Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume VI/Prefaces/To Books of the Old Testament/To Tobit and Judith

Tobit and Judith.

''The Preface is to Chromatius and Heliodorus. It recognizes that the books are apocryphal. After his usual complaints of &#8220;the Pharisees&#8221; who impugned his translations, he says: &#8220;Inasmuch as the Chaldee is closely allied to the Hebrew, I procured the help of the most skilful speaker of both languages I could find, and gave to the subject one day&#8217;s hasty labour, my method being to explain in Latin, with the aid of a secretary, whatever an interpreter expressed to me in Hebrew words.&#8221; As to Judith, he notes that the Council of Nic&#230;a had, contrary to the Hebrew tradition, included it in the Canon of Scripture, and this, with his friends&#8217; requests, had induced him to undertake the labour of emendation and translation.''