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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.
Jerome. Painted by Caravaggio. The file is marked public domain. This site's record does not give the artist's death year, which is what settles the painting's own rights. The file record

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.

Hebrew Questions on Genesis, 420

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.

Homily 12, on Psalm 78, 420

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.

Homily 28, on Psalm 101, 420

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.

Homily 34, on Psalm 107, 420

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…

Homily 57, on Psalm 147, 420

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

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

Galatians 6:4Commentary on Galatians (420)

Each one should test his own work. Then he will have reason to boast in himself alone, and not in someone else.

(Verse 4) But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor.

Galatians 6:5EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 3.6.5 (420)

For each one should carry his own load.

This seems to contradict the words above. … But one must see that he was there telling us, as sinners in the present life, to support one another and be a help to one another in the present age.

Galatians 6:6EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 3.6.6 (420)

Nevertheless, the one who receives instruction in the word must share in all good things with his instructor.

The meaning is this: Since previously he has been speaking to those who are spiritual about ethics … he now on the contrary speaks to those who are still rather weak, who are disciples yet live according to the flesh.

Galatians 6:7Commentary on Galatians (420)

Do not be deceived: God is not to be mocked. Whatever a man sows, he will reap in return.

(Verse 7.) Do not be deceived, God is not mocked. Whatever a person sows, that will he also reap. By foreseeing with the Spirit, those who are being taught are able to provide for the needs and expenses of their teachers and to claim poverty…

Galatians 6:8Commentary on Galatians (420)

The one who sows to please his flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; but the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.

(Verse 8) For he who sows in his flesh will reap corruption from the flesh. But he who sows in the Spirit will reap eternal life from the Spirit. Everything we speak, do, and think is sown in two fields, the flesh and the Spirit.

Galatians 6:9Commentary on Galatians (420)

Let us not grow weary in well-doing, for in due time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

(Verse 9) But let us not grow weary in doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.

Galatians 6:10Commentary on Galatians (420)

Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to the family of faith.

(V. 10) Therefore, while we have time, let us do good to all, especially to those who belong to the family of faith. It is the time of sowing, as we have said, the present time, and the lifespan we are running.

Galatians 6:11EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 3.6.11 (420)

See what large letters I am using to write to you with my own hand!

Those who wanted the Galatians to be circumcised had put it about that Paul preached one way and acted another, destroying his words by his own deeds, since he who proclaimed the abolition of the law was found to be obeying the law.

Galatians 6:12EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 3.6.12 (420)

Those who want to make a good impression outwardly are trying to compel you to be circumcised. They only do this to avoid persecution for the cross of Christ.

Caius [Julius] Caesar and Octavianus Augustus, and Tiberius, the successor of Augustus, had published laws that permitted the Jews scattered throughout the whole sphere of the Roman Empire to live by their own code and observe their ancestral ceremonies.

Galatians 6:13EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 3.6.12 (420)

For the circumcised do not even keep the law themselves, yet they want you to be circumcised that they may boast in your flesh.

Because of the weakness of the sin nature, Paul says, the law cannot be fulfilled. Hence the Jews keep the commands and traditions of the elders rather than God's commands, performing neither the whole body of the law (which is impossible) nor the spirit of…

Galatians 6:15Commentary on Galatians (420)

For neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything. What counts is a new creation.

(v. 15) For neither circumcision is anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. As faithful and unfaithful, when there is one in substance, are divided into two according to the diversity of understanding, the Apostle saying: Stripping yourselves of the old man with his works…

Galatians 6:16Commentary on Galatians (420)

Peace and mercy to all who walk by this rule, even to the Israel of God.

(Verse 16.) And whoever follows this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God. All things are directed according to the standard; and whether they be right or wrong, when the rule is applied, they are judged.

Galatians 6:17EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 3.6.17 (420)

From now on let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.

Anyone who after Christ's coming is circumcised in the flesh does not carry the marks of the Lord Jesus. Rather he glories in his own confusion.

Galatians 6:18EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 3.6.18 (420)

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers. Amen.

How does the blessing refer to the letter? Not discord, not slavery to the law, not biting and railing, but the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ is asked to be "with your spirit." Not with the flesh only; not with the soul only.