{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/206/2060216.htm","path":"chr/ecf/206/2060216.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/206/2060216.htm","text":"Written for Paula and Eustochium, a.d. 387. The Preface is a defence of the genuineness of the Epistle against those who thought its subject beneath the dignity of inspiration. \u201cThere are many degrees of inspiration,\u201d Jerome says, \u201cthough in Christ alone it is seen in its fulness.\u201d Many of the other Epistles touch upon small affairs of life, like the cloak left at Troas. To suppose that common life is separate from God is Manich\u00e6anism. Jerome mentions that Marcion, who altered many of the Epistles, did not touch that of Philemon; and brevity in a document which has in it so much of the beauty of the Gospel is a mark of its inspiration.","title":"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Ser. II, Vol. VI: Prefaces.: Philemon.","type":"page"}