Voices and influences
Jerome
The scholar who went to the Hebrew itself and gave the West a Bible it read for a thousand years.
Summary
This site quotes Jerome 2,794 times across 57 books, and lists 0 works.
- Lived died 420.
- Quoted here most in Matthew: 558 of 2,794.
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Jerome
- Lived
- died 420
- Tradition
- Patristic
5 of 2,794 quotations
Own words
Quoted in full, because Jerome died in 420 and these works are out of copyright. Each citation below names its edition and its year. A citation naming a modernised text means that edition makes its own editorial changes, and that edition's terms are not in this site's record.
(Chapter 49, verse 3) Reuben, my firstborn, you are my strength and the first of my sons, tough in bearing and tough in insolence and injury, like water that does not boil.
The rest of the quotation
You went up on your father's bed, then you defiled it when you went up. In Hebrew it is written: Reuben, my firstborn, you are my strength, and the first in power among my sons. Greater in carrying, and greater in strength. You are poured out like water, do not exceed. For you have ascended the bed of your father and defiled the couch in his ascent.
Genesis 49:3 Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, excelling in honor, excelling in power. BSB
But we your people and the sheep of your pasture. When he says "sheep," he signifies innocence. Sheep have nothing but a shepherd. We will give you thanks forever. We will confess: either we do penance, or, what is better, we glorify.
The rest of the quotation
From generation to generation; among the first people, and among the second people. Although according to the historical sense it is said otherwise in Ezekiel, nevertheless according to the spiritual understanding we say this, since these two peoples — that is, the two rods — are joined together in Ezekiel, and become one kingdom.
Psalms 79:13 Then we Your people, the sheep of Your pasture, will thank You forever; from generation to generation we will declare Your praise. BSB
I have become like the pelican of the wilderness. There are said to be two kinds of these birds.
The rest of the quotation
One lives in the waters, and its food is fish; and one lives in the wilderness, and its food is venomous creatures, that is, serpents and crocodiles and lizards. Now these birds are called in Latin 'onocrotali.' To that one therefore have I become like, which lives in the wilderness, which eats venomous creatures: that is, my food was to me as it were poison. I have become like the night-raven in its dwelling-place.
Psalms 102:6 I am like a desert owl, like an owl among the ruins. BSB
"Be exalted above the heavens, O God." God is not exalted except above the heavens, he is not exalted above the earth. When we are earthly, we do not exalt God; but if from earthly we have been made heavenly, then we exalt God.
The rest of the quotation
And our Lord, when he was on earth, did not exalt us. Someone may say: You speak rashly, since he himself says in the Gospel: "When I have been lifted up, I will draw all things to myself."
Psalms 108:5–6 Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; may Your glory cover all the earth. Respond and save us with Your right hand, that Your beloved may be delivered. BSB
Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem; praise your God, O Zion. Just now we heard the holy presbyter preaching that, because of its transgression of the law, the Jewish people has been forsaken; and how is it that now it is said, Praise the Lord, O…
The rest of the quotation
Jerusalem; praise your God, O Zion? Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem. Jerusalem, "vision of peace." Praise your God, O Zion. Zion is interpreted "watchtower." You see, then, what he says: Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem. Wherever there is a vision of peace, wherever there is contemplation of God, there let there be praise of God.
Psalms 147:12 Exalt the LORD, O Jerusalem; praise your God, O Zion! BSB
Influence, on the record
This site quotes Jerome 2,794 times across 57 books.
This site’s own count of what it does with the voice
The life, in order
The life told as one accountfrom this site's record
Eusebius Hieronymus was born about 347 at Stridon, a town on the border of Dalmatia and Pannonia that no longer exists. His parents were Christians with money. They sent him to Rome, where he studied grammar and rhetoric under the great teacher Donatus, collected pagan authors, and was baptized in his late teens. He traveled east, and about 375 went into the desert of Chalcis, southeast of Antioch, to live as a hermit. He lasted a few years. He hated the heat, quarreled with the monks over the Trinity, and — by his own account — hired a converted Jew to teach him Hebrew, largely to keep his mind off Rome. That decision changed the history of the Bible in the West. Ordained at Antioch, he went on to Constantinople, where he heard Gregory of Nazianzus, and then in 382 to Rome, where Pope Damasus made him a secretary and set him to revising the Latin Gospels against the Greek. In Rome he also became teacher to a circle of wealthy Christian women — Marcella, Paula, and Paula's daughter Eustochium — who studied Scripture and Hebrew with him. His scorn for the worldly Roman clergy was returned with interest, and after Damasus died in 384 he left the city for good. In 386 he settled at Bethlehem, where Paula founded monasteries for men and women and paid for his books. He stayed thirty-four years, working in a cave beside the traditional site of the Nativity. There he did the thing he is known for. Instead of correcting the old Latin against the Greek Septuagint, he translated the Old Testament out of the Hebrew — going to Jewish teachers for help, arguing that the Hebraica veritas, the Hebrew truth, was the standard. Augustine wrote to warn him that congregations would riot over changed familiar words, and in North Africa one did. Jerome kept going. He also wrote commentaries on most of the prophets, on Matthew and several letters of Paul, a catalogue of Christian writers, letters that were copied and read as literature, and translations of Origen and Eusebius. He was a savage controversialist. He broke publicly with his oldest friend Rufinus over Origen, attacked Jovinian, Vigilantius, and Pelagius in print, and lost few opportunities to wound. In 410 refugees from the sack of Rome arrived at his door and he wrote that the light of the world had gone out. Paula died in 404, Eustochium in 419. Jerome died at Bethlehem in 420. His translation, gathered later with other Latin books into what came to be called the Vulgate, was the Bible of Western Europe until the Reformation and remained the Roman Catholic standard far beyond it. Sources: Jerome, Letters and De viris illustribus; Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church; the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers series, second series volume 6; the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia.
2,794 quotations across 57 books
Where this voice is quoted
Do not be quick to speak, and do not be hasty in your heart to utter a word before God.
“"Be not rash with your mouth, and let not your heart be hasty to utter a word before God; for God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few.”
Do not let your mouth cause your flesh to sin, and do not tell the messenger that your vow was a mistake.
“"Let not your mouth bring guilt on your flesh, and do not tell the messenger that it was an error. Why should God be angered by your speech and destroy the work of your hands?”
Better what the eye can see than the wandering of desire. This too is futile and a pursuit of the wind.
“"Better is what the eyes see than what is imagined. That, too, is futility and a vexation of the spirit." Symmachus interpreted this clearly, he says: "it is better to make provision, than to walk about as it pleases you".”
Sorrow is better than laughter, for a sad countenance is good for the heart.
“"Anger is better than laughter, for through a sad face the heart is improved. "Laughter weakens the mind, anger reproves and corrects it. Both let us become angry with ourselves when we sin, and let us get angry with others.”
The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of pleasure.
“"The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of enjoyment. ""Blessed", says the Saviour, "are the mourning, since they will be consoled". [Matth. 5, 5.]”
It is better to heed a wise man’s rebuke than to listen to the song of fools.
“"It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise, than for a man to hear the song of fools. For as the crackling of thorns under the pot, so is the laughter of the fool: this too is vanity.”
Surely extortion turns a wise man into a fool, and a bribe corrupts the heart.
“"Surely oppression makes a wise man mad; and a gift destroys the heart. "Now see the wise man as if regarding profit, according to that passage which says, "accuse the wise and he will love you" [Prov. 9, 8.].”
Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit, for anger settles in the lap of a fool.
“"Be not hasty in your spirit to be angry: for anger rests in the lap of fools. "He does not grant here that anger should be tempered, therefore he now says, "Be not hasty in your spirit to be angry"; but that when anger is…”
Do not say, “Why were the old days better than these?” For it is unwise of you to ask about this.
“"Do not ask,' what is the cause that the former days were better than these?' For you do not enquire wisely about this. "Do not prefer the previous age to this one, since God created both one and the other.”
Wisdom, like an inheritance, is good, and it benefits those who see the sun.
“"Wisdom is good with an inheritance: and by it there is profit to them that see the sun. For wisdom is a defence, and money is a defence: but the advantage of knowledge is, that wisdom gives life to those that have it.”
In my futile life I have seen both of these: A righteous man perishing in his righteousness, and a wicked man living long in his wickedness.
“"I have seen all things in the days of my vanity: there is a just man, that dies in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man that remains alive in his wickedness.”
Do not be excessively wicked, and do not be a fool. Why should you die before your time?
“"Do not be too wicked, and do not be foolish: why should you die before your time? "When God says, "I do not want the death of the dying, only let him return and live" [Ezek. 18, 32.], it suffices to have sinned only once.”
It is good to grasp the one and not let the other slip from your hand. For he who fears God will follow both warnings.
“"It is good that you should take hold of this, and do not withdraw your hand; for he that fears God shall come forth of them all. "It is good to do good to righteous men, but also being kind to sinners is not wicked.”
Surely there is no righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.
“"Wisdom strengthens the wise more than ten mighty men which are in the city. For there is not a just man on the earth, that does good and does not sin.”
Who is like the wise man? Who knows the interpretation of a matter? A man’s wisdom brightens his face, and the sternness of his face is changed.
“"Who is like the wise man? And who knows what things mean? A man's wisdom lights up his face, and the boldness of his face is transformed.”
For there is a right time and procedure to every purpose, though a man’s misery weighs heavily upon him.
“"For everything has its time and justice, for man's evil overwhelms him. Indeed he does not know what will happen, for when it happens , who will tell him?”
As no man has power over the wind to contain it, so no one has authority over his day of death.
“"Man is powerless over the spirit-to restrain the spirit; nor is there authority over the day of death; nor discharge in war; and wickedness cannot save the wrong-doer.”
Although a sinner does evil a hundred times and still lives long, yet I also know that it will go well with those who fear God, who are reverent in…
“"Because a sinner does what is wrong an hundred times and He is patient with him, yet nevertheless I am aware that it will be well with those who fear God that they may fear Him.”
So I took all this to heart and concluded that the righteous and the wise, as well as their deeds, are in God’s hands.
“"For all this I noted and I sought to ascertain all this: that the righteous and the wise together with their actions are in the Hand of God; whether love or hate man does not know; all preceded them.”
I saw something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong; neither is the bread to the wise, nor the wealth…
“"Once more I saw under the sun that the race is not won by the swift; nor the battle by the strong, nor does bread come to the wise, riches to the intelligent, nor favour to the learned; but time and death will happen to…”
The calm words of the wise are heeded over the shouts of a ruler among fools.
“"The gentle words of the wise are heard above the shouts of a king over fools. "Whosoever you see in the Church declaiming and arousing applause by whatever refinery or charm, he who shakes off his laughter and incites the crowd to feigned happiness, know…”
Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good.
“"And wisdom is better than weapons, but a single rogue can ruin a great deal of good. "Now he also takes wisdom in preference to strength and says that it is worth more in battle than weapons.”
As dead flies bring a stench to the perfumer’s oil, so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor.
“"Dead flies putrefy the perfumer's oil; a little folly outweighs wisdom and honour. "Here he gives an example to illustrate the idea expressed above, in which he says that many good things can be outweighed by one fool, since one evil mixed with good in…”
A wise man’s heart inclines to the right, but the heart of a fool to the left.
“"A wise man's mind tends to his right; while a fool's mind tends to his left. Even on the road as the fool walks, he lacks sense, and proclaims to all that he is a fool.”
There is an evil I have seen under the sun—an error that proceeds from the ruler: Folly is appointed to great heights, but the rich sit in lowly positions.
“"There is an evil that I have observed in the world as if it were an error proceeding from the ruler: folly is placed on lofty heights, while rich men sit in low places.”