Jerome

Jerome was a scholar, translator, and monk best known for translating the Bible into Latin. He was born around 347 in Stridon, near the border of modern Slovenia and Croatia. He studied grammar and rhetoric in Rome and was baptized there.

He lived in Antioch, the Syrian desert, and Constantinople before returning to Rome in 382. In 386 he settled in Bethlehem, where he lived and worked until his death around 420.

## Major Works

The Vulgate, his Latin translation and revision of the Bible.

Letters, more than 120 of his own that survive.

Lives of Illustrious Men, written in 393, with 135 entries on Christian writers.

Commentaries on most of the prophets, Matthew, and several of Paul’s letters.

## Vulgate (Biblical Translation)

In 382 Pope Damasus asked Jerome to revise the Latin Gospels, which existed in many uneven versions. Jerome finished them around 384.

In Bethlehem he did something more ambitious. From about 390 to 405 he translated most of the Old Testament directly from Hebrew rather than from the Greek Septuagint. Critics, including Augustine, worried that his new translation would unsettle believers. Augustine reported that one congregation nearly rioted when Jerome’s version changed the name of the plant in Jonah 4. Over time Jerome’s work won out. In 1546 the Council of Trent declared the Vulgate the authentic Latin Bible for Catholic use.

## Letters

Jerome’s letters cover Bible questions, spiritual advice, disputes, and news. Letter 22, to a young woman named Eustochium, is a long guide to a life of devotion. In it Jerome describes a fever dream in which a judge told him he was a follower of Cicero, not Christ. He vowed to put Scripture ahead of classical literature.

## Lives of Illustrious Men

Jerome modeled this book on a Roman work about famous authors. He wanted to show pagans that Christians had produced serious writers. It runs from the apostle Peter to Jerome himself and gives dates and titles for authors who would otherwise be unknown.

## Scholarly Rigor and Defense of the Christian Faith

Jerome learned Hebrew in the Syrian desert from a Jewish convert and kept studying it for decades. His commentaries compare Hebrew, Greek, and Latin readings.

He wrote sharp works against Helvidius, Jovinian, Vigilantius, and the Pelagians. His prologue to Isaiah contains his best-known line: ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ.

## Ascetic Life

In Bethlehem Jerome lived as a monk and helped a Roman widow named Paula found a monastery for men and a convent for women.

Jerome had real faults. His temper was quick and his attacks on opponents were often personal and cruel. He broke with his old friend Rufinus over Origen and never reconciled. Readers should weigh his scholarship and his character separately.

## How to Read Jerome Today

Read his prologue to the Commentary on Isaiah. It takes about 10 minutes.

Read Letter 22 for his view of the devoted life, and Letter 53 for his advice on how to study the Bible.

Letters and select works are free in the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, second series, volume 6. Lives of Illustrious Men is in volume 3.

Compare a passage in a modern translation with the Vulgate using a free parallel Bible site to see how his choices shaped Western Christianity.

## About the Author

CK Quarterman is a USAF veteran, independent author, and publisher at CKQbooks. He writes the Malaterrestrials nonfiction series, which examines evil earthbound non-human intelligences through Scripture and history, along with the Watchers’ Universe and Sons of the Flood fiction series. Find his books at ckqbooks.com.

Truth · History · Scripture