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
Therefore I will again confound these people with wonder upon wonder. The wisdom of the wise will vanish, and the intelligence of the intelligent will be hidden.”
“From my youth up until now I have spent many years in writing various works and have always tried to teach my hearers the doctrine that I have been taught publicly in church.”
In a very short time, will not Lebanon become an orchard, and the orchard seem like a forest?
“(Verse 17). Will not Lebanon soon become a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be regarded as a forest?”
For the ruthless will vanish, the mockers will disappear, and all who look for evil will be cut down—
“(Verse 20). For the tyrant shall be no more, and the scoffer shall cease to be; all those alert to do evil shall be cut off. And there is rejoicing for every downfall: for he who prevailed has fallen.”
Then the wayward in spirit will come to understanding, and those who grumble will accept instruction.”
“(Verse 24) And those who wander in spirit will gain understanding, and murmurers will learn the Law. (LXX: And those who wander in spirit will gain understanding, and murmurers will learn obedience, and those with stammering tongues will learn to speak peace.)”
This is the burden against the beasts of the Negev: Through a land of hardship and distress, of lioness and lion, of viper and flying serpent, they carry their wealth…
“(Verse 6a) The burden of the beasts of the south. In Hebrew it is called Massa Beemoth (Al. Behemoth) of the Negeb, which the Septuagint translated as 'The Vision of the Quadrupeds in the Desert'.”
Go now, write it on a tablet in their presence and inscribe it on a scroll; it will be for the days to come, a witness forever and ever.
“(Verse 8.) Now, write for them on a tablet. Carefully inscribe it in the book: and it shall be a testimony until the last day. The Hebrews say that in the Prophets there is one spirit, and all times are connected before the Lord.”
These are rebellious people, deceitful children, children unwilling to obey the LORD’s instruction. They say to the seers, “Stop seeing visions!”
“(v. 9 et seq.) For the people provoke to anger, and the sons are liars, sons unwilling to listen to the law of God.”
A thousand will flee at the threat of one; at the threat of five you will all flee, until you are left alone like a pole on a mountaintop, like…
“When Moses fought against Amalek, it was not with the sword but with prayer that he prevailed. Therefore, if we wish to be lifted up, we must first prostrate ourselves.… We do not understand the prophet's words: "One thousand shall flee at the rebuke of…”
Therefore the LORD longs to be gracious to you; therefore He rises to show you compassion, for the LORD is a just God. Blessed are all who wait for Him.
“(Verse 18) Therefore the Lord waits, to have mercy on you, and therefore he will be exalted in showing mercy to you, because the Lord is a God of justice: blessed are all they that wait for him.”
O people in Zion who dwell in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. He will surely be gracious when you cry for help; when He hears, He will answer you.
“(Verse 19) For the people of Zion will dwell in Jerusalem. The Jews refer these things to the time of Cyrus, when the people returned from Babylon to Judaea under Zerubbabel and the high priest Joshua.”
The Lord will give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, but your Teacher will no longer hide Himself—with your own eyes you will see Him.
“(Verse 20.) Crying, you will not weep in vain, showing compassion, he will have compassion on you: at the sound of your cry, as soon as he hears, he will answer you.”
And whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear this command behind you: “This is the way. Walk in it.”
“And your teacher will not fly away from you anymore, and your eyes will see your instructor, and your ears will hear the word behind you, saying: This is the way, walk in it, neither to the right nor to the left.”
And whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear this command behind you: “This is the way. Walk in it.”
“(Verse 21.) And the Lord will give you tight bread and brief water. If we refer these times to Zerubbabel, the interpretation is easy; that under him there was not perfect joy, as David says: When the Lord turned the captivity of Zion, we were…”
So you will desecrate your silver-plated idols and your gold-plated images. You will throw them away like menstrual cloths, saying to them, “Be gone!”
“(Verse 23.) And you shall defile the plates of your carved silver, and the garment of your molded gold, and scatter them like the impurity of a menstruating woman: go forth, you shall say to it.”
The oxen and donkeys that work the ground will eat salted fodder, winnowed with shovel and pitchfork.
“(Verse 24) And rain will be given to your seed wherever you sow it in the land, and the bread of the earth will be most abundant and rich.”
The oxen and donkeys that work the ground will eat salted fodder, winnowed with shovel and pitchfork.
“(Verse 25.) On that day, the lamb will graze abundantly in your possession. And your oxen and donkeys, who work the land, will eat a mixture of barley and chaff, like it has been winnowed in the threshing floor.”
Woe to you, O destroyer never destroyed, O traitor never betrayed! When you have finished destroying, you will be destroyed. When you have finished betraying, you will be betrayed.
“(Chapter XXXIII - Verse 1) Woe to those who plunder: will they not be plundered themselves? And to those who despise: will they not be despised themselves?”
The wilderness and the land will be glad; the desert will rejoice and blossom like a rose. It will bloom profusely and rejoice with joy and singing.
“(Chapter 35, verses 1, 2) The desolate and impassable will rejoice, and solitude will exult and flourish like a lily. It will sprout and blossom; with joy and praise it will exult.”
In the fourteenth year of Hezekiah’s reign, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked and captured all the fortified cities of Judah.
“I read in a certain Commentary that the same person is Sennacherib who also captured Samaria, which is completely false. For the Sacred History recounts that first Phul, the king of the Assyrians, devastated the ten tribes under Manahen, the king of Israel.”
Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah the palace administrator, Shebna the scribe, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder, went out to him.
“But Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was in charge of the palace, went out to him, along with the royal secretary Shebna and the court official Joah son of Asaph.”
Do not listen to Hezekiah, for this is what the king of Assyria says: Make peace with me and come out to me.
“(Vers. 16 seqq.) Join me in blessing, and come out to me, and each one eat his own vineyard, and each one eat his own fig tree, and each one drink the water of his own cistern.”
until I come and take you away to a land like your own—a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards.
“(Vers. 17) Until I come and take you to a land, which is like your own land: a land of wheat and wine, a land of bread and vineyards.”
But the people remained silent and did not answer a word, for Hezekiah had commanded, “Do not answer him.”
“(Verse 21) But they were silent and did not answer him a word. For the king had commanded, 'Do not answer him.' And all the people remained silent and did not answer him anything.”
On hearing this report, King Hezekiah tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, and entered the house of the LORD.
“Leaving aside the clear things, let us discuss only those in which the hidden meaning is present. They tear their clothes because they hear Rabshekah blaspheming.”
Surely you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the other countries, devoting them to destruction. Will you then be spared?
“And just as he had said to the people, "Do not let Hezekiah deceive you," he speaks the same blasphemy to the king, saying, "Do not let your God deceive you."”