Letter XVIII. To Pope Damasus.
This (written from Constantinople in a.d. 381) is the earliest of Jerome's expository letters. In it he explains at length the vision recorded in the sixth chapter of Isaiah, and enlarges upon its mystical meaning. "Some of my predecessors," he writes, "make the Lord sitting upon a throne' God the Father, and suppose the seraphim to represent the Son and the Holy Spirit. I do not agree with them, for John expressly tells us [326] that it was Christ and not the Father whom the prophet saw." And again, "The word seraphim means either glow' or beginning of speech,' and the two seraphim thus stand for the Old and New Testaments. [327] Did not our heart burn within us,' said the disciples, while he opened to us the Scriptures?' [328] Moreover, the Old Testament is written in Hebrew, and this unquestionably was man's original language." Jerome then speaks of the unity of the sacred books. "Whatever," he asserts, "we read in the Old Testament we find also in the Gospel; and what we read in the Gospel is deduced from the Old Testament. [329] There is no discord between them, no disagreement. In both Testaments the Trinity is preached."
The letter is noticeable for the evidence it affords of the thoroughness of Jerome's studies. Not only does he cite the several Greek versions of Isaiah in support of his argument, but he also reverts to the Hebrew original. So far as the West was concerned he may be said to have discovered this anew. Even educated men like Augustine had ceased to look beyond the LXX., and were more or less aghast at the boldness with which Jerome rejected its time-honored but inaccurate renderings. [330]
The letter also shows that independence of judgment which always marked Jerome's work. At the time when he wrote it he was much under the sway of Origen. But great as was his admiration for the master, he was not afraid to discard his exegesis when, as in the case of the seraphim, he believed it to be erroneous.
[326] John xii. 41.
[327] Jerome greatly prides himself on this explanation, and frequently reverts to it.
[328] Luke xxiv. 32.
[329] Cf. Augustine's dictum: "The New Testament is latent in the Old; the Old Testament is patent in the New."
[330] See Augustine's letters to Jerome, passim.
Letter XIX. From Pope Damasus.
A letter from Damasus to Jerome, in which he asks for an explanation of the word "Hosanna" (a.d. 383).
Letter XX. To Pope Damasus.
Jerome's reply to the foregoing. Exposing the error of Hilary of Poitiers, who supposed the expression to signify "redemption of the house of David," he goes on to show that in the gospels it is a quotation from Psa. cxviii. 25 and that its true meaning is "save now" (so A.V.). "Let us," he writes, "leave the streamlets of conjecture and return to the fountain-head. It is from the Hebrew writings that the truth is to be drawn." Written at Rome a.d. 383.
Letter XXI. To Damasus
In this letter Jerome, at the request of Damasus, gives a minutely detailed explanation of the parable of the prodigal son.
Letter XXII. To Eustochium.
Perhaps the most famous of all the letters. In it Jerome lays down at great length (1) the motives which ought to actuate those who devote themselves to a life of virginity, and (2) the rules by which they ought to regulate their daily conduct. The letter contains a vivid picture of Roman society as it then was--the luxury, profligacy, and hypocrisy prevalent among both men and women, besides some graphic autobiographical details (§§7, 30), and concludes with a full account of the three kinds of monasticism then practised in Egypt (§§34-36). Thirty years later Jerome wrote a similar letter to Demetrias (CXXX.), with which this ought to be compared. Written at Rome 384 a.d.
1. "Hear, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear; forget also thine own people and thy father's house, and the king shall desire thy beauty." [331] In this forty-fourth [332] psalm God speaks to the human soul that, following the example of Abraham, [333] it should go out from its own land and from its kindred, and should leave the Chaldeans, that is the demons, and should dwell in the country of the living, for which elsewhere the prophet sighs: "I think to see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living." [334] But it is not enough for you to go out from your own land unless you forget your people and your father's house; unless you scorn the flesh and cling to the bridegroom in a close embrace. "Look not behind thee," he says, "neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain lest thou be consumed." [335] He who has grasped the plough must not look behind him [336] or return home from the field, or having Christ's garment, descend from the roof to fetch other raiment. [337] Truly a marvellous thing, a father charges his daughter not to remember her father. "Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father it is your will to do." [338] So it was said to the Jews. And in another place, "He that committeth sin is of the devil." [339] Born, in the first instance, of such parentage we are naturally black, and even when we have repented, so long as we have not scaled the heights of virtue, we may still say: "I am black but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem." [340] But you will say to me, "I have left the home of my childhood; I have forgotten my father, I am born anew in Christ. What reward do I receive for this?" The context shows--"The king shall desire thy beauty." This, then, is the great mystery. "For this cause shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be" not as is there said, "of one flesh," [341] but "of one spirit." Your bridegroom is not haughty or disdainful; He has "married an Ethiopian woman." [342] When once you desire the wisdom of the true Solomon and come to Him, He will avow all His knowledge to you; He will lead you into His chamber with His royal hand; [343] He will miraculously change your complexion so that it shall be said of you, "Who is this that goeth up and hath been made white?" [344]
2. I write to you thus, Lady Eustochium (I am bound to call my Lord's bride "lady"), to show you by my opening words that my object is not to praise the virginity which you follow, and of which you have proved the value, or yet to recount the drawbacks of marriage, such as pregnancy, the crying of infants, the torture caused by a rival, the cares of household management, and all those fancied blessings which death at last cuts short. Not that married women are as such outside the pale; they have their own place, the marriage that is honorable and the bed undefiled. [345] My purpose is to show you that you are fleeing from Sodom and should take warning by Lot's wife. [346] There is no flattery, I can tell you, in these pages. A flatterer's words are fair, but for all that he is an enemy. You need expect no rhetorical flourishes setting you among the angels, and while they extol virginity as blessed, putting the world at your feet.
3. I would have you draw from your monastic vow not pride but fear. [347] You walk laden with gold; you must keep out of the robber's way. To us men this life is a race-course: we contend here, we are crowned elsewhere. No man can lay aside fear while serpents and scorpions beset his path. The Lord says: "My sword hath drunk its fill in heaven," [348] and do you expect to find peace on the earth? No, the earth yields only thorns and thistles, and its dust is food for the serpent. [349] "For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places." [350] We are hemmed in by hosts of foes, our enemies are upon every side. The weak flesh will soon be ashes: one against many, it fights against tremendous odds. Not till it has been dissolved, not till the Prince of this world has come and found no sin therein, [351] not till then may you safely listen to the prophet's words: "Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night nor for the arrow that flieth by day; nor for the trouble which haunteth thee in darkness; nor for the demon and his attacks at noonday. A thousand shall fall at thy side and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee." [352] When the hosts of the enemy distress you, when your frame is fevered and your passions roused, when you say in your heart, "What shall I do?" Elisha's words shall give you your answer, "Fear not, for they that be with us are more than they that be with them." [353] He shall pray, "Lord, open the eyes of thine handmaid that she may see." And then when your eyes have been opened you shall see a fiery chariot like Elijah's waiting to carry you to heaven, [354] and shall joyfully sing: "Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers: the snare is broken and we are escaped." [355]
4. So long as we are held down by this frail body, so long as we have our treasure in earthen vessels; [356] so long as the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh, [357] there can be no sure victory. "Our adversary the devil goeth about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour." [358] "Thou makest darkness," David says, "and it is night: wherein all the beasts of the forest do creep forth. The young lions roar after their prey and seek their meat from God." [359] The devil looks not for unbelievers, for those who are without, whose flesh the Assyrian king roasted in the furnace. [360] It is the church of Christ that he "makes haste to spoil." [361] According to Habakkuk, "His food is of the choicest." [362] A Job is the victim of his machinations, and after devouring Judas he seeks power to sift the [other] apostles. [363] The Saviour came not to send peace upon the earth but a sword. [364] Lucifer fell, Lucifer who used to rise at dawn; [365] and he who was bred up in a paradise of delight had the well-earned sentence passed upon him, "Though thou exalt thyself as the eagle, and though thou set thy nest among the stars, thence will I bring thee down, saith the Lord." [366] For he had said in his heart, "I will exalt my throne above the stars of God," and "I will be like the Most High." [367] Wherefore God says every day to the angels, as they descend the ladder that Jacob saw in his dream, [368] "I have said ye are Gods and all of you are children of the Most High. But ye shall die like men and fall like one of the princes." [369] The devil fell first, and since "God standeth in the congregation of the Gods and judgeth among the Gods," [370] the apostle writes to those who are ceasing to be Gods--"Whereas there is among you envying and strife, are ye not carnal and walk as men?" [371]
5. If, then, the apostle, who was a chosen vessel [372] separated unto the gospel of Christ, [373] by reason of the pricks of the flesh and the allurements of vice keeps under his body and brings it into subjection, lest when he has preached to others he may himself be a castaway; [374] and yet, for all that, sees another law in his members warring against the law of his mind, and bringing him into captivity to the law of sin; [375] if after nakedness, fasting, hunger, imprisonment, scourging and other torments, he turns back to himself and cries "Oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" [376] do you fancy that you ought to lay aside apprehension? See to it that God say not some day of you: "The virgin of Israel is fallen and there is none to raise her up." [377] I will say it boldly, though God can do all things He cannot raise up a virgin when once she has fallen. He may indeed relieve one who is defiled from the penalty of her sin, but He will not give her a crown. Let us fear lest in us also the prophecy be fulfilled, "Good virgins shall faint." [378] Notice that it is good virgins who are spoken of, for there are bad ones as well. "Whosoever looketh on a woman," the Lord says, "to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart." [379] So that virginity may be lost even by a thought. Such are evil virgins, virgins in the flesh, not in the spirit; foolish virgins, who, having no oil, are shut out by the Bridegroom. [380]