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
For when you eat the fruit of your labor, blessings and prosperity will be yours.
“You will eat the labors of your hands. Many, not understanding, have interpreted this passage otherwise: 'You will eat the labors of your fruits.' Indeed the Latin copies have it thus: You will eat the labors of your fruits.”
Many a time they have persecuted me from my youth— let Israel now declare—
“They often attacked me from my youth — let Israel now say — they often attacked me from my youth. Two things are said: both that they often attacked me, and that they attacked me from my youth.”
My heart is not proud, O LORD, my eyes are not haughty. I do not aspire to great things or matters too lofty for me.
“I know your humility. I know that you can say with sincerity, "Lord, my heart is not haughty or my eyes lofty"; I know that in your heart as in that of your mother the pride through which the devil fell has no place.”
O LORD, remember on behalf of David all the hardships he endured,
“Remember, O Lord, David and all his meekness. Many suppose, from what is written in the Gospel — "Have mercy on us, Son of David," which the blind men who were sitting in Jericho said — that this David, whose name means "strong of hand,"…”
how he swore an oath to the LORD, and vowed to the Mighty One of Jacob:
“As he swore to the Lord, he vowed a vow to the God of Jacob. In the Hebrew it does not have cos, that is, "as," nor is that the sense; but it has os, that is, "who," and the sense is: Remember, O Lord…”
“I will not enter my house or get into my bed,
“If I shall enter into the tabernacle of my house. David says this: I seek no other rest but Christ, who is to be born of my seed, that is, whom you promised would be born of my loins.”
We heard that the ark was in Ephrathah; we found it in the fields of Jaar.
“Behold, we heard of it in Ephrata. In the Hebrew it does not have "it," but has "him": that is, that one who is to be born of the seed of David. We heard of him in Ephrata: which the sense is about Mary.”
Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in harmony!
“Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. He says two things: good and pleasant.”
It is like fine oil on the head, running down on the beard, running down Aaron’s beard over the collar of his robes.
“Like ointment upon the head, which runs down upon the beard, the beard of Aaron. Oh, if there were time for us to discuss each detail, a day could not suffice us.”
It is like the dew of Hermon falling on the mountains of Zion. For there the LORD has bestowed the blessing of life forevermore.
“Like the dew of Hermon, which runs down upon Mount Zion. The dew of Hermon. We read a certain apocryphal book, that at the time when the sons of God descended to the daughters of men, they descended upon Mount Hermon, and there entered into…”
Come, bless the LORD, all you servants of the LORD who serve by night in the house of the LORD!
“Behold now, bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord. This is the last psalm of the Song of Ascents. The first of the gradual psalms had been: 'To the Lord, when I was in tribulation, I cried, and he heard me.'”
Lift up your hands to the sanctuary and bless the LORD!
“In the nights lift up your hands unto the holy place. 'This world is set in the power of the evil one,' and 'our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers of these darknesses.'”
Give thanks to the Lord of lords. His loving devotion endures forever.
“Confess to the Lord of lords. This is referred to the Son, and "to the God of gods" to the Father. To the Father, then, and to the Son we confess: for the Father is in the Son, and the Son in the Father.”
He alone does great wonders. His loving devotion endures forever.
“Who alone does great wonders. First he said, "Confess to the God of gods"; and again, "to the Lord of lords." And since he named two persons, now he says, "Who alone does great wonders," so that he may not speak of two gods.”
By His insight He made the heavens. His loving devotion endures forever.
“Who made the heavens with understanding. These are the heavens which "declare the glory of God," who have put on the image of the heavenly One: and there are heavens who have not put on the image of the earthly one.”
He made the great lights— His loving devotion endures forever.
“Who made the great lights. According to the letter he speaks of the stars. Although we behold them as small, yet they are great.”
He struck down great kings His loving devotion endures forever.
“Who struck the great kings. First he struck Pharaoh, who is understood to be the devil, and thus his army.”
He remembered us in our low estate His loving devotion endures forever.
“For in our humility he was mindful of us. He did not say, "in wisdom": he did not say, "in riches": he did not say, "in learning"; but, "in humility he was mindful of us."”
and freed us from our enemies. His loving devotion endures forever.
“And he redeemed us from our enemies. He did not say, "he freed," but "he redeemed," that is, with his own blood.”
He gives food to every creature. His loving devotion endures forever.
“Who gives food to all flesh. Consider for me the elephant, the camel, the ox, the stag, and these great four-footed beasts, how each one has on its face eyes, nostrils, mouth, feet.”
By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion.
“By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Sion. If someone is not sick, he does not know how much health is worth.”
There on the willows we hung our harps,
“On the willows in the midst of it we hung up our instruments. The willow has such a nature: it is indeed a barren tree, and it is said that if anyone takes a drink from it or eats of it, he does not beget…”
for there our captors requested a song; our tormentors demanded songs of joy: “Sing us a song of Zion.”
“For there they that led us away captive asked of us the words of songs. The demons, who deceived us and led us away captive, now, as though mocking us and boasting, say to us: "Give us back a word about your faith, and just…”
How can we sing a song of the LORD in a foreign land?
“How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land? They answer, those who have sinned and been deceived, and they say: "How shall we sing you the Lord's song in a strange land, set as we are in our sins, we who have…”
If I forget you, O Jerusalem, may my right hand cease to function.
“If I forget you, Jerusalem, let my right hand be given over to forgetfulness. Therefore, because he has sinned and fallen, he calls to mind his former way of life and Jerusalem, and he sets before himself this resolve: that unless I shall always be…”