanto mortalia ante non legeram. ### English translation (Claude) Many years ago, when for the sake of the kingdom of heaven I had cut myself off from home, parents, sister, relatives, and (what is harder than these) from the habit of richer food, and was setting out for Jerusalem to serve as a soldier, I could not do without the library I had gathered for myself at Rome with the greatest care and labor. So, wretch that I was, I would fast, only to read Cicero. After frequent night vigils, after the tears that the memory of my past sins drew from my inmost heart, Plautus was taken in hand. If ever I came to myself and began to read a prophet, the uncultivated style repelled me, and because I did not see the light with my blind eyes, I thought the fault lay not in my eyes but in the sun. While the ancient serpent was mocking me in this way, about the middle of Lent a fever spread through my marrow and attacked my exhausted body, and without any respite (which is incredible even to say) it so consumed my unhappy limbs that I scarcely held together by my bones. Meanwhile my funeral was being prepared, and the warmth of the living soul was throbbing only in my little breast, which was still lukewarm while my whole body was already cold, when suddenly I was caught up in the spirit and dragged before the tribunal of the Judge, where there was so much light and so much brightness from the radiance of those standing by that I threw myself on the ground and did not dare to look up. Asked what I was, I answered that I was a Christian. And he who sat there said: "You are lying; you are a Ciceronian, not a Christian; for where your treasure is, there is your heart also." At once I was dumb, and amid the blows (for he had ordered me to be beaten) I was tormented more by the fire of conscience, considering that verse: "But in hell who will confess to you?" Yet I began to cry out and say with wailing: "Have mercy on me, Lord, have mercy on me." This cry rang out amid the lashes. At last those who stood by fell at the knees of the one presiding and begged him to pardon my youth and grant room for repentance for my error, exacting torture afterwards if I ever again read books of pagan literature. I, who in such a tight spot would have been willing to promise even greater things, began to swear and, calling on his name, to say: "Lord, if I ever possess worldly books, if I read them, I have denied you." Released on the terms of this oath, I return to the upper world, and, to the amazement of all, I open my eyes, drenched with such a shower of tears that even the unbelieving were convinced by my grief. Nor was that a sleep or the empty dreams by which we are often deceived. The tribunal before which I lay is my witness; the judgment I feared is my witness (may it never befall me to face such an inquiry again!) that my shoulders were black and blue, that I felt the blows after I woke, and that from then on I read divine things with as much zeal as I had not read mortal things before. ### Scripture references - Matt 19:12: allusion, medium confidence - 2 Cor 12:2: echo, low confidence - Matt 6:21: quotation, high confidence - Ps 6:5 (6:6 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Ps 51:1 (50:3 LXX): quotation, medium confidence ### Extrabiblical texts - Cicero (Cicero): allusion, high confidence - Plautus (Plautus, Comedies): allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - Matt 19:12 ("cut myself off", literally "castrated myself", a figure for renunciation); 2 Cor 12:2; Matt 6:21; Ps 6:5 (LXX and Vulgate 6:6); Ps 51:1 (LXX and Vulgate 50:3). Jerome later played down this oath as a dream (Against Rufinus 1.30-31). ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 22.30 (CSEL 54:189–191; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-25/#p-22-30). ## Letter 22.31 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-25/#p-22-31 - Source: CSEL 54:191–193 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome warns Eustochium against greed and anxiety about material needs, citing Christ's teaching on trusting the Father's provision. ### Latin text Auaritiae quoque tibi uitandum est malum, non quo aliena non adpetas-hoc enim et publicae leges puniunt —, sed quo tua, quae sunt aliena, non serues. si in alieno, inquit, fideles non fuistis, quod uestrum est, quis dabit uobis? aliena nobis auri argentique sunt pondera, nostra possessio spiritalis est, de qua alibi dicitur: redemptio uiri propriae diuitiae. nemo potest duobus dominis seruire; aut enim unum odiet et alterum amabit, aut unum patietur et alterum contemnet. non potestis deo seruire et mammonae, id est diuitiis. nam gentili Syrorum lingua mammona diuitiae nuncupantur. cogitatio uictus spinae sunt fidei, radix auaritiae, cura gentilium. at dices: puella sum delicata et quae meis manibus laborare non possum. si ad senectam uenero, si aegrotare coepero, quis mei miserebitur? audi ad apostolos loquentem Iesum: ne cogitetis in corde uestro, quid manducetis, neque corpori uestro, quid induamini. nonne anima plus est quam esca et corpus plus est quam uestimentum? respicite uolatilia caeli, quoniam non serunt neque metunt neque congregant in horrea et pater uester caelestis pascit illa. si uestis defuerit, lilia proponentur; si esurieris, beatos audies pauperes et esurientes; si aliquis adflixerit dolor, legito: propter hoc conplaceo mihi in infirmitatibus meis et: datus est mihi stimulus carnis meae, angelus satanae, qui me colafizet, ne extollar. laetare in omnibus iudiciis dei; exultauerunt enim filiae Iudae in omnibus iudiciis tuis, domine. illa tibi semper in ore uox resonet: nudus exiui de utero matris meae, nudus et redeam et: nihil intulimus in hunc mundum nec auferre quid possumus. ### English translation (Claude) You must also avoid the evil of greed: not that you should not covet what belongs to others (for public laws too punish that), but that you should not keep your own things, which are not really yours. "If you have not been faithful," he says, "in what is another's, who will give you what is your own?" The weights of gold and silver are another's; our possession is spiritual, of which it is said elsewhere: "The ransom of a man's life is his own riches." "No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will bear with the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon," that is, riches; for in the native Syriac language riches are called mammona. Thought for one's living is the thorns of faith, the root of greed, the care of the Gentiles. But you will say: "I am a delicate girl and cannot work with my own hands. If I reach old age, if I begin to be ill, who will take pity on me?" Hear Jesus speaking to the apostles: "Do not be anxious in your heart what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not the soul more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and your heavenly Father feeds them." If clothing is lacking, the lilies will be set before you; if you are hungry, you will hear the poor and the hungry called blessed; if any pain afflicts you, read: "For this reason I take pleasure in my infirmities," and: "There was given me a thorn in my flesh, an angel of Satan, to buffet me, lest I be exalted." Rejoice in all God's judgments; for "the daughters of Judah rejoiced in all your judgments, O Lord." Let that saying always sound in your mouth: "Naked I came out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return," and: "We brought nothing into this world, nor can we take anything out." ### Scripture references - Luke 16:12: quotation, high confidence - Prov 13:8: quotation, high confidence - Matt 6:24: quotation, high confidence - Matt 13:22: allusion, medium confidence - Matt 6:25: quotation, high confidence - Matt 6:26: quotation, high confidence - Matt 6:28: allusion, high confidence - Luke 6:21: allusion, high confidence - 2 Cor 12:10: quotation, high confidence - 2 Cor 12:7: quotation, high confidence - Ps 97:8 (96:8 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Job 1:21: quotation, high confidence - 1 Tim 6:7: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Luke 16:12; Prov 13:8; Matt 6:24 (Luke 16:13); Matt 13:22; Matt 6:25-26, 28; Luke 6:20-21; 2 Cor 12:10, 7; Ps 97:8 (LXX and Vulgate 96:8); Job 1:21; 1 Tim 6:7. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 22.31 (CSEL 54:191–193; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-25/#p-22-31). ## Letter 22.32 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-25/#p-22-32 - Source: CSEL 54:193–195 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome contrasts the showy luxury and charity of rich Roman women with the Scriptures' teaching on contentment and trust in God. ### Latin text At nunc plerasque uideas armaria stipare uestibus, tunicas mutare cotidie et tamen tineas non posse superare. quae religiosior fuerit, unum exterit uestimentum et plenis arcis pannos trahit. inficitur membrana colore purpureo, aurum liquescit in litteras, gemmis codices uestiuntur et nudus ante fores earum Christus emoritur. cum manum porrexerint, bucinant; cum ad agapen uocauerint, praeco conducitur. uidi nuper — nomina taceo, ne saturam putes — nobilissimam mulierum Romanarum in basilica beati Petri semiuiris antecedentibus propria manu, quo religiosior putaretur, singulos nummos dispertire pauperibus. interea — ut usu nosse perfacile est — anus quaedam annis pannisque obsita praecurrit, ut alterum nummum acciperet; ad quam cum ordine peruenisset, pugnus porrigitur pro denario et tanti criminis reus sanguis effunditur. radix malorum omnium est auaritia ideoque et ab apostolo idolorum seruitus appellatur. quaere primum regnum dei et haec omnia adponentur tibi. non occidet dominus fame animam iusti: iuuenior fui et senui et non uidi iustum derelictum nec semen eius quaerens panem. Helias coruis ministrantibus pascitur; uidua Sareptena ipsa cum filiis nocte moritura prophetam pascit esuriens et mirum in modum capsace conpleto, qui alendus uenerat, alit. Petrus apostolus: argentum, inquit, et aurum non habeo; quod autem habeo, hoc tibi do. in nomine domini Iesu Christi surge et ambula. at nunc multi, licet sermone taceant, re loquuntur: fidem et misericordiam non habeo; quod autem habeo, aurum et argentum, non do tibi. habentes igitur uictum et uestitum his contenti sumus. audi, Iacob in sua oratione quid postulet: si fuerit dominus deus mecum et seruauerit me in uia hac, per quam ego iter facio, et dederit mihi panem ad manducandum et uestem ad induendum. tantum necessaria deprecatus est et post annos uiginti diues dominus et ditior pater ad terram reuertitur Chanaan. infinita de scripturis exempla subpeditant, quae et auaritiam doceant esse fugiendam. ### English translation (Claude) But now you may see many women cramming their wardrobes with clothes, changing their tunics daily, and yet unable to overcome the moths. One who is more religious wears out one garment while her chests are full of clothes. Parchment is dyed purple, gold is melted into lettering, books are clothed in jewels, and Christ dies naked before their doors. When they stretch out their hand, they sound a trumpet; when they invite to a love feast, a herald is hired. I saw recently (I suppress names, lest you think this a satire) the noblest of Roman ladies in the basilica of blessed Peter, with eunuchs going before her, distributing coins one by one to the poor with her own hand, so that she might be thought more religious. Meanwhile (as is very easy to know from experience) an old woman, covered with years and rags, ran ahead to receive a second coin; and when she reached her in turn, a fist was given her instead of a denarius, and for so great a crime her blood was shed. "The root of all evils is greed," and therefore it is also called by the apostle the service of idols. "Seek first the kingdom of God, and all these things will be added to you." "The Lord will not kill the soul of the righteous by famine." "I have been young and now am old, and I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed seeking bread." Elijah is fed by ravens ministering to him. The widow of Zarephath, about to die that night with her sons, feeds the prophet though she is hungry, and, in wonderful fashion, when her jar is filled, the one who had come to be fed feeds her. The apostle Peter says: "Silver and gold I do not have; but what I have I give you: in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, rise and walk." But now many, though they are silent in word, say in deed: "Faith and mercy I do not have; but what I have, gold and silver, I do not give you." "Having food and clothing, let us be content with these." Hear what Jacob asks for in his prayer: "If the Lord God is with me and keeps me on this way on which I am traveling, and gives me bread to eat and clothing to wear." He prayed only for necessities, and after twenty years he returns to the land of Canaan a rich lord and a richer father. Countless examples from the Scriptures are at hand that teach that greed must be shunned. ### Scripture references - Matt 6:19: allusion, high confidence - Matt 25:36: allusion, medium confidence - Matt 6:2: allusion, high confidence - 1 Tim 6:10: quotation, high confidence - Col 3:5: allusion, high confidence - Matt 6:33: quotation, high confidence - Prov 10:3: quotation, high confidence - Ps 37:25 (36:25 LXX): quotation, high confidence - 1 Kgs 17:6: allusion, high confidence - 1 Kgs 17:16: allusion, high confidence - Acts 3:6: quotation, high confidence - 1 Tim 6:8: quotation, high confidence - Gen 28:20: quotation, high confidence - Gen 31:41: allusion, medium confidence ### Translation notes - Matt 6:19; Matt 25:36; Matt 6:2; 1 Tim 6:10; Col 3:5; Matt 6:33; Prov 10:3; Ps 37:25 (LXX and Vulgate 36:25); 1 Kgs 17:6; 1 Kgs 17:9-16 ("sons" as in the Latin); Acts 3:6; 1 Tim 6:8; Gen 28:20; Gen 31:38-41. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 22.32 (CSEL 54:193–195; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-25/#p-22-32). ## Letter 22.33 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-25/#p-22-33 - Source: CSEL 54:195–196 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome tells how the fathers of Nitria had a greedy monk's savings buried with him as a warning. ### Latin text Verum quia nunc ex latere de ea dicitur et suo, si Christus adnuerit, uolumini reseruatur, quid ante non plures annos Nitriae gestum sit, referam. quidam e fratribus parcior magis quam auarior et nesciens triginta argenteis dominum uenditum centum solidos, quos lina texendo quaesierat, moriens dereliquit. initum inter monachos consilium — nam in eodem loco circiter quinque milia diuisis cellulis habitant —, quid facto opus esset. alii pauperibus distribuendos esse dicebant, alii dandos ecclesiae, nonnulli parentibus remittendos. Macarius uero et Pambos et Isidorus et ceteri, quos patres uocant, sancto in eis loquente spiritu decreuerunt infodiendos esse cum domino suo dicentes: pecunia tua tecum sit in perditionem. nec hoc crudeliter quisquam factum putet: tantus per totam Aegyptum cunctos terror inuasit, ut unum solidum dimisisse sit criminis. ### English translation (Claude) But since greed is mentioned here only in passing, and is reserved, if Christ grants it, for a volume of its own, I will tell what happened at Nitria not many years ago. A certain brother, more thrifty than greedy, and not knowing that the Lord was sold for thirty pieces of silver, left at his death a hundred solidi, which he had earned by weaving linen. A council was held among the monks (for about five thousand live in that place in separate cells) as to what should be done. Some said the money should be distributed to the poor, others that it should be given to the church, some that it should be sent back to his relatives. But Macarius, Pambo, Isidore, and the others whom they call fathers, the Holy Spirit speaking in them, decreed that it should be buried with its owner, saying: "Your money perish with you." And let no one think this was done cruelly: such fear seized everyone throughout Egypt that to leave behind a single solidus is counted a crime. ### Scripture references - Matt 26:15: allusion, high confidence - Acts 8:20: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Matt 26:15; Acts 8:20. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 22.33 (CSEL 54:195–196; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-25/#p-22-33). ## Letter 22.34 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-25/#p-22-34 - Source: CSEL 54:196–197 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome describes the three kinds of Egyptian monks and condemns the third, the undisciplined remnuoth. ### Latin text Et quoniam monachorum fecimus mentionem et te scio libenter audire, quae sancta sunt, aurem paulisper adcommoda. tria sunt in Aegypto genera monachorum: coenobium, quod illi sauhes gentili lingua uocant, nos in commune uiuentes possumus appellare; anachoretae, qui soli habitant per deserta et ab eo, quod procul ab hominibus recesserint, nuncupantur; tertium genus est, quod dicunt remnuoth, deterrimum atque neglectum. et quod in nostra prouincia aut solum aut primum est. hi bini uel terni nec multo plures simul habitant suo arbitratu ac dicione uiuentes et de eo, quod laborauerint, in medium partes conferunt, ut habeant alimenta communia. habitant autem quam plurimum in urbibus et castellis, et, quasi ars sit sancta, non uita, quidquid uendiderint, maioris est pretii. inter hos saepe sunt iurgia, quia suo uiuentes cibo non patiuntur se alicui esse subiectos. re uera solent certare ieiuniis et rem secreti uictoriae faciunt. apud hos affectata sunt omnia: laxae manicae, caligae follicantes, uestis grossior, crebra suspiria, uisitatio uirginum, detractatio clericorum, et si quando festior dies uenerit, saturantur ad uomitum. ### English translation (Claude) And since we have mentioned monks, and I know that you gladly hear holy things, lend me your ear for a little. There are three kinds of monks in Egypt: the cenobites, whom they call sauhes in their native language and whom we may call "those living in common"; the anchorites, who live alone in the deserts and are named from their having withdrawn far from men; and a third kind, which they call remnuoth, the worst and neglected, which in our province is either the only kind or the chief one. These live two or three together, not many more, living by their own will and rule, and they contribute part of what they earn to a common fund so as to have common food. They live mostly in cities and fortified towns, and, as if it were their craft that is holy and not their life, whatever they sell fetches a higher price. There are often quarrels among them, because, living on their own food, they do not bear being subject to anyone. They do indeed compete in fasting, and make a matter of victory what should be secret. With them everything is affected: loose sleeves, baggy boots, coarse clothing, frequent sighs, visits to virgins, disparagement of the clergy; and whenever a feast day comes, they eat till they vomit. ### Translation notes - Sauhes and remnuoth are Jerome's renderings of Coptic words. The anchorites' name comes from the Greek for "withdraw". ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 22.34 (CSEL 54:196–197; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-25/#p-22-34). ## Letter 22.35 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-25/#p-22-35 - Source: CSEL 54:197–200 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome describes the ordered common life of Egyptian cenobitic monks: obedience, work, silence, prayer, Scripture, and care for the sick. ### Latin text His igitur quasi quibusdam pestibus exterminatis ueniamus ad eos, qui plures in commune habitant, id est, quos uocari coenobium diximus. prima apud eos confoederatio est oboedire maioribus et, quidquid iusserint, facere. diuisi sunt per decurias atque centurias, ita ut nouem hominibus decimus praesit et rursus decem praepositos sub se centesimus habeat. manent separati, sed iunctis cellulis. usque ad horam nonam quasi iustitium est: nemo pergit ad alium exceptis his, quos decanos diximus, ut, si cogitationibus forte quis fluctuat, illius consoletur alloquiis. post horam nonam in commune concurritur, psalmi resonant, scripturae ex more recitantur et conpletis orationibus cunctisque residentibus medius, quem patrem uocant, incipit disputare. quo loquente tantum silentium fit, ut nemo ad alium respicere, nemo audeat excreare. dicentis laus in fletu est audientum. tacite uoluuntur per ora lacrimae et ne in singultus quidem erumpit dolor. cum uero de regno Christi, de futura beatitudine, de gloria coeperit adnuntiare uentura, uideas cunctos moderato suspirio et oculis ad caelum leuatis intra se dicere: quis dabit mihi pinnas sicut columbae, et uolabo et requiescam? post hoc concilium soluitur et unaquaeque decuria cum suo parente pergit ad mensas, quibus per singulas ebdomadas uicissim ministrant. nullus in cibo strepitus, nemo comedens loquitur. uiuitur pane, leguminibus et olere, quae sale et oleo condiuntur. uinum tantum senes accipiunt, quibus et paruulis saepe fit prandium, ut aliorum fessa sustentetur aetas, aliorum non frangatur incipiens. dehinc consurgunt pariter et hymno dicto ad praesepia redeunt. ibi usque ad uesperam cum suis unusquisque loquitur et dicit: uidistis illum et illum, quanta in ipso sit gratia, quantum silentium, quam moderatus incessus? si infirmum uiderint, consolantur; si in dei amore feruentem, cohortantur ad studium. et quia nocte extra orationes publicas in suo cubili unusquisque uigilat, circumeunt cellulas singulorum et aure adposita, quid faciant, diligenter explorant. quem tardiorem deprehenderint, non increpant, sed dissimulato, quod norunt, eum saepius uisitant et prius incipientes prouocant magis orare, quam cogunt. opus diei statutum est, quod decano redditum fertur ad oeconomum, qui et ipse per singulos menses patri omnium cum magno reddit tremore rationem. a quo etiam cibi, cum facti fuerint, degustantur et, quia non licet dicere cuiquam: (tunicam et sagum textaque iuncis strata non habeo, ille ita uniuersa moderatur, ut nemo quid postulet, nemo dehabeat. si uero quis coeperit aegrotare, transfertur ad exedram latiorem et tanto senum ministerio confouetur, ut nec delicias urbium nec matris quaerat affectum. dominicis diebus orationi tantum et lectionibus uacant; quod quidem et omni tempore conpletis opusculis faciunt. cotidie de scripturis aliquid discitur. ieiunium totius anni aequale est excepta quadragesima, in qua sola conceditur restrictius uiuere. pentecoste cenae mutantur in prandia, quo et traditioni ecclesiasticae satisfiat et uentrem cibo non onerent duplicato. tales Philo, Platonici sermonis imitator, tales Iosephus, Graecus Liuius, in secunda Iudaicae captiuitatis historia Essenos refert. ### English translation (Claude) Having driven out these as if they were plagues, let us come to those who live many together in common, whom we said are called the cenobium. Their first compact is to obey their elders and to do whatever they command. They are divided into groups of ten and a hundred, so that a tenth man is over nine, and again a hundredth has under him ten such leaders. They stay apart, but in adjoining cells. Until the ninth hour there is a kind of suspension of business: no one goes to another except those we called deans, so that, if anyone happens to waver in his thoughts, he may be comforted by their conversation. After the ninth hour they gather in common; psalms resound; the Scriptures are read in the customary way; and when the prayers are finished and all are seated, the one in the middle, whom they call father, begins to discourse. While he speaks there is such silence that no one dares to look at another or to cough. The speaker's praise is the weeping of his hearers. Tears roll silently down their faces, and grief does not break out even into sobs. But when he begins to announce the kingdom of Christ, future blessedness, and the glory to come, you may see all of them, with a restrained sigh and eyes raised to heaven, saying within themselves: "Who will give me wings like a dove, and I will fly away and be at rest?" After this the assembly is dismissed, and each group of ten goes with its father to the tables, at which they serve in turn week by week. There is no noise at meals; no one talks while eating. They live on bread, pulse, and vegetables, seasoned with salt and oil. Only the old receive wine, and for them and the young a midday meal is often provided, so that the tired age of the one may be sustained and the beginning age of the other not broken. Then they rise together, and after singing a hymn return to their quarters. There each one talks with his companions until evening and says: "Did you see so-and-so, how much grace is in him, how much silence, how restrained his walk?" If they see someone weak, they comfort him; if someone fervent in the love of God, they encourage him in his zeal. And since at night, besides the common prayers, each keeps vigil in his own cell, they go round the cells of each and, putting their ear to the door, carefully find out what they are doing. Anyone they catch being slow they do not rebuke, but, concealing what they know, they visit him more often, and, beginning first themselves, they challenge him rather than force him to pray more. The day's work is fixed; it is handed to the dean and taken to the steward, who himself gives account to the father of all every month with great trembling. By him too the food is tasted when it has been prepared; and since no one may say, "I have no tunic, cloak, or mat woven of rushes," he so regulates everything that no one asks for anything and no one lacks anything. If anyone falls ill, he is moved to a larger room and cared for by the old men so attentively that he does not miss the luxuries of cities or a mother's affection. On Sundays they are free only for prayer and reading, which indeed they do at all times after finishing their little tasks. Every day something from the Scriptures is learned by heart. The fast is the same throughout the year, except in Lent, when alone a stricter life is permitted. At Pentecost suppers are changed to midday meals, both to satisfy church tradition and so as not to burden the stomach with a double meal. Philo, the imitator of Plato's style, reports such men, and Josephus, the Greek Livy, in the second book of his history of the Jewish captivity, reports the Essenes to be such. ### Scripture references - Ps 55:6 (54:7 LXX): quotation, high confidence ### Extrabiblical texts - Philo, Contempl. (Philo of Alexandria (works)): allusion, high confidence - Josephus, B.J. 2.119-161 (Josephus (works)): allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - Ps 55:6 (LXX and Vulgate 54:7). Philo describes the Therapeutae in On the Contemplative Life; Josephus describes the Essenes in Jewish War 2.119-161. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 22.35 (CSEL 54:197–200; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-25/#p-22-35). ## Letter 22.36 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-25/#p-22-36 - Source: CSEL 54:200–201 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome briefly mentions the anchorites, whose founders were Paul, Antony, and John the Baptist, and returns to the theme of despising wealth. ### Latin text Verum quia nunc de uirginibus scribens paene superflue de monachis disputaui, ad tertium genus ueniam, quos anachoretas uocant et qui de coenobiis exeuntes excepto pane et sale amplius ad deserta nil perferunt, huius uitae auctor Paulus, inlustrator Antonius et, ut ad superiora conscendam, princeps Iohannes baptista fuit. talem uirum Hieremias quoque propheta descripsit dicens: bonum est uiro, cum portauerit iugum ab adulescentia sua. sedebit solus et tacebit, quoniam sustulit super se iugum, dabit percutienti se maxillam, saturabitur inproperiis, quia non in sempiternum abiciet dominus. horum laborem et conuersationem in carne, non carnis, alio tempore, si uolueris, explicabo. nunc ad propositum redeam, quia de auaritia disserens ad monachos ueneram. quorum tibi exempla proponens, non dicam aurum et argentum et ceteras opes, sed ipsam terram caelumque despicies et Christo copulata cantabis: pars mea dominus. ### English translation (Claude) But since, writing about virgins, I have discussed the monks almost superfluously, I will come to the third kind, whom they call anchorites, who go out from the monasteries and carry nothing into the desert except bread and salt. The founder of this life was Paul, its great example Antony, and, to go back further, its first leader John the Baptist. The prophet Jeremiah also described such a man, saying: "It is good for a man when he has borne the yoke from his youth. He will sit alone and be silent, because he has taken the yoke upon himself; he will give his cheek to the one who strikes him; he will be filled with reproaches; for the Lord will not cast off for ever." Their labor and way of life, in the flesh but not of the flesh, I will explain at another time if you wish. Now let me return to my subject, since I had come to the monks while discussing greed. Setting their examples before you, you will despise, I will not say gold and silver and other wealth, but earth and heaven themselves, and, united to Christ, you will sing: "The Lord is my portion." ### Scripture references - Lam 3:27: quotation, high confidence - Lam 3:28: quotation, high confidence - Lam 3:30: quotation, high confidence - Lam 3:31: quotation, high confidence - Ps 119:57 (118:57 LXX): quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Lam 3:27-31; Ps 73:26 and 119:57 (LXX and Vulgate 72:26, 118:57). Paul of Thebes, of whom Jerome wrote a Life. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 22.36 (CSEL 54:200–201; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-25/#p-22-36). ## Letter 22.37 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-25/#p-22-37 - Source: CSEL 54:201–202 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome sets out the hours of prayer, the sign of the cross, and warnings against judging others and against fasting with an angry heart. ### Latin text Post haec, quamquam apostolus semper orare nos iubeat et sanctis etiam ipse somnus oratio sit, tamen diuisas orandi horas habere debemus, ut, si forte aliquo fuerimus opere detenti, ipsum nos ad officium tempus admoneat: horam tertiam, sextam, nonam, diluculum quoque et uesperam nemo, qui nesciat. nec cibus a te sumatur nisi oratione praemissa nec recedatur a mensa, nisi referantur gratiae creatori. noctibus bis terque surgendum, reuoluenda de scripturis, quae memoriter tenemus. egredientes hospitium armet oratio, regredientibus de platea oratio occurrat ante, quam sessio, nec prius corpusculum requiescat, quam anima pascatur. ad omnem actum, ad omnem incessum manus pingat crucem. nulli detrahas nec aduersus filium matris tuae ponas scandalum. tu quae es, ut alienum seruum iudices? suo domino stat aut cadit. stabit autem; potens est enim deus statuere illum. nec, si biduo ieiunaueris, putes te a non ieiunante esse meliorem. tu ieiunas et irasceris, ille comedit et forte blanditur; tu uexationem mentis et uentris esuriem rixando digeris, ille moderatius alitur et deo gratias refert. unde cotidie clamat Esaias: non tale ieiunium elegi, dicit dominus, et iterum: in diebus enim ieiuniorum inueniuntur uoluntates uestrae et omnes, qui sub potestate uestra sunt, stimulatis. si in iudiciis et litibus ieiunatis et percutitis pugnis humilem, ut quid mihi ieiunatis? quale illud potest esse ieiunium, cuius iram, non dicam nox occupat, sed luna integra derelinquit? te ipsam considerans noli in alterius ruina, sed in tuo opere gloriari. ### English translation (Claude) Next, although the apostle commands us to pray always, and for the saints even sleep itself is prayer, yet we ought to have set hours of prayer, so that if we happen to be held back by some work, the time itself may remind us of our duty: the third, sixth, and ninth hours, dawn, and evening, which no one fails to know. Take no food without first praying, and do not leave the table without giving thanks to the Creator. Rise two or three times in the night and go over the passages of Scripture we know by heart. When we go out of the house, let prayer arm us; when we return from the street, let prayer meet us before we sit down; and let the body not rest before the soul is fed. At every act, at every step, let the hand trace the cross. Speak ill of no one, and do not set a stumbling block against your mother's son. "Who are you, to judge another's servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for God is able to make him stand." Nor, if you have fasted for two days, think yourself better than one who has not fasted. You fast and are angry; he eats and perhaps is gentle. You work off the vexation of your mind and the hunger of your stomach in quarreling; he is fed more moderately and gives thanks to God. Hence Isaiah cries daily: "Not such a fast have I chosen, says the Lord"; and again: "For in the days of your fasts your own wills are found, and you goad all who are under your power. If you fast for lawsuits and quarrels and strike the lowly with your fists, why do you fast for me?" What kind of fast can that be, whose anger, I will not say night overtakes, but the full moon leaves behind? Considering yourself, do not glory in another's fall, but in your own work. ### Scripture references - 1 Thess 5:17: allusion, high confidence - Ps 50:20 (49:20 LXX): allusion, high confidence - Rom 14:4: quotation, high confidence - Isa 58:5: quotation, high confidence - Isa 58:3: quotation, high confidence - Isa 58:4: quotation, high confidence - Eph 4:26: allusion, medium confidence - Gal 6:4: allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - 1 Thess 5:17; Ps 50:20 (LXX and Vulgate 49:20); Rom 14:4; Isa 58:5, 3-4 (in the Greek form); Eph 4:26; Gal 6:4. The third, sixth, and ninth hours are about 9 a.m., noon, and 3 p.m. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 22.37 (CSEL 54:201–202; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-25/#p-22-37). ## Letter 22.38 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-25/#p-22-38 - Source: CSEL 54:202–205 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome warns Eustochium against worldly "virgins", holds up Mary as her model, and insists that virginity avails only within the church, not among heretics like the Manichaeans. ### Latin text Nec illarum tibi exempla proponas, quae carnis curam facientes possessionum reditus et cotidianas domus inpensas subputant. neque enim undecim apostoli Iudae proditione sunt fracti nec Phygelo et Alexandro faciente naufragium ceteri a cursu fidei substiterunt. nec dicas: illa et illa suis rebus fruitur; honoratur ab omnibus; fratres ad eam conueniunt et sorores: numquid ideo uirgo esse desiuit? primum dubium, an uirgo sit talis. non enim, quomodo uidet homo, uidebit deus. homo uidet in facie, deus uidet in corde. dehinc, etiam si corpore uirgo est, an spiritu uirgo sit, nescio. apostolus autem ita uirginem definiuit: ut sit sancta et corpore et spiritu. ad extremum habeat sibi gloriam suam. uincat Pauli sententiam, deliciis fruatur et uiuat: nos meliorum exempla sectemur. propone tibi beatam Mariam, quae tantae extitit puritatis, ut mater esse domini mereretur. ad quam cum angelus Gabriel in uiri specie descendisset dicens: aue, gratia plena, dominus tecum, consternata [perterrita] respondere non potuit; numquam enim a uiro fuerat salutata. denique nuntium discit et loquitur et, quae hominem formidarat, cum angelo fabulatur intrepida. potes et tu esse mater domini. accipe tibi tomum magnum, nouum et scribe in eo stilo hominis uelociter spolia detrahentis et, cum accesseris ad prophetissam et conceperis in utero et pepereris filium, dic: a timore tuo, domine, concepimus et doluimus et peperimus; spiritum saluationis tuae fecimus super terram. tunc et filius tuus tibi respondebit et dicet: ecce mater mea et fratres mei. et mirum in modum ille, quem in latitudine pectoris tui paulo ante descripseras, quem in nouitate cordis stilo uolante signaueras, postquam spolia ex hostibus ceperit, postquam denudauerit principatus et potestates et adfixerit eas cruci, conceptus adolescit et maior effectus sponsam te incipit habere de matre. grandis labor, sed grande praemium esse, quod martyras, esse, quod apostolos, esse, quod Christus est. quae quidem uniuersa. tunc prosunt, cum in ecclesia fiunt, cum in una domo pascha celebramus, si arcam ingredimur cum Noe, si pereunte Hiericho Raab iustificata nos continet. ceterum uirgines, quales apud diuersas hereses et quales apud inpurissimum Manicheum esse dicuntur, scorta sunt aestimanda, non uirgines. si enim corporis earum auctor est diabolus, quomodo possunt honorare plasticam hostis sui? sed quia sciunt uirginale uocabulum gloriosum, sub ouium pellibus lupos tegunt. Christum mentitur antichristus et turpitudinem uitae falso nominis honore conuestiunt. gaude, soror, gaude, filia, gaude, mi uirgo: quod aliae simulant, tu uere esse coepisti. ### English translation (Claude) Nor should you set before yourself the example of those women who, making provision for the flesh, reckon up the income of their estates and the daily expenses of their household. The eleven apostles were not broken by the betrayal of Judas, nor, when Phygelus and Alexander made shipwreck, did the rest stop in the course of faith. Nor say: "So-and-so enjoys her means, is honored by all, brothers and sisters gather at her house; has she therefore ceased to be a virgin?" First, it is doubtful whether such a woman is a virgin. For God will not see as man sees: man sees the face, God sees the heart. Next, even if she is a virgin in body, I do not know whether she is a virgin in spirit. And the apostle defined a virgin thus: "that she may be holy both in body and in spirit." Finally, let her keep her glory to herself. Let her overrule Paul's judgment, enjoy her luxuries, and live: let us follow the examples of better women. Set before yourself blessed Mary, who was of such purity that she deserved to be the mother of the Lord. When the angel Gabriel came down to her in the form of a man, saying, "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you," she was dismayed and could not answer, for she had never been greeted by a man. Then she learns the message and speaks, and she who had feared a man converses fearlessly with an angel. You too can be the mother of the Lord. "Take for yourself a great new roll, and write in it with the pen of a man, 'Quickly strip the spoils'"; and when you have gone to the prophetess and conceived in the womb and borne a son, say: "From fear of you, Lord, we have conceived and been in pain and brought forth; we have wrought the spirit of your salvation on the earth." Then your son too will answer you and say: "Behold my mother and my brothers." And wonderfully, he whom you had just now inscribed on the breadth of your heart, whom you had marked with flying pen in the newness of your heart, after he has taken spoils from the enemies, after he has stripped the principalities and powers and nailed them to the cross, grows up, conceived, and, grown greater, begins to have you as bride instead of mother. It is a great labor, but a great reward, to be what the martyrs are, what the apostles are, what Christ is. All these things, indeed, profit only when they are done in the church, when we celebrate the Passover in one house, if we enter the ark with Noah, if, when Jericho perishes, Rahab, justified, holds us. But virgins such as are said to exist among various heresies and with the most impure Manichaeus are to be considered harlots, not virgins. For if the devil is the author of their bodies, how can they honor the handiwork of their enemy? But because they know that the name of virgin is glorious, they cover wolves with sheep's skins. Antichrist counterfeits Christ, and they clothe the foulness of their life with the false honor of a name. Rejoice, sister; rejoice, daughter; rejoice, my virgin: what others pretend, you have truly begun to be. ### Scripture references - Rom 13:14: allusion, high confidence - 1 Tim 1:19: allusion, high confidence - 1 Tim 1:20: allusion, high confidence - 2 Tim 1:15: allusion, high confidence - 1 Sam 16:7: quotation, high confidence - 1 Cor 7:34: quotation, high confidence - Luke 1:28: quotation, high confidence - Luke 1:29: allusion, high confidence - Isa 8:1: quotation, high confidence - Isa 8:3: allusion, high confidence - Isa 26:18: quotation, high confidence - Matt 12:49: quotation, high confidence - Col 2:15: allusion, high confidence - Exod 12:46: allusion, high confidence - Gen 7:7: allusion, high confidence - Josh 6:25: allusion, high confidence - Matt 7:15: allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - Rom 13:14; 1 Tim 1:19-20; 2 Tim 1:15; 1 Sam 16:7; 1 Cor 7:34; Luke 1:28-29; Isa 8:1-3 (in the Greek form); Isa 26:18 (in the Greek form); Matt 12:49; Col 2:15; Exod 12:46; Gen 7:7; Josh 6:25 (Heb 11:31); Matt 7:15. The editor deletes perterrita ("terrified") after consternata. The Manichaeans held that the body was created by an evil principle. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 22.38 (CSEL 54:202–205; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-25/#p-22-38). ## Letter 22.39 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-39/#p-22-39 - Source: CSEL 54:205–207 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome says that love for Christ, who humbled himself for our salvation, makes every hardship light, and that no saint was crowned without a contest. ### Latin text Haec omnia, quae digessimus, dura uidebuntur ei, qui non amat Christum. qui autem omnem saeculi pompam pro purgamento habuerit et uana duxerit uniuersa sub sole, ut Christum lucrifaciat, qui conmortuus est domino suo et conresurrexit et crucifixit carnem cum uitiis et concupiscentiis, libere proclamabit: quis nos separabit a caritate Christi? tribulatio? an angustia? an persecutio? an famis? an nuditas? an periculum? an gladius? et iterum: certus autem sum, quia neque mors neque uita neque angelus neque principatus neque instantia neque futura neque fortitudo neque excelsum neque profundum neque alia creatura poterit nos separare a caritate dei, quae est in Christo Iesu domino nostro. dei filius pro nostra salute hominis factus est filius, decem mensibus in utero, ut nascatur, expectat, fastidia sustinet, cruentus egeritur, inuoluitur pannis, blanditiis deridetur et ille, cuius pugillo mundus includitur, praesepis continetur angustiis. taceo, quod usque ad tricesimum annum ignobilis parentum paupertate contentus est; uerberatur et tacet; crucifigitur et pro crucifigentibus deprecatur. quid igitur retribuam domino pro omnibus, quae retribuit mihi? calicem salutaris accipiam et nomen domini inuocabo. pretiosa in conspectu domini mors sanctorum eius. haec est sola digna. retributio, cum sanguis sanguine conpensatur et redempti cruore Christi pro redemptore libenter obcumbimus. quis sanctorum sine certamine coronatus est? Abel iustus occiditur; Abraham uxorem periclitatur amittere et, ne in inmensum uolumen extendam, quaere et inuenies singulos diuersa perpessos. solus in deliciis Salomon fuit et forsitan ideo corruit. quem enim diligit dominus, corripit; castigat autem omnem filium, quem recipit. nonne melius est breui tempore dimicare, ferre uallum, arma, cibaria, lassescere sub lorica et postea gaudere uictorem, quam inpatientia unius horae seruire perpetuo? ### English translation (Claude) All these things that we have set out will seem hard to one who does not love Christ. But whoever has counted all the pomp of the world as refuse, and has considered all things under the sun vain, so that he may gain Christ, who has died with his Lord and risen with him and crucified the flesh with its vices and desires, will freely cry out: "Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Tribulation? Or distress? Or persecution? Or famine? Or nakedness? Or danger? Or the sword?" and again: "For I am sure that neither death nor life nor angel nor principality nor things present nor things to come nor might nor height nor depth nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." The Son of God, for our salvation, became the son of man; he waits ten months in the womb to be born, he endures discomforts, he comes forth bloody, he is wrapped in rags, he is laughed at with cooing, and he in whose fist the world is held is contained in the narrowness of a manger. I pass over that until his thirtieth year he lived obscurely, content with his parents' poverty; he is scourged and is silent; he is crucified and prays for those who crucify him. "What, then, shall I render to the Lord for all that he has rendered to me? I will take the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints." This is the only fitting repayment, when blood is repaid with blood, and we who have been redeemed by the blood of Christ gladly die for our Redeemer. Which of the saints was crowned without a contest? Righteous Abel is slain; Abraham is in danger of losing his wife; and, not to stretch this into an immense volume, search and you will find that each suffered different things. Solomon alone lived in luxury, and perhaps that is why he fell. "For whom the Lord loves he rebukes, and he chastises every son whom he receives." Is it not better to fight for a short time, to carry stakes, arms, and provisions, to grow weary under the breastplate, and afterwards to rejoice as victor, than, through impatience of one hour, to be a slave for ever? ### Scripture references - Phil 3:8: allusion, high confidence - Eccl 1:14: allusion, high confidence - Rom 6:8: allusion, medium confidence - Gal 5:24: allusion, high confidence - Rom 8:35: quotation, high confidence - Rom 8:38: quotation, high confidence - Rom 8:39: quotation, high confidence - Isa 40:12: allusion, high confidence - Luke 2:7: allusion, high confidence - Luke 3:23: allusion, high confidence - Luke 23:34: allusion, high confidence - Ps 116:12 (115:3 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Ps 116:13 (115:4 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Ps 116:15 (115:6 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Gen 4:8: allusion, high confidence - Gen 12:15: allusion, high confidence - Heb 12:6: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Phil 3:8; Eccl 1:14; Rom 6:8; Gal 5:24; Rom 8:35, 38-39; Isa 40:12; Luke 3:23; Isa 53:7; Luke 23:34; Ps 116:12-13, 15 (LXX and Vulgate 115:3-4, 6); Gen 4:8; Gen 12:14-15; Heb 12:6 (Prov 3:12). ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 22.39 (CSEL 54:205–207; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-39/#p-22-39). ## Letter 22.40 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-39/#p-22-40 - Source: CSEL 54:207–209 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome urges Eustochium to endure hardships out of love for Christ, as Jacob served for Rachel and Paul suffered for the gospel. ### Latin text Nihil amantibus durum est, nullus difficilis cupienti labor. respice, quanta Iacob pro Rachel pacta uxore sustineat. et seruiuit, inquit scriptura, Iacob pro Rachel annis septem. et erant in conspectu eius quasi pauci dies, quia amabat illam. unde et ipse postea memorat: in die urebar aestu et gelu nocte. amemus et nos Christum, semper eius quaeramus amplexus, et facile uidebitur omne difficile. breuia putabimus uniuersa, quae longa sunt, et iaculo illius uulnerati per horarum momenta dicemus: heu me, quia peregrinatio mea prolongata est; non sunt enim condignae passiones huius mundi ad futuram gloriam, quae reuelabitur in nobis; quia tribulatio patientiam operatur, patientia probationem, probatio autem spem, spes uero non confundit. quando tibi graue uidetur esse, quod sustines, Pauli secundam ad Corinthios lege: in laboribus plurimis, in carceribus abundantius, in plagis supra modum, in mortibus frequenter - a Iudaeis quinquies quadragenas una minus accepi, ter uirgis caesus sum, semel lapidatus sum, ter naufragium feci -, nocte et die in profundo maris fui, in itineribus saepius, periculis fluminum, periculis latronum, periculis ex genere, periculis ex gentibus, periculis in ciuitate, periculis in deserto, periculis in mare, periculis in falsis fratribus, in laboribus, in miseriis, in uigiliis multis, in fame et siti, in ieiuniis plurimis, in frigore et nuditate. quis nostrum saltim minimam portionem de catalogo harum sibi potest uindicare uirtutum? utique ille postea confidenter aiebat: cursum consummaui, fidem seruaui. superest mihi corona iustitiae, quam retribuet mihi dominus. si cibus insulsior fuerit, contristamur et putamus nos deo praestare beneficium; cum aquatius bibimus, calix frangitur, mensa subuertitur, uerbera sonant et aqua tepidior sanguine uindicatur. regnum caelorum uim patitur et uiolenti diripiunt illud. nisi uim feceris, caelorum regna non capies. nisi pulsaueris inportune, panem non accipies sacramenti. an non tibi uidetur esse uiolenti, cum caro cupit esse, quod deus est, et illuc, unde angeli corruerunt, angelos iudicatura conscendere? ### English translation (Claude) Nothing is hard to those who love; no labor is difficult to one who desires. See how much Jacob endured for Rachel, his promised wife. "And Jacob served," says Scripture, "seven years for Rachel, and they seemed in his sight but a few days, because he loved her." Hence he himself later recalls: "By day I was burned by heat and by night by frost." Let us too love Christ, let us always seek his embraces, and every difficulty will seem easy. We shall think short all that is long, and, wounded by his dart, we shall say every hour: "Woe is me, that my sojourning is prolonged!" For "the sufferings of this world are not worthy to be compared with the future glory that will be revealed in us"; for "tribulation produces patience, patience proof, proof hope, and hope does not disappoint." When what you bear seems heavy to you, read Paul's second letter to the Corinthians: "In very many labors, in prisons more abundantly, in stripes above measure, in deaths often (from the Jews five times I received forty lashes less one; three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked); a night and a day I was in the depth of the sea; in journeys often, in dangers of rivers, dangers of robbers, dangers from my own race, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the desert, dangers in the sea, dangers among false brothers; in labors, in hardships, in many vigils, in hunger and thirst, in very many fasts, in cold and nakedness." Which of us can claim for himself even the smallest part of this list of virtues? Surely it was he who afterwards said confidently: "I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; there remains for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord will render to me." If our food is rather tasteless, we are sad and think we are doing God a favor; when we drink wine a little watered, the cup is broken, the table overturned, blows resound, and water that is too lukewarm is avenged with blood. "The kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force." Unless you use force, you will not take the kingdom of heaven. Unless you knock persistently, you will not receive the bread of the sacrament. Or does it not seem to you violence when flesh desires to be what God is, and to climb, in order to judge angels, to the place from which angels fell? ### Scripture references - Gen 29:20: quotation, high confidence - Gen 31:40: quotation, high confidence - Ps 120:5 (119:5 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Rom 8:18: quotation, high confidence - Rom 5:3: quotation, high confidence - Rom 5:4: quotation, high confidence - Rom 5:5: quotation, high confidence - 2 Cor 11:23: quotation, high confidence - 2 Cor 11:24: quotation, high confidence - 2 Cor 11:25: quotation, high confidence - 2 Cor 11:26: quotation, high confidence - 2 Cor 11:27: quotation, high confidence - 2 Tim 4:7: quotation, high confidence - 2 Tim 4:8: quotation, high confidence - Matt 11:12: quotation, high confidence - Luke 11:8: allusion, high confidence - 1 Cor 6:3: allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - Gen 29:20; Gen 31:40; Ps 120:5 (LXX and Vulgate 119:5); Rom 8:18; Rom 5:3-5; 2 Cor 11:23-27; 2 Tim 4:7-8; Matt 11:12; Luke 11:8; 1 Cor 6:3. "The bread of the sacrament" may refer to the Eucharist or, figuratively, to spiritual food. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 22.40 (CSEL 54:207–209; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-39/#p-22-40). ## Letter 22.41 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-39/#p-22-41 - Source: CSEL 54:209–211 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome closes by picturing the heavenly welcome of the virgin by Mary, Thecla, and Christ the Bridegroom, with the virgins who follow the Lamb. ### Latin text Egredere, quaeso, paulisper e corpore et praesentis laboris ante oculos tuos pinge mercedem, quam nec oculus uidit nec auris audiuit nec in cor hominis ascendit. qualis erit illa dies, cum tibi Maria, mater domini, choris occurret comitata uirgineis, cum post Rubrum Mare et submersum cum suo exercitu Pharaonem tympanum tenens praecinet responsuris: cantemus domino; gloriose enim magnificatus est. equum et ascensorem proiecit in mare? tunc Thecla in tuos laeta uolabit amplexus. tunc et ipse sponsus occurret et dicet: surge, ueni, proxima mea, speciosa mea, columba mea, quia ecce hiemps transiit, pluuia abiit sibi. tunc angeli mirabuntur et dicent: quae est ista prospiciens quasi diluculum, speciosa ut luna, electa ut sol? uidebunt te filiae et laudabunt te reginae et concubinae te praedicabunt. tunc et alius castitatis chorus occurret: Sarra cum nuptis ueniet, filia Phanuelis Anna cum uiduis. erunt ut in diuersis gregibus, carnis et spiritus, matres tuae. laetabitur illa; quod genuit; exultabit ista, quod docuit. tunc uere super asinam dominus ascendet et caelestem ingredietur Hierusalem. tunc paruuli, de quibus in Esaia saluator effatur: ecce ego et pueri, quos mihi dedit dominus, palmas uictoriae subleuantes consono ore cantabunt: osanna in excelsis; benedictus, qui uenit in nomine domini, osanna in excelsis. tunc centum quadraginta quattuor milia in conspectu throni et seniorum tenebunt citharas et cantabunt canticum nouum et nemo poterit scire canticum illud, nisi numerus definitus: hi sunt, qui se cum mulieribus non coinquinauerunt uirgines enim permanserunt —; hi sunt, qui secuntur agnum, quocumque uadit. quotienscumque te uana saeculi delectant ambitio, quotiens in mundo aliquid uideris gloriosum, ad paradisum mente transgredere; esse incipe, quod futura es, et audies ab sponso tuo: pone me sicut signaculum in corde tuo, sicut signaculum in brachio tuo, et opere pariter ac mente munita clamabis; aqua multa non poterit extinguere caritatem et flumina non cooperient eam. ### English translation (Claude) Go out, I beg you, for a little while from the body, and paint before your eyes the reward of your present labor, "which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man." What will that day be like, when Mary, the mother of the Lord, will come to meet you accompanied by choirs of virgins; when, after the Red Sea and Pharaoh drowned with his army, holding a timbrel she will lead the singing for those who respond: "Let us sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and rider he has thrown into the sea"? Then Thecla will fly joyfully into your embrace. Then the Bridegroom himself will come to meet you and say: "Rise, come, my near one, my beautiful one, my dove, for see, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone." Then the angels will wonder and say: "Who is she who looks forth like the dawn, fair as the moon, chosen as the sun?" The daughters will see you, the queens will praise you, and the concubines will proclaim you. Then another choir of chastity will come to meet you: Sarah will come with the married women, Anna the daughter of Phanuel with the widows. They will be, as it were, in different flocks, your mothers according to the flesh and according to the spirit. The one will rejoice because she bore you, the other will exult because she taught you. Then truly the Lord will mount the ass and enter the heavenly Jerusalem. Then the little ones of whom the Savior speaks in Isaiah, "Behold, I and the children whom the Lord has given me," lifting palms of victory, will sing with one voice: "Hosanna in the highest; blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord; hosanna in the highest." Then the hundred and forty-four thousand before the throne and the elders will hold harps and sing a new song, and no one will be able to know that song except the appointed number: "These are they who were not defiled with women, for they remained virgins; these are they who follow the Lamb wherever he goes." Whenever the empty ambition of the world delights you, whenever you see anything glorious in the world, pass over in mind to paradise; begin to be what you will be, and you will hear from your Bridegroom: "Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm"; and, fortified alike in deed and in mind, you will cry: "Many waters cannot quench love, and rivers will not cover it." ### Scripture references - 1 Cor 2:9: quotation, high confidence - Exod 15:20: allusion, high confidence - Exod 15:21: quotation, high confidence - Song 2:10: quotation, high confidence - Song 2:11: quotation, high confidence - Song 6:10 (6:9 Vulg.): quotation, high confidence - Song 6:9 (6:8 Vulg.): quotation, high confidence - Luke 2:36: allusion, high confidence - Matt 21:7: allusion, high confidence - Isa 8:18: quotation, high confidence - Matt 21:9: quotation, high confidence - Rev 14:3: allusion, high confidence - Rev 14:4: quotation, high confidence - Song 8:6: quotation, high confidence - Song 8:7: quotation, high confidence ### Extrabiblical texts - Acts Paul (Acts of Paul): allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - 1 Cor 2:9; Exod 15:20-21 (Miriam's song, here sung by Mary, whose name is the same); Thecla, the virgin disciple of Paul in the Acts of Paul and Thecla; Song 2:10-11; Song 6:10 and 6:9 (Vulgate 6:9, 6:8); Gen 18 (Sarah); Luke 2:36-37; Matt 21:5-9; Isa 8:18 (Heb 2:13); Rev 14:1-4; Song 8:6-7. Rev 14:4 is read, as often in the Fathers, of consecrated virgins. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 22.41 (CSEL 54:209–211; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-39/#p-22-41). ## Letter 23.1 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-39/#p-23-1 - Source: CSEL 54:211–212 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome tells Marcella how, in the middle of their Bible study, news came of the death of the holy widow Lea. ### Latin text Cum hora ferme tertia hodiernae diei septuagesimum secundum psalmum, id est tertii libri principium, legere coepissemus et docere cogeremur tituli ipsius partem ad finem secundi libri, partem ad principium tertii libri pertinere quod scilicet defecerunt hymni Dauid, filii Jesse, finis esset prioris, psalmus uero Asaph principium sequentis - et usque ad eum locum peruenissemus, in quo iustus loquitur: dicebam: si narrauero sic, ecce generationem filiorum tuorum praeuaricatus sum, quod in Latinis codicibus non ita habemus expressum, repente nobis nuntiatum est sanctissimam Leam exisse de corpore. ibique ita te palluisse conspexi, ut uere aut pauca aut nulla sit anima, quae fracto uase testaceo non tristis erumpat. et tu quidem, non quod futuri incerta esses, dolebas, sed quo triste funeri obsequium non dedisses. denique in mediis fabulis rursum didicimus reliquias eius iam Ostia fuisse delatas. ### English translation (Claude) At about the third hour today we had begun to read the seventy-second psalm, that is, the beginning of the third book, and had been obliged to explain that part of its title belongs to the end of the second book and part to the beginning of the third (namely, that "the hymns of David, son of Jesse, are ended" is the end of the former, while "a psalm of Asaph" is the beginning of the following one); and we had reached the place where the righteous man says, "I said: If I speak thus, see, I have betrayed the generation of your children," which is not rendered this way in our Latin manuscripts, when suddenly it was announced to us that the most holy Lea had departed from the body. And there I saw you turn so pale that truly there are few souls, or none, that do not burst forth sadly when the earthen vessel is broken. And you grieved, not because you were uncertain of her future, but because you had not paid her the sad service of a funeral. Then, in the middle of our talk, we learned further that her remains had already been taken to Ostia. ### Scripture references - Ps 72:20 (71:20 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Ps 73:1 (72:1 LXX): allusion, high confidence - Ps 73:15 (72:15 LXX): quotation, high confidence - 2 Cor 4:7: allusion, medium confidence ### Translation notes - Ps 72:20 and 73:1 (LXX and Vulgate 71:20, 72:1); Ps 73:15 (LXX and Vulgate 72:15); 2 Cor 4:7. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 23.1 (CSEL 54:211–212; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-39/#p-23-1). ## Letter 23.2 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-39/#p-23-2 - Source: CSEL 54:212–213 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome praises Lea, a noble widow who became head of a community of virgins and lived in humility and prayer. ### Latin text Quaeras, quo pertineat ista replicatio? respondebo tibi uerbis apostoli: multum per omnem modum. primum, quod uniuersorum gaudiis prosequenda sit, quae calcato diabolo coronam iam securitatis accepit; secundo, ut eius uita breuiter explicetur; tertio, ut designatum consulem de suis saeculis detrahentes esse doceamus in tartaro. equidem conuersationem Leae nostrae quis possit digno eleuare praeconio? ita eam totam ad dominum fuisse conuersam, ut monasterii princeps, mater uirginum fieret; post mollitiem uestium sacco membra triuisse; orationibus duxisse noctes et comites suas plus exemplo docuisse quam uerbis. humilitatis tantae tamque subiectae, ut quondam domina plurimorum ancilla hominis putaretur, nisi quod eo Christi magis esse ancilla, dum domina hominum non putatur. inculta uestis, uilis cibus, neglectum caput, ita tamen, ut, cum omnia faceret, ostentationem fugeret singulorum, ne reciperet in praesenti saeculo mercedem suam. ### English translation (Claude) You may ask what the point of this recital is. I will answer you in the apostle's words: "Much in every way." First, that she should be followed by the joy of all, since she has trampled on the devil and already received the crown of safety; second, that her life may be briefly set out; third, that we may show that the consul-elect, that disparager of his own times, is in Tartarus. Who, indeed, could extol with fitting praise the way of life of our Lea? She was so wholly turned to the Lord that she became head of a monastery and mother of virgins; after soft garments she wore down her limbs with sackcloth; she spent her nights in prayer and taught her companions more by example than by words. She was of such great and submissive humility that she, once mistress of many, was thought a servant; except that she was all the more Christ's servant because she was not thought mistress of men. Her dress was unkempt, her food cheap, her head neglected; yet in such a way that, while she did all this, she avoided displaying it before anyone, lest she should receive her reward in this present age. ### Scripture references - Rom 3:2: quotation, high confidence - Matt 6:2: allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - Rom 3:2; Matt 6:2. The consul-elect is Vettius Agorius Praetextatus (d. 384), a leading pagan senator; Jerome's judgment of his fate is translated as written. The reading of the phrase about the consul (de suis saeculis detrahentes) is uncertain in the digital text; it is rendered by the likely sense. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 23.2 (CSEL 54:212–213; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-39/#p-23-2). ## Letter 23.3 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-39/#p-23-3 - Source: CSEL 54:213 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome contrasts Lea's heavenly reward with the fate of the pagan consul Praetextatus, likening them to Lazarus and the rich man. ### Latin text Nunc igitur pro breui labore aeterna beatitudine fruitur: excipitur angelorum choris, Abrahae sinibus confouetur et cum paupere quondam Lazaro diuitem purpuratum et non palmatum consulem, sed sacratum, stillam digiti minoris cernit inquirere. o rerum quanta mutatio! ille, quem ante paucos dies dignitatum omnium culmina praecedebant, qui, quasi de subiectis hostibus triumpharet, Capitolinas ascendit arces, quem plausu quodam et tripudio populus Romanus excepit, ad cuius interitum urbs uniuersa commota est, nunc desolatus est, nudus, non in lacteo caeli palatio, ut uxor conmentitur infelix, sed in sordentibus tenebris continetur. haec uero, quam unius cubiculi secreta uallabant, quae pauper uidebatur et tenuis, cuius uita putabatur amentia, Christum sequitur et dicit: quaecumque audiuimus, et uidimus in ciuitate dei nostri et reliqua. ### English translation (Claude) So now, for her brief labor, she enjoys eternal blessedness: she is welcomed by the choirs of angels, cherished in the bosom of Abraham, and, with Lazarus, once a poor man, she sees the rich man in purple, a consul not in the palm-embroidered robe but consecrated, begging for a drop from her little finger. O what a change of things! He whom a few days ago the highest of all offices went before, who climbed the citadel of the Capitol as if triumphing over conquered enemies, whom the Roman people received with applause and dancing, at whose death the whole city was moved, is now desolate and naked, held not in the milky palace of heaven, as his unhappy wife pretends, but in filthy darkness. But she, whom the privacy of a single room walled in, who seemed poor and humble, whose life was thought madness, follows Christ and says: "As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of our God," and the rest. ### Scripture references - Luke 16:22: allusion, high confidence - Luke 16:24: allusion, high confidence - Ps 48:8 (47:9 LXX): quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Luke 16:22-24; Ps 48:8 (LXX and Vulgate 47:9). "Consecrated" (sacratum) plays on Praetextatus's pagan priesthoods; his widow Paulina's epitaph speaks of his reception in the heavens. Translated as written. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 23.3 (CSEL 54:213; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-39/#p-23-3). ## Letter 23.4 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-39/#p-23-4 - Source: CSEL 54:213–214 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome draws the lesson that Christians should travel light through this world, renouncing wealth and power for eternal things. ### Latin text Quapropter moneo et flens gemensque contestor, ut, dum huius mundi uiam currimus, non duabus tunicis, id est duplici uestiamur fide, non calciamentorum pellibus, mortuis uidelicet operibus, praegrauemur, non diuitiarum nos pera ad terram premat, non uirgae, id est potentiae saecularis, quaeratur auxilium, non pariter et Christum habere uelimus et saeculum, sed pro breuibus et caducis aeterna succedant et, cum cotidie secundum corpus loquor - praemoriamur, in ceteris non nos perpetuos aestimemus, ut possimus esse perpetui. ### English translation (Claude) Therefore I warn you, and with tears and groans I adjure you, that while we run the way of this world we should not be clothed with two tunics, that is, with a double faith; not be weighed down by shoes of skins, that is, by dead works; not let the bag of riches press us down to the earth; not seek the help of a staff, that is, of worldly power; not wish to have both Christ and the world together; but let eternal things take the place of short and perishable ones, and, since (I speak according to the body) we die beforehand daily, let us not think ourselves permanent in other things, so that we may be permanent. ### Scripture references - Matt 10:10: allusion, high confidence - Heb 6:1: allusion, medium confidence - Matt 6:24: allusion, medium confidence - 1 Cor 15:31: allusion, medium confidence ### Translation notes - Matt 10:10 (Luke 9:3); Heb 6:1; Matt 6:24; 1 Cor 15:31. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 23.4 (CSEL 54:213–214; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-39/#p-23-4). ## Letter 24.1 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-39/#p-24-1 - Source: CSEL 54:214–215 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome writes to Marcella in praise of the virgin Asella, asking that the letter be read to young women rather than to Asella herself. ### Latin text Nemo reprehendat, quod in epistulis aliquos aut laudamus aut carpimus, cum et in arguendis malis sit correptio ceterorum et in optimis praedicandis bonorum ad uirtutem studia concitentur. nudius tertius de beatae memoriae Lea aliqua dixeramus: ilico pupugit animum et mihi uenit in mentem non debere nos tacere de uirgine, qui de secundo ordine castitatis locuti sumus. igitur Asellae nostrae uita breuiter explicanda est, cui quaeso ne hanc epistulam legas - grauatur quippe laudibus suis -, sed his potius, quae adulescentulae sunt, legere dignare, ut ad exemplum eius se instituentes conuersationem illius perfectae uitae normam arbitrentur. ### English translation (Claude) Let no one blame me for either praising or criticizing some people in my letters, since in rebuking the wicked others are corrected, and in proclaiming the best the zeal of the good for virtue is stirred up. The day before yesterday I said something about Lea of blessed memory; at once it pricked my mind, and it came to me that I ought not to be silent about a virgin, having spoken of the second order of chastity. So the life of our Asella must be briefly set out. Please do not read this letter to her (for she is burdened by her own praises), but rather deign to read it to those who are young girls, so that, forming themselves on her example, they may take her way of life as the rule of a perfect life. ### Translation notes - "The second order of chastity" is widowhood. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 24.1 (CSEL 54:214–215; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-39/#p-24-1). ## Letter 24.2 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-39/#p-24-2 - Source: CSEL 54:215 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome passes over the signs of grace in Asella's infancy and turns to the life she chose from the age of twelve. ### Latin text Praetermitto, quod in matris utero benedicitur ei, antequam nascatur, quod in fiala nitentis uitri et omni speculo purioris patri uirgo traditur per quietem, quod adhuc infantiae inuoluta pannis, uix annum decimum aetatis excedens honore futurae beatitudinis consecratur; sit gratiae omne, quod ante laborem fuit, licet deus praescius futurorum et Hieremiam sanctificet in utero et Iohannem in aluo matris faciat exultare et Paulum ante constitutionem mundi separet in euangelium filii sui: ad ea uenio, quae post duodecimum annum sudore proprio elegit, arripuit, tenuit. coepit, inpleuit. ### English translation (Claude) I pass over that she was blessed in her mother's womb before she was born; that in a dream a virgin was given to her father in a bowl of shining glass, purer than any mirror; that while still wrapped in the cloths of infancy, scarcely past her tenth year, she was consecrated to the honor of future blessedness. Let everything before her own labor be of grace, although God, foreknowing the future, both sanctifies Jeremiah in the womb and makes John leap in his mother's womb, and sets Paul apart before the foundation of the world for the gospel of his Son. I come to what, after her twelfth year, she chose, seized, held, began, and fulfilled by her own sweat. ### Scripture references - Jer 1:5: allusion, high confidence - Luke 1:41: allusion, high confidence - Gal 1:15: allusion, high confidence - Eph 1:4: allusion, medium confidence - Rom 1:1: allusion, medium confidence ### Translation notes - Jer 1:5; Luke 1:41, 44; Gal 1:15, Eph 1:4, and Rom 1:1. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 24.2 (CSEL 54:215; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-39/#p-24-2). ## Letter 24.3 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-39/#p-24-3 - Source: CSEL 54:215–216 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome describes Asella's life of fasting in a single cell and how, as a girl, she sold her necklace and put on dark clothing to dedicate herself to God. ### Latin text Unius cellulae clausa angustiis latitudine paradisi fruebatur. idem terrae solum et orationis locus extitit et quietis. ieiunium pro ludo habuit, inediam refectionem; et cum eam non uescendi desiderium, sed humana confectio ad cibum traheret, pane et sale et aqua frigida concitabat magis esuriem, quam restinguebat. et quia paene oblitus sum, quod in principio debui dicere,: cum primum hoc propositum arripuit, aurum colli sui. quam murenulam uulgus uocat, quod scilicet metallo in uirgulas lentescente quaedam ordinis flexuosi catena contexitur, absque parentibus uendidit et tunicam fusciorem, quam a matre inpetrare non poterat, pio induta negotiationis auspicio se repente domino consecrauit, ut intellegeret uniuersa cognatio non posse ei aliud extorqueri, quae iam saeculum damnasset in uestibus. ### English translation (Claude) Shut in the narrowness of a single cell, she enjoyed the breadth of paradise. The same patch of ground was her place of prayer and of rest. She took fasting for play and hunger for refreshment; and when it was not the desire to eat but human weakness that drew her to food, she aroused rather than quenched her hunger with bread, salt, and cold water. And since I almost forgot what I ought to have said at the beginning: when she first took up this resolve, she sold, without her parents' knowledge, the gold necklace (which people call a murenula, because the metal is drawn out into thin rods and woven into a kind of flexible chain), and, putting on a darker tunic, which she could not get from her mother, by this devout beginning of trade she suddenly consecrated herself to the Lord, so that her whole family might understand that nothing more could be wrung from one who had already condemned the world in her clothing. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 24.3 (CSEL 54:215–216; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-39/#p-24-3). ## Letter 24.4 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-39/#p-24-4 - Source: CSEL 54:216 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome describes Asella's secluded life of work, prayer, and fasting, which she kept in health to the age of fifty. ### Latin text Sed, ut dicere coeperamus, ita se semper moderate habuit et intra cubiculi sui secreta custodiit, ut numquam pedem proferret in publicum, numquam uiri nosset adloquium et. quod magis sit admirandum, sororem uirginem amaret potius, quam uideret. operabatur manibus suis sciens scriptum esse: qui non operatur, nec manducet. sponso aut orans loquebatur aut psallens, ad martyrum limina paene inuisa properabat et, cum gauderet proposito suo, in eo uehementius exultabat, quod se nullus agnosceret. cumque per omnem annum iugi ieiunio pasceretur biduo triduoque sic permanens, tum uero in quadragesima. nauigii sui uela tendebat omnes paene ebdomadas uultu laetante coniungens. et, quod inpossibile forsitan hominibus ad credendum deo praestante possibile est, ita ad quinquagenariam peruenit aetatem, ut non doleret stomachus, non uiscerum cruciaretur incuria, non sicca humus iacentia membra confringeret, non sacco asperata cutis fetorem aliquem situmque contraheret, sed sana corpore, animo sanior solitudinem putaret esse delicias et in urbe turbida inueniret heremum monachorum. ### English translation (Claude) But, as we had begun to say, she always behaved with such restraint and kept herself within the privacy of her room that she never set foot in public, never knew conversation with a man, and, what is more to be wondered at, loved her virgin sister rather than saw her. She worked with her own hands, knowing that it is written: "He who does not work, let him not eat." She spoke with her Bridegroom either praying or singing psalms; she hurried almost unseen to the shrines of the martyrs, and while she rejoiced in her resolve, she exulted the more because no one recognized her. And while throughout the year she lived on continual fasting, going two or three days thus, then in Lent she spread the sails of her ship, joining almost all the weeks together with a joyful face. And, what is perhaps impossible for men to believe but possible with God's help, she reached the age of fifty in such a way that her stomach did not ache, her bowels were not tormented, the dry ground did not break her limbs as she lay, her skin, roughened by sackcloth, did not acquire any stench or mold; but, sound in body and sounder in mind, she thought solitude a delight and found a monks' desert in the turbulent city. ### Scripture references - 2 Thess 3:10: quotation, high confidence - Luke 18:27: allusion, medium confidence ### Translation notes - 2 Thess 3:10; Luke 18:27. "Joining the weeks" means fasting continuously from one week to the next. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 24.4 (CSEL 54:216; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-39/#p-24-4). ## Letter 24.5 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-39/#p-24-5 - Source: CSEL 54:216–218 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome describes Asella's balanced, unostentatious holiness, which is respected by all in luxurious Rome. ### Latin text Et haec quidem tu melius nosti, a qua pauca didicimus et cuius oculis durities de genibus camelorum in illo sancto corpusculo per orandi frequentiam obcalluisse perspecta est. nos, quod scire possumus, explicamus. nihil illius seueritate iocundius, nihil iocunditate seuerius, nihil risu tristius, nihil tristitia suauius. ita pallor in facie est. ut, cum continentiam indicet, non redoleat ostentationem. sermo silens et silentium loquens, nec citus nec tardus incessus, idem semper habitus, neglecta mundities et inculta ueste cultus ipse sine cultu. sola uitae suae qualitate promeruit, ut in urbe pompae, lasciuiae, deliciarum, in qua humilem esse miseria est, et boni eam praedicent et mali detrahere non audeant, uiduae imitentur et uirgines, maritae colant, noxiae timeant, suspiciant sacerdotes. ### English translation (Claude) And you know these things better, from whom I have learned a little, and whose eyes have seen the hardness, like that on camels' knees, which from frequent prayer had grown callous on that holy little body. I set out what I can know. Nothing is more cheerful than her seriousness, nothing more serious than her cheerfulness, nothing sadder than her smile, nothing sweeter than her sadness. There is such pallor in her face that, while it shows her abstinence, it has no smell of display. Her speech is silent and her silence speaks; her walk is neither fast nor slow; her dress is always the same; her neatness neglected, and in unkempt dress her very adornment is without adornment. By the quality of her life alone she has deserved that in a city of pomp, wantonness, and luxury, in which to be humble is misery, the good praise her and the wicked dare not disparage her; widows and virgins imitate her, married women respect her, the guilty fear her, and priests look up to her. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 24.5 (CSEL 54:216–218; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-39/#p-24-5). ## Letter 25.1 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-39/#p-25-1 - Source: CSEL 54:218 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome answers Marcella's request to explain the ten Hebrew names of God, prompted by the word Shaddai in Ps 91. ### Latin text Nonagesimum psalmum legens in eo loco, qui scribitur: qui habitat in adiutorio altissimi. in protectione dei caeli commorabitur, dixeram apud Hebraeos pro dei caeli esse positum saddai, quod Aquila interpretatur ty.avov, quod nos robustum et sufficientem ad omnia perpetranda accipere possumus, unumque esse de decem nominibus, quibus apud eos deus uocatur. ilico studiosissime postulasti, ut tibi uniuersa nomina cum sua interpretatione dirigerem. faciam, quod petisti. ### English translation (Claude) Reading the ninetieth psalm, at the place where it is written, "He who dwells in the help of the Most High will abide in the protection of the God of heaven," I had said that among the Hebrews, in place of "God of heaven", saddai is put, which Aquila translates as "sufficient", and which we can take to mean "mighty and sufficient to accomplish all things"; and that it is one of the ten names by which God is called among them. At once you very eagerly asked me to send you all the names with their interpretation. I will do what you asked. ### Scripture references - Ps 91:1 (90:1 LXX): quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Ps 91:1 (LXX and Vulgate 90:1). The Greek word of Aquila (ἱκανόν, "sufficient") is garbled in the digital text. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 25.1 (CSEL 54:218; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-39/#p-25-1). ## Letter 25.2 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-39/#p-25-2 - Source: CSEL 54:218–219 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome explains the first six Hebrew names of God: El, Elohim, Eloah, Sabaoth, Elyon, and the "I am" of Exodus. ### Latin text Primum dei nomen est hel, quod Septuaginta deum, Aquila £ -.ou/Aoy ocv eius exprimens taxopv, id est fortem, interpretatur. Deinde eloim et eloe, quod et ipsum deus dicitur. Quartum sabaoth, quod Septuaginta uirtutum, Aquila exercituum transtulerunt. Quintum elion, quem nos excelsum dicimus. Sextum eser ieie, quod in Exodo legitur: qui est, misit me. ### English translation (Claude) The first name of God is hel, which the Seventy translate "God", and Aquila, expressing its etymology, "strong". Next, eloim and eloe, which likewise are rendered "God". The fourth is sabaoth, which the Seventy translated "of powers", Aquila "of armies". The fifth is elion, which we call "Most High". The sixth is eser ieie, which is read in Exodus: "He who is has sent me." ### Scripture references - Exod 3:14: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Exod 3:14. Aquila's Greek is garbled in the digital text; the sense ("expressing its etymology, strong") is clear. Jerome's transliterations are kept as he wrote them. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 25.2 (CSEL 54:218–219; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-39/#p-25-2). ## Letter 25.3 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-39/#p-25-3 - Source: CSEL 54:219 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome explains the names Adonai, Yah, and the four-letter divine name, which some Greek readers misread as PIPI. ### Latin text Septimum adonai, quem nos dominum generaliter appellamus. Octauum ia, quod in deo tantum ponitur et in alleluiae quoque extrema syllaba sonat. Nonum tetragrammum, quod avsy.(pcbvTltciv, id est ineffabile, putauerunt et his litteris scribitur: iod, he, uau, he. quod quidam non intellegentes propter elementorum similitudinem, cum in Graecis libris repperiunt, IIIIII legere consueuerunt. ### English translation (Claude) The seventh is adonai, which we generally call "Lord". The eighth is ia, which is used only of God, and also sounds in the last syllable of alleluia. The ninth is the tetragram, which they considered "unutterable", and which is written with these letters: iod, he, uau, he. Some, not understanding it because of the likeness of the letters, when they find it in Greek books, are accustomed to read it as PIPI. ### Translation notes - The Greek word for "unutterable" and the letters that some misread (Greek ΠΙΠΙ, from the square Hebrew letters יהוה) are garbled in the digital text. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 25.3 (CSEL 54:219; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-39/#p-25-3). ## Letter 25.4 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-39/#p-25-4 - Source: CSEL 54:219–220 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome explains Shaddai and notes that Elohim is plural in form but used of the one God. ### Latin text Decimum, quod superius dictum est, saddai et in Ezechiele ininterpretatum ponitur. scire autem debemus, quia eloim communis numeri sit, quod et unus deus sic uocetur et plures, ad quam similitudinem caeli quoque appellantur et caelum,. id est samaim. unde et saepe interpretes uariant, cuius rei exemplum nos in lingua nostra habere possumus (Athenas, Thebas, Salonas. ### English translation (Claude) The tenth is saddai, mentioned above, which is left untranslated in Ezekiel. But we should know that eloim is of common number, since both one God and many are so called, just as "heavens" and "heaven" are called samaim. Hence the translators often vary. We can have an example of this in our own language: Athenae, Thebae, Salonae. ### Scripture references - Ezek 10:5: allusion, medium confidence ### Translation notes - Ezek 10:5 (compare 1:24), where some Greek versions leave Shaddai untranslated. Athens, Thebes, and Salona are plural in form in Latin but name single cities. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 25.4 (CSEL 54:219–220; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-39/#p-25-4). ## Letter 26.1 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-39/#p-26-1 - Source: CSEL 54:220–221 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome takes up Marcella's question why certain Hebrew words are left untranslated in Scripture. ### Latin text Nuper, cum pariter essemus, non per epistulam, ut ante consueueras, sed praesens ipsa quaesisti, quid ea uerba. quae ex Hebraeo in Latinum non habemus expressa, apud suos sonarent curque sine interpretatione sint posita, ut est illud: alleluia, amen, maran atha, ephod et cetera, quae in scripturis conspersa memorasti. ### English translation (Claude) Recently, when we were together, you asked me in person, not by letter as you used to, what those words which we do not have rendered from Hebrew into Latin mean in their own language, and why they have been left untranslated, such as alleluia, amen, maran atha, ephod, and the others you mentioned, which are scattered through the Scriptures. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 26.1 (CSEL 54:220–221; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-39/#p-26-1). ## Letter 26.2 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-39/#p-26-2 - Source: CSEL 54:221 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome explains that these Hebrew words were kept to avoid offending early Jewish believers and because translation would weaken their force. ### Latin text Ad quod nos, quia dictandi angustia coartamur, breuiter respondemus siue septuaginta interpretes siue apostolos id curasse, ut, quoniam prima ecclesia ex Iudaeis fuerat congregata, nihil ob credentium scandalum innouarent, sed ita, ut a paruo inbiberant, traderent, postea uero quam in uniuersas gentes euangelii dilatatus est sermo, non potuisse semel suscepta mutari, licet et illud in libris suis, quos iSrjnTjttxoot uocat, Origenes adserat, propter uernaculum linguae uniuscuiusque idioma non posse ita apud alios sonare, ut apud suos dicta sunt, et multo esse melius ininterpretata ponere, quam uim interpretatione tenuare. ### English translation (Claude) To this, since I am pressed by lack of time for dictating, I answer briefly that either the Seventy translators or the apostles took care, since the first church had been gathered from the Jews, not to innovate anything, lest believers be scandalized, but to hand these words on as they had absorbed them from childhood; and that afterwards, when the word of the gospel had spread to all nations, what had once been received could not be changed. Origen also asserts in the books he calls Stromateis that, because of the native idiom of each language, words cannot sound the same among others as they were spoken among their own people, and that it is much better to set them down untranslated than to weaken their force by translation. ### Translation notes - Origen's Stromateis survives only in fragments; the Greek title is garbled in the digital text. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 26.2 (CSEL 54:221; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-39/#p-26-2). ## Letter 26.3 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-39/#p-26-3 - Source: CSEL 54:221–222 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome explains that alleluia means "praise the Lord". ### Latin text Igitur alleluia exprimitur laudate dominum; ia quippe apud Hebraeos unum de decem dei nominibus est. et in illo psalmo, in quo legimus: laudate dominum, quoniam bonus est psalmus, apud Hebraeos legitur: alleluia chi tob zammer. ### English translation (Claude) Alleluia, then, means "praise the Lord"; for ia is one of the ten names of God among the Hebrews. And in the psalm in which we read, "Praise the Lord, for a psalm is good," in Hebrew we read: alleluia chi tob zammer. ### Scripture references - Ps 147:1 (146:1 LXX): quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Ps 147:1 (LXX and Vulgate 146:1). ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 26.3 (CSEL 54:221–222; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-39/#p-26-3). ## Letter 26.4 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-39/#p-26-4 - Source: CSEL 54:222–223 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome explains amen as a word of confirmation and maran atha as the Syriac "Our Lord comes". ### Latin text Amen uero Aquila irsi:iotw}j.EVM5 exprimit, quod nos fideliter possumus dicere, ductum aduerbium ex nomine fidei amuna, Septuaginta jŚ /Ol tIJ, id est (fiat). unde et in fine librorum, in quinque siquidem uolumina psalterium apud Hebraeos diuisum est, fiat, fj at. transtulerunt, quod in Hebraeo legitur amen amen, quo scilicet ea uere dicta, quae supra dicta sunt, confirmentur. unde et Paulus adserit non posse aliquem respondere amen, id est confirmare, quae praedicta sunt, nisi intellexerit praedicationem. maran atha magis Syrum est quam Hebraeum, tametsi ex confinio utrarumque linguarum aliquid et Hebraeum sonet, et interpretatur: dominus noster uenit, ut sit sensus: si quis non amat dominum Iesum Christum, anathema, et illo conpleto deinceps inferatur: dominus noster uenit, quod superfluum sit aduersus eum odiis pertinacibus uelle contendere, quem uenisse iam constet. ### English translation (Claude) Amen Aquila renders by a word we can express in Latin as "faithfully", an adverb derived from the noun for faith, amuna; the Seventy render it "so be it". Hence at the end of the books (for the Psalter is divided among the Hebrews into five volumes) they translated "so be it, so be it" where the Hebrew reads amen amen, so that what was said above may be confirmed as truly said. Hence Paul too asserts that no one can answer amen, that is, confirm what has been said, unless he has understood what was spoken. Maran atha is more Syriac than Hebrew, although, from the borderland of the two languages, it sounds somewhat Hebrew too; and it is interpreted "Our Lord comes", so that the sense is: "If anyone does not love the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema"; and, that said, it is added: "Our Lord comes", meaning that it is pointless to strive with stubborn hatred against one who has plainly already come. ### Scripture references - 1 Cor 14:16: allusion, high confidence - 1 Cor 16:22: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - 1 Cor 14:16; 1 Cor 16:22. The Greek renderings of Aquila and the Seventy are garbled in the digital text. Jerome's explanation of the five-book Psalter refers to the doxologies that close each book (Pss 41, 72, 89, 106). ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 26.4 (CSEL 54:222–223; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-39/#p-26-4). ## Letter 26.5 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-39/#p-26-5 - Source: CSEL 54:223 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome defers other questions, such as the meaning of selah, to keep Marcella eager. ### Latin text Vellem tibi aliquid et de diapsalmate scribere, quod apud Hebraeos dicitur sela, et de ephod et de eo, quod in cuiusdam psalmi titulo habetur pro aieleth, et ceteris istius modi, nisi et modum epistolici characteris excederem et tibi auiditatem magis dilatae deberent facere quaestiones. tritum est quippe prouerbium ultroneas putere merces. unde et nos de industria dicenda reticemus, ut auidius uelis audire, quae tacita sunt. ### English translation (Claude) I would like to write to you also about diapsalma, which among the Hebrews is called sela, and about ephod, and about what is found in the title of a certain psalm, "for aieleth", and other such things, were it not that I would exceed the measure of a letter and that questions put off ought to make you all the more eager. For it is a well-worn proverb that goods offered unasked stink. So I deliberately keep back what should be said, so that you may want the more eagerly to hear what has been left unsaid. ### Scripture references - Ps 22:1 (21:1 LXX): allusion, medium confidence ### Translation notes - The title of Ps 22 (LXX and Vulgate 21), "for the help of the morning" (Hebrew ayyeleth). ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 26.5 (CSEL 54:223; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-39/#p-26-5). ## Letter 27.1 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-39/#p-27-1 - Source: CSEL 54:223–224 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome defends his revision of the Latin Gospels against the Greek against critics who accuse him of tampering with the Lord's words. ### Latin text Post priorem epistulam, in qua de Hebraeis uerbis pauca perstrinxeram, ad me repente perlatum est quosdam homunculos mihi studiose detrahere, cur aduersus auctoritatem ueterum et totius mundi opinionem aliqua in euangeliis emendare temptauerim. quos ego cum possim meo iure contemnere — asino quippe lyra superflue canit.,-, tamen. ne nos superbiae, ut facere solent, arguant, ita responsum habeant, non adeo hebetis fuisse me cordis et tam crassae rusticitatis — quam illi solam pro sanctitate habent piscatorum se discipulos adserentes, quasi idcirco iusti sint, si nihil scierint, — ut aliquid de dominicis uerbis aut corrigendum putauerim aut non diuinitus inspiratum, sed Latinorum codicum uitiositatem, quae ex diuersitate librorum omnium conprobatur, ad Graecam originem, unde et ipsi translata non denegant, noluisse reuocare. quibus si displicet fontis unda purissimi, caenosos riuulos bibant et diligentiam, qua auium saliuas et concarum gurgites norunt, in scripturis legendis abiciant sintque in hac tantum re simplices et Christi uerba aestiment rusticana, in quibus per tanta iam saecula tantorum ingenia sudauerunt, ut rationem uerbi uniuscuiusque magis opinati sint, quam expresserint; apostolum arguant inperitiae, qui ob multas litteras insanire dicatur. ### English translation (Claude) After my previous letter, in which I touched briefly on some Hebrew words, it was suddenly reported to me that certain little men are zealously disparaging me for having tried to correct some things in the Gospels against the authority of the ancients and the opinion of the whole world. Although I could by right despise them (for it is useless to play the lyre to an ass), yet, lest they accuse me of pride, as they usually do, let them have this answer: I was not so dull of heart and so crudely rustic (which alone they take for holiness, calling themselves disciples of fishermen, as if they were righteous because they knew nothing) as to think that any of the Lord's words needed correcting or were not divinely inspired; but I wished to bring back the faultiness of the Latin manuscripts, which is proved by the variety of all the copies, to the Greek original, from which they themselves do not deny that they were translated. If they dislike the water of the purest spring, let them drink from muddy streams, and let them lay aside, in reading the Scriptures, the diligence with which they know the flavors of game birds and the waters rich in shellfish; let them be simple in this matter alone, and think the words of Christ rustic, on which the minds of so many great men have labored for so many ages that they have guessed at the meaning of each word rather than expressed it; let them accuse the apostle of ignorance, who was said to be mad because of much learning. ### Scripture references - Acts 26:24: allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - Acts 26:24. Jerome's revision of the Old Latin Gospels (ca. 383-384), at Damasus's request, became the basis of the Vulgate Gospels. The "flavors of game birds" (auium saliuas) and shellfish mock the critics' expertise in delicacies. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 27.1 (CSEL 54:223–224; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-39/#p-27-1). ## Letter 27.2 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-39/#p-27-2 - Source: CSEL 54:224–225 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome protests that his only offense has been to urge that virgins keep company with women rather than men. ### Latin text Scio te, cum ista legeris, rugare frontem et libertatem rursum seminarium timere rixarum ac meum, si fieri potest, os digito uelle conprimere, ne audeam dicere, quae alii facere non erubescunt. rogo, quid a nobis libere dictum est? numquid in lancibus idola caelata descripsi? numquid inter epulas Christianas uirginalibus oculis Baccharum satyrorumque conplexus? num quam amarior sermo pulsauit? numquid ex mendicis diuites fieri dolui? numquid reprehendi hereditarias sepulturas? unum miser locutus sum, quod uirgines saepius deberent cum mulieribus esse, quam cum masculis: totius oculos urbis offendi, cunctorum digitis notor. multiplicati sunt super capillos capitis mei, qui oderunt me gratis, et factus sum eis in parabolam, et tu putas aliqua deinceps esse dicturum? ### English translation (Claude) I know that when you read this you will wrinkle your brow and fear that my frankness is again a seedbed of quarrels, and that you would like, if possible, to close my mouth with your finger, so that I do not dare to say what others are not ashamed to do. What, I ask, have I said so freely? Have I described idols engraved on dishes? Or, at Christian banquets, before the eyes of virgins, the embraces of Bacchantes and satyrs? Has any bitter word struck anyone? Have I complained that beggars have become rich? Have I criticized inherited burial places? One thing, wretch that I am, I said: that virgins ought to be more often with women than with men; I have offended the eyes of the whole city; I am pointed at by everyone's finger. "They are multiplied above the hairs of my head who hate me without cause," and "I have become a byword to them"; and do you think I will say anything more? ### Scripture references - Ps 69:4 (68:5 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Ps 69:11 (68:12 LXX): quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Ps 69:4 (LXX and Vulgate 68:5); Ps 69:11 (LXX and Vulgate 68:12). ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 27.2 (CSEL 54:224–225; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-39/#p-27-2). ## Letter 27.3 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-39/#p-27-3 - Source: CSEL 54:225–227 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome gives examples where the Latin text his critics prefer departs from the Greek, such as "serving the time" for "serving the Lord". ### Latin text Verum, ne Flaccus de nobis rideat — amphora coepit institui: currente rota cur urceus exit?—, reuertimur ad nostros bipedes asellos et in eorum aurem bucina magis quam cithara concrepamus. illi legant: spe gaudentes, tempori seruientes, nos legamus: spe gaudentes, domino seruientes; illi aduersus presbyterum accusationem omnino non putent recipiendam, nos legamus: aduersus. presbyterum accusationem ne receperis, nisi sub duobus aut tribus testibus; peccantes autem coram omnibus argue; illis placeat: humanus sermo et omni acceptione dignus, nos cum Graecis, id est cum apostolo: qui Graece est locutus, erremus: fidelis sermo et omni acceptione dignus. ad extremum illi gaudeant Gallicis canteriis, nos solutus uinculis et in saluatoris mysterium praeparatus Zachariae asellus ille delectet, qui, postquam domino terga praebuit, coepit Esaiae consonare praeconio: beatus, qui seminat secus omnem aquam, ubi bos et asinus calcant. ### English translation (Claude) But lest Flaccus laugh at me ("A wine jar was begun: as the wheel turns, why does a pitcher come out?"), I return to my two-footed asses, and blow in their ears a trumpet rather than a lyre. Let them read, "rejoicing in hope, serving the time"; let us read, "rejoicing in hope, serving the Lord." Let them think that no accusation at all should be received against a presbyter; let us read, "Against a presbyter do not receive an accusation except before two or three witnesses; but those who sin rebuke before all." Let them be pleased with "a human saying, and worthy of all acceptance"; let us err with the Greeks, that is, with the apostle, who spoke in Greek: "a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptance." Finally, let them delight in Gallic geldings; let us take pleasure in that ass of Zechariah, loosed from its bonds and prepared for the mystery of the Savior, which, after it offered its back to the Lord, began to agree with the proclamation of Isaiah: "Blessed is he who sows beside every water, where the ox and the ass tread." ### Scripture references - Rom 12:11: quotation, high confidence - Rom 12:12: quotation, high confidence - 1 Tim 5:19: quotation, high confidence - 1 Tim 5:20: quotation, high confidence - 1 Tim 1:15: quotation, high confidence - Zech 9:9: allusion, high confidence - Matt 21:2: allusion, medium confidence - Isa 32:20: quotation, high confidence ### Extrabiblical texts - Horace, Ars 21-22 (Horace): quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Horace, Ars poetica 21-22 ("Flaccus"). Rom 12:11; 1 Tim 5:19-20; 1 Tim 1:15 (and 3:1); Zech 9:9 (Matt 21:2-7); Isa 32:20 (in the Greek form). The Old Latin readings Jerome criticizes are given as he reports them. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 27.3 (CSEL 54:225–227; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-39/#p-27-3). ## Letter 28.1 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-39/#p-28-1 - Source: CSEL 54:227 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome agrees to explain the word diapsalma (selah) to Marcella after all. ### Latin text Quae acceperis, reddenda cum fenore sunt sortisque dilatio usuram parturit. de diapsalmate nostram sententiam flagitaras: epistulae breuitatem causati sumus et rem libri non posse explicari litteris praetexuimus. uerum quid prode est ad epVGSiwy.tYjv meum? maior tibi cupiditas silentio concitatur. itaque, ne te diutius traham, habeto pauca pro pluribus. ### English translation (Claude) What you have received must be repaid with interest, and delay of the principal breeds usury. You had demanded my view on diapsalma; I pleaded the brevity of a letter and made the excuse that a matter for a book could not be explained in a letter. But what good has my evasion done? Your desire is only aroused more by silence. So, not to keep you waiting longer, take a few words in place of many. ### Translation notes - A Greek word (probably meaning "evasion" or "banter") is garbled in the digital text. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 28.1 (CSEL 54:227; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-39/#p-28-1). ## Letter 28.2 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-39/#p-28-2 - Source: CSEL 54:227–228 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome rejects musical explanations of selah and argues from Aquila's rendering "always" and from its placement in the Psalms. ### Latin text Quidam diapsalma conmutationem metri esse dixerunt, alii pausam spiritus, nonnulli alterius sensus exordium, sunt qui rhythmi distinctionem et, quia psalmi tunc temporis iuncta uoce ad organum canebantur, cuiusdam musicae uarietatis. nobis nihil horum uidetur, cum Aquila, qui uerborum Hebraeorum diligentissimus explicator est, sela, hoc est diapsalma, quod ex samech, lamed, he scribitur, semper transtulerit et inueniamus in psalmorum quoque fine diapsalma positum, ut est illud in tertio: dentes peccatorum contriuisti; domini est salus et super populum tuum benedictio tua, sela, id est semper, et in uicesimo tertio: quis est iste rex gloriae? dominus uirtutum ipse est rex gloriae, semper, et e contra in psalmis multorum uersuum penitus non inueniatur, in tricesimo uidelicet sexto et septuagesimo septimo et centesimo octauo decimo, rursus nonus psalmus distinguatur: canticum diapsalmatis, cum utique, si, ut quibusdam uidetur, diapsalma est indicium silentii, canticum silentii esse non possit.: ### English translation (Claude) Some have said that diapsalma is a change of meter, others a pause for breath, some the beginning of another sense; there are those who say it is a division of rhythm and, since psalms were then sung with the voice joined to an instrument, a variation of some music. We think none of these, since Aquila, the most careful interpreter of Hebrew words, always translated sela, that is, diapsalma, which is written with samech, lamed, he, as "always"; and since we find diapsalma put even at the end of psalms, as in the third, "You have broken the teeth of sinners; salvation is the Lord's, and your blessing upon your people, sela," that is, "always"; and in the twenty-third, "Who is this King of glory? The Lord of powers, he is the King of glory, always"; and, on the other hand, in psalms of many verses it is not found at all, namely in the thirty-sixth, the seventy-seventh, and the hundred and eighteenth; and again the ninth psalm is headed "a song of diapsalma", whereas, if diapsalma were a sign of silence, as some think, there could not be a song of silence. ### Scripture references - Ps 3:7 (3:8 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Ps 3:8 (3:9 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Ps 24:10 (23:10 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Ps 9:16 (9:17 LXX): allusion, medium confidence ### Translation notes - Ps 3:7-8 (LXX and Vulgate 3:8-9); Ps 24:10 (LXX and Vulgate 23:10); Pss 37, 78, 119 (LXX and Vulgate 36, 77, 118); Ps 9:16 (LXX and Vulgate 9:17). Jerome's spelling of the Hebrew letters is as he gives it. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 28.2 (CSEL 54:227–228; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-39/#p-28-2). ## Letter 28.3 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-39/#p-28-3 - Source: CSEL 54:228–229 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome concludes that selah links passages or marks what is said as everlasting, with examples from Pss 3 and 4. ### Latin text Ex quo animaduertimus hoc uerbum superiora pariter et inferiora conectere aut certe docere sempiterna esse, quae dicta sunt, ut est illud in tertio: multi dicunt animae meae: non est salus illi in deo suo, semper, et rursum: uoce mea ad dominum clamaui, et exaudiuit me de monte sancto suo, semper, et in quarto: ut quid diligitis uanitatem et quaeritis mendacium? semper, et alibi: quae dicitis in cordibus uestris, et in cubilibus uestris conpungimini, semper. ### English translation (Claude) From this we notice that this word either connects what goes before with what follows, or at least teaches that what has been said is everlasting, as in the third psalm: "Many say to my soul: There is no salvation for him in his God, always"; and again: "With my voice I cried to the Lord, and he heard me from his holy mountain, always"; and in the fourth: "Why do you love vanity and seek falsehood? Always"; and elsewhere: "What you say in your hearts, be sorry for on your beds, always." ### Scripture references - Ps 3:2 (3:3 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Ps 3:4 (3:5 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Ps 4:2 (4:3 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Ps 4:4 (4:5 LXX): quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Ps 3:2, 4 (LXX and Vulgate 3:3, 5); Ps 4:2, 4 (LXX and Vulgate 4:3, 5). ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 28.3 (CSEL 54:228–229; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-39/#p-28-3). ## Letter 28.4 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-39/#p-28-4 - Source: CSEL 54:229 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome explains that Hebrew books often close with amen, selah, or shalom. ### Latin text Scire autem debes apud Hebraeos in fine librorum unum e tribus solere subnecti, ut aut amen scribant aut sela aut salom, quo exprimunt pacem, unde et Salomon pacificus dicitur. igitur, ut nos solemus conpletis opusculis ad distinctionem rei alterius subsequentis medium interponere explicuit aut feliciter aut aliquid istiusmodi, ita et Hebraei aut, quae scripta sunt, roborant, ut dicant amen, aut in sempiternum et scripta et scribenda commemorant, ut ponant sela, aut transacta feliciter protestantur pacem in ultimo subnotantes. ### English translation (Claude) You should know, too, that among the Hebrews one of three words is usually added at the end of books: they write either amen, or sela, or salom, by which they express peace; hence Solomon too is called "peaceable". So, just as we, when we finish short works, usually put between them and what follows, to mark it off, "explicit" or "happily" or something of the kind, so too the Hebrews either confirm what has been written by saying amen, or recall that what has been written and what is to be written is for ever by putting sela, or declare that what has been done has been happily completed, writing "peace" at the end. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 28.4 (CSEL 54:229; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-39/#p-28-4). ## Letter 28.5 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-39/#p-28-5 - Source: CSEL 54:229–230 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome offers to translate Origen's view of selah for Marcella. ### Latin text Haec nos de intimo Hebraeorum fonte libauimus non opinionum riuulos persequentes neque errorum, quibus totus mundus expletus est, uarietate perterriti, sed cupientes et scire et docere, quae uera sunt. quod si tibi non uidetur. quid Origenes de diapsalmate senserit, uerbum interpretabor ad uerbum, ut, quia nouicia musta contemnis, saltim ueteris uini auctoritate ducaris. ### English translation (Claude) These things I have drawn from the inmost spring of the Hebrews, not following streams of opinion nor frightened by the variety of errors with which the whole world is filled, but wishing both to know and to teach what is true. But if you are not satisfied, I will translate word for word what Origen thought about diapsalma, so that, since you despise new wine, you may at least be led by the authority of the old. ### Citation (SBL) Jerome, Ep. 28.5 (CSEL 54:229–230; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-39/#p-28-5). ## Letter 28.6 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/jerome-epistulae/22-39/#p-28-6 - Source: CSEL 54:230–232 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jerome quotes Origen's comparison of the Hebrew selah with the Greek versions in Pss 75 and 76. ### Latin text "Saepe perquirens causas, cur in quibusdam psalmis interponatur diapsalma, obseruaui diligentissime in Hebraeo et cum Graeco contuli inuenique, quia, ubi lingua Hebraea sela, Graeca uero habet semper aut quid istiusmodi, ibi Septuaginta et Theodotion et Symmachus transtulerint diapsalma). neque uero nocet exemplis adfirmare, quod dicimus. in septuagesimo quarto psalmo, cuius principium est: confitebimur tibi, deus, confitebimur et inuocabimus nomen tuum, post illud: ego confirmaui columnas eius apud Septuaginta et Theodotionem et Symmachum est diapsalma, pro quo apud Aquilam: ponderaui columnas eius, semper, in quinta autem editione: ego sum, qui paraui columnas eius, semper, in sexta uero: ego firmaui columnas eius, iugiter. porro. in Hebraeo habet post ammuda, quod est columnas eius, sela. et rursum in septuagesimo quinto, cuius principium est: notus in ludaea deus, inuenimus apud Septuaginta et Theodotionem post scutum et frameam et bellum diapsalma, apud Symmachum post clipeum et gladium et bellum similiter *diapsalma\\ pro quo apud Aquilam post clipeum, gladium et bellum semper, apud quintam editionem post scutum et romphaeam et bellum semper. in sexta uero post scutum et gladium et bellum in finem, eratque rursum in Hebraeo post: umalama, quod est et bellum, possumus interpretari — et inposuit ei, inquit, superhumerale et cinxit eum secundum facturam superhumeralis et constrinxit eam in ipso. uides ita hunc superhumerali cingi, quomodo Samuhel ephod bad illo nescio quo cingebatur. sed, ne te longius traham, hanc habeto sententiam, ubicumque in septuaginta interpretibus, hoc est in codicibus nostris, stccojj.Cc, id est superhumerale. legitur, in Hebraeo scriptum est ephod. quod quare alibi interpretari uoluerint et alibi ininterpretatum reliquerint, non est mei iudicii, cum hoc ipsum in pluribus fecerint, ut, quae alibi aliter atque aliter expresserant, nouissime translationis uarietate lassati ipsa Hebraica posuerint. Aquila autem id, quod illi 6;tot7]v et lra)|i 5a dixerunt, švo°!L(X et!