He is best known for his translation of the Bible intoLatin (the translation that became known as theVulgate) and his commentaries on the whole Bible. Jerome attempted to create a translation of theOld Testament based on a Hebrew version, rather than theSeptuagint, asprior Latin Bible translations had done. His list of writings is extensive. In addition to his biblical works, he wrote polemical and historical essays, always from a theologian's perspective.[3]
Jerome was known for his teachings onChristian moral life, especially those in cosmopolitan centers such as Rome. He often focused on women's lives and identified how a woman devoted to Jesus should live her life. This focus stemmed from his close patron relationships with several prominent femaleascetics who were members of affluentsenatorial families.[4]
Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus was born atStridon around 342–347 AD.[4] He was ofIllyrian ancestry.[6] He was notbaptized until about 360–369 in Rome, where he had gone with his friendBonosus of Sardica to pursuerhetorical and philosophical studies. (This Bonosus may or may not have been the same Bonosus whom Jerome identifies as his friend who went to live as a hermit on an island in the Adriatic.) Jerome studied under thephilologistAelius Donatus. There he learnedLatin and at least someKoine Greek,[7] though he probably did not yet acquire the familiarity with Greek literature that he later claimed to have acquired as a schoolboy.[8]
As a student, Jerome engaged in the superficial escapades and sexual experimentation of students in Rome; he indulged himself quite casually but he suffered terrible bouts of guilt afterwards.[9] To appease hisconscience, on Sundays he visited thesepulchers of themartyrs and theApostles in the catacombs. This experience reminded him of the terrors ofHell:
Often I would find myself entering those crypts, deep dug in the earth, with their walls on either side lined with the bodies of the dead, where everything was so dark that almost it seemed as though the Psalmist's words were fulfilled, Let them go down quick into Hell.[10] Here and there the light, not entering in through windows, but filtering down from above through shafts, relieved the horror of the darkness. But again, as soon as you found yourself cautiously moving forward, the black night closed around and there came to my mind the line of Virgil, "Horror ubique animos, simul ipsa silentia terrent".[11][b]
Seized with a desire for a life of asceticpenance, Jerome went for a time to the desert ofChalcis, to the southeast ofAntioch, known as the "SyrianThebaid" from the number oferemites (hermits) inhabiting it. During this period, he seems to have found time for studying and writing. He made his first attempt to learnHebrew under the guidance of a convertedJew; and he seems to have been in correspondence withJewish Christians in Antioch. Around this time he had copied for himself a Hebrew Gospel, of which fragments are preserved in his notes. It is known today as theGospel of the Hebrews, which theNazarenes considered to be the trueGospel of Matthew.[14] Jerome translated parts of this Hebrew Gospel into Greek.[15]
As protégé ofPope Damasus I, Jerome was given duties in Rome, and he undertook a revision of theVetus Latina Gospels based onGreek manuscripts. He also updated the Psalter containing the Book of Psalms then in use in Rome, based on theSeptuagint.
Saint Jerome in His Study, 1451, by Antonio da Fabriano II, shows writing implements, scrolls, and manuscripts testifying to Jerome's scholarly pursuits.[16] The Walters Art Museum.
Throughout his epistles he shows himself to be surrounded by women and united with close ties; it is estimated that 40% of his epistles were addressed to someone of the female sex and,[17] at the time, he was criticized for it.[18]
Even in his time, Jerome notedPorphyry's accusation that the Christian communities were run by women and that the favor of the ladies decided who could accede to the dignity of the priesthood.[19][20]
In Rome, Jerome was surrounded by a circle of well-born and well-educated women, including some from the noblest patrician families. Among these women were such as the widowsLea,Marcella, andPaula, and Paula's daughtersBlaesilla andEustochium. The resulting inclination of these women towards the monastic life, away from the indulgent lasciviousness in Rome, and his unsparing criticism of thesecular clergy of Rome, brought a growing hostility against him among the Roman clergy and their supporters. Soon after the death of his patron Pope Damasus I on 10 December 384, Jerome was forced to leave his position at Rome after an inquiry was brought up by the Roman clergy into allegations that he had an improper relationship with the widow Paula. Still, his writings were highly regarded by women who were attempting to maintain vows of becomingconsecrated virgins. His letters were widely read and distributed throughout the Christian empire and it is clear through his writing that he knew these virgin women were not his only audience.[4]
Additionally, Jerome's condemnation of Blaesilla's hedonistic lifestyle in Rome led her to adopt ascetic practices, but these affected her health and worsened her physical weakness to the point that she died just four months after starting to follow his instructions; much of the Roman populace was outraged that Jerome, in their view, thus caused the premature death of such a lively young woman. Additionally, his insistence to Paula that Blaesilla should not be mourned and complaints that her grief was excessive were seen as heartless, which further polarized Roman opinion against him.[21]
Jerome was a scholar at a time when being a scholar implied a fluency in Greek. He knew some Hebrew when he started histranslation project, but moved toJerusalem to strengthen his grip on Jewish scripture commentary. A wealthy Roman aristocrat, Paula, funded Jerome's stay in a monastery in the nearby city ofBethlehem, where he settled next to theChurch of the Nativity – built half a century prior on orders ofEmperor Constantine over what was reputed to be the site of theNativity of Jesus – and he completed his translation there. He began in 382 by correcting the existing Latin-language version of the New Testament, commonly referred to as theVetus Latina. By 390 he turned to translating theHebrew Bible from the original Hebrew, having previously translated portions from theSeptuagint which came from Alexandria. He believed that the mainstreamRabbinical Judaism had rejected the Septuagint as invalid Jewish scriptural texts because of what were ascertained as mistranslations along with itsHellenisticheretical elements.[c] He completed this work by 405. Prior to Jerome's Vulgate, all Latin translations of theOld Testament were based on the Septuagint, not the Hebrew. Jerome's decision to use a Hebrew text instead of the previously translated Septuagint went against the advice of most other Christians, includingAugustine, who thought the Septuagintinspired. Modern scholarship, however, has sometimes cast doubts on the actual quality of Jerome's Hebrew knowledge. Many modern scholars believe that the GreekHexapla is the main source forJerome's "iuxta Hebraeos" (i.e. "close to the Hebrews", "immediately following the Hebrews") translation of the Old Testament.[22] However, detailed studies have shown that to a considerable degree Jerome was a competent Hebraist.[23]
For the next 15 years, until he died, Jerome produced a number of commentaries on Scripture, often explaining his translation choices in using the original Hebrew rather than suspect translations. Hispatristic commentaries align closely with Jewish tradition, and he indulges inallegorical andmystical subtleties after the manner ofPhilo and theAlexandrian school. Unlike his contemporaries, he emphasizes the difference between the Hebrew Bible "Apocrypha" and theHebraica veritas of theprotocanonical books. In hisVulgate's prologues, he describes some portions of books in the Septuagint that were not found in the Hebrew as being non-canonical (he called themapocrypha);[24] forBaruch, he mentions by name in hisPrologue to Jeremiah and notes that it is neither read nor held among the Hebrews, but does not explicitly call it apocryphal or "not in the canon".[25] HisPreface to the Books of Samuel and Kings[26] (commonly called theHelmeted Preface) includes the following statement:
This preface to the Scriptures may serve as a "helmeted" introduction to all the books which we turn from Hebrew into Latin, so that we may be assured that what is not found in our list must be placed amongst the Apocryphal writings.Wisdom, therefore, which generally bears the name of Solomon, and the book ofJesus, the Son of Sirach, andJudith, andTobias, and theShepherd are not in the canon. Thefirst book of Maccabees I have found to be Hebrew,the second is Greek, as can be proved from the very style.
Jerome's most famous work of historical writing was theChronicon, a translation, reworking, and continuation of theChronicon of Eusebius. Written in Constantinople around 380 it became an influential text in Latin Christendom even though it is not without errors.[27] In his other works he evoked historical events and used history as an example and source of argument. Even though Jerome engaged in historical writing, he did not consider himself bound by the rules of historians and his output in this domain has to be judged accordingly.[28]
The following passage, taken from Jerome'sLife of St. Hilarion which was writtenc. 392, appears to be the earliest account of theetiology, symptoms and cure of severevitamin A deficiency:[29]
From his thirty-first to his thirty-fifth year he had for food six ounces ofbarley bread, and vegetables slightly cooked without oil. But finding that his eyes were growing dim, and that his whole body was shrivelled with an eruption and a sort of stony roughness (impetigine et pumicea quad scabredine) he added oil to his former food, and up to the sixty-third year of his life followed this temperate course, tasting neither fruit nor pulse, nor anything whatsoever besides.[29]
Saint Jerome depicted in his study being visited by two angels (Cavarozzi, early-17th century)
Jerome's letters orepistles, both by the great variety of their subjects and by their qualities of style, form an important portion of his literary remains. Whether he is discussing problems of scholarship, or reasoning on cases of conscience, comforting the afflicted, or saying pleasant things to his friends, scourging the vices and corruptions of the time and againstsexual immorality among the clergy,[30] exhorting to theascetic life and renunciation of theworld, or debating his theological opponents, he gives a vivid picture not only of his own mind, but of the age and its peculiar characteristics. (SeePlowboy trope.) Because there was no distinct line between personal documents and those meant for publication, his letters frequently contain both confidential messages and treatises meant for others besides the one to whom he was writing.[31]
Due to the time he spent in Rome among wealthy families belonging to the Roman upper class, Jerome was frequently commissioned by women who had taken a vow of virginity to write to them in guidance of how to live their life. As a result, he spent a great deal of his life corresponding with these women about certain abstentions and lifestyle practices.[4]
Jerome in his study, made by the Flemish drawer de Bry.[32]
Jerome warned that those substituting fake interpretations for the actual meaning of Scripture belonged to the "synagogue of the Antichrist".[33] "He that is not of Christ is of Antichrist," he wrote toPope Damasus I.[34] He believed that "the mystery of iniquity" written about by Paul in2 Thessalonians 2:7 was already in action when "every one chatters about his views."[35] To Jerome, the power restraining this mystery of iniquity was the Roman Empire, but as it fell this restraining force was removed. He warned a noblewoman ofGaul:[36]
He that letteth is taken out of the way, and yet we do not realize that Antichrist is near. Yes, Antichrist is near whom the Lord Jesus Christ "shall consume with the spirit of his mouth". "Woe unto them," he cries, "that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days." ... Savage tribes in countless numbers have overrun all parts of Gaul. The whole country between the Alps and the Pyrenees, between the Rhine and the Ocean, has been laid waste by hordes ofQuadi,Vandals,Sarmatians,Alans,Gepids, Herules,Saxons,Burgundians,Allemanni, and – alas! for the commonweal! – evenPannonians.
HisCommentary on Daniel was expressly written to offset the criticisms ofPorphyry,[37][full citation needed] who taught that Daniel related entirely to the time ofAntiochus IV Epiphanes and was written by an unknown individual living in the second century BC. Against Porphyry, Jerome identified Rome as the fourth kingdom of chapters two and seven, but his view of chapters eight and eleven was more complex. Jerome held that chapter eight describes the activity of Antiochus Epiphanes, who is understood as a "type" of a future antichrist; 11:24 onwards applies primarily to a future antichrist but was partially fulfilled by Antiochus. Instead, he advocated that the "little horn" was the Antichrist:
We should therefore concur with the traditional interpretation of all the commentators of the Christian Church, that at the end of the world, when the Roman Empire is to be destroyed, there shall be ten kings who will partition the Roman world amongst themselves. Then an insignificant eleventh king will arise, who will overcome three of the ten kings. ... After they have been slain, the seven other kings also will bow their necks to the victor.[38]
In hisCommentary on Daniel,[38] he noted, "Let us not follow the opinion of some commentators and suppose him to be either the Devil or some demon, but rather, one of the human race, in whom Satan will wholly take up his residence in bodily form."[38] Instead of rebuilding the Jewish Temple to reign from, Jerome thought the Antichrist sat in God's Temple inasmuch as he made "himself out to be like God."[38]
Jerome identified the four prophetic kingdoms symbolized in Daniel 2 as theNeo-Babylonian Empire, theMedes and Persians,Macedon, and Rome.[38](ch. 2, vv. 31–40) Jerome identified the stone cut out without hands as "namely, the Lord and Savior".[38](ch. 2, v. 40)
Jerome refuted Porphyry's application of the little horn of chapter seven to Antiochus. He expected that at the end of the world, Rome would be destroyed, and partitioned among ten kingdoms before the little horn appeared.[38](ch. 7, v. 8)
Jerome believed that Cyrus of Persia was the higher of the two horns of the Medo-Persian ram of Daniel 8:3.[38] The he-goat is Greece smiting Persia.[38](ch. 8, v. 5)
Jerome opposed the doctrine ofPelagianism, and wrote against it three years before his death.[39] Jerome, despite being opposed to Origen, was influenced by Origenism in his soteriology. Although he taught that the Devil and the unbelieving will be eternally punished (unlike Origen), he believed that the punishment for Christian sinners, who have once believed but sin and fall away, will be temporal in nature. Some scholars such as J.N.D Kelly have also interpretedAmbrose to have held similar views considering the judgement of Christians.[40][41][42]
Although Augustine does not name Jerome personally, the view that all Christians would eventually be reunited to God was criticized by Augustine in his treatise "on faith and works".[42]
Jerome translated many biblical texts into Latin from Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. His translations formed part of theVulgate; theVulgate eventually superseded the preceding Latin translations of the Bible (theVetus Latina). TheCouncil of Trent in 1546 declared theVulgate authoritative "in public lectures, disputations, sermons, and expositions".[44][45]
Jerome showed more zeal and interest in the ascetic ideal than in abstract speculation. He lived as an ascetic for 4~5 years in the Syrian desert, and later near Bethlehem for 34 years. Nevertheless, his writings show outstanding scholarship[46] and his correspondence has great historical importance.[47]
Jerome is also often depicted with a lion, in reference to the popularhagiographical belief that Jerome once tamed a lion in the wilderness by healing its paw. The source for the story may actually have been the second century Roman tale ofAndrocles, or confusion with the exploits ofGerasimus (Jerome in later Latin is "Geronimus");[49][d] it is "a figment" found in the thirteenth-centuryGolden Legend byJacobus de Voragine.[50] Hagiographies of Jerome talk of his having spent many years in the Syrian desert, and artists often depict him in a "wilderness", which for West European painters can take the form of a wood.[51]
From the late Middle Ages, depictions of Jerome in a wider setting became popular. He is either shown in his study, surrounded by books and the equipment of a scholar, or in a rocky desert, or in a setting that combines both aspects, with him studying a book under the shelter of a rock-face or cave mouth. His study is often shown as large and well-provided for, he is often clean-shaven and well-dressed, and acardinal's hat may appear. These images derive from the tradition of theevangelist portrait, though Jerome is often given the library and desk of a serious scholar. His attribute of the lion, often shown at a smaller scale, may be beside him in either setting. The subject of "Jerome Penitent" first appears in the later 15th century in Italy; he is usually in the desert, wearing ragged clothes, and often naked above the waist. His gaze is usually fixed on acrucifix and he may beat himself with his fist or a rock.[52] In one of Georges de La Tour's 17th century French versions of St. Jerome his penitence is depicted alongside his red cardinal hat.[53]
Jerome is often depicted in connection with thevanitas motif, the reflection on the meaninglessness of earthly life and the transient nature of all earthly goods and pursuits. In the 16th centurySaint Jerome in his study byPieter Coecke van Aelst and workshop, the saint is depicted with a skull. Behind him on the wall is pinned an admonition,Cogita Mori ("Think upon death"). Further reminders of thevanitas motif of the passage of time and the imminence of death are the image of theLast Judgment visible in the saint's Bible, the candle and the hourglass.[54]
A four and three quarters foot tall limestone statue of Jerome was installed above the entrance of O'Shaughnessy Library on the campus ofthe University of St. Thomas (then College of St. Thomas) in St. Paul Minnesota in October 1950. The sculptor wasJoseph Kiselewski and the stone carver was Egisto Bertozzi.[56][57]
Saint Jerome in the Wilderness,Leonardo da Vinci, 1480–1490, Vatican Museums
Jerome Penitent in the Wilderness. Copper engraving,Albrecht Dürer 1494–1498
^In the Eastern Orthodox Church he is known asSaint Jerome of Stridonium orBlessed Jerome. "Blessed" in this context does not have the sense of being less than a saint, as it does in the West.
^Patrologia Latina 25, 373: Crebroque cryptas ingredi, quae in terrarum profunda defossae, ex utraque parte ingredientium per parietes habent corpora sepultorum, et ita obscura sunt omnia, ut propemodum illud propheticum compleatur:Descendant ad infernum viventes (Ps. LIV,16): et raro desuper lumen admissum, horrorem temperet tenebrarum, ut non-tam fenestram, quam foramen demissi luminis putes: rursumque pedetentim acceditur, et caeca nocte circumdatis illud Virgilianum proponitur (Aeneid. lib. II): "Horror ubique animos, simul ipsa silentia terrent."
^"(...) die griechische Bibelübersetzung, die einem innerjüdischen Bedürfnis entsprang (...) [von den] Rabbinen zuerst gerühmt (...) Später jedoch, als manche ungenaue Übertragung des hebräischen Textes in der Septuaginta und Übersetzungsfehler die Grundlage für hellenistische Irrlehren abgaben, lehte man die Septuaginta ab." (Homolka 1999, pp. 43–)
^Eugene Rice has suggested that in all probability the story of Gerasimus's lion became attached to the figure of Jerome some time during the seventh century, after the military invasions of the Arabs had forced many Greek monks who were living in the deserts of the Middle East to seek refuge in Rome.Rice 1985, pp. 44–45 conjectures that because of the similarity between the names Gerasimus and Geronimus—the late Latin form of Jerome's name—'a Latin-speaking cleric … made St Geronimus the hero of a story he had heard about St Gerasimus; and that the author ofPlerosque nimirum, attracted by a story at once so picturesque, so apparently appropriate, and so resonant in suggestion and meaning, and under the impression that its source waspilgrims who had been told it in Bethlehem, included it in his life of a favourite saint otherwise bereft of miracles.'" (Salter 2001, p. 12)
^Kantor, Benjamin Paul (30 August 2023).The Linguistic Classification of the Reading Traditions of Biblical Hebrew: A Phyla-and-Waves Model. Semitic Languages and Cultures. Vol. 19. Open Book Publishers. p. 20.doi:10.11647/obp.0210.ISBN978-1-78374-953-9.
^Rebenich 2002, p. 211: Further, he began to study Hebrew: 'I betook myself to a brother who before his conversion had been a Hebrew and...'
^Pritz, Ray (1988),Nazarene Jewish Christianity: from the end of the New Testament, p. 50,In his accounts of his desert sojourn, Jerome never mentions leaving Chalcis, and there is no pressing reason to think...
^Pierre Nautin, article "Hieronymus", in:Theologische Realenzyklopädie, Vol. 15, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin & New York 1986, pp. 304–315, [309–310].
^Michael Graves,Jerome's Hebrew Philology: A Study Based on his Commentary on Jeremiah, Brill, 2007: 196–198 [197] (ISBN 978-90-47-42181-8): "In his discussion he gives clear evidence of having consulted the Hebrew himself, providing details about the Hebrew that could not have been learned from the Greek translations."
^"The Bible".Archived from the original on 13 January 2016. Retrieved14 December 2015.
^Jerome."The Dialogue against the Luciferians". In Schaff, Philip; Wace, Henry (eds.).St. Jerome: Letters and select works, 1893. A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, Second Series. p. 334. Archived fromthe original on 1 January 2014 – via Google Books.
^Jerome."Letter to Pope Damasus". In Schaff, Philip; Wace, Henry (eds.).St. Jerome: Letters and select works, 1893. A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, Second Series. p. 19. Archived fromthe original on 13 March 2017 – via Google Books.
^Jerome."Against the Pelagians". In Schaff, Philip; Wace, Henry (eds.).St. Jerome: Letters and select works, 1893. A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, Second Series. Book I, p. 449. Archived fromthe original on 1 January 2014 – via Google Books.
^Jerome."Letter to Ageruchia". In Schaff, Philip; Wace, Henry (eds.).St. Jerome: Letters and select works, 1893. A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, Second Series. pp. 236–237. Archived fromthe original on 1 January 2014.
^Eremantle, note on Jerome's commentary on Daniel, in NPAF, 2d series, Vol. 6, p. 500.
^Kelly, J. N. D. (20 November 2000).Early Christian Doctrines. A&C Black.ISBN978-0-8264-5252-8.Jerome develops the same distinction, stating that, while the Devil and the impious who have denied God will be tortured without remission, those who have trusted in Christ, even if they have sinned and fallen away, will eventually be saved. Much the same teaching appears in Ambrose, developed in greater detail
^Goff, Jacques Le (15 December 1986).The Birth of Purgatory. University of Chicago Press.ISBN978-0-226-47083-2.Saint Jerome, though an enemy of Origen, was, when it came to salvation, more of an Origenist than Ambrose. He believed that all sinners, all mortal beings, with the exception of Satan, atheists, and the ungodly, would be saved: 'Just as we believe that the torments of the Devil, of all the deniers of God, of the ungodly who have said in their hearts, 'there is no God,' will be eternal, so too do we believe that the judgment of Christian sinners, whose works will be tried and purged in fire will be moderate and mixed with clemency.' Furthermore, 'He who with all his spirit has placed his faith in Christ, even if he die in sin, shall by his faith live forever.'"
^abAugustine & Lombardo 1988, pp. 64, 65. "Augustine, however, does not mention any names, and there is no evidence either here or in any other place that he is referring to these passages from the works of Jerome. Nevertheless, both Jerome and Ambrose seemed to have shared in the not uncommon error of their time, namely, that all Christians would sooner or later be reunited to God, an error which Augustine refutes here and in a number of other places"
^Akin, Jimmy (5 September 2017)."Is theVulgate the Catholic Church's official Bible?".National Catholic Register (blog). Retrieved8 December 2021.'[This] sacred and holy Synod – considering that no small utility may accrue to the Church of God, if it be made known which out of all the Latin editions, now in circulation, of the sacred books, is to be held as authentic – ordains and declares, that the said old and vulgate edition, which, by the long use of so many years, has been approved of in the Church, be, in public lectures, disputations, sermons and expositions, held as authentic; and that no one is to dare, or presume to reject it under any pretext whatever' [Decree Concerning the Edition and Use of the Sacred Books, 1546].
^"Vulgate".The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. Oxford University Press. 2005. pp. 1722–1723.ISBN978-0-19-280290-3 – via Google Books.
^Louth, Andrew (2022)."Jerome".The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. Oxford University Press. pp. 872–873.ISBN978-0-19-263815-1.His correspondence is of great interest and historical importance.
^Herzog, Sadja. “Gossart, Italy, and the National Gallery's Saint Jerome Penitent.” Report and Studies in the History of Art, vol. 3, 1969, pp. 67–70,JSTOR, Retrieved 29 December 2020.
^Judovitz, Dalia.Georges de La Tour and the Enigma of the Visible, New York, Fordham University Press, 2018.ISBN0-82327-744-5;ISBN9780823277445. p11, 19-22, 98, plate 3.
Saint Jerome,Three biographies: Malchus, St. Hilarion and Paulus the First Hermit Authored by Saint Jerome, London, 2012. limovia.net.ISBN978-1-78336-016-1
Letters, The Life of Paulus the First Hermit, The Life of S. Hilarion, The Life of Malchus, the Captive Monk, The Dialogue Against the Luciferians, The Perpetual Virginity of Blessed Mary, Against Jovinianus, Against Vigilantius, To Pammachius against John of Jerusalem, Against the Pelagians, Prefaces (CCEL)
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