Christian Classics

Philip Schaff (ed.) · 28 of 235

To Pope Damasus.

Letter XX. To Pope Damasus.

Jerome’s reply to the foregoing. Exposing the error of Hilary of Poitiers, who supposed the expression to signify “ of the house of David,” he goes on to show that in the gospels it is a quotation from Psa. cxviii. 25 and that its true meaning is “save now” (so A.V.). “Let us,” he writes, “leave the streamlets of conjecture and return to the fountain-head. It is from the Hebrew writings that the truth is to be drawn.” Written at Rome a.d. 383.