PROCOPIUS OF GAZA, SOPHIST. COMMENTARIES ON THE OCTATEUCH, OR THE FIRST EIGHT BOOKS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT OF THE ANCIENT LECTIONARY. NOW FIRST CONVERTED INTO LATIN FROM A MOST ANCIENT GREEK MANUSCRIPT CODEX. Translated by Claudius Thrasybulus.
JACOBUS GESNERUS TO THE CHRISTIAN READER.
Although both our own conscience and the books brought forth to light from our workshop bear most abundant testimony that, in these typographical labors, we have been accustomed to look not so much to our own affairs as to the public interest of letters; and although, for that reason, I might not have need to justify our studies to anyone, or to trumpet this book with great praises—believing rather that a saleable wine needs no ivy bush—nevertheless, so that you, diligent reader, may understand how great are the benefits to be derived from a careful reading of this book, I shall, as other typographers are wont to do, and as seemed necessary to both myself and my brother Andreas, provide a brief preface regarding Procopius and this Commentary of his.
Regarding Procopius himself, because I have at hand neither the Patriarch Photius, who wrote in Greek in two volumes concerning him and every kind of writer, nor do I myself possess the ability to proclaim the praises of so great a man, I can say but little. But since, to use the words of Ovid, "names often correspond to their fates," who would not dare, even merely upon hearing the name of Procopius, to promise himself *μεγάλην προκοπήν*, that is, "great progress," if only he thoroughly peruses these commentaries of his on Moses and sacred History? Who, hearing of Gaza as his fatherland—which city, whether it was that ancient one about which divine Jerome doubted, into which the royal riches were brought after a war against Egypt was undertaken by Cambyses, king of the Persians, giving the city this Persian name; or whether it was that very city which is known to have been famous and fruitful for Christ even after Judea was conquered—would not surely understand how excellent is the hope and expectation of rich treasure shining forth from both sides?
The kind of life he pursued is itself an argument that this Procopius was able to acquire for himself not only knowledge of many and varied things, but also the highest aptitude and happiness in exposition. For "Sophists" were formerly called in Greece those who opened schools in which they were accustomed to philosophize in such a way that they taught the principles of both wisdom and eloquence. Such were Isocrates, Theon, Aphthonius, Hermogenes, Libanius, Philostratus, and countless others, who imbued the youths entrusted to them with both learning and piety. By this study, they surely achieved the result that, on account of the duty of wholesome education provided to their students, they were venerated and dear to all men, and especially to princes from every quarter; and subsequently, they possessed great authority by the name of wisdom among philosophers, and obtained the praise of eloquence among orators.
For this reason, Cicero in his *Orator* praises their kind of speech in a wonderful manner, saying that it is pleasant, free, flowing, sharp in its sentences, sonorous in its words, and entirely of the epidictic kind, which he considers to be the property of the Sophists. Since these things are so, it is necessary that this Sophist of ours, both endowed with knowledge useful for grasping divine matters and well-versed in that *ekphrasis*—or kind of slight and subtle exposition—which is especially suited to the treatment of the sacred Scriptures, was truly skilled.
But as to how much it matters that he brought such learning and eloquence to the treatment of Christian philosophy, since Gregory Nazianzen, Chrysostom, Basil, and also among the Latins, Augustine, Jerome, Lactantius, and other great men in the Church prove it by their own examples, there is no need for me to say more. But that you may estimate the lion by his claws, look into and consider the work itself; and you will understand that the hope fostered for you is by no means vain or doubtful. In it, if you consider what matters he explains, how he does so, and with what words, surely, both for public utility and—