8. These things being so, dearly beloved, keep watch over your own soul and cease to murmur against me. For the divine Scripture says: "Neither murmur ye [one against another [1308] ] as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of serpents." [1309] Rather give way to the truth and love me who love both you and the truth. And may the God of peace, according to His mercy, grant to us that Satan may be bruised under the feet of Christians, [1310] and that every occasion of evil may be shunned, so that the bond of love and peace may not be rent asunder between us, or the preaching of the right faith be anywise hindered.
9. Moreover, I have heard that certain persons have this grievance against me: When I accompanied you to the holy place called Bethel, there to join you in celebrating the Collect, [1311] after the use of the Church, I came to a villa called Anablatha and, as I was passing, saw a lamp burning there. Asking what place it was, and learning it to be a church, I went in to pray, and found there a curtain hanging on the doors of the said church, dyed and embroidered. [1312] It bore an image either of Christ or of one of the saints; I do not rightly remember whose the image was. Seeing this, and being loth that an image of a man should be hung up in Christ's church contrary to the teaching of the Scriptures, I tore it asunder and advised the custodians of the place to use it as a winding sheet for some poor person. They, however, murmured, and said that if I made up my mind to tear it, it was only fair that I should give them another curtain in its place. As soon as I heard this, I promised that I would give one, and said that I would send it at once. Since then there has been some little delay, due to the fact that I have been seeking a curtain of the best quality to give to them instead of the former one, and thought it right to send to Cyprus for one. I have now sent the best that I could find, and I beg that you will order the presbyter of the place to take the curtain which I have sent from the hands of the Reader, and that you will afterwards give directions that curtains of the other sort--opposed as they are to our religion--shall not be hung up in any church of Christ. A man of your uprightness should be careful to remove an occasion of offence [1313] unworthy alike of the Church of Christ and of those Christians who are committed to your charge. Beware of Palladius of Galatia--a man once dear to me, but who now sorely needs God's pity--for he preaches and teaches the heresy of Origen; and see to it that he does not seduce any of those who are intrusted to your keeping into the perverse ways of his erroneous doctrine. I pray that you may fare well in the Lord.
[1234] Jer. xii. 13, LXX.
[1235] A play on words. Clericatus ("clerical position") is a derivative of clerus (kleros), the word used in the LXX. for "lot."
[1236] Matt. v. 22.
[1237] Isa. xviii. 2, LXX.
[1238] Cf. 2 Cor. x. 14.
[1239] Rom. xii. 9.
[1240] Paulinian, Jerome's brother, at this time about 28 years of age.
[1241] I.e. the short service which preceded the eucharist. The words might, however, be rendered, "When the congregation was gathered together."
[1242] Subdeacons cannot be traced back earlier than the third century. At first their province seems to have been to keep the church doors during divine service.
[1243] It seems to be implied that John had done so.
[1244] 2 Cor. x. 8.
[1245] That is, Origenistic heresies.
[1246] Ps. cxli. 4, acc. to the Gallican Psalter.
[1247] Acts ii. 40.
[1248] Epiphanius, on a visit to Jerusalem, had preached against Origenism in the presence of John. See "Ag. John of Jerus.," § 11.
[1249] John actually did write to Theophilus of Alexandria giving a full account of the controversy from his (John's) point of view. (Ag. J. of Jerus., §37.)
[1250] Matt. xviii. 8, 9.
[1251] First Principles, i. 1; ii. 4.
[1252] 1 Cor. vi. 15, 19.
[1253] psuchai apo tou psuchesthai. The etymology is right, but the explanation of it wrong.
[1254] First Principles ii. 8.
[1255] demas as if from deo, "I bind."
[1256] ptoma, from piptein: cadaver, from cado.
[1257] soma.
[1258] sema.
[1259] Gen. i. 28; ix. 7.
[1260] Ps. cxix. 67. From memory, or perhaps from the old Latin version.
[1261] Ps. cxvi. 7.
[1262] Ps. cxlii. 7.
[1263] Ps. cxvi. 9. This form of the verse is peculiar to Jerome.
[1264] Epiphanius had written a book "against all the heresies."
[1265] In his note on Gen. iii. 21.
[1266] Gen. ii. 23.
[1267] Gen. ii. 21, 22.
[1268] Gen. iii. 7.
[1269] Gen. iii. 23, LXX.
[1270] Introitus.
[1271] Gen. iii. 24.
[1272] Gen. ii. 10.
[1273] Gen. ii. 10, 11, 13.
[1274] Jer. ii. 18, LXX. and Vulg.
[1275] Gen. ii. 16.
[1276] 2 Cor. xii. 2, 4.
[1277] In his note on Gen. i. 7.
[1278] Fortitudines angelicæ potestatis.
[1279] Virtues.
[1280] Gen. vii. 11.
[1281] Prov. vi. 20.
[1282] Isa. xxxii. 6, Vulg.
[1283] Cf. Philem. 12.
[1284] Ps. cxxxix. 21.
[1285] Sacerdotium.
[1286] Hab. i. 10, 16, 9, LXX.
[1287] Jas. iii. 7.
[1288] LXX. The Heb. text which A.V. follows gives "an hundred and thirty years."
[1289] Gen. iv. 25; v. 3; i. 26.
[1290] According to the LXX. The chronology of the Hebrew text gives a period of 1656 years (Gen. v.).
[1291] Gen. ix. 4-6; substantially as in A.V.
[1292] Gen. xi. 10-26.
[1293] Matt. i. 17.
[1294] This calculation appears to be based on the LXX.
[1295] Acc. to the Vulg., which Jerome here follows, the thirty-eighth.
[1296] Ps. xxxix. 6. "In a vain show," R.V.
[1297] Wisd. ii. 23.
[1298] Jas. iii. 8, 9.
[1299] Acts. ix. 15.
[1300] 1 Cor. xi. 7.
[1301] 1 Joh. iii. 2.
[1302] 1 Pet. v. 1.
[1303] 2 Cor. iii. 18.
[1304] Exod. xxxiv. 29 sqq.; 2 Cor. iii. 7.
[1305] 2 Kings ii. 11.
[1306] Acts vi. 15.
[1307] Matt. v. 8.
[1308] Words added by this writer.
[1309] 1 Cor. x. 10.
[1310] Rom. xvi. 20.
[1311] See note on § 1 above.
[1312] Velum...tinctum atque depictum.
[1313] Scrupulositas.