Commentaria in Scripturam Sacram, Vol. 11: Prolegomena (prefaces and canons)
The other is: St. Jerome is wont to relate only the opinions of others: whence in the prefaces of the several Prophets he lists Origen, Apollinaris, Didymus, or others whom he is about to follow. Hence he also sometimes brings forward their errors, and does not reject them, as a reporter, not a judge, leaving the judgment to the reader. So he defends himself against Rufinus, who objected to him the errors of Origen, Apollinaris and others. By Jerome’s good leave, I say: “Jerome is a friend, but truth a greater friend;” for truth itself was always to St. Jerome, and now most of all, a greater friend than himself and his own sense. For twenty years and more, in Belgium at Louvain, I publicly explained the Prophets; at Rome now for the fourth time I have taught and treated them, and added the last hand and file. True is that saying of Afranius on wisdom: “Use begot me, memory the mother bore me;” and of Pliny, book 26: “Use is the most efficacious master of all things.” Moreover age brings use, and, as Ovid says, Metamorphoses 6: “Use comes with late years.” Hence that of Solon: “Ever learning, I hasten to old age.” Many things from interpreters and other authors long since gradually collected I have more exactly discussed and digested: many I added from myself, or rather from the Author of lights, and eternal Wisdom itself. Where, however, I saw others taking up a path and a true interpretation which satisfied the mind, I preferred to follow those going before, rather than enter on a new, uncertain way, suspect as being of my own sense (for to each one his own inventions and offspring of mind please more than is fair, as children to their mothers, who, though deformed, think them most beautiful). For truth is everywhere the same, and the true interpretation of holy Scripture ought to be the same among all. Wherefore Vincent of Lerins wisely warns in his golden little book against the profane novelties of heresies: “Say in a new way, not new things.” For truth, since it is public and of common right, like the sun, is hoary and ancient, and the same for all ages and all learned men. Wherefore the consent of doctors and interpreters in it is a mighty witness of truth, and of true faith, exposition and doctrine, though in words and method they disagree, in substance agreeing; like four voices unequal in pitch, and equally unequal, saying the same thing but in another manner and as it were tone, they produce one and the same divine melody and harmony of the Gospel.
I spare words, so that what I can say in one I may not say in two.
Mindful that an account must be rendered to God for every superfluous and idle word: and following St. Augustine, book 1 of the Retractations, in the prologue, who, citing this sentence of Christ on the idle word, and another of the Wise Man, says: “That also which is written: In the multitude of words thou shalt not avoid sin, terrifies me exceedingly: because from so many disputations of mine many things can doubtless be gathered which, if not false, yet certainly seem, or even are shown, to be not necessary.” Whence he adds that for this cause he wrote the books of Retractations, saying: “It remains therefore that I judge myself under one master, whose judgment on my offences I desire to escape.” And earlier: “I have long been thinking of doing what I now undertake, to review my little works with a judge’s severity, and mark with a censor’s pen whatever offends me: that he who could not have the first place in wisdom may have the second in modesty; that he who could not say all things without repentance may at least repent of what he knows ought not to have been said.” Add that others, and various, have written at length on various parts of Scripture, whom let him consult who delights in prolixity. For my aim is to treat briefly the chief part, or the whole if God grant, of holy Scripture, and to assign its literal and genuine sense in few words, lest, if I be more prolix, the tomes swell so in number and bulk that scarcely anyone could unroll and read them all: nay, it is my purpose to study brevity for this reason, that those eager for holy Scripture may be able to unroll my commentaries from head to foot, and penetrate and understand the whole of holy Scripture. For I know that the time of our life is short, and that it is occupied and drawn aside by many other studies and affairs, so that there are few who have either leisure or mind for unrolling prolix commentaries on holy Scripture. To their desire and study, therefore, as to their occupations, I have determined to answer by this brevity, and so far as I can to satisfy, as well as those who, endowed with swift and penetrating wit, especially the Italians, bear not delays and windings of words, but wish the matter shown to them in the stroke of a word and of an eye; otherwise it would be easier for me, as for others everywhere, to explain and amplify my conceptions in many words than to contract them, and their force, juice and sinew, as if by distilling into few, the less necessary rejected, and, as they say, to give pure sifted flour, the bran cast out. For this can easily be swollen, stretched out and amplified by adding the water of speech by one who lacks neither brain nor eloquence. Finally all prefer a tree laden with fruits to one with leaves and flowers: so likewise they prefer a commentary dense with matters and senses to one luxuriant with leaves and flowers of words.
But in truth, as other interpreters are no obstacle or inconvenience to me, but rather a convenience and help: so I would wish that this brevity of mine be a hindrance to none; nay, if anyone has ready or is preparing fuller commentaries on the Prophets, let him bring them to light, and publish them for the public utility of the Church. For I feel, and say from the heart, that word of Moses to Josue, who wished Eldad and Medad forbidden to prophesy: “What, are you jealous for me? Who will grant that all the people might prophesy, and that the Lord would give them his spirit?” Numbers 11:29. For what else do we all look to and seek, but to illustrate the glory of God and to commend the Church, not only through ourselves but through whomever? For charity seeketh not her own, but the things of God, of the Church: of which the Psalmist says: “The queen stood on thy right hand, in gilded clothing; surrounded with variety;” namely the Church adorned with a cloak variegated by the variety and diversity of so many states, orders, degrees, Sacraments, Saints, virtues, graces (this is her beauty, this her comeliness and loveliness), why not also of doctors and writers? For the Prophets deserve not one, but a hundred commentators and commentaries: nay, give as many as you will, you will never give those who will exhaust their senses and depth, but they will leave to posterity many things to be dug out, commented on, written. Deep is this sea, deep are the words of the Holy Spirit, which cannot be exhausted.
Now in this commentary, as elsewhere, I insist as exactly as I can on searching out and tracking the literal sense, from the Fathers, from the Hebrew fountain, from the Septuagint and other interpreters, from what goes before and follows, from the use of holy Scripture, and from the mutual comparison of its various places. For to grasp genuinely the notion of a phrase and of a word, the best way and method is to compare the sacred places of Scripture in which that or like words or phrases recur. On things that are easy I do not linger, but pass over with a light hand. I follow St. Augustine, book 18 On the City of God, chapter 27, where after citing a clear and open sentence of Osee, he adds: “If I wish to expound this further, the savor of the prophetic utterance will be dulled;” and St. Jerome in the preface to book 3 of the Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians, saying: “It is my duty to discern what is obscure, to touch lightly what is manifest, and to dwell on things doubtful.” The Prophets themselves have moral places copious and pathetic, so that, if you understand them literally, and set and press them upon others, you will scarcely require any others: yet I shall now and then insert them, brief however and sinewy, from the sentences, examples, histories and apophthegms of the Fathers or ancients, as I did in the Pentateuch, that by them readers may feed their minds piously and fruitfully, and preachers may be able to use the same to feed and advance the people. In which matter two things occur to be noted: first, that in St. Gregory, the epistles of St. Cyprian, and some other Fathers at Rome, from the Vatican edition or the like, I have found another division of epistles and chapters than I had seen at Louvain. Wherefore let neither Italians nor Transalpines think an error made in citing, if in their own codex, published elsewhere and divided otherwise, they do not find the place cited by me.
Again, let them not wonder that I cite places of the Fathers differently according to different editions. For I wrote part of this work at Louvain, part at Rome, where I had to use other and other editions. Although I do not deny that in the numbers it is very easy to err, whether by the copyist, or the printer, or the author himself: for since the figures are various and minute, and occur very often, and so many eyes and hands must pass them, how easy it is for someone intent on other things to slip in one or another! This must be pardoned to human weakness. So St. Jerome excuses himself: “If you find the misprints so, or some things less fully written out, which hinder the reader’s sense, you must not impute it to me, but to yours, and to the inexperience of the notaries and the carelessness of copyists, who write not what they find, but what they understand; and while they strive to amend others’ errors, show their own.”