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.
.jpg?width=640)
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
Envoys will arrive from Egypt; Cush will stretch out her hands to God.
“Legates shall come out of Egypt. Egypt is interpreted "darkness": out of the darkness of this world. Ethiopia shall stretch out her hand before to God.”
to Him who rides upon the highest heavens of old; behold, His mighty voice resounds.
“Who ascends above the heaven of heaven to the east. Because above he said, Who ascends above the sunset; here he says, to the east.”
Ascribe the power to God, whose majesty is over Israel, whose strength is in the skies.
“Behold, he will give to his voice a voice of power; his magnificence is over Israel. The magnificence of God is in Israel, who sees God. And his power is in the clouds, that is, in the prophets and apostles.”
Whom have I in heaven but You? And on earth I desire no one besides You.
“It is good for us to cleave to the Lord, and to put our hope in the Lord God, so that when we have exchanged our present poverty for the kingdom of heaven, we may be able to exclaim, "Whom have I in heaven but…”
We give thanks to You, O God; we give thanks, for Your Name is near. The people declare Your wondrous works.
“For the end, do not corrupt, a psalm of Asaph, a song. In the Hebrew it does not have "for the end," but has "to the victor." And the Seventy translators did not err greatly, since victory is something perfected.”
God is known in Judah; His name is great in Israel.
“Before the cross gave light to the world, before the Lord was seen upon the earth, God was known in Judaea, and his name was great in Israel; but when the Savior came, his sound went out into all the earth, and his words unto…”
His tent is in Salem, His dwelling place in Zion.
“And his place was made in peace: which in Hebrew is said "in Salem." So it seems, according to the letter, to speak of Jerusalem, that is, Salem, which formerly was called Salem, and afterward Jebus, and then was called Jerusalem.”
There He shattered the flaming arrows, the shield and sword and weapons of war. Selah
“There he broke the strength of bows. There. Where? In Jerusalem and Zion. Jerusalem is interpreted "peace," Zion "watchtower": let us see, then, what is peace, and what is the watchtower.”
You are resplendent with light, more majestic than mountains filled with game.
“Thou dost give light wondrously from the everlasting mountains. We interpret the mountains in two ways: in the Old Testament, the prophets; in the New Testament, the apostles.”
At Your rebuke, O God of Jacob, both horse and rider lie stunned.
“They slumbered who mounted horses. Let us speak according to the tropology. Indeed Pharaoh mounted horses, and slumbered, and perished. And the Egyptians had horses, but they perished. Hence too it was commanded in the Law that a Hebrew should not have a horse.”
You alone are to be feared. When You are angry, who can stand before You?
“From then thy wrath. From what time is the wrath of God? When the people cried out to Aaron in the wilderness, saying: "Make us gods whom we may follow: for this Moses, who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we know not…”
From heaven You pronounced judgment, and the earth feared and was still
“From heaven thou didst make judgment to be heard. Thou didst speak from heaven, all the people heard and trembled: and yet they did not believe in thee. The earth feared and was still. But Israel neither feared nor was still.”
He breaks the spirits of princes; He is feared by the kings of the earth.
“To the terrible one. To whom? To God. And to him who takes away the spirit of princes. When we see certain powerful men, for example, emperors, prefects, and men exceedingly powerful in this world, let us too say to God: Who takes away the…”
I cried out to God; I cried aloud to God to hear me.
“With my voice I cried out to the Lord: with my voice to God, and he gave heed to me. In the day of my tribulation I sought out God.”
I remembered You, O God, and I groaned; I mused and my spirit grew faint. Selah
“My soul refused to be comforted. Insofar as it depended on my sins, I could not comfort myself with having no hope. I remembered God, and I was delighted.”
You have kept my eyes from closing; I am too troubled to speak.
“My eyes anticipated the watches. In the Hebrew it reads otherwise: "I held in check the gaze of my eyes, I was struck dumb and did not speak."”
I considered the days of old, the years long in the past.
“I thought upon the days of old, and I had the eternal years in mind. Insofar as it lay in my sins, I was despairing, and my soul had refused to be comforted.”
At night I remembered my song; in my heart I mused, and my spirit pondered:
“I meditated by night with my heart, and I dug over my spirit. I was not thinking of my anger, I was not thinking of my enemy; but my whole thought was of God.”
So I said, “I am grieved that the right hand of the Most High has changed.”
“And I said, Now I have begun. In the Hebrew it reads otherwise: "And I said, It is my weakness" — that is, what I suffer is not from the cruelty of God, but from my sins.”
I will remember the works of the LORD; yes, I will remember Your wonders of old. I will reflect on all You have done and ponder Your mighty deeds.
“I was mindful of the works of the Lord: which he had done for Moses, which he had done for the saints.”
Your way, O God, is holy. What god is so great as our God? You are the God who works wonders; You display Your strength among the peoples.
“God, your way is in the holy place. Whoever, then, is not holy, the way of God is not in him. What is the way of God? "I am the way, and the life, and the truth." This the Savior says.”
With power You redeemed Your people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph. Selah
“You have made known your power among the peoples. "Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God": "the mystery which had been hidden from the ages"; now you have made known your power among the peoples.”
The waters saw You, O God; the waters saw You and swirled; even the depths were shaken.
“The waters saw you, O God, the waters saw you, and they feared. For the moment let us speak according to the letter; let us cling to the earth for the sake of the simpler folk.”
Your path led through the sea, Your way through the mighty waters, but Your footprints were not to be found.
“Your way is in the sea: where the waves are, where the bitter water is, where the dragon dwells, where the little tiny fishes cling. Your way is in the sea. You who were in heaven came down to earth.”
You led Your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.
“And your footsteps shall not be known: you led out your people like sheep. The good shepherd led out his people like sheep. By the hand of Moses and Aaron.”