About 15 years — from 390 to 405 1 — were spent on the new translation. Jerome began his work ■(vith the books of Samuel and Kings, which he published with the famous Prologus Galeatus or 'preface with the helmet' — armed against opjio- nents ; this preface, however, is really an intro- duction to the whole OT, and shows that even thus early he must have conceived some idea of trans- lating all the books. Next came P.salms, the Prophets, and Job ; and in 394-3;)6 the books of Esdras and Chronicles; then his work was inter- rupted by a long illness. In 398 he resumed hia labours, and translated Proverbs, Ecclesi.astes, and Song of Songs ; and the Octateuch (in which Esther was included) now alone remained of the Canonical books. First the Pentateuch was published, though the precise date is uncertain ; then soon after the death of Paula, in 404, Joshua, Judges, Kutli, and Esther ; later, the apocryplial parts of Daniel and Esther, and the books of Tobit and .ludith, which were translated from the Chaldee : and so at length the work was completed. Wisdom, Eeclesiasticus, and probably Maccabees were left unrevised, and Daruch he passed over.
Jerome's translation of the Psalms from the Hebrew never became popular, excellent thouj;h it is ; the hold on the publio mind of the more familiar version was too atrony to be loosened, and it is the Galilean l*8.alter which appears in an ordinary Vulgate Bible. A convenient edition of the version from the Hebrew has been published by P. de Lajfarde, Pvatteriuin Jiixta Ilebroeog ilieronrjmi, Lipsia), 1S74.
For the date at which Job and the Prophfts were completed, see Ep. xlix. 4 ad Pammacluuin ; this was written towards the end of 39;{ ; he writes, 'Libros sedecim Prophctarum, i)U08 in Latinum de Hebra'O sennone verti, si le^reris et delectari te hoc opere compercro, jirovocabis nos ctiam cu3tera clausa aruiario non tenere. Transtuli nuper Job in linguani nostram.*
The ]ireface to the books of Ettdran was probably written about 304, as in it he refers to the discussion of several iioints *quie latiori operi reservamus' ; this larger work which ho was about to publish is certainly the Kp. Ivii. ad Pamntachium (de Optimo getiL-n- interpretandi), whicli appeared in the latter part of 395. The third and fourth hooks of t'sdras he refused to edit: *nec queni<iuam moveat quod unus a nobis cditus liber
mus, maxime in editione LXX, quae astoriscis verubusque difl- tincta est. IMeraquo enim prioris laboris fraude cujusdara amisimus'; but this postscript is omitted by one AIS and by several editors ; see Vail. i. 1043 44.
* Pra:f. in Pealterium ex Uebr. (Ix. 1155 f.), 'Quia igitur nuper cum Hebriuo disputans, (lUsMlam pro l><>niino Salva- tore de I'salmis testimonia protulisti volensque illc te iltudere, per sernioncs pcne singuloa asserebat, non ila haberi in ilebrajo'; see also /'rafjT. in libr. Paralip., in Iitaiam, etc.; yet when in Africa they were ajipcaled to as towhethcr .Icrome'a hcdera or the traditional cucurhila wos the right transluUon in Jon 41, they defended the translation of the LXX and Old Latin, SCO Kp. CIV. 6 {Awju^iini ad llicrvn.); later, the Jews bore witness to the accuracy of Jerome's work, see Aug. Dt Civ. Dei, lib. xviii. c. 43 ; van Ess, p. 117.
t See Kuulen, p. 108 f. ; Westcott, art. 'Vulgate' in Sniitb't DB, p. 1700 f.; the tatter's dating of the appearance of the ■everal lx)oks seems preferable to Kauleo's.
876
VULGATE
VULGATE
est ; net* apocryphonim tertii et quarti somniiB delectetur ; quia et apud riebraos Ezrae Neemia:que sermonee in unum volumen coarctantur ; et qua) non habtiilur apud illos neo de vipinti quattuor senibus sunt, procul abjicienda' ; the 4tli book is found only in the Latin version. In tliia same preface to Esdras, Jerome complains of his opponents for attackinu his work while they secretly make use of his translation, and he begs his friends Uoiiinio and Rojjatianus not to let his translation be publicly known ; they are to read it privately, or, at the most, only let a few friends see it. See vol. ix. 1624.
Chronicles was probably finished in 396, for in the preface he remarks, ' Scripsi nuper librum de Optimo genere interpre- tondi.'
The I'rw/atio in Khroa Salomonu contains a reference to his illness : ' longa ajgrotatione fractus, ne penitus hoc anno reticerem et apud vos mutus essem, tridui opus nomini vestro coiisecravi." Cf. Epp. Ixxi. 6, Lvxiii. 10, both written in 396, in which he refers to the same illness apparently, and in almost the same terms— Mongo tentus incommode,' 'post longam ffitrrotationem.'
The Oi-lateuch must have been in hand about the same time, for he refers to it in Kp. liod. 6, 'Canonem Hebraic® veritatis, exccpto Octateucho qucni nunc in nianibus habeo, pueris tuis et noUiriis dedi describendum.' Genesis at any rate was pub- lisheti before 402, as Jerome quotes the preface to it in his apolo"v against Ruftinus (ii. 25), which cannot be later than that dule. ■ The other four books of the Pentateuch probably app''.ired later, as when Jerome wrote his preface to Genesis he bad not finished them : ' nunc te precor, Desideri carissime, ut quia tantum opus (i.e. Pentateuchuni) me subire fecisti, et a Genesi exordium capere, orationibus juves, quo possim eodem epirilu quo script! sunt libri, in latinum eos transferre ser- nioncm.'