Letter 129. To Dardanus.

In answer to a question put by Dardanus, prefect of Gaul, Jerome writes concerning the Promised Land which he identifies not with Canaan but with heaven. He then points out that the present sufferings of the Jews are due altogether to the crime of which they have been guilty in the crucifixion of Christ. The date of the letter is 414 a.d.

The below translation made by ChatGPT 3.5 from this Latin text.

1. You ask, most noble Dardanus, of the Christians and most Christian nobles, what is the land of promise which the Jews, returning from Egypt, possessed, though it had already been possessed by their ancestors, and therefore was not promised but restored! For these words you use at the end of your letter. Asking this, you seem to hold that sentiment which pleases most of us, that another land of promise should be sought, of which David speaks in the psalm: I believe I shall see the good things of the Lord, in the land of the living. (Psalm 26.13) And the Lord in the Gospel: Blessed are the meek, for they shall possess the land (Matthew 3:4). Certainly David, when he sang these things in the Spirit, was in the land of promise, and not only was he dwelling near the borders of Judaea, but he had also become the conqueror of many nations roundabout, which were extended from the river of Egypt, which is the Rhinocorura, even unto the river Euphrates; saying in another place: Into Idumea will I stretch out my shoe: the foreign tribes shall serve me (Psalm 59:49). How then did he think to receive as a gift that which he already possessed through his victory? And lest he should leave uncertain to the readers among the Jews what land it was that he desired to see, he shows by his very words what it was, saying: I will believe to see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living. Therefore, the land of Judea, which was under that rule, is not the land of the living, that is, of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, about whom the Lord says in the question of the Resurrection: God is not of the dead, but of the living (Matthew 22:32): truly the land and the region of the dead, of which Ezekiel speaks: The soul that sins, it shall die (Ezek. 18: 4). And: The dead shall not praise thee, O Lord, neither shall any that go down into hell. But we that live bless the Lord: from this time forth for evermore (Psalms 115:17-18): who will also meet the Lord and Savior in the resurrection, as the Apostle says: For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep (1 Thessalonians 4:14): of whom Jeremiah also speaks: They that depart from thee shall be written in the earth (Jer. 17:13). And what David promises: I believe to see the good things of the Lord, draws us clearly to a spiritual understanding. For what other good things did the king seek, or what did he need, who was of such great power that Solomon, his son (than whom no one on earth was richer) was content with his father's resources through him? But he sought those good things in the land of the living, which neither eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, which God has prepared for those who love him. But what is said in the Gospel: Blessed are the meek, for they shall possess the land (Matthew 5:4); seems contrary to the literal sense. For the possession of the earth belongs not to the meek and gentle, who often lose even that which was left by their parents through their mildness, but to strong and violent men, who are most ready for wars. Finally, in the forty-fourth Psalm, which is referred to as having been made by Solomon, concerning the sacrament of Christ and His Church, it is written: "Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O thou most mighty, with thy glory and thy beauty. Set out, proceed prosperously, and reign". For the sake of meekness and justice and truth thy right hand will conduct thee wonderfully. This is the one who spoke in another psalm: Remember, O Lord, David, and all his meekness (Psalm 131:1). And again: The Lord takes up the meek (Psalm 146:6). And more explicitly in the Gospel: Learn from me, for I am meek and gentle in heart (Matthew 11:29). And in whose likeness Moses, the meekest of all men who were on the earth, is written (Numbers 12:3).

2. This is, as we have said, the land of the living, in which the goods of the Lord are prepared for holy and gentle men, which before the coming in the flesh of the Lord and Savior, neither Abraham, nor Isaac, nor Jacob, nor the prophets, and other righteous men were able to obtain. Finally, Abraham, even though in different places, seems with Lazarus in Hell (Luke 16): and the just man Jacob says: I will go down mourning and weeping to Hell (Gen. 37.35). The blood of Christ is the key to paradise, saying to the thief: Today you will be with me in paradise (Luke 23:42). This is, as we have said, the land of the living, the land of the riches and the goods of God, which the first Adam lost, and the second Adam found: indeed, he restored what had been lost, as the Apostle says: Death reigned from Adam to Moses (under whose persona the law is understood) in likeness of Adam's transgression, who is the form of future things (Rom. 5. 14) . We wish to know more clearly what this land is, let us read in Malachi: All shall call you blessed, saith the Lord: for you shall be a pleasant land (Malach. 3. 12) ((alt. voluptaria)), which signifies more significantly in Greek, than what the Saints desire, or what is pleasing to God. Isaiah also agrees in these words, saying: And a man shall hide his words, and he shall appear in the land of Zion, as a glorious river in a thirsty land (Isai. 32. 2, sec. LXX). What is the land of Zion, in which a glorious river will appear? That [land], of course, of which David sings in another psalm: Glorious things are said of thee, O city of God. And again: The Lord loveth the gates of Zion above all the tabernacles of Jacob (Psalm 86:3). Does God love these gates, which we see have been turned into ashes and embers? This cannot be persuaded, not by the wise, but not even by the foolish. I believe that [this refers to] that which we read in the 64th Psalm: Thou hast visited the earth, and hast plentifully watered it; thou hast many ways enriched it. The river of God is filled with water, thou hast prepared their food: for so is its preparation. Fill up plentifully the streams thereof, multiply its fruits; it shall spring up and rejoice in its showers: to which sense this may agree. For every day this land is visited by God and is inebriated and it is full of wealth for everyone. Out of this land, a river of God flows, about which it is written: The streams of the river give joy to the city of God (Psalm 45:5), which is also told in the mystical language in the description of Ezekiel's temple (Ezekiel 47): on its banks there are trees, on either side, each month bearing new fruit abundantly. About this land, in Proverbs, the wisest man wrote: He who tills his land will have plenty of bread (Proverbs 12:11). But if someone thinks this applies to the earth which we see and which is more possessed by sinners, of which it is written: "Cursed is the ground in your works" (Gen. 3.17), let him answer how this sentence can stand: "He who works his land will be filled with bread." For how many work the land and cultivate it with the plow, and yet are overwhelmed by many impeding causes, and are consumed by want and poverty? But it must be considered what Scripture says: "He who works his land, which is properly his own, from which he can never be cast out; according to which meaning even that is written: "The redemption of a man's soul, his own riches" (Prov. 13.8). And this cannot be taken literally. For how much money, indeed, are the friendships of strangers and friends bought? The cultivators and farmers of this land are apostles, of whom it is said, 'You are the salt of the earth' (Matt. 3:13). And in another place, 'In your patience you shall possess your souls' (Luke 21:19): one of whom, as a chosen vessel, spoke with the utmost confidence? For we are God's co-workers, God's cultivation, God's building (1 Cor. 3:9); and many other [things], which I do not repeat for this reason, lest I seem to dull the reader's understanding and distrust his memory.

3. Also, let us consider with an anxious mind, and the authority of the Scriptures may teach us, that the saints of this earth, which the Jews assume to be the land of promise, are not inhabitants but sojourners and strangers. We read from the person of a just man: "I am a stranger and a sojourner, as all my fathers were" (Psalm 38:13). And although he dwelt long in the darkness of this land, he mournfully sighs and says, "Woe is me, that my sojourning is prolonged! I have dwelt with the inhabitants of Cedar, my soul hath been long a sojourner" (Psalm 119:5). But wherever an inhabitant of the earth is read, and whether we treat of the first, or middle, or last, it can be clearly proved by the rule of the Scriptures that the inhabitants of the earth are always called sinners, of whom that example is in the Apocalypse of John: Woe to the inhabitants of the earth (Apoc. 8.13). Abraham, to whom the promise was first made, as the Lord said, I will give you this land and to your seed (Gen. 12.7), according to the discourse of Stephen, the first martyr in Christ, is said not to have even taken a step of this land. For so it is written: Then he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran, and from there, after his father died, he moved to this land where you now dwell. He gave him no inheritance in it, not even enough to set his foot on. But he promised to give it to him as a possession and to his offspring after him(Acts 7:4-5). And lest the silent reflection of the reader lead him to that understanding, that what is not given to a parent is returned to his posterity, the vessel of election speaks to the Hebrews: By faith, called Abraham, obeying went forth into a place which he was to receive as an inheritance, and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, co-heirs of the same promise. For he looked for a city having foundations, whose builder and maker is God (Hebrews 11:8-10). And again, when he had spoken of Abel, and Enoch, and Noah, and Sarah, he added: 'By faith all these died, although they had not received what had been promised; they only saw it and welcomed it from a distance, and they acknowledged themselves to be foreigners and nomads here on earth. People who use such terms about themselves make it quite plain that they are in search of their real homeland. They can hardly have meant the country they came from, since they had the opportunity to go back to it; but in fact they were longing for a better homeland, their heavenly homeland. (Hebrews 11:13-16) And after recalling many saints, he concluded, All these, therefore, who have had faith, did not receive the promise, God having provided something better, so that they would not, without us, be made perfect. (Hebrews 11:39-40) For we have come to Mount Zion and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to the festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect. And I am aware that the perfidy of the Jews does not acknowledge these testimonies, which are certainly confirmed by the authority of the Old Testament. It must be said by us, however, that this letter which is entitled to the Hebrews, was not only received by the churches of the Orient but by all the earlier writers of ecclesiastical Greek, as being the one received by Paul the Apostle, even though most people believe that it belongs either to Barnabas or to Clement; and it matters nothing whose it is, since it belongs to a man of the Church and is celebrated daily in the reading of churches. But even if the custom of the Latins does not include it among the canonical Scriptures, neither indeed do the Greek churches receive the Apocalypse of John with the same freedom; yet we receive them both, following not the custom of this time, but the authority of the ancient writers who frequently use both testimonies, not as they sometimes do regarding the apocrypha, since they very rarely use examples from pagan literature, but as if they were canonical and ecclesiastical.

4. Let them answer me, who think this land, which now by Christ's passion and resurrection has become the land of promise for us, has been possessed by the people of the Jews, after he returned from Egypt, as much as he possessed; certainly from Dan to Beersheba, which stretches for almost a hundred and sixty thousand in length. For the Scripture testifies that neither David nor Solomon, the most powerful kings, except those whom they received into friendship after victory, held more (2 King 17). And to this I say, not to mention the five Palestinian cities: Gaza, Ascalon, Geth, Accaron, and Azotus; the Idumeans also, separated from Jerusalem by barely seventy-five thousand from the southern flank, and the Arabs and Agarenes, whom they now call Saracens, in the vicinity of the city of Jerusalem. I am ashamed to say the width of the Promised Land, lest we seem to have given the heathens an opportunity to blaspheme. From Joppa to our village of Bethlehem there are forty-six thousand, succeeded by the vastest wilderness, full of fierce barbarians, of whom it is said, “And he shall dwell in the face of all his brethren” (Genesis 16:12); and of whom the most eloquent Poet makes mention. And wandering far and wide, the Barcaeans, from the town of Barca, which is situated in a solitude; whom now, with corrupted speech, the Africans call Baricians. These are the ones who, by the quality of the places, are called by different names; and they stretch from Mauritania through Africa and Egypt, Palestine and Phoenicia, Colen Syria and Osrhoene, Mesopotamia, and Persia towards India. This is, Judea, the length and breadth of your lands; in these you boast, over these, through diverse provinces, you are tossed about ignorant.

To the people (you may have) decorations, I know you inside and out. (Persius' Satire 3).

5. But if you object that the land of promise is spoken of, which is contained in the Book of Numbers (Chapter 34), from the southern sea of the Salt Pools by the way of Sina and Cades-Barne, even to the river of Egypt, which runs by Rhinocorura into the great sea; and from the west, the very sea itself which extendeth to the borders of Palestine, Phoenicia, and the coasts of Cilicia; and also to mount Taurus and Zephyrium, unto the utmost bounds of Cilicia; and on the north side to the mountain which is called Libanus, and towards the east to Antioch, and to the great lake of Cenereth, and to the river Euphrates, and it reacheth to the sea of Azareth; Then on the side over against the east part, which is over against the suburbs of the same city Tyre, and extendeth to the region of Damascus, and to the coast of the land of the children of Edom, and to the desert of Arabia, bordering upon Egypt even to the great river Euphrates. And I confess to you that these things were promised to you, not given: if you had observed the commandments of God, and walked in His precepts; if you had not worshipped Beelphegor and Baalim, Beelzebub and Chamos as Almighty God, whom you have preferred over God, then you have lost all that was promised to you. And in the Gospel, the kingdoms of heaven are promised to me, which the old instrument does not name. But if I do not do what is commanded, the blame will not be on the one who promises, but on me who did not deserve to receive the promise. For when a choice is put forward to choose, whoever refuses to work, wishes in vain for what has been promised. Read the book of Joshua and Judges and you will understand how cramped you are in terms of possessions. Why should I mention the foreigners of diverse cities, whom the people of the Jews were not able to expel from their cities and abodes, when your own metropolis, first called Jebus, then Salem, thirdly Jerusalem, and now Aelia, was not able to expel the Jebusites; but stayed with them as a scandal and example for their neighbors - so much so that your temple was established where the Jebusite threshing floor of Ornan had been, and the temple itself was constructed from seventy thousand cubits of hewn stone and eighty thousand cubits of timber, that is, one hundred fifty thousand cubits, not counting the overseers of the work, and it was built by the heathens because of the multitude of those uncircumcised living with you.

6. And I do not say this as a reproach to the land of Judaea, as the heretical liar does; or so that I may take away from the truth of history, which is the foundation of spiritual understanding, but so that I may shake the eyebrows of the Jews who prefer the narrow passages of the synagogue to the breadth of the Church. For if they only follow the letter of the west, and do not enliven the spirit, they will show the land of promise flowing with milk and honey. But if they think it is said by trope for the abundance of all things, then we may prefer "the land of confession and life" to the land of thorns (as the Lord said to Moses, speaking of the rejection of Israel and the assumption of the Gentiles, "Let me alone, that I may destroy this people, and make thee a great nation," Exod. 32. 10) and with the same Father speaking to the Son, "Ask of me, and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession" (Ps. 2. 8). And more clearly through Isaiah, It is too little for you to be my servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to recover the remnant of Israel. I have given you as a light to the Gentiles, that you may be my salvation to the end of the earth (Isaiah 49:6). Clearly demonstrated from this, all of that people has prefigured, and represented in shadow, what was written for us, upon whom the ends of ages have come.

7. You, Judeans, have committed many crimes, and have served all the nations around you. For what reason? Certainly because of idolatry. And when you served frequently, God took pity on you and sent Judges and saviors who freed you from the bondage of the Moabites, Ammonites, Philistines and various other nations. Lastly, under the reign of kings, you offended God, and your whole province was destroyed by the Babylonian people. For seventy years the temple remained deserted. The captivity was lifted by King Cyrus of Persia. Ezra and Nehemiah clearly reported this. A temple was built under the rule of Darius, king of the Persians and Medes, by Zerubbabel son of Salathiel, and Joshua son of Jehozadak the high priest. I will not enumerate all the sufferings you have experienced at the hands of the Medes, Egyptians, and Macedonians. Nor will I remind you of the cruelest of all tyrants, Antiochus Epiphanes, nor repeat the names of Gn. Pompey, Gabinius, Scaurus, Varus, Cassius, and Sosius, who insulted your cities, especially Jerusalem. Finally, under Vespasian and Titus, the city was captured and the temple destroyed. Then debris remained in the city up to the time of the emperor Hadrian. After the destruction of the Temple, for a little less than four hundred years the devastation of the city and Temple persisted. For what reason such a crime? Surely, you do not worship idols, but also serve the Persians and the Romans, and burdened with captivity's yoke, you are ignorant of foreign gods. How does the Most Merciful God, who has never forgotten you: not bring you through so great a space of time by your miseries, that He might release your captivity, and, to speak more truly, send Antichrist, awaited by you? For what reason, I say, does He turn His eyes from you for such an execrable crime? Are you ignorant? Remember the voice of your parents, "His blood be upon us and upon our children" (Matth. 27. 25). "And come, let us kill him, and our inheritance will be his" (Genesis 37:20). "We have no king but Caesar" (John 19:15). You have chosen what lasts until the end of the world, you will serve Caesar until the fullness of nations enters and thus all Israel will be saved, as he who was once at the head is turned into the tail.

8. This [letter] I have dictated to you, most eloquent man, in a brief and hurried composition, in honor of you now in Christ, after the double honor of the Praetorship, lest I should appear to be entirely silent. For at the same time, indeed on the same day for me, both your letter was written and mine was sought, so that either [I] would have to remain silent or to reply in unpolished language-- of which one [option] pertains to modesty, the other to affection.