Library › Latin: Early Christian Writings › Praefationes in Paralipomenon et Libros Salomonis juxta LXX
These are two prefaces by Jerome (c. 347–420) to his revisions of biblical books from the Greek Septuagint, made at Bethlehem before his translations from the Hebrew. The first, to Domnio and Rogatianus, introduces the books of Chronicles (Paralipomenon): just as those who have seen Athens understand Greek history better, and those who have sailed from Troy to the Tiber understand the third book of Virgil, so whoever has seen Judaea and its ancient places reads Scripture more clearly, and Jerome describes travelling through the province with learned Hebrews. The second introduces the books of Solomon in the same version.
Jerome’s prefaces were copied at the head of biblical books throughout the Middle Ages and shaped how readers approached them. These two belong to his earlier revision based on the Septuagint and show his growing conviction that the Hebrew text and Jewish learning were needed to understand Scripture. The Chronicles preface also explains why that book of names and genealogies is so difficult, since its names signify things rather than merely naming persons, and claims that the whole learning of the Scriptures is contained in it.
About this edition. The Latin text comes from Corpus Corporum, the Latin text repository of the University of Zurich (edition: Jacques-Paul Migne, Patrologia Latina, vol. 29, Parisiis 1846), reused with attribution for non-commercial purposes (CC BY-NC-SA). Every word has been analyzed with LatinCy, a neural language model for Latin — click or tap any word for its dictionary form, part of speech, and complete morphology, together with the full entry from Lewis & Short’s A Latin Dictionary.