Letter 51
To the same person.
Rahab is interpreted as "enlargement" [Hebrew name explained etymologically; cf. Joshua 2]; for she who at first was a harlot, but now the chaste Church, is enlarged through faith by contemplations and by divine conceptions. For this reason the great Apostle writes to the Corinthians: "Be not straitened; rather be enlarged, even as my own heart has been enlarged" [2 Corinthians 6:12-13].
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.
Latin / Greek Original
Ῥαὰβ πλατυσμὸς ἑρμηνεύεται, ἡ γὰρ τὸ πρῶτον πόρνη, νῦν δὲ σώφρων Ἐκκλησία διὰ τῆς πίστεως πλατύνεται ταῖς θεωρίαις, καὶ τοῖς θείοις νοήμασιν. Διὰ τοῦτο Κορινθίοις γράφει ὁ μέγας Ἀπόστολος· «Μὴ στενοχωρεῖσθε· μᾶλλον δὲ πλατύνθητε, καθάπερ οὖν ἡ ἐμὴ καρδία πεπλάτυνται.»
Revision history
- 2026-05-27v2.2.34-import
Initial corpus import from modern nilus ancyra workflow v1.
Fields: letter text, metadata, source links. Source: project source import
Related Letters
Jerome writes in severe but moderate language to Sabinianus, a deacon, calling on him to repent of his sins. Of these he recounts at length the two most serious, an act of adultery at Rome and an attempt to seduce a nun at Bethlehem. The date of the letter is uncertain.