Letter
XXVIII. To Marcella.
An explanation of the Hebrew word Selah. This word,
rendered by the LXX.
διάψαλμα
and by
Aquila
ἀεί
, was as much a crux in Jerome’s day as
it is in ours. “Some,” he writes, “make it a
‘change of metre,’ others ‘a pause for breath,’
others ‘the beginning of a new subject.’ According to yet
others it has something to do with rhythm or marks a burst of
instrumental music.” Jerome himself inclines to follow Aquila and
Origen, who make the word mean “forever,” and suggests that
it betokens completion, like the “explicit” or
“feliciter” in contemporary Latin
mss.
Written at Rome
a.d.
384.