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
This is what the Lord GOD says: Woe to the foolish prophets who follow their own spirit, yet have seen nothing.
“(Verse 3.) Woe to the foolish prophets who follow their own spirit and see nothing. LXX: Woe to those who prophesy from their own heart and do not see at all, forsaking what is proposed by us and following their own spirit.”
Your prophets, O Israel, are like foxes among the ruins.
“The prophets of Israel are like foxes, committing thefts of domestic birds every day: those who live, according to Aquila and the Septuagint, in the deserts; according to Symmachus and Theodotion, in walls and ruins: who cannot advance opposite, nor oppose a wall for the…”
You did not go up to the gaps or restore the wall around the house of Israel so that it would stand in the battle on the Day of the…
“Whom does he mean by all those who have come before me? Those who say, "Thus says the Lord!" But the Lord has not sent them; they who have come on their own authority and have not been sent are the thieves and robbers.”
Haven’t you seen a false vision and spoken a lying divination when you proclaim, ‘Thus declares the LORD,’ even though I have not spoken?
“Under the guise of prophets, this speech is against heretics, who speak empty words and see falsehood, and they persist in establishing their own doctrine.”
Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: Because you have uttered vain words and seen false visions, I am against you, declares the Lord GOD.
“(Vers. 8, 9.) Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you have spoken idle words and have seen falsehood, behold, I am against you, declares the Lord God. And my hand will be against the prophets who see false visions and utter lying divinations.”
Because they have led My people astray, saying, ‘Peace,’ when there is no peace, and whitewashing any flimsy wall that is built,
“How is the cause helped by the people who dance attendance on these people with itching ears who know neither how to hear nor how to speak?”
“Son of man, these men have set up idols in their hearts and put wicked stumbling blocks before their faces. Should I consult with them in any way?
“The meaning is: Son of man, these men who sit before you have placed their impurities or thoughts in their hearts; and, according to Symmachus and Theodotion, idols and scandal, that is, the destruction and torment of their wickedness, they have set against their own…”
in order that the house of Israel may no longer stray from Me and no longer defile themselves with all their transgressions.
“It is fitting that the person who has been estranged from me, and has placed his thoughts in his heart, and the torment or punishment of his wickedness before his face, should receive witness that it is written in Isaiah: Walk in the light of…”
then even if these three men—Noah, Daniel, and Job—were in it, their righteousness could deliver only themselves, declares the Lord GOD.
“Noah, because of the impending flood that would cleanse the earth, could not prevent or delay it as the whole earth had corrupted the ways of the Lord (Genesis 6:7).”
For this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘How much worse will it be when I send against Jerusalem My four dire judgments—sword, famine, wild beasts, and plague—in order to…
“Concerning all these, neither the teaching of spiritual parents, whom we understand as masters, nor the rulers will be able to free them, unless there is agreement of the sons, and their petitions have aided their efforts.”
Again the word of the LORD came to me, saying, “Son of man, confront Jerusalem with her abominations
“(Chapter 16, Verses 1, 2.) And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, make known the abominations of Jerusalem and say: Thus says the Lord God to Jerusalem.”
On the day of your birth your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water for cleansing. You were not rubbed with salt or wrapped in cloths.
“It follows: And you were not washed in water for salvation. The bodies of babies, as soon as they are born from the womb, are usually washed with water: so too does the spiritual generation require the saving washing.”
I clothed you in embroidered cloth and gave you sandals of fine leather. I wrapped you in fine linen and covered you with silk.
“(Verse 10.) And you clothed yourself in various colors. LXX: And you adorned yourself with various garments: engaging in the rituals of the law, you abandoned idols.”
I adorned you with jewelry, and I put bracelets on your wrists and a chain around your neck.
“(Verse 11.) And I adorned you with ornaments. Now he lists the ornaments in general, which he enumerates in the following sections: bracelets and necklaces, earrings and crown, and other ornaments which he gave to Jerusalem, and it is said in Isaiah that she lost…”
I put a ring in your nose, earrings on your ears, and a beautiful crown upon your head.
“And you are adorned with gold and silver. We have often said that gold pertains to the mind, and silver to eloquence.”
Your fame spread among the nations on account of your beauty, for it was perfect in the splendor I bestowed on you, declares the Lord GOD.
“(Verse 14) And your name went out among the nations because of your beauty, for you were perfect in my splendor which I had placed upon you, says the Lord God.”
You took some of your garments and made colorful high places for yourself, and on them you prostituted yourself. Such things should not have happened; never should they have occurred!
“(Verse 16.) And taking from your garments, you made for yourself lofty things sewn on here and there, and you fornicated upon them, as it has not been done, nor will it be in the future.”
You also took the fine jewelry of gold and silver I had given you, and you made male idols with which to prostitute yourself.
“(Verse 17) And you took the vessels of your adornment from my gold and silver, which I gave to you; and you made for yourself male images, and you committed fornication with them.”
Woe! Woe to you, declares the Lord GOD. And in addition to all your other wickedness, you built yourself a mound and made yourself a lofty shrine in every public…
“(Verse 23 and following) And it came to pass after all your wickedness: woe, woe to you, says the Lord God. And you built yourself a brothel, and made for yourself a prostitute in all the streets.”
Then you prostituted yourself with the Assyrians, because you were not yet satisfied. Even after that, you were still not satisfied.
“(Verse 28, 29.) And you have committed fornication with the sons of Assyria: because you were not yet satisfied, and after you committed fornication, you were still not satisfied.”
How weak-willed is your heart, declares the Lord GOD, while you do all these things, the acts of a shameless prostitute!
“(Verse 30, 31.) In what shall I cleanse your heart, says the Lord God, when you do all these works of a promiscuous and shameless woman?”
But when you built your mounds at the head of every street and made your lofty shrines in every public square, you were not even like a prostitute, because you…
“Or according to the Septuagint: You were not like a prostitute gathering wages, but you gave what you should have received, so that you would not be protected by the help of those with whom you fornicated and followed demons, but rather, oppressed by various…”
You adulterous wife! You receive strangers instead of your own husband! Men give gifts to all their prostitutes, but you gave gifts to all your lovers.
“(Verse 32 and following) But like an adulterous woman, who brings in strangers over her husband. All prostitutes receive payment: but you have given payment to all your lovers, and you would give them anything to come in to you from every direction to fornicate…”
Behold, all who speak in proverbs will quote this proverb about you: ‘Like mother, like daughter.’
“(Verse 44.) Behold, everyone who speaks a commonly-known proverb, will apply it to you, saying: Like mother, like daughter.”
So now you must bear your disgrace, since you have brought justification for your sisters. For they appear more righteous than you, because your sins were more vile than theirs.
“The second tablet after the shipwreck is to be ashamed when you have sinned, and not to subject yourself to the reproach that is said against Jerusalem: You have become like a prostitute, you do not know how to blush (Jeremiah III, 3).”