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Jerome was also perfecting himself in the know- ledge of Hebrew, and was studying under a Jew, who, in fear of being persecuted by his country- men, used to visit him at night, like a second Nicodemus (Ep. l.\x.\iv. 4). He also published new translations of other books of the OT from the LXX, but as to both the extent and date of this revision there is a considerable amount of un- certainty. Job was certainly revised soon after the Psalter, and in the same way, and published with a jireface to Paula and Eustochium ; * and these two books alone of all Jerome's revisions ivxta LXX have come down to us. We also know- that he similarly revised Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, and Clironicles, for the prefaces to these books remain though the books themselves are lost.t Elsewhere be speaks generally of having revised 'the Septuagint' (i.e. the Latin translation of it), and ' the Canonical Books,' which certainly sug^'csts that all the OT underwent this revision (c. liuj. ii. 24, ' Egone contra LXX interpretes aliquid sum locutus, quos ante annos plurimos dUigen- tissime emendatos mea- linguie studiosis dedi?'; cf. iii. 25; Ep. Ixxi. 5; Ep. cxii. 19, 'Quod autem in aliisqua;ris epistolis, cur prior raea in libris Canonicis interpretatio asteriscos liabeat et virgulas pncno- tatas'). Two objections have been felt against this supposition. (1) The absence of prefaces to the other books, and of any reference to a previous translation in the prefaces which he affixed to those books when he translated them from the Hebrew ; whereas rather pointed references occur in the case of Chronicles, Job, etct (2) The enormous amount of labour that such a work must have in- volved, when compressed into a very few years (for bj' ."iOl he was already engaged on the transla- tion from the Hebrew), — j'ears, too, that were deeply occupied witli other business. The second objection need not detain us long. Jerome was an extra- ordinarily rapid worker : Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs were translated from the He- brew in three days, as he was recovering from a severe illness {Prcef. in lihr. Salomonvi) ; Tobit was translated in a single day {Prrrf. in Tohiam) ; one 'lucubratiuneula' sulliced for Judith (Prrc/". in libr. Judith) ; when writing his commentary on the Ei)hesians he would sometimes tinish a thousand lines in a day.§ The lirst objection is similar to that felt against the revision of the later books of the New Testament (see above, p. 874) ; and though there is again something suspicious in the absence of his wonted jtrefaces, we can hardly press such negative arguments against positive asser- tions, which, if they mean anything at all, mean that he revised the whole of the OT From the LXX: thus in the Prirf. in lihr. Saloinonis iiixta LXX he states that he did not correct the books of Wis- dom and Eeclesiasticus, ' tantummodo Canonicas scripturas vobis emendare desiderans ' ; which language certainly implies that he did correct aU the otiier books. Their total disappearance is easily accounted for if the postscript to his Ep. cxxxiv. to Augustine II (written A.D. 416) be
• See vol. z. 49-100 (the references are always to Vallarsi's •d. of Jerome's works) ; the pa-ssages wlded either from the LXX or from the Hebrew throuf^h Thcodotion's version were marked in the same way as in tlie I'salms.
t Pr(r.f. in libr. Solum, iuxia LXX (x. 435 f.), 'Tres libros SatomoniH, id eat, Provcrbia, Ecctcsiasten, Canticum Canticomm, veteri L.\.\ interpretum auctorilali reddidi'; see also Prtvf. in Wir. I'aralip. itixta LXX (p. 431); the passages added from LXX or lleb. were also marked us in the Ptialms.
t Proi/.inlihr. ParaH\\. 1408), 'Ceterum memini editionem LX.\ translatorum olim de firaeco emendatam tribuisne me noBtris ' ; in Job, ' Utraquc editio, et LX.\ apud Gnecos, et niea JiixUi IlebraiOB, in Latinum nieo laboro translata est ' i^x. 1101) ; in tibrog .Salomoni^, ' Si ciii sane LXX interpretum niagis editio placet, habet earn a nobis olim emendatam ' (ix. 1290).
$ Prce/. ad libr. II. Comment, in Eph. (vli. 680).
II 'Orandem Latini serraonis in ista provincia notariorum patimur pcnuriam ; et idcirco pneceptin tuis parere non possu-
genuine ; for there he complains that the greater jmrt of this work had been stolen from him.
While engaged on this work, however, the bad state of the LXX text became more and more apparent to him, and he was convinced that for a satisfactory Latin version of the OT recourse must be had to the original Hebrew (Prcrf. in libr. Paralip. ex Uebr. vol. ix. 1405) ; the need of such a translation became additionally urgent in contro- versy with Jews, who, when confronted with texts from the LXX, would naturally refuse to acknow- ledge the accuracy of the quotation, and would assert that it did not represent the sen.se of the original,* while many of his friends, who felt the need of a new translation and knew that Jerome was the man best fitted for the task, urged him repeatedly to undertake it. It was indeed, as we learn from his prefaces, in answer to their requests, that he translated this or that book and sent them copies ; and so the great work of his life was not prose- cuted as a whole and according to a fixed plan, but bit by bit, and for the satisfaction of single and in- dependent inquirers.