文集 第 4 章 第 1/2 段

Concerning the study of the divine Scriptures. The writings which speak either of God or of invisible goods are to be called divine neither all of them nor they alone. In the books of the gentiles we find many things written with quite probable reasoning concerning the eternity of God and the immortality of souls, concerning the everlasting rewards of the virtues and the punishments of the wicked, which writings no one doubts to be unworthy of such a name. Again, running through the sequence of the Old and New Testament, we perceive almost the whole of it woven from the state of the present life and things done in time, with rarely anything plainly impressed concerning the sweetness of the eternal goods and the joys of the heavenly life. Yet the catholic faith is wont to call these writings divine.

The writings of the philosophers, like a whitewashed wall of mud, are strong without in the brilliance of eloquence; and when at times they pretend the appearance of truth, by mixing in falsehoods, as though by some superimposed color, they cover over the mud of error. On the contrary, the divine words are most aptly compared to a honeycomb, which on account of the simplicity of speech appear dry, yet within are full of sweetness. Whence it is established that these have deservedly obtained such a name, which alone are found so foreign to the contagion of falsity that they are proved to contain nothing contrary to truth.

The divine Scriptures are those which, published by the worshippers of the catholic faith, the authority of the universal Church has received as to be reckoned in the number of the divine books for the strengthening of that same faith, and has retained to be read. There are besides very many other little works, written by men of religion and wise men at various times, which, although they are not approved by the authority of the universal Church, yet, because they do not disagree with the catholic faith and teach some things even useful, are counted among the divine words—which we perhaps show better by enumerating than by defining. Concerning the order and number of the books. All divine Scripture is contained in two Testaments, namely in the Old and the New.

Each Testament is distinguished by three orders. The Old Testament contains the Law, the Prophets, and the Hagiographa; the New, the Gospel, the Apostles, and the Fathers. The first order of the Old Testament, that is, the Law, which the Hebrews call 'thorath,' has the Pentateuch, that is, the five books of Moses. In this order the first is 'bresith,' which is Genesis; the second 'hellesmoth,' which is Exodus; the third 'vaiecra,' which is Leviticus; the fourth 'vaiedaber,' which is Numbers; the fifth 'adabarim,' which is Deuteronomy. The second order is that of the Prophets. This contains eight volumes.

the first, Joshua ben Nun, that is, the son of Nun, who is called both Joshua and Jesus and Jesus Nave; the second, 'sophtim,' which is the book of Judges; the third, Samuel, which is First and Second Kings; the fourth, 'malachim,' which is Third and Fourth Kings; the fifth, Isaiah; the sixth, Jeremiah; the seventh, Ezekiel; the eighth, 'thareasra,' which is of the Twelve Prophets. Then the third order has nine books. The first is Job; the second is David; the third is 'masloth,' which in Greek sounds 'Parabolae,' in Latin 'Proverbia,' namely of Solomon; the fourth, 'coeleth,' which is Ecclesiastes; the fifth, 'sira syrin,' that is, the Song of Songs; the sixth, Daniel; the seventh, 'dabrehiamin,' which is Paralipomenon; the eighth, Ezra; the ninth, Esther.

All these therefore come to the number twenty-two. There are besides certain other books, such as the Wisdom of Solomon, the book of Jesus son of Sirach, and the book of Judith, and Tobias, and the books of the Maccabees, which are indeed read, but are not written in the canon. The first order of the New Testament has four volumes: of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John; the second, likewise four: the Epistles of Paul, fourteen in number, woven together under one volume, and the canonical Epistles, the Apocalypse, and the Acts of the Apostles. In the third order the first place is held by the Decretals, which we call canons, that is, rules; then the writings of the holy Fathers and Doctors of the Church:

of Jerome, Augustine, Gregory, Ambrose, Isidore, Origen, Bede, and many other orthodox writers, which are so infinite that they cannot be numbered. From which indeed it appears how great a fervor they had in the Christian faith, for the assertion of which they left so many and so great works to be remembered by posterity. Whence our own sloth is also rebuked, who are not able even to read what they were able to dictate. Now in these orders the harmony of both Testaments especially appears, in that, just as after the Law came the Prophets, and after the Prophets the Hagiographa, so after the Gospel the Apostles, and after the Apostles the Doctors followed in order.

And by a certain wondrous reason of divine dispensation it has come to pass that, while in each one full and perfect truth subsists, yet none is superfluous. These things concerning the order and number of the divine books we have touched on briefly, that the reader may recognize what subject matter is prescribed for him. Concerning the authors of the divine books. Moses wrote the five books of the Law. Of the book of Joshua, the same Joshua, by whose name it is inscribed, is believed to have been the author. They say the book of Judges was published by Samuel. The first part of the book of Samuel, Samuel himself wrote; but the rest, down to the end, David. Jeremiah first collected 'malachim' into one volume, for previously it had been scattered through the histories of the individual kings.

Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel each made their own books, which are inscribed with their names. The book also of the Twelve Prophets is headed with the names of its authors, whose names are Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. These are called minor for this reason, because their discourses are brief, whence they are also comprised in one volume. But Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel and Daniel, these four are major, each distinguished in his own volume. The book of Job, some believe Moses wrote, others one of the prophets, and several Job himself. The book of Psalms David published; but Ezra afterward arranged the Psalms as they now are and added the titles.

Solomon composed the Proverbs and Ecclesiastes and the Song of Songs. Daniel was the author of his own book. The book of Ezra is headed with the title of its author, in whose text the discourses of the same Ezra and of Nehemiah are alike contained. The book of Esther is believed to have been written by Ezra. The book of Wisdom is nowhere among the Hebrews, whence the very title smacks rather of Greek eloquence. Some of the Jews affirm this to be Philo's. The book Ecclesiasticus was most certainly composed by Jesus son of Sirach of Jerusalem, grandson of Jesus the great priest, whom Zechariah mentions. This is found among the Hebrews, but is held among the apocrypha.

But Judith and Tobit and the books of the Maccabees, of which, as Jerome testifies, the second is proved to be rather Greek—by whom these were written is by no means established. What a library is. 「Library」 (bibliotheca) took its name from the Greek, because there books are stored away; for 'biblio' is interpreted 'of books,' 'teca' a 'storing-place.' The library of the Old Testament Ezra the scribe, after the Law had been burned by the Chaldeans, while the Jews had returned to Jerusalem, restored, inspired by the divine Spirit; and he corrected all the volumes of the Law and the Prophets which had been corrupted by the gentiles, and constituted the whole Old Testament in twenty-two books, that there might be as many books in the Law as there were letters.

Moreover, there are five double letters among the Hebrews: caph, mem, nun, phe, sade. For they write with these in one way the beginnings and middles of words, and in another way the endings. Whence also five books are reckoned double by many: Samuel, 'malachim,' 'dabrehiamin,' Ezra, Jeremiah with 'cynoth,' that is, with his Lamentations. Concerning the translators.

The translators of the Old Testament: first the seventy translators, whom Ptolemy, surnamed Philadelphus, king of Egypt, most sagacious in all literature, when he was vying in the zeal for libraries with Pisistratus the tyrant of the Athenians (who first established a library among the Greeks), and with Seleucus Nicanor and Alexander and the other men of earlier times who had devoted effort to wisdom, gathering into his own library not only the writings of the gentiles but also the divine letters—so that seventy thousand books were found at Alexandria in his time—asking from Eleazar the high priest the Scriptures of the Old Testament, caused them to be translated into the Greek tongue from the Hebrew language.

But separated each in his own cell, they so translated everything through the Holy Spirit that nothing was found in the codex of any one of them which differed in the rest even in the order of words. On account of which their translation is one. But Jerome says that faith is not to be put in this matter. Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion make the second, third, and fourth; of whom the first, that is, Aquila, was a Jew, while Symmachus and Theodotion were Ebionite heretics. Yet usage prevailed, so that after the seventy translators the churches of the Greeks received their copies and read them. The fifth is the common one, whose author is unknown; whence it especially claimed for itself to be called the fifth.

The sixth and seventh are Origen's, whose codices Eusebius and Pamphilus made public. The eighth is Jerome's, which is deservedly preferred to the rest, for it is both more faithful to the words and clearer in the perspicuity of meaning. Concerning the authors of the New Testament. Many wrote gospels, but some without the Holy Spirit attempted to arrange a narrative rather than to weave the truth of the history. Whence the holy Fathers, taught through the Holy Spirit, received only four into authority, the rest being rejected, that is, those of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, after the likeness of the four rivers of paradise, and the four bars of the ark, and the four living creatures in Ezekiel. First Matthew wrote his gospel in Hebrew.

The second, Mark, wrote in Greek. The third, Luke, the most learned in the Greek tongue among all the evangelists, inasmuch as he was a physician in Greece, wrote his gospel for Theophilus the bishop, to whom the same one also wrote the Acts of the Apostles. The fourth and last, John, wrote a gospel. Paul writes fourteen epistles, ten to churches, four to persons. But the last, to the Hebrews, very many say is not Paul's; and some suspect that Barnabas wrote it, others Clement. The canonical epistles are seven: one of James, two of Peter, three of John, one of Jude. The Apocalypse John the apostle wrote on the island of Patmos, banished in exile. That the rest are apocryphal, and what is apocryphal.

These are the writers of the sacred books, who, speaking through the Holy Spirit, wrote down for our instruction the precepts of living and the rule. Besides these, other volumes are called apocryphal. They are called apocryphal, that is, hidden, because they come into doubt; for their origin is concealed, nor is it clear to the Fathers, from whom the most certain and best-known authority of the truthful Scriptures has come down to us by a continuous succession. In these apocrypha, even if some truth is found, yet on account of many false things there is no canonical authority in them, which are rightly judged not to belong to those to whom they are ascribed.

For many things, both under the names of the prophets and more recent ones under the names of the apostles, are brought forth by heretics, all of which under the name of apocrypha have been removed from canonical authority by diligent examination. The reasoning of the names of the divine books. The Pentateuch is so called from its five volumes; for 'penta' in Greek is 「five,」 and 'teucus' is called a 「volume.」 Genesis is so called because the generation of the world is contained in it; Exodus, from the going-out of the children of Israel from Egypt; Leviticus, because it sets forth the ministries of the Levites and the variety of victims. The book is called Numbers, because in it the tribes that went out of Egypt are enumerated and the forty-two encampments through the desert.

'Deutrus' is a Greek word of two syllables, and is interpreted 「second」; 'nomia' is interpreted 「law.」 Hence it is called Deuteronomy, as it were a second law, because in it are repeated those things which were more diffusely spoken in the three preceding books. In the book of Joshua, which the Hebrews call Joshua ben Nun, the land of promise is divided to the people. The book of Judges is named from the leaders who judged the people of Israel before there were kings among that same people. To this some join the history of Ruth under one volume. The book of Samuel is so named because it describes his birth and priesthood and deeds; which, although it also contains the history of Saul and David, both are nevertheless referred to Samuel, because he anointed both.

'Malach' in Hebrew is interpreted 「of kings」 in Latin. Hence it is called 'malachim,' for the reason that it sets out in order the kings of the Jewish and Israelite nation and their deeds. Isaiah, an evangelist rather than a prophet, published his book, the whole text of which proceeds in the prose of eloquence; but the Song runs in hexameter and pentameter verse. Jeremiah likewise published his book together with his Threni, which we call Lamentations, because they are employed in sadder matters and at funerals; in which he composed a fourfold alphabet in differing 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 together and begin from one and the same letter.

The third alphabet is written in trimeter, and the same three verses each begin from sets of three letters. The fourth alphabet is held to be like the first and second. Ezekiel has his beginning and end more obscure. There is one volume of the Twelve Prophets. The beginnings and ends of the book of Job among the Hebrews are woven in prose oration, but its middle, from the place where it says: 'Let the day perish in which I was born,' down to the place, 'therefore I reprove myself and do penance,' all run in heroic meter. The book of Psalms is called in Greek 'Psalterium,' in Hebrew 'nabla,' in Latin 'organum.' And it is called Psalterium for this reason, that, while one prophet sang to the psaltery, the choir responded in harmony.

Hence they comprise the book in five sections and one volume of Psalms. David composed the Psalms, but Ezra afterward arranged them. Now all the Psalms and the Lamentations of Jeremiah and almost all the canticles of the Scriptures are composed metrically among the Hebrews, as Jerome, Origen, Josephus, and Eusebius of Caesarea testify. For after the manner of the Roman Flaccus and the Greek Pindar, some now run in iambic, now shine in sapphic, proceeding in trimeter or tetrameter. The Scripture most clearly teaches that Solomon was called by three names: Jedidiah, that is, 「beloved of the Lord,」 because the Lord loved him; and Koheleth, that is, 「Ecclesiastes.」

Now 「Ecclesiastes」 is named in the Greek tongue, one who gathers an assembly, that is, a church, whom we may call a 「convener」 (contionator), who speaks not to one in particular, but to the whole assembly of the people. Moreover, he was called 「peaceable」 (pacificus, Solomon), because in his reign there was peace. And so, according to the number of his names, he published three volumes: the first, which in Hebrew is inscribed 'masloth,' in Greek 'Parabolae,' in Latin 'Proverbia,' because in it under comparative likeness he showed the figures of words and images of truth—which Proverbs, indeed, at the end, from the place in which he says: 'Who shall find a valiant woman,' are woven in an alphabetic acrostic, as are the Lamentations of Jeremiah and certain other canticles of the Scriptures;

the second, which in Hebrew is called 'coeleth,' in Greek 'Ecclesiastes,' in Latin 'Convener,' because his discourse is directed not to one in particular, as in Proverbs, but to all in general, as it were to the whole assembly and church; the third, 'sira syrin,' that is, the Song of Songs, which is as it were an epithalamium, that is, a nuptial song of Christ and the Church. In Proverbs he teaches a little child and instructs him, as if concerning duties, through maxims, whence also discourse to a son is frequently repeated to him. But in Ecclesiastes he instructs a man of mature age, that he may not think anything in the things of the world to be perpetual, but that all things we behold are fleeting and brief.

Finally, the man now perfected and, having trampled the world, made ready, he joins to the embraces of the Bridegroom in the Song of Songs. Not far from this order of teachings the philosophers too instruct their followers, so that they first teach ethics, then expound physics, and the one whom they have perceived to have made progress in these they lead all the way to theology. Daniel among the Hebrews is held not among the prophets but among the Hagiographa. The catholic Church does not read this according to the seventy translators, because it differs much from the truth. Daniel especially and Ezra the prophet and one part of Jeremiah were written indeed in Hebrew letters, but in the Chaldean language. Job too has very much affinity with the Arabic language.

Daniel among the Hebrews has neither the history of Susanna, nor the hymn of the three children, nor the tales of Bel and the Dragon. Paralipomenon is so called in Greek, which we may call 「of things omitted」 or 「of things remaining,」 because those things which in the Law or in the books of Kings were either omitted or not fully related are in it explained summarily and briefly. This in Hebrew is called 'dabrehiamin,' which is interpreted 「words of days,」 which more significantly we may call a chronicle of the whole divine history. The book of Ezra is one, in which the discourses of the same Ezra and of Nehemiah are contained under one volume. The second, third, and fourth are apocryphal.

The book which is inscribed the Wisdom of Solomon is called Wisdom for this reason, because in it the coming of Christ, who is the Wisdom of the Father, and his passion are clearly expressed. The book of Jesus son of Sirach is called Ecclesiasticus for this reason, that it was published with great care and reason concerning the discipline of religious conversation of the whole Church. Concerning these two Jerome speaks thus: 「There is borne the book Panaretos of Jesus son of Sirach, and another pseudographous one which is inscribed the Wisdom of Solomon, of which the former I found in Hebrew, entitled not Ecclesiasticus as among the Latins, but Parables. To it were joined Ecclesiastes and the Song of Songs, that it might equal the likeness of Solomon, not only in the number of books, but also in the kind of subject matter.」

The second is nowhere among the Hebrews, because its very style smacks of Greek eloquence. And several of the older writers affirm this to be Philo the Jew's. Just as, therefore, the Church indeed reads the books of Judith and Tobit and the Maccabees, but does not receive them among the canonical Scriptures, so also it may read these two volumes for the edification of the people, not for confirming the authority of ecclesiastical dogmas. Just as, therefore, there are twenty-two letters by which in Hebrew we write all that we speak, and by their elements the human voice is comprised, so twenty-two volumes are reckoned, by which, as by letters and rudiments in the doctrine of God, the tender and still suckling infancy of the just man is instructed.

Some, reckoning the history of Ruth and the Lamentations of Jeremiah separately by themselves among the Hagiographa, and adding these two to the preceding twenty-two, number twenty-four books of the old law, under the figure and number of the twenty-four elders who adore the Lamb in the Apocalypse. Concerning the New Testament. Just as all the Scripture of the Old Testament can broadly be called the Law, yet specially the five books of Moses are called the Law, so generally the whole New Testament can be called the Gospel, but yet specially those four volumes, namely of Matthew and Mark and Luke and John, in which the deeds and words of the Savior are plainly explained, have deserved to be named the Gospel.

'Gospel' is interpreted as 'good news,' because it promises eternal goods, not earthly happiness, as does the Old Testament understood according to the letter. Concerning the canons of the Gospels. Ammonius of Alexandria first devised the canons of the Gospels, whom Eusebius of Caesarea afterward followed and composed them more fully. They were made for this purpose: that through them we might be able to find and know which of the evangelists said things similar to or peculiar to themselves. They are ten in number. The first contains the passages in which the four said the same things: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John; the second, those in which three did: Matthew, Mark, Luke; the third, those in which three did: Matthew, Luke, John;

the fourth, those in which three did: Matthew, Mark, John; the fifth, those in which two did: Mark, Luke; the sixth, those in which two did: Matthew, Mark; the seventh, those in which two did: Matthew, John; the eighth, those in which two did: Luke, Mark; the ninth, those in which two did: Luke, John; the tenth, those things which each one of them said peculiar to himself. The explanation of these is as follows. For alongside each evangelist a certain number is affixed and set next to the chapters, and beneath these numbers is placed a small space marked in red, which indicates in which canon the number is positioned to which the space is attached. For example, if it is the first space, the number is in the first canon; if the second, in the second; if the third, in the third; and so you proceed in order up to the tenth.

If therefore, on opening any Gospel, you wish to know which of the other evangelists said similar things, you take the adjoining number of the chapter, and you look for that very number in the canon which the space indicates, and there you will find who said things and what they said. And so finally in the body of the text, when you have sought out the places which are indicated by those very numbers, you will find them in each of the Gospels to have spoken about the same matters. Concerning the canons of councils. 'Canon' in Greek is called 'rule' in Latin. It is called a 'rule' (regula) because it leads aright and never draws anyone aside in another direction. Others have said it is called a 'rule' either because it governs (regat), or because it provides a norm for right living, or because it corrects what is twisted and crooked.

The canons of the general councils began from the times of Constantine. For in the preceding years, while persecution raged, scarcely any opportunity was given for instructing the common people. Hence Christianity was rent into diverse heresies, because there was no liberty for the bishops to assemble together, except in the time of the aforementioned emperor. For he himself granted Christians the opportunity to gather freely. Under him also the holy fathers, assembling from the whole world at the Council of Nicaea, handed down, in accordance with the evangelical and apostolic faith, the second creed after the apostles. That there are four principal synods.

Among the other councils, there are four venerable synods which principally embrace the whole faith, like the Gospels, or as it were the four rivers of paradise. The first of these, the Synod of Nicaea, of three hundred and eighteen bishops, was carried out while Constantine Augustus was reigning; in it the blasphemy of the Arian treachery was condemned, which this same Arius asserted concerning the inequality of the Holy Trinity. The same holy synod defined through the creed that God the Son is consubstantial with God the Father.

The second synod, of one hundred and fifty fathers under Theodosius the Elder, was assembled at Constantinople; condemning Macedonius who denied that the Holy Spirit is God, it demonstrated that the Holy Spirit is consubstantial with the Father and the Son, giving the form of a creed which the whole confession of Greeks and Latins proclaims in the churches.

The third synod, the first of Ephesus, of two hundred bishops, was issued under Theodosius Augustus the Younger; it condemned with a just anathema Nestorius, who asserted two persons in Christ, showing one person of the Lord Jesus Christ in two natures. The fourth synod, that of Chalcedon, of six hundred and thirty priests, was held under the emperor Marcian; in it Eutyches, abbot of Constantinople, who pronounced one nature of the Word of God and of the flesh, and his defender, a certain Dioscorus, bishop of Alexandria, and Nestorius again himself together with the remaining heretics, were condemned beforehand by one sentence of the fathers; the same synod proclaiming that Christ God was so born of the Virgin that in Him we confess the substance of both the divine and the human nature.

These are the four principal synods, most fully proclaiming the doctrine of the faith. But also if there are any councils which holy fathers, full of the Spirit of God, have sanctioned, they remain established after the authority of these four with all force, whose acts are contained set down in this work. Now 'synod' is interpreted from the Greek as 'a company' or 'an assembly.' But the name 'council' (concilium) is drawn from Roman custom. For at the time when cases were being pleaded, all came together into one, and dealt with matters by common intention. Hence 'council' (concilium) is named from common intention, as it were 'a counsel' (consilium), for the 'cilia' are the eyelashes of the eyes. Hence also 'considium' became 'consilium,' the 'd' passing into the letter 'l.' But 'coetus' is an assembly or a congregation, from 'coming together' (coeundo), that is, from convening into one.

Hence also 'convention' (conventus) is named, just as a convention, an assembly, or a council, from the joining of many into one. 'Epistle' (epistula) in Greek is interpreted in Latin as 'something sent' (missa). The 'canonical' epistles, that is, the 'regular' ones, which are also called 'catholic,' that is, 'universal,' because they were written generally not for one people or city only, but for all the nations. The Acts of the Apostles set forth the beginnings of the Christian faith among the nations and the history of the nascent church, and narrate the deeds (gesta) of the apostles, whence also they are called the Acts (Actus) of the Apostles. 'Apocalypse' is interpreted from Greek into Latin as 'revelation,' according to what John himself says: