Whether it may be more difficult to do or not to do what you have requested, I have not yet established. For it is also not my desire to refuse your commands, and the greatness of weight imposed thus press upon the neck, so that before a falling under the bundle, there might rather be a lightening (of the load). The efforts of the envious agree with this, who consider all that I write reproof, with conscience occasionally fighting against them, publicly tearing apart what they read secretly, to such a degree that I am compelled to cry out and to say: "O Lord, free my soul from crooked lips and a false tongue" (Ps 119.2). It is the third year that you always write and write again, that I might translate the book of Ezra for you from Hebrew, as though you do not have the Greek and Latin scrolls, or whatever it is which is translated by us might not be something immediately spat upon by all. As a certain person says, "For to strive without effort, and not to seek anything by wearying except hatred, is extreme insanity" (Sallust, Jugurtha 3). Therefore, I implore you, my dearest Domnius and Rogatian, that, keeping the reading private, you will not bring the book forth into the public, nor throw food to the fastidious, and you will avoid the pride of them who know only (how) to judge others, and themselves (know how) to do nothing. And if there are any of the brothers whom we do not displease, give the text to them, admonishing that they transcribe the Hebrew names, of which there is a great abundance in this book, separately and with intermediate spaces. For it will profit nothing to correct the book, without diligence being preserved in the correction of the copiers.
Neither should it disturb anyone that the book edited by us is one, nor should they be delighted by the dreams of the third and fourth books (which are) of the apocrypha, both because among the Hebrews the discourses of Ezra and Nehemiah are confined to one scroll, and those things which are not found among them, nor are of the twenty-four elders, are for throwing away. And if anyone sets the (version of the) Seventy interpreters before you, the variety of the texts of which shows them torn and perverted, nor indeed can it be asserted truth is diverse, send him to the Gospels, in which are set down many things as though from the Old Testament, things which are not found among the Seventy interpreters, like this: "He will be called a Nazarene," and "From Egypt I have called my son," and "They will look on him whom they have pierced" and many other things which we are saving for a more extensive work, and ask of him where they might be written, and when he has not been able to reveal (where), you must read from these texts which recently were edited by us, daily pierced by the tongues of the slanderous.
But so that I might come to a shortcut, certainly what I will introduce is the most reasonable. I have given, in what is translated by me, anything that is not found in the Greek or is found otherwise (than there). Which interpreter do they mangle? They may ask the Hebrews and their authors, whether they accept or reject the sense of my translation. Furthermore, it is another thing if, as is said, with eyes closed they want to slander me and not imitate the study and goodwill of the Greeks, who, after the Seventy translators, with the Gospel of Christ now shining, they both attentively read the Jewish and Ebionite interpreters of the Old Law, namely Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion, and have also dedicated (them) to the churches, through the labor of Origen in the Hexapla. How much more should Latins be grateful, having understood that the joy of Greece is to borrow anything from itself (?). For firstly, it is of great expense and of infinite difficulty to be able to have all of the texts; then also, those who have (them) and are ignorant of the Hebrew words will err more, not knowing which ones of the many will have said the truth. Which thing also happened recently to a certain very wise man among the Greeks, so that occasionally leaving the sense of the Scriptures, the error of some particular translator was followed. And we, who at least have a little knowledge of the Hebrew tongue, and our Latin does not lack style in any way, are both better able than others to judge, and to express those things of them which we understand in our language. Therefore, even if a serpent hisses, "and the victor Sinon throws burning torches," with Christ helping, my speech will never be silenced, for (even my) severed tongue will stutter (something). Those who will, may read; those who won’t, may throw away. They may scatter (?) the writings; they may slander the letters. Much more by your love will I be provoked toward study, rather than be deterred by their detraction and hatred.
 | Author: Jerome Rank: Priest AD: 420 |
[Synopsis on Ezra]
These two books were written by the man whose name they bear as a title. This Ezra, being a priest and a scribe, recounted the return of the children of Israel from Persia to Jerusalem. In the first book, he relates how the charge of organizing the return was in the hand of Josue the son of Josedec, and of Ezra, Zerubbabel, and Nehemiah, a Jewish eunuch. The return was occasioned as follows: three soldiers who guarded the king, one of whom was Zerubbabel, were engaged in a competition regarding a certain question, and a promise had been made that the winner should ask the king for whatever he wanted. When the first soldier had said that wine was stronger, and the second that the king was stronger, Zerubbabel contended that women were stronger, and that truth excelled over all things. Because Zerubbabel spoke these things, he won. When he was told to ask what he wanted, he asked for the captives to be released and for Jerusalem to be rebuilt. And it was done as he asked, and the captives were let go. For at that time sixty years of wrath had been completed. The people of the tribes of Juda and Benjamin, together with the Levites, who went up from the captivity to Jerusalem, were in all forty-two thousand three hundred and sixty in number. Their menservants and womenservants were seven thousand three hundred and thirty-four. Their singing men were two hundred and forty-five. Their camels four hundred and thirty-five. Their donkeys six thousand seven hundred and twenty. The builders were Zerubbabel, Josue the son of Josedec, and Nehemiah. As for Ezra, being skilled in the knowledge of the law, he brought forth the law and read it, and arranged everything pertaining to the temple, and he also it was who used to designate the Levites according to the law. Moreover, he also made sure that strange wives should be cast out by such as had married them during the time of the captivity. They all cast them out indeed, and they cleansed themselves, and, as is written, they observed the phase and a fast according to the law.
 | Author: Athanasius the Apostolic Rank: Pope AD: 373 |
The listed verse explanations of the individual persons have nothing to do with the explanations of the other persons. This also applies to the Bible translations.
