Letter 37. To Marcella.

Marcella had asked Jerome to lend her a copy of a commentary by Rhetitius, bishop of Augustodunum (Autun), on the Song of Songs. He now refuses to do so on the ground that the work abounds with errors, of which the two following are samples: (1) Rhetitius identifies Tharshish with Tarsus, and (2) he supposes that Uphaz (in the phrase "gold of Uphaz") is the same as Cephas. Written at Rome a.d. 384.

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

1. Recently, when I had read through the commentary on the Song of Songs by Rheticius, the Bishop of Augustodunum, who was once sent to Rome by the Emperor Constantine, under Bishop Sylvester, on account of the Montanists, I was greatly surprised that an eloquent man should, among senseless interpretations of others, have thought that Tharsis was the city where the Apostle Paul was born, and that Ophaz referred to Peter, because Cephas is the same as Peter in the Gospel. He had of course encountered the same word in Ezekiel, where it is written of the four beasts, "And the appearance of the wheels was like the appearance of Tharsis," and in Daniel, where it is said of the Lord, "And his body was like that of Tharsis." That which the eagle and the chrysolite, and Symmachus the hyacinth, do mean. And in the Psalm: 'Thou shalt break the ships of Tharsis with a violent wind' (Ps. 47.8). And among the stones which were carved with the names of the tribes for the ornament of the high priest's ephod, the name of the same stone is included, and nearly the whole of Scripture is full of this name. But what shall I say of Ophaz, when the prophet Daniel aforesaid, in the third year of Cyrus, king of the Persians, after three weeks of fasting and mourning, saith: 'I lifted up my eyes, and behold a man clothed in linen, and his loins were girded with the finest gold of Ophaz' (Dan. 10.5)? For there are many kinds of gold among the Hebrews. Hence, for distinction, Ophaz is mentioned, lest any one should suppose that Zaab is meant, which is spoken of in Genesis as a precious stone (Gen. 2.12).

2. You ask whether the stone of Tharsis is a chrysolite or a hyacinth, as different interpreters want it, to whose color the image of God is written, why Jonah the prophet is said to want to go to Tharsis (Jonah 1), and Solomon and Jehoshaphat had ships in the books of the kingdoms, which were accustomed to engage in commerce from Tharsis (2 Kings 10). The easy answer is that the word is synonymous, which is so called both the region of India and the sea itself, because it is blue and often struck by the rays of the sun, it takes the color from the aforementioned stones and takes its name from the color. Although Josephus, with the letter tau changed, thinks that the Greeks called Tarsus instead of Tharsis.

3. Countless things seemed base to me in his commentaries. It is certainly a finished style, and flowing in the Gallican mode: but what of the interpreter, whose profession it is not that he himself should appear eloquent, but that he should facilitate understanding for the reader as to how the writer himself understood it. I ask, had he not possessed the ten volumes of Origen? not other interpreters? certainly not some Hebrews who were necessary so that he might either interrogate them or read what he did not understand? But he seems to have formed such a poor opinion of posterity, that no one could judge his mistakes.

4. Therefore, it is in vain that you demand commentaries from me about that man, because in them I find many things which displease me, rather than please me. And if you should say, 'Why then did you give them to others?' I should answer that I did not give them to all, but only to those who seemed to be able to understand them and to derive some benefit from reading them. Jesus fed many people in the desert with barley loaves, but fewer with wheat loaves. And the Corinthians, among whom was the sort of fornication that is not even named among the Gentiles, were as yet only able to receive milk, and not solid meat, i.e., a more advanced instruction. But the Ephesians, among whom there was no crime of this sort, but who lived in peace, were fed with heavenly Bread and received the Sacrament of the Lord. But you should not be guided by the age, or authority, or learning of the persons who have given you books to read, such as Daniel, who judged the elders, and Amos, who was a herdsman and not a chief priest.