詞源與文集 第 6 章 第 1/3 段

I. ON THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT. The Old Testament is so called because, at the coming of the New, it ceased. Of this the Apostle makes mention, saying (2 Corinthians 5:17): 'Old things have passed away, and behold, all things have been made new.' The New Testament, moreover, is so named because it renews. For none learn it except men renewed from their old state through grace, and now belonging to the New Testament, which is the kingdom of heaven. The Hebrews, however, on the authority of Ezra, receive the Old Testament in twenty-two books according to the number of their letters, dividing them into three orders: namely, of the Law, of the Prophets, and of the Hagiographa. The first order, of the Law, is received in five books, of which the first is Bresith, that is Genesis;

the second, Veelle Semoth, that is Exodus; the third, Vaiicra, that is Leviticus; the fourth, Vaiedabber, that is Numbers; the fifth, Elleaddebarim, that is Deuteronomy. These are the five books of Moses, which the Hebrews call Torah, and the Latins the Law. Properly, however, that is called the Law which was given through Moses. The second order is of the prophets, in which are contained eight books, of which the first is Joshua son of Nun, who in Latin is called Jesus Nave; the second, Sophtim, that is Judges; the third, Samuel, which is the first of Kings; the fourth, Malachim, which is the second of Kings; the fifth, Isaiah; the sixth, Jeremiah; the seventh, Ezekiel;

the eighth, Thereazar, which is called the Twelve Prophets, and these books, because on account of their brevity they are joined to one another, are received as one. The third order is of the Hagiographa, that is, of those who write holy things, in which there are nine books, of which the first is Job; the second, the Psalter; the third, Masloth, that is the Proverbs of Solomon; the fourth, Coheleth, that is Ecclesiastes; the fifth, Sir hassirim, that is the Song of Songs; the sixth, Daniel; the seventh, Dibre haiamim, that is 'the words of the days,' which is Paralipomenon (Chronicles); the eighth, Ezra; the ninth, Esther; which all together, five and eight and nine, make twenty-two, as they were reckoned above.

Some, however, add Ruth and Cinoth, which in Latin is called the Lamentation of Jeremiah, to the Hagiographa, and make twenty-four volumes of the Old Testament, corresponding to the twenty-four elders who stand before the sight of God. There is a fourth order among us of those books of the Old Testament which are not in the Hebrew canon. Of these the first is the book of Wisdom; the second, Ecclesiasticus; the third, Tobit; the fourth, Judith; the fifth and sixth, the Maccabees; which, although the Jews separate them among the apocrypha, the Church of Christ nevertheless both honors and proclaims among the divine books. In the New Testament, however, there are two orders. The first is the evangelical, in which are Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

The second is the apostolic, in which are Paul in fourteen Epistles, Peter in two, John in three, James and Jude in one each, the Acts of the Apostles, and the Apocalypse of John. Now the sum of both Testaments is distinguished in a threefold manner: that is, in history, in morals, and in allegory. Again these three are divided in manifold ways: that is, what was done and said by God, what by the angels, or by men; what was announced by the prophets concerning Christ and his body; what concerning the devil and his members; what concerning the old people and the new; what concerning the present age and the future kingdom and judgment. II. ON THE WRITERS AND TITLES OF THE HOLY BOOKS.

According to the tradition of the Hebrews, these are set forth as the authors of the Old Testament. First, Moses published the cosmography of the divine history in five volumes, which is called the Pentateuch. Now the Pentateuch is named from its five volumes; for 'pente' in Greek means five, and 'teuchos' means a volume. The book of Genesis is so named from this, that the beginning of the world and the generation of the age are contained in it. Exodus indeed sets forth the departure from Egypt, or the going out of the people of Israel, and from that circumstance it received its name. Leviticus is so called because it goes through the ministries of the Levites and the various kinds of sacrificial victims, and the whole Levitical order is noted down in it.

The book of Numbers is so called because in it the tribes that had come out of Egypt are numbered, and the description of the forty-two encampments through the wilderness is contained in it. Deuteronomy is named by a Greek word, which in Latin is interpreted as 'second law,' that is, the repetition and the prefiguration of the evangelical law; and it holds those things which are the earlier ones in such a way that nevertheless all the things which are repeated in it are new. The book of Joshua received its name from Jesus son of Nun, whose history it contains; and the Hebrews affirm that the same Joshua was its writer;

in whose text, after the crossing of the Jordan, the kingdoms of the enemies are overthrown, the land is divided among the people, and through the several cities, villages, mountains, and boundaries the spiritual kingdoms of the Church and of the heavenly Jerusalem are prefigured. The book of Judges is named from the leaders of the people who presided over Israel after Moses and Joshua, before David and the other kings came to be. Samuel is believed to have published this book. The book of Samuel describes the birth, priesthood, and deeds of the same Samuel; and for this reason it received its name from him. And although this book contains the history of Saul and David, both are nevertheless referred to Samuel, because he himself anointed Saul as king, he himself anointed David as the future king.

The first part of this book the same Samuel wrote, but the parts following it, right up to the end, David wrote. The book Malachim is so named because it sets forth in order of the times the kings of Judah and of the Israelite nation and their deeds. For 'Melachim' in Hebrew is interpreted 'of Kings' in Latin. Jeremiah first gathered this book into one volume. For before, it had been scattered through the histories of the several kings. Paralipomenon is a Greek word, which we can render as 'of the things passed over' or 'of the remaining things,' because those matters which in the Law or the books of Kings were either omitted or not fully related are here summarily and briefly explained.

Some suppose that Moses wrote the book of Job, others one of the prophets, while not a few think that the same Job was its writer after the plague of his suffering, judging that he who sustained the contests of the spiritual battle should himself narrate what victories he achieved. Now the beginnings and endings of the book of Job among the Hebrews are woven together in prose speech; but its middle parts, from that place where he says (3:3): 'Let the day perish on which I was born,' up to that place (42:6): 'therefore I reprove myself and do penance,' all run in heroic meter. The book of Psalms is called in Greek the Psalter, in Hebrew nabla, in Latin the organum. And it was called the book of Psalms because, while one prophet sang to the psaltery, the chorus responded in consonance.

Now the Hebrew title in the Psalms is thus: Sepher Thehilim, which is interpreted 'the volume of hymns.' The authors of the psalms who are set down in the titles are: namely Moses, and David, and Solomon, Asaph, Ethan and Jeduthun and the sons of Korah, Heman, the Ezrahites, and the rest, whom Ezra gathered into one volume. Now all the psalms among the Hebrews are agreed to have been composed in metrical song. For after the manner of the Roman Flaccus (Horace) and the Greek Pindar, now some run in iambic, now they resound in Alcaic, now they shine in the Sapphic, advancing in trimeter or tetrameter foot. Solomon, son of David, king of Israel, according to the number of his names, published three volumes, of which the first is Masloth:

which the Greeks call Parabolas, the Latins Proverbs, because in it, under a comparative likeness, he set forth figures of words and images of truth. But the truth itself he reserved for the readers to understand. The second book he called Coheleth, which in Greek is called Ecclesiastes, in Latin Contionator (the Preacher), because his discourse is directed not specially to one, as in the Proverbs, but generally to all, teaching that all the things which we behold in the world are fleeting and brief, and on this account by no means to be sought after. The third book he entitled Sir hassirim, which is turned into the Latin tongue as the Song of Songs, where, through the marriage-song, he mystically sings the union of Christ and the Church.

Now it is called the Song of Songs, because it is preferred above all the songs which are found in the Sacred Scriptures, just as certain things in the Law are called holy, above which greater are the holy of holies. Now the songs of these three books are set forth as having been composed by them in hexameter and pentameter verses, as Josephus and Jerome write. Isaiah, an evangelist rather than a prophet, published his book, the whole text of whose eloquence proceeds in prose; but the canticle runs in hexameter and pentameter verse. Jeremiah likewise published his book with his threnodies, which we call Lamentations, because they are employed in sadder matters and at funerals;

in which he composed a fourfold alphabet in diverse meter, of which the first two are written as it were in Sapphic meter, because a heroic comma concludes the three little verses which are linked to one another and begin with only one letter each. The third alphabet is written in trimeter, and the same three verses begin, each set of three, with three letters. The fourth alphabet is held to be like the first and the second. Ezekiel and Daniel are said to have been written by certain wise men, of whom Ezekiel has his beginnings and endings wrapped up in many obscurities. Daniel, however, in clear speech proclaims the kingdoms of the world, and notes the time of Christ's coming with a most manifest preaching.

These are the four prophets who are called the Major, because they composed lengthy volumes. The books of the twelve prophets are entitled by the names of their authors; and for this reason they are called the Minor, because their discourses are brief. Hence too, being joined to one another, they are contained in one volume, whose names are: Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. The book of Ezra is entitled with the title of its author, in whose text the discourses of the same Ezra and of Nehemiah are contained together. Nor let it move anyone that one book is called Ezra's, because the second, third, and fourth are not held among the Hebrews, but are reckoned among the apocrypha.

It is believed that Ezra wrote the book of Esther. In it that same queen is written to have snatched the people of God from servitude and death under the figure of the Church, and, Haman having been killed—whose name is interpreted 'iniquity'—the observance of the day is handed down to posterity. The book of Wisdom is nowhere among the Hebrews, whence too its very title savors rather of Greek eloquence. The Jews affirm this to be Philo's, and it is accordingly named of Wisdom, because in it the coming of Christ, who is the wisdom of the Father, and his passion are evidently expressed.

The book of Ecclesiasticus was most certainly composed by Jesus the son of Sirach, a man of Jerusalem, grandson of Jesus the high priest, whom Zechariah also mentions. Among the Latins this book is entitled with the name of Solomon because of the similarity of its style. It is called 'Ecclesiasticus' because it was issued with great care and reasoning concerning the discipline of religious conduct throughout the whole Church. It is also found among the Hebrews, but is counted among the apocrypha. As for Judith and Tobit, and the books of the Maccabees, it is by no means established by what authors they were written. They bear their titles, however, from the names of those whose deeds they record. The four books of the Gospels were written each separately by the four Evangelists.

First, Matthew composed his Gospel in Hebrew letters and language in Judaea, beginning his proclamation of good news from the human birth of Christ, saying (1:1): 'The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham'; thereby signifying that Christ had descended bodily from the seed of the patriarchs, just as it had been promised in the prophets through the Holy Spirit. Second, Mark, full of the Holy Spirit, wrote the Gospel of Christ in the Greek tongue in Italy, following Peter as his disciple. He made his beginning from the prophetic spirit, saying (1:3): 'The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare the way of the Lord': so as to show that Christ, after taking on flesh, preached the Gospel in the world.

For Christ himself was also called a prophet, as it is written (Jer. 1:5): 'And I have set thee for a prophet among the nations.' Third, Luke, the most learned of all the Evangelists in the Greek tongue—inasmuch as he was a physician in Greece—wrote his Gospel for Bishop Theophilus, beginning from the priestly spirit, saying (1:5): 'There was in the days of Herod, king of Judaea, a certain priest named Zechariah,' so as to make manifest that Christ, after his birth in the flesh and the preaching of the Gospel, was made a victim for the salvation of the world. He is the priest of whom it is said in the Psalms (110:4): 'Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.' For where Christ came, the priesthood of the Jews fell silent, the Law and prophecy ceased.

Fourth, John wrote his Gospel last of all in Asia, beginning from the Word, so as to show that this same Saviour, who deigned to be born and to suffer for us, is himself the Word of God before the ages, that he himself came down from heaven, and after his death returned again to heaven. These are the four Evangelists, whom the Holy Spirit signified through Ezekiel in the four living creatures. They are four living creatures for this reason: because through the four regions of the world the faith of the Christian religion has been sown abroad by their preaching. They are called 'living creatures' (animalia) because it is for the sake of the soul (anima) of man that the Gospel of Christ is proclaimed.

For they were full of eyes within and without, because the Gospels foresee both what was foretold by the prophets and what he had promised in the former testament. Their legs were straight, because there is nothing crooked in the Gospels; and they had six wings, covering their legs and their faces; for the things that had been veiled were revealed at the coming of Christ. Now 'Gospel' (Evangelium) is interpreted as 'good tidings.' For in Greek 'eu' means 'good,' and 'angelia' is called 'a message.' Hence also 'angel' is interpreted as 'messenger.' The Apostle Paul wrote fourteen Epistles, of which he wrote nine to seven churches, and the rest to his disciples Timothy, Titus, and Philemon.

As for the Epistle to the Hebrews, most Latins doubt that it is his, on account of the difference in style, and some suppose that Barnabas composed it, others that it was written by Clement. Peter wrote two Epistles bearing his name, which are called 'catholic' because they were written not to one people or city only, but generally to all the nations. James and John and Jude wrote their Epistles. The Acts of the Apostles sets forth the first beginnings of the Christian faith among the nations and the history of the nascent Church. Luke the Evangelist is the writer of the Acts of the Apostles, in which work the infancy of the nascent Church is woven together, and the history of the apostles is preserved. Hence it is called the Acts of the Apostles.

The book of the Apocalypse was written by John the Evangelist at that time when, on account of his preaching of the Gospel, he is said to have been banished to the island of Patmos. 'Apocalypse' from the Greek is interpreted in Latin as 'revelation.' For 'revelation' is the manifestation of those things which had been hidden, according to what John himself says (1:1): 'The Apocalypse of Jesus Christ, which God gave to him to make plain to his servants.' These are the writers of the sacred books, who, speaking through the Holy Spirit, composed for our instruction both precepts of living and the rule of believing. Besides these, other volumes are called apocryphal. They are called 'apocrypha,' that is, 'secret,' because they come into doubt.

For their origin is hidden and is not clear to the Fathers, from whom the most certain and best-known authority of the true Scriptures has come down to us by an unbroken succession. In these apocrypha, even if some truth is found, nevertheless, on account of the many falsehoods in them, they have no canonical authority; and they are rightly judged by the prudent not to be believed to belong to those to whom they are ascribed. For many things are put forth by heretics under the names of the prophets, and more recent things under the names of the apostles, all of which have been removed from canonical authority by careful examination under the name of apocrypha. III. ON LIBRARIES. 'Library' (bibliotheca) takes its name from the Greek, because books are stored there. For 'biblion' is interpreted as 'of books,' and 'theke' as 'a repository.'

The library of the Old Testament was restored by Ezra the scribe, after the Law had been burned by the Chaldeans, when the Jews had returned to Jerusalem; being inspired by the divine Spirit, he corrected all the volumes of the Law and the Prophets which had been corrupted by the gentiles, and he arranged the whole Old Testament into twenty-two books, so that there might be as many books in the Law as there were letters. Among the Greeks, however, Pisistratus, the tyrant of the Athenians, is believed to have first established a library; which, having afterwards been enlarged by the Athenians, Xerxes, when he had burned Athens, carried off into Persia, and long afterward Seleucus Nicanor brought it back again into Greece.

From this there arose among kings and other cities a zeal for procuring the volumes of various nations, and for translating them into the Greek language through interpreters. Thereafter Alexander the Great, or his successors, bent their minds to furnishing libraries with books of every kind; especially Ptolemy surnamed Philadelphus, most keen-minded in all literature, who, since in his zeal for libraries he was rivalling Pisistratus, gathered into his library not only the writings of the nations but also the divine writings. For seventy thousand books were found at Alexandria in his times. IV. ON THE TRANSLATORS.

He also, requesting from Eleazar the high priest the Scriptures of the Old Testament, took care to have them translated from the Hebrew language into the Greek tongue by seventy translators, which he kept in the library of Alexandria. Indeed, each one separated in his own cell translated all things by the Holy Spirit in such a way that nothing was found in the codex of any one of them that differed from the rest even in the order of the words. There were also other translators who rendered the sacred words from the Hebrew language into Greek, such as Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion, as also that common translation whose author does not appear, and on this account, being without the name of a translator, it is called the Fifth Edition.

Moreover, Origen with marvellous labour discovered a sixth and seventh edition, and compared them with the other editions. The presbyter Jerome too, skilled in three languages, converted these same Scriptures from Hebrew into the Latin tongue, and rendered them eloquently. His translation is deservedly preferred to the rest; for it is both more faithful to the words, and clearer in the perspicuity of its meaning, and, moreover, as coming from a Christian, a truer translation. V. ON HIM WHO FIRST BROUGHT BOOKS TO ROME. The first to bring a supply of books to Rome was Aemilius Paulus, after the Macedonian king Perseus had been defeated; then Lucullus from the Pontic spoils. After these Caesar gave to Marcus Varro the task of constructing as great a library as possible.

Pollio was the first at Rome to make libraries public, both Greek and Latin alike, with the images of authors added in the hall, which he had constructed most magnificently from the spoils of war. VI. WHO ESTABLISHED LIBRARIES AMONG US. Among us too Pamphilus the martyr, whose life Eusebius of Caesarea wrote, strove to be the first to equal Pisistratus in zeal for a sacred library. For in his library he had nearly thirty thousand volumes. Jerome too and Gennadius, seeking out ecclesiastical writers throughout the whole world, pursued them in order, and gathered their works into a single short index of a volume. VII. THOSE WHO WROTE MANY WORKS. Marcus Terentius Varro wrote innumerable books among the Latins.

Among the Greeks too Chalcenterus is extolled with wondrous praises, because he produced as many books as any one of us could scarcely copy in his own hand, even those written by another. Of our own writers too, among the Greeks Origen surpassed both Greeks and Latins in the number of his works in the labour of the Scriptures. Indeed Jerome confesses to have read six thousand of his books. Yet Augustine surpassed the endeavours of all these by his genius and learning. For he wrote so much that not only would it not fall to anyone to copy his books by day and night, but not even to read them. VIII. ON THE KINDS OF LITERARY WORKS. There are three kinds of literary works. The first kind are excerpts, which in Greek are called 'scholia';

in these, those things which seem obscure or difficult are touched upon summarily and briefly. The second kind are homilies, which the Latins call 'a word' (verbum), which are delivered to the people. The third are 'tomes' (tomi), which we call books or volumes. Homilies speak to the common people, but tomes, that is, books, are the greater discussions. A 'dialogue' (dialogus) is a conference of two or more persons, which the Latins call 'conversation' (sermo). For what the Greeks call dialogues, we call conversations. And 'sermo' is so called because it is interwoven (seritur) between the two. Hence in Virgil (Aen. 6:160): 'They wove much conversation between themselves.' A 'treatise' (tractatus) is ***. Now 'conversation,' 'treatise,' and 'word' differ. For a conversation requires a second person; a treatise is directed specifically to oneself;

but a 'word' (verbum) is directed to all. Hence it is said: 'He addressed a word to the people.' 'Commentaries' (commentaria) are so called as if 'with the mind' (cum mente). For they are interpretations, such as commentaries on the law, commentaries on the Gospel. An 'apology' (apologeticum) is an excuse, in which certain persons are wont to reply to their accusers. For it is placed in defence or in denial alone; and it is a Greek word. A 'panegyric' (panegyricum) is a licentious and wanton kind of speech in praise of kings, in the composition of which men flatter with many lies. This evil arose from the Greeks, whose fickleness, equipped with a faculty and incredible abundance of speaking, has stirred up many fogs of lies. 'Books of the Fasti' are those in which kings or consuls are recorded, named from the 'fasces,' that is, from their powers.

Hence too the books of Ovid are called 'Fasti,' because they were issued concerning kings and consuls. A 'proem' (prooemium) is the beginning of a discourse. For proems are the openings of books, which are fitted before the narration of the case to prepare the ears of the hearers. Its name most experts in Latinity have set down without translation. But this word, interpreted among us, is called 'preface' (praefatio), as it were a 'fore-speaking' (praelocutio). 'Precepts' (praecepta) are those which teach either what is to be done or what is not to be done. What is to be done, as: 'Love the Lord thy God,' and: 'Honour thy father and thy mother.' What is not to be done, as: 'Thou shalt not commit adultery,' 'Thou shalt not steal.' Similarly the precepts of the gentiles also either command or forbid. They command what is to be done, as (Virgil, Georgics

1:299): 'Plough naked, sow naked.' They forbid, as (Virgil, Georgics 2:299): 'Neither sow the hazel among the vines, nor reach for the topmost shoots.' Among the Hebrews Moses first wrote precepts; among the Latins the seer Marcius first composed precepts. Among these is that one (1): 'May you speak last, be silent first.' 'Parables' and 'problems' indicate by their very names that they ought to be examined more deeply. A parable indeed carries before it the likeness of some thing. Although this is a Greek word, yet it is now used as if Latin. And it is well known that in parables the likenesses of things which are spoken of are compared to the matters under discussion.

'Problems' (problemata), which in Latin are called 'propositions' (propositiones), are questions having something to be resolved by discussion. A 'question' (quaestio) is an inquiry, when it is asked whether a thing is, what it is, of what kind it is. An 'argument' (argumentum) is so called as if 'sharp' (argutum), or because it is shrewdly (argute) devised for proving matters. Properly the Greeks call it an 'epistle' (epistola), which is translated into Latin as 'something sent' (missa). For 'stola' or 'stoloi' means 'sent' or 'the things sent.' Before the use of paper and parchment, the discourses of letters were written on little tablets of wood shaped with an adze, whence they also called the carriers of them 'tablet-bearers' (tabellarios). IX. ON WAX TABLETS. Wax is the material of letters, the nurse of little children, they themselves (Dracontius, Satisfactio 63): 'Give talent to boys, the first beginnings of understanding.'

The Greeks are said to have first handed down the study of these. But the Greeks and Tuscans first wrote on wax with iron; afterward the Romans decreed that no one should have an iron stylus. Hence too it was said among the scribes: 'Do not cut the wax with iron.' Afterward it was established that they should write on the wax with bones, as Atta indicates in his Satire, saying (12): 'Let us turn the ploughshare on the wax and plough with a point of bone.' The 'graphium' in Greek is called in Latin a 'writing-instrument' (scriptorium). For 'graphe' is 'writing.' X. ON PAPER. Egypt first furnished the use of paper, begun at the city of Memphis. For Memphis is a city of the Egyptians, where the use of paper was first invented, as Lucan says (4:135): 'The Memphitic paper is made from the thirsty papyrus.'

He called the papyrus 'thirsty' because it drinks up moisture. Now 'paper' (carta) is so called because the covering of the papyrus, plucked off piece by piece (carptim), is glued together. Of it there are very many kinds. The first and foremost is the royal Augustan, named of a larger format in honour of Octavian Augustus. The second is the Libyan, in honour of the province of Libya. The third is called 'hieratic' because it was chosen for sacred books, similar to the Augustan, but slightly coloured. The fourth is the Taeneotic, from a place at Alexandria which is so called, where it was made. The fifth is the Saitic, from the town of Sais. The sixth is the Cornelian, first made by Cornelius Gallus, prefect of Egypt. The seventh is the 'emporetic' (packing paper), because merchandise is wrapped in it, since it is less suitable for writing. XI. ON PARCHMENTS.