Who Wrote Ep. 46 in Jerome’s Letter Collection? Paula, Eustochium, and the Exegesis of Jerusalem

Abstract

Jerome’s letter collection includes eleven letters, for which both the sender and the recipient are someone other than Jerome himself. One of these is, however, generally attributed to him. This is Ep. 46, which according to manuscripts was written by two aristocratic women, Paula and her daughter Eustochium, from Bethlehem to their friend Marcella in Rome. This article assesses the arguments for Jerome’s authorship, which are based on the style of the letter, a sixth century manuscript, and the assumed Paula’s and Eustochium’s incapacity to produce such a text. The article argues for the genuine agency of Paula and Eustochium in writing the letter, even if probably alongside with some contribution by Jerome, pointing out the inconsistencies in earlier argumentation against female authorship. The article also proposes a looser date for the letter, presently proposed to have been written in Spring 386. At the end, the article points out the need for contextualization for the very concept of authorship, as well as the need of consistency for the argumentation especially when making assumptions concerning agency of those people often marginalized in research.