82 Cyp. Ep. 64 (al. 59). S. Augustine preaching at Carthage on June 27, 413, quoted the same letter, which was a Synodical letter of a.d. 253. See Bright's Anti-Pelagian Treatises, Introduction, p. xxi.
83 Marcellinus was the lay imperial commissioner appointed to superintend the discussion between the Catholics and Donatists at the Council of Carthage, a.d. 411. In 413 Heraclian, governor of Africa, revolted against Honorius, the Emperor, and invaded Italy. The enterprise failed, and on his return to Africa the promoter of it was put to death. The Donatists, called by Jerome "heretics," are supposed to have accused Marcellinus of taking part in the rebellion. He was executed in 414.
84 "On the Deserts and Remission of Sins, and the Baptism of Infants," in three books, the earliest of S. Augustine's Anti-Pelagian treatises. It was composed in reply to a letter from his friend Marcellinus, who was harassed by Pelagianising disputants. See S. Aug. "De Gest. Pel." §25.
86 The "De Spiritu et Littera." Marcellinus found a difficulty in Augustine's view of the question of sinlessness. See Bright's Anti-Pelagian Treatises, Introduction, p. xix.
87 Whether he who was made Bishop of Arles, in 429, is disputed. The treatise was the "De Natura et Gratia," written early in 415.
89 Or, better positions have been occupied.
90 Origen held the pre-existence of souls, endowed with free will, and supposed their condition in this world to be the result of their conduct in their previous state of probation.
1 Vincentius appears to have attached himself to Jerome at Constantinople and remained with him till the end of the century. (Jerome, Against John of Jerusalem, 41; Apol., iii. 22; Letter LXXXVIII.) Nothing is known of Gallienus.
4 Sublimia debent ingredi.-Quint, 9, 4 fin.
5 Nothing is known of these men. It is very improbable that this Valerianus was the bishop of Apuleia, who must, however, have been known to Jerome.
6 Terence's rival, to whom he makes allusions in the Prologi to the Eunuchus, Heoutontimoroumenos and Phormio.
7 Repetundarum. Properly an action to compel one who has left office to restore public money which he had embezzled.
10 Ipsa testimonia. This is what he calls in other places Hebraica veritas. Jerome was right in the main in correcting the LXX, and other Greek versions by the Hebrew. He was not aware (as has been since made clear) that there are various readings in the Hebrew itself, and that these may sometimes be corrected by the LXX., which was made from older mss.
11 That is, by the obeli (_), to show what has been left out, and the asterisk (*), to show what has been inserted.
12 That is, from the copies of the LXX. commonly used in the fourth century.
14 Daughter of Paula. See Letter XXXIX.
1 Made pope 366, died 384. Jerome had been his secretary at the Council held at Rome in 382, and continued is literary services till the pope's death, in 385.
2 That is, after being translated from Hebrew into Greek, and from Greek into Latin.
3 Aquila belonged to the second century, but whether to the first half, or to the early part of the second half, cannot be determined. He was a Jewish proselyte, of Sinope in Pontus, and is supposed to have translated the books of the Old Testament into Greek in order to assist the Hellenistic Jews in their controversies with Christians. Jerome's estimate of him varied from time to time. In his commentary on Hos. ii., Is. xlix., and Letter XXVIII., etc., he treats him as worthy of credit. On the other hand, in the letter to Pammachius. De Opt. Gen. Interp. (LVII. 11), he describes him as contentiosus; but in Letter XXXVI. 12, he denies that he is such. In the preface to Job he speaks of Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion as "Judaising heretics, who by their deceitful translation have concealed many mysteries of salvation." The second edition of Aquila's version, which was extremely literal, was highly esteemed by the Jews, and was called by them the Hebrew verity. See Davidson's "Biblical Criticism," p. 215, etc.
4 Symmachus was the author of the third Greek version. He is said to have been a Samaritan by birth. The date of his version cannot be accurately fixed; but, apparently, it appeared after Theodotion's. "He does not adhere to the text so closely as to render it verbatim into Greek; but chooses to express the same in perspicuous and intelligible language."-Davidson.
5 Theodotion, the author of the second Greek version, was a native of Ephesus. His version is thought to have been made before 160. "The mode of translation adopted by him holds an intermediate place between the scrupulous literality of Aquila and the free interpretation of Symmachus," and his work was more highly valued by Christians than that of either Aquila or Symmachus. Daniel was read in his version in the churches (Pref. to Joshua).
6 Lucian in Syria and Hesychius in Egypt attempted their recensions about the middle of the third century, the time when Origen also began to labour in the same direction. Lucian's recension, also called the Constantinopolitan, and to which the Slavonian and Gothic versions belong, spread over Asia Minor and Thrace. See the Preface to the Chronicles. It was decreed by a council held under Pope Gelasius, a.d. 494, that "the Gospels which Lucian and Hesychius falsified are apocryphal."