Annotatio CXLIX

”Why have the nations raged,” etc. — Psalm 2:1

Jerome censures Hilary, at the beginning of the book On the Hebrew Traditions,¹ because, in the exposition of this little verse, he asserted that, for that which we have at the exordium of Genesis, “In the beginning God created heaven and earth,”² there is had in the Hebrew “In the Son God made,” etc. — which indeed to be false the truth of the matter itself proves: for in the Hebrew it is not written בבר Babar, which signifies “In the Son,” but בראשית Berescith, which signifies “In the beginning.” Hilary seems to have been deceived in this by the authority of Tertullian, who asserted this very thing in the book against Praxeas.