Jerome – Translation of the Book of Tobit
| Document: | Translation of the Book of Tobit |
| Incipit: | Mirari non desino |
| Addressee: | Chromatius and Heliodorus |
| Date: | 407 |
| Latin Text: | R. Weber and B. Gryson, eds., Biblia sacra: iuxta Vulgatam versionem (Stuttgart 1994). [text provided by Douay-Rheims Bible Online] |
| English Translation (Preface Only): | Translated by Kevin P. Edgecomb (see below.) |
| Notes: | This was eventually incorporated into the Vulgate. |
Jerome’s Preface to his Translation of the Book of Tobit*
Jerome to the Bishops in the Lord Cromatius and Heliodorus, health!
I do not cease to wonder at the constancy of your demanding. For you demand that I bring a book written in the Chaldean language into Latin writing, indeed the book of Tobias, which the Hebrews exclude from the catalogue of Divine Scriptures, being mindful of those things which they have titled Hagiographa. I have done enough for your desire, yet not by my study. For the studies of the Hebrews rebuke us and find fault with us, to translate this for the ears of Latins contrary to their canon. But it is better to be judging the opinion of the Pharisees to displease and to be subject to the commands of bishops. I have persisted as I have been able, and because the language of the Chaldeans is close to Hebrew speech, finding a speaker very skilled in both languages, I took to the work of one day, and whatever he expressed to me in Hebrew words, this, with a summoned scribe, I have set forth in Latin words.
I will be paid the price of this work by your prayers, when, by your grace, I will have learned what you request to have been completed by me was worthy.
END OF THE PROLOGUE
*We thank Kevin Edgecomb for permission to publish his translation on our page.
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Created by JRZ
Updated 2/25/2014, MS
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