Jerome wrote a response to Helvidius regarding the virginity of Mary. This post is the seventh in a series of responses to what Jerome wrote.
Jerome wrote:
The word of God says in Genesis, “And they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hand, and the rings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem, and lost them until this day.” Likewise at the end of Deuteronomy, “So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord. And he buried him in the valley, in the land of Moab over against Beth-peor: but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day.” We must certainly understand by this day the time of the composition of the history, whether you prefer the view that Moses was the author of the Pentateuch or that Ezra re-edited it. In either case I make no objection. The question now is whether the words unto this day are to be referred to the time of publishing or writing the books, and if so it is for him to show, now that so many years have rolled away since that day, that either the idols hidden beneath the oak have been found, or the grave of Moses discovered; for he obstinately maintains that what does not happen so long as the point of time indicated by until and unto has not been attained, begins to be when that point has been reached. He would do well to pay heed to the idiom of Holy Scripture, and understand with us, (it was here he stuck in the mud) that some things which might seem ambiguous if not expressed are plainly intimated, while others are left to the exercise of our intellect. For if, while the event was still fresh in memory and men were living who had seen Moses, it was possible for his grave to be unknown, much more may this be the case after the lapse of so many ages. And in the same way must we interpret what we are told concerning Joseph. The Evangelist pointed out a circumstance which might have given rise to some scandal, namely, that Mary was not known by her husband until she was delivered, and he did so that we might be the more certain that she from whom Joseph refrained while there was room to doubt the import of the vision was not known after her delivery.
Once again, we do not disagree with Jerome that "unto this day" is a statement that does not have the same kind of fixed termination as the usual statement. Moreover, had the Evangelist written that Joseph did not know his wife, until this day, we would simply conclude that Joseph had not yet known Mary when the gospel was written.
As an aside, it is interesting to note that the question of whether the Pentateuch was re-edited later is already raised in Jerome's time. As Jerome notes, it is not really salient to this issue, but it is an interesting question.
Jerome says "that some things which might seem ambiguous if not expressed are plainly intimated, while others are left to the exercise of our intellect." Unfortunately, Jerome draws the wrong conclusion. For example, while Jerome points out some examples of cases where "unto this day" was a situation that probably continues even now, such as the lack of knowledge of Moses' sepulcher. By contrast, Genesis 26:33 "And he called it Shebah: therefore the name of the city is Beersheba unto this day." or Genesis 35:20 "And Jacob set a pillar upon her grave: that is the pillar of Rachel's grave unto this day." There is a city today named Beersheba, which is fairly close to where the city of Beersheba was. However, if the name is ever changed, this would not negate Scripture. And Scripture was not lying when for a time there was no city with that name. Likewise, the pillar of Rachel's grave is gone, yet Scripture did not lie.
Instead, recall that there is a distinction between the counter-examples and the rule. The rule is, "he did [x] until [the end of doing x]." The counter-examples so far are future, "he will do [x] until [forever, the end of the person's life, until the end of time, or some other indefinite or final future point]" and now present, "until this day" or the like.
Yet Scripture does not say that Joseph did not know Mary until his death, nor that Joseph will know now Mary until the second coming, nor that Joseph did not know Mary until this day. Instead, a fixed termination for Joseph's abstinence is provided. So, once again Jerome has observed an interesting grammatical point, but has not fully considered the grammatical consequences of his grammatical observation.
-TurretinFan
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