Ratio vocabulorum divinorum librorum.
The Five Books of Moses
Hugh explains the etymological meaning behind the names of the Pentateuch's five books.
The Pentateuch gets its name from its five volumes. Penta means "five" in Greek, and teucus means "volume." Genesis is so called because the generation of the world is contained in it; Exodus, from the departure of the sons of Israel from Egypt; Leviticus, because it sets out the ministries of the Levites and the variety of sacrifices. The book of Numbers is so named because in it the tribes that came out of Egypt are counted, along with the forty-two stopping places through the wilderness. Deutrus is a Greek word of two syllables and means "second"; nomia means "law." Hence it is called Deuteronomy, as if to say "a second law," because in it are repeated the things that were set out more fully in the preceding three books.
Joshua and Judges
The naming of Joshua and Judges is explained from their narrative content.
In the book of Joshua — whom the Hebrews call Joshua son of Nun — the land of promise is divided among the people. The book of Judges is named for the leaders who governed the people of Israel before there were kings among them.
Kings and Prophets
Hugh traces the names and literary features of Samuel, Kings, Isaiah, and Jeremiah.
Some people bind the story of Ruth together with this book in a single volume. The book of Samuel gets its name because it describes his birth, his priesthood, and his deeds; and although it also includes the story of Saul and David, both of them are still traced back to Samuel, because he anointed them both. Malach in Hebrew is rendered in Latin as 'of kings.' From this it is called Malachim, because it lays out in order the kings of Judah and of the Israelite nation, along with their deeds. Isaiah — more an evangelist than a prophet — produced his book, whose entire text moves forward in the prose of eloquence. The Song, on the other hand, runs in hexameter and pentameter verse. Jeremiah likewise produced his book, together with his Lamentations (which we call laments), because they are used in sadder circumstances and at funerals. In these he composed a fourfold alphabet in different meters, of which the first two portions are written as if in Sapphic meter, because three verses joined to each other and beginning from only a single letter conclude a heroic line. The third alphabet is written in trimeter, and the same three-line stanzas begin from sets of three letters.
Ezekiel, the Twelve Prophets, and Job
The prophetic books of Ezekiel and the Twelve are noted, and Job's mixed prose-and-verse form is described.
The fourth alphabet is considered similar to the first and second. Ezekiel has a more obscure beginning and end. The twelve prophets form one volume. Among the Hebrews, the beginning and end of the book of Job are composed in prose, but its middle section — from the place where it says, 'Let perish the day on which I was born,' up to the place, 'Therefore I reproach myself and repent' — all of it runs in heroic meter.✦✦
The Psalter and Its Arrangement
The book of Psalms is named across languages and arranged by Ezra into five divisions.
The book of Psalms is called Psalterion in Greek, nabla in Hebrew, and organum in Latin. It's called a Psalter because, with one prophet singing to the psaltery, the chorus responded in harmony. Hence they organize the book into five divisions and a single volume of Psalms. David composed the Psalms, but Ezra arranged them afterward.
Solomon's Three Books
Solomon's three names correspond to his three books—Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs—each suited to a stage of spiritual growth.
All the psalms, however, and the Lamentations of Jeremiah, and nearly all the songs of the scriptures are composed in metrical form among the Hebrews, as Jerome, Origen, Josephus, and Eusebius of Caesarea attest. For in the manner of the Roman Horace and the Greek Pindar, some now move in iambic meter, others shine in Sapphic, walking in trimeter or tetrameter. Scripture teaches most clearly that Solomon was called by three names: Idida, that is, beloved of the Lord, because the Lord loved him, and Coeleth, that is, Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes, however, is so called in the Greek language, because he gathers an assembly, that is, a church, and what we can call a public speaker, who addresses not one person in particular, but the whole gathering of people. He was further called the Peacemaker, because in his reign there was peace. Therefore, following the number of names, he produced three volumes: the first, which in Hebrew is masloth, in Greek Parabolae, and in Latin is entitled Proverbs, because in it he displayed, under comparative likeness, figures of words and images of truth — namely, the Parabolae, which from the point where it says, 'Who can find a worthy woman?,' are woven together with the alphabet, just like the Lamentations of Jeremiah and certain other songs of scripture; the second, which in Hebrew is coeleth, in Greek Ecclesiastes, and in Latin is called Contionator, because his discourse is not directed to one person in particular, as in Proverbs, but to all people generally, as if aimed at the whole gathering and the church; the third, sira syrin, that is, the Song of Songs, which is like a wedding song, that is, a nuptial hymn of Christ and the church.✦ In Proverbs he teaches the little one and, as it were, instructs through maxims about duties, and so his speech is often repeated to the son. In Ecclesiastes, on the other hand, he trains a man of mature age, so that he would not think anything in the affairs of this world to be lasting, but that all we see is fleeting and brief.
The Song of Songs and Sacred Learning's Order
The perfected soul is joined to Christ in the Song of Songs, mirroring the philosophical curriculum's ascent from ethics to theology.
And so to the one now brought to perfection at the farthest reach, having trodden down the age, prepared in the Song of Songs, the Bridegroom joins in his embraces. Not far removed from this order of teachings, philosophers too instruct their followers: first they teach ethics, then they interpret physics, and the one they have observed to have advanced in these, they lead all the way to theology.
Daniel, Chronicles, and Ezra
Hugh discusses Daniel's textual history, language, and deuterocanonical additions, then explains Chronicles and Ezra-Nehemiah.
Among the Hebrews, Daniel is counted not among the prophets but among the Hagiographa. The Catholic Church does not read this book according to the Seventy translators, because it disagrees greatly with the truth. Daniel, and Ezra the prophet especially, and one part of Jeremiah were written indeed in Hebrew letters but in the Chaldean language. Job, too, has a great deal in common with the Arabic language. Among the Hebrews, Daniel does not include the story of Susanna, or the hymn of the three young men, or the tales of Bel and the Dragon. Chronicles is called Paralipomenon in Greek, which we can translate as 'of the things left out' or 'of the things remaining,' because the matters that were either omitted or not fully related in the books of the Law or of the Kings are set forth briefly and in summary fashion in this book. In Hebrew this book is called Dabrehiamin, which means 'words of days,' though more accurately we may call it a chronicle of all sacred history. The book of Ezra is one volume in which the words of Ezra himself and of Nehemiah are contained under a single cover.
The Apocryphal Books
Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus are valued for edification but not for establishing doctrine, alongside Judith, Tobit, and Maccabees.
The second, third, and fourth are apocryphal. The book inscribed with the title 'The Wisdom of Solomon' is therefore called Wisdom, because in it the coming of Christ — who is the Wisdom of the Father — and his suffering are clearly expressed. The book of Jesus son of Sirach is therefore called Ecclesiasticus, because it was published with great care and reason concerning the discipline of the whole church and religious conduct. Jerome speaks of these two books as follows: 'There is a book of Panaeretus, son of Sirach, and another pseudepigraphal work inscribed with the title The Wisdom of Solomon. Of these, I found the former to be Hebrew — not Ecclesiasticus as among the Latin books, but one entitled Parables.' To this book Ecclesiastes and the Song of Songs were joined, so that the likeness of Solomon might be matched not only in the number of books but also in the kind of subject matter. The second book is nowhere found among the Hebrews, because even its style itself smacks of Greek eloquence. And some ancient writers affirm that this one is by Philo the Jew. So just as the church indeed reads the books of Judith, Tobit, and the Maccabees but does not receive them among the canonical scriptures, so also let these two volumes be read for the edification of the people, but not to confirm the authority of ecclesiastical doctrines.
The Twenty-Two Books and the Twenty-Four Elders
The twenty-two Old Testament books correspond to the Hebrew alphabet, and some count twenty-four to match the Apocalypse's elders.
So just as there are twenty-two elements through which we write everything we say in Hebrew, and the human voice is formed from their beginnings, so too twenty-two volumes are reckoned, by which, as if by letters and first principles, the still tender and nursing infancy of a just person is instructed in God's teaching. Certain people, reckoning the history of Ruth and the Lamentations of Jeremiah separately among the hagiographa, and adding these two to the preceding twenty-two, number the books of the Old Law as twenty-four under the figure and number of the twenty-four elders who worship the Lamb in the Apocalypse.
Read the original Latin
Pentateuchus a quinque voluminibus dicitur. penta enim Graece quinque, teucus volumen vocatur. Genesis eo dicitur quod generatio saeculi in eo contineatur; Exodus, ab exitu filiorum Israel de Aegypto; Leviticus, eo quod levitarum ministeria et diversitatem victimarum exsequitur. Numerorum liber vocatur, eo quod in eo egressae de Aegypto tribus enumerantur et xlii per eremum mansiones. deutrus Graecum verbum est dissyllabum, et interpretatur secundus, nomia interpretatur lex. inde dictus est Deutronomius, quasi secunda lex, quia in eo replicantur ea quae in praecedentibus tribus diffusius dicta sunt. in libro Iosue, quem Hebraei Iosue ben Nun dicunt, terra promissionis populo dividitur. liber Iudicum dictus est a principibus qui iudicabant populum Israel, antequam reges essent in eodem populo.
huic quidam compingunt historiam Ruth sub uno volumine. liber Samuel dictus est quia nativitatem eius et sacerdotium et gesta describit, qui licet etiam historiam Saul et David contineat, utrique tamen ad Samuel referuntur, quia unxit utrumque. malach Hebraice, Latine regum interpretatur. inde dictus est malachim, pro eo quod reges Iudae et Israeliticae gentis gestaque eorum per ordinem digerat. Isaias, evangelista potius quam propheta, edidit librum suum, cuius omne textum eloquentiae prosa incedit. Canticum vero hexametro et pentametro versu discurrit. Ieremias similiter edidit librum suum cum Threnis eius quos nos lamenta vocamus, eo quod in tristioribus rebus funeribusque adhibeantur, in quibus quadruplicem diverso metro composuit alphabetum, quorum duo prima quasi sapphico metro scripta sunt, quia tres versiculos qui sibi nexi sunt et ab una tantum littera incipiunt, heroicum comma concludit. tertium alphabetum trimetro scriptum est, et a ternis litteris idem terni versus incipiunt.
quartum alphabetum simile primo et secundo habetur. Ezechiel principium et finem obscuriora habet. unum est volumen duodecim prophetarum. principia et fines libri Iob apud Hebraeos prosa oratione contexta sunt, media autem ipsius ab eo loco quo ait: 'Pereat dies in qua natus sum,' usque ad eum locum, 'idcirco ego me reprehendo et ago paenitentiam,' omnia heroico metro discurrunt. Psalmorum liber Graece Psalterium, Hebraice nabla, Latine organum dicitur. ideo autem vocatur Psalterium quod uno propheta canente ad psalterium, chorus consonando responderit. hinc librum quinque incisionibus et uno psalmorum volumine comprehendunt. Psalmos David composuit, sed Esdras postea ordinavit.
Omnes autem Psalmi et Lamentationes Ieremiae et omnia ferme scripturarum cantica apud Hebraeos metrice composita sunt, ut testatur Hieronymus, Origenes, Iosephus et Eusebius Caesariensis. nam in morem Romani Flacci et Graeci Pindari, nunc alii iambo currunt, nunc sapphico nitent, trimetro vel tetrametro incedentes. tribus nominibus vocatum esse Salomonem scriptura manifestissime docet: Idida, id est, dilectum Domini, quia eum dilexit Dominus, et Coeleth, id est, Ecclesiasten. Ecclesiastes autem Graeco sermone appellatur, qui coetum, id est, ecclesiam congregat, quem nos nuncupare possumus contionatorem, qui loquitur non ad unum specialiter, sed ad totam contionem populi. porro pacificus vocatus est, eo quod in regno eius pax fuerit. is itaque iuxta numerum vocabulorum tria edidit volumina: primum, quod Hebraice masloth, Graece Parabolae, Latine Proverbia inscribitur, eo quod in ipso sub comparativa similitudine figuras verborum et imagines veritatis ostenderit, quae videlicet Parabolae in fine ab eo loco in quo ait: 'Mulierem fortem quis inveniet,' alphabeto texuntur, sicut Lamentationes Ieremiae et cetera quaedam scripturae cantica; secundum, quod Hebraice coeleth, Graece Ecclesiastes, Latine Contionator dicitur, eo quod sermo eius non specialiter ad unum, sicut in Proverbiis, sed ad universos generaliter, quasi ad totam contionem et ecclesiam dirigatur; tertium, sira syrin, id est, Cantica canticorum, quod est quasi epithalamium, id est, carmen nuptiale Christi et ecclesiae. in Proverbiis parvulum docet et, quasi de officiis, per sententias erudit, unde et ad filium ei crebro sermo repetitur. in Ecclesiaste vero maturae virum aetatis instituit, ne quicquam in mundi rebus putet esse perpetuum, sed caduca et brevia universa quae cernimus.
ad extremum iam consummatum virum et calcato saeculo praeparatum, in Cantico canticorum Sponsi iungit amplexibus. haud procul ab hoc ordine doctrinarum, et philosophi suos sectatores erudiunt, ut primum ethicam doceant, deinde physicam interpretentur, et, quem in his profecisse perspexerint, ad theologiam usque perducant.
Daniel apud Hebraeos non inter prophetas sed inter hagiographos habetur. hunc secundum lxx interpretes catholica ecclesia non legit, eo quod multum a veritate discordet. Daniel maxime et Esdras propheta et una pars Ieremiae, Hebraicis quidem litteris, sed Chaldaico sermone conscripti sunt. Iob quoque cum Arabica lingua plurimam habet societatem. Daniel apud Hebraeos nec Susannae habet historiam, nec hymnum trium puerorum, nec Belis draconisque fabulas. Paralipomenon Graece dicitur, quod nos praetermissorum vel reliquorum dicere possumus, quia ea quae in lege vel regum libris, vel omissa vel non plene relata sunt, in isto summatim ac breviter explicantur. hic Hebraice dicitur, dabrehiamin, quod interpretatur verba dierum, quod significantius chronicon totius divinae historiae possumus appellare. liber Esdrae unus est, in quo eiusdem Esdrae Nehemiaeque sermones sub uno volumine continentur.
secundus, tertius et quartus apocryphi sunt. liber qui Sapientia Salomonis inscribitur ideo Sapientia vocatur, quia in eo Christi adventus qui est Sapientia Patris et passio eius evidenter exprimitur. liber Iesu filii Sirach ideo Ecclesiasticus dicitur, quod de totius ecclesiae disciplina religiosae conversationis magna cura et ratione sit editus. de his duobus Hieronymus sic dicit: Fertur Panaeretus Iesu filii Sirach liber, et alius pseudographus qui Sapientia Salomonis inscribitur, quorum priorem Hebraicum repperi, non Ecclesiasticum ut apud Latinos, sed Parabolas praenotatum. cui iuncti erant Ecclesiastes et Canticum canticorum, ut similitudinem Salomonis, non solum librorum numero, sed etiam materiarum genere coaequaret. secundus apud Hebraeos nusquam est, quia et ipse stylus Graecam eloquentiam redolet. et nonnulli scriptorum veterum hunc esse Iudaei Philonis affirmant. sicut ergo Iudith et Tobi et Machabaeorum libros legit quidem eos ecclesia, sed inter canonicas scripturas non recipit, sic et haec duo volumina legat ad aedificationem plebis, non auctoritatem ecclesiasticorum dogmatum confirmandam.
quomodo igitur viginti duo elementa sunt per quae Hebraice scribimus omne quod loquimur, et eorum initiis vox humana comprehenditur, ita viginti duo volumina supputantur, quibus quasi litteris et exordiis in Dei doctrina, tenera adhuc et lactens viri iusti eruditur infantia. quidam historiam Ruth et Lamentationes Ieremiae seorsum per se inter hagiographa computantes, et hos duos praecedentibus xxii addentes, xxiiii veteris legis libros numerant sub figura et numero xxiiii seniorum, qui in Apocalypsi Agnum adorant.
Scripture echoes
Didascalicon de Studio Legendi (On the Study of Reading) companion
Hugh said begin with small daily portions. Start tomorrow.
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