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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

Isaiah 38:2Commentary on Isaiah (420)

Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD,

(Verse 2) And Hezekiah turned his face to the wall, and prayed to the Lord. And Hezekiah turned his face to the wall, because he could not go to the Temple. To the wall of the Temple, next to which Solomon had built a palace.

Isaiah 38:4–6Commentary on Isaiah (420)

And the word of the LORD came to Isaiah, saying, “Go and tell Hezekiah that this is what the LORD, the God of your father David, says: ‘I have heard…

(Verses 4-6) And the word of the Lord came to Isaiah, saying: Go and tell Hezekiah: Thus says the Lord God of David, your father: I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears.

Isaiah 38:9Commentary on Isaiah (420)

This is a writing by Hezekiah king of Judah after his illness and recovery:

(Verse 9) The Scripture of King Hezekiah of Judah when he became ill and recovered from his illness. LXX. The Prayer of King Hezekiah of Judah when he was sick and rose from his sickness.

Isaiah 38:10Commentary on Isaiah (420)

I said, “In the prime of my life I must go through the gates of Sheol and be deprived of the remainder of my years.”

(Verse 10) I said in the middle of my days, I shall go to the gates of the grave: I have sought the remainder of my years.

Isaiah 38:14Commentary on Isaiah (420)

I chirp like a swallow or crane; I moan like a dove. My eyes grow weak as I look upward. O Lord, I am oppressed; be my security.”

(Verse 15.) Like the chick of a swallow, so will I cry out: I will meditate as a dove: My eyes are weakened looking towards the height.

Isaiah 38:19Commentary on Isaiah (420)

The living, only the living, can thank You, as I do today; fathers will tell their children about Your faithfulness.

(Verse 19) Living, the living himself will confess to you, as I do today. The father will make your truth known to the children. The living, the living themselves will confess to you, just as I do today.

Isaiah 38:21–22Commentary on Isaiah (420)

Now Isaiah had said, “Prepare a lump of pressed figs and apply it to the boil, and he will recover.”

(Verses 21, 22.) And Isaiah commanded them to take a lump of figs and apply it to the boil, and he would be healed. And Hezekiah said that the sign would be that he would go up to the house of the Lord.

Isaiah 40:1–2Commentary on Isaiah (420)

“Comfort, comfort My people,” says your God. “Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her forced labor has been completed; her iniquity has been pardoned.

(Chapter 40, Verses 1 onwards) Console, console my people, says your God: Speak to the heart of Jerusalem, and call out to her; for her wickedness is complete, her iniquity is forgiven.

Isaiah 40:13–14Commentary on Isaiah (420)

Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD, or informed Him as His counselor? Whom did He consult to enlighten Him, and who taught Him the paths of justice?

(Verses 13-14) Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord, or instructed him as his counselor? Whom did he consult to enlighten him, and who taught him the right way? Who was it that taught him knowledge, or showed him the path of understanding?

Isaiah 40:15Commentary on Isaiah (420)

Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket; they are considered a speck of dust on the scales; He lifts up the islands like fine dust.

(Verse 15) Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket; they are regarded as dust on the scales; he weighs the islands as though they were fine dust.

Isaiah 40:16Commentary on Isaiah (420)

Lebanon is not sufficient for fuel, nor its animals enough for a burnt offering.

(Verse 16) And Lebanon is not enough to burn, and its animals are not enough for a burnt offering. LXX: Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor all the animals enough for a burnt offering.

Isaiah 40:17Commentary on Isaiah (420)

All the nations are as nothing before Him; He regards them as nothingness and emptiness.

(Verse 17) All nations are as nothing before him, they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness. LXX: All the nations are as nothing in his sight, and they are counted as worthless.

Isaiah 40:18–20Commentary on Isaiah (420)

To whom will you liken God? To what image will you compare Him? To an idol that a craftsman casts and a metalworker overlays with gold and fits with silver…

(Verse 18 and following) To whom then will you liken God, or what image will you set before Him? Can the craftsman make a graven image, or the goldsmith overlay it with gold, and the silversmith spread silver plates upon it?

Isaiah 40:21–26Commentary on Isaiah (420)

Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been declared to you from the beginning? Have you not understood since the foundation of the earth?

(Vers. 21 seqq.) Do you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been announced to you from the beginning? Have you not understood the foundations of the earth? He sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like locusts.

Isaiah 40:22Commentary on Isaiah (420)

He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth; its dwellers are like grasshoppers.

For if we consider the various nations in the whole world, from the Ocean to the Ocean, that is, from the Indian sea to the British, and from the Atlantic to the harshness of the North, where the waters freeze and beautiful amber grows, we…

Isaiah 40:31Commentary on Isaiah (420)

But those who wait upon the LORD will renew their strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and…

But those who have confidence not in their own strength, but in God, and always await His mercy, let them change their strength and go from virtue to virtue: and let them take wings like eagles, and hear: Your youth will be renewed like the…

Isaiah 41:13–14Commentary on Isaiah (420)

For I am the LORD your God, who takes hold of your right hand and tells you: Do not fear, I will help you.

(Verses 13-14) For I, the Lord your God, took hold of your hand, saying to you: Do not fear, I have helped you. Do not fear, words of Jacob, you who are dead from Israel.

Isaiah 41:14Commentary on Isaiah (420)

Do not fear, O worm of Jacob, O few men of Israel. I will help you,” declares the LORD. “Your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.

I say to you, Do not be afraid: I have helped you; do not fear, worm of Jacob, who are dead from Israel, or as the LXX says, very few from Israel.

Isaiah 41:19Commentary on Isaiah (420)

I will plant cedars in the wilderness, acacias, myrtles, and olive trees. I will set cypresses in the desert, elms and boxwood together,

These varieties of trees signify the diversity of spiritual grace. And because the nature of them is well known to all, we will now explain the Setta, which Theodotio translated as a thorn.

Isaiah 41:21Commentary on Isaiah (420)

“Present your case,” says the LORD. “Submit your arguments,” says the King of Jacob.

(Verse 21) Make your case, says the Lord: bring forth if you have anything to say, says the king Jacob. LXX: Your judgment is near, says the Lord God: they have come and drawn near your counsels, says the king of Jacob.

Isaiah 41:23Commentary on Isaiah (420)

Tell us the things that are to come, so that we may know that you are gods.

(Verse 23) Announce what will happen in the future, and we will know that you are gods. Do good or do evil, if you can, and let us talk and see together.

Isaiah 41:24Commentary on Isaiah (420)

Behold, you are nothing and your work is of no value. Anyone who chooses you is detestable.

(Verse 24) Behold, you are nothing (from nothing): and your work is from something that does not exist: an abomination is he who chooses you. LXX: they have chosen you from the land of abominations.

Isaiah 41:25Commentary on Isaiah (420)

I have raised up one from the north, and he has come—one from the east who calls on My name.

(Verse 25) He stirred up from the north, and he will come from the rising sun: he will call my name, and he will bring magistrates like clay: and like a potter treading the earth.

Isaiah 41:27Commentary on Isaiah (420)

I was the first to tell Zion: ‘Look, here they are!’ And I gave to Jerusalem a herald of good news.

(Verse 27) The first to Zion will say: Behold, they are here, and I will give Jerusalem a messenger. LXX: I will give the beginning to Zion: and I will console Jerusalem in the way.

Isaiah 41:28–29Commentary on Isaiah (420)

When I look, there is no one; there is no counselor among them; when I ask them, they have nothing to say.

(Verses 28-29) And I saw, and there was none among them that could counsel, and when I asked, no one could answer a word. Behold, all are unjust, and their works are vain; their idols are wind and emptiness.