Chapter 1. On God.
1. The most blessed Hieronymus, a man of the greatest learning and skilled in many languages, first rendered into the Latin language the meaning of the Hebrew names. And leaving out many for brevity, I propose to insert certain of them in this work with their meanings in addition.
2. For the explanation of words sufficiently indicates what they mean. For certain have the reason for their names in peculiar causes. And at the beginning we set down ten names by which God is called among the Hebrews....
Chapter 5. On angels.
2. The word angel is the name of a function, not of a nature; for they are always spirits, but are called angels when they are sent.
3. And the license of painters makes wings for them in order to denote their swift passage in every direction, just as also in the fables of the poets the winds are said to have wings on account of their velocity....
4. The sacred writings testify that there are nine orders of angels, namely, angels, archangels, thrones, dominions, virtues, principalities, powers, cherubim and seraphim. And we shall explain by derivation why the names of these functions were so applied.
5. Angels are so called because they are sent down from heaven to carry messages to men....
6. Archangels in the Greek tongue means summi nuntii in the Latin. For they who carry small or trifling messages are called angels; and they who announce the most important things are called archangels.... Archangels are so called because they hold the leadership among angels.... For they are leaders and chiefs under whose control services are assigned to each and every angel.
17. Certain functions of angels by which signs and wonders are done in the world are called virtues, on account of which the virtues are named.