Jerome

=== Theological writings ===
[[File:Lorenzo Lotto - The Virgin and Child with Saints Jerome and Nicholas of Tolentino - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|''The Virgin and Child with Saints Jerome and Nicholas of Tolentino'' by [[Lorenzo Lotto]], 1522]]

==== Eschatology ====
[[File:Hiëronymus in zijn studeervertrek.jpg|thumb|Jerome in his study, made by the Flemish drawer de Bry.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Hiëronymus in zijn studeervertrek |url=https://lib.ugent.be/viewer/archive.ugent.be:6B669DBE-F681-11E9-9639-C36B765DA7FD#?c=&m=&s=&cv=&xywh=-1155,-150,4010,2986 |access-date=2 October 2020|website=lib.ugent.be}}</ref>]]
Jerome warned that those substituting false interpretations for the actual meaning of Scripture belonged to the "synagogue of the Antichrist".<ref>{{cite book |author=Jerome |section=The Dialogue against the Luciferians |page=334 |editor1=Schaff, Philip |editor2=Wace, Henry |title=St.&nbsp;Jerome: Letters and select works, 1893 |series=A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, Second Series |section-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NQUNAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA315 |via=Google Books |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140101063014/https://books.google.com/books?id=NQUNAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA315#PPT19,M1 |archive-date=1 January 2014}}</ref> "He that is not of Christ is of Antichrist," he wrote to [[Pope Damasus I]].<ref>{{cite book |author=Jerome |section=Letter to Pope Damasus |page=19 |editor1=Schaff, Philip |editor2=Wace, Henry |title=St.&nbsp;Jerome: Letters and select works, 1893 |series=A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, Second Series |section-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NQUNAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA19 |via=Google Books |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170313134851/https://books.google.com/books?id=NQUNAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA19 |archive-date=13 March 2017}}</ref> He believed that "the mystery of iniquity" written about by Paul in {{nobr|2 Thessalonians 2:7}} was already in action when "every one chatters about his views."<ref>{{cite book |author=Jerome |section=Against the Pelagians |at=Book&nbsp;I, p.&nbsp;449 |editor1=Schaff, Philip |editor2=Wace, Henry |title=St.&nbsp;Jerome: Letters and select works, 1893 |series=A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, Second Series |section-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NQUNAAAAIAAJ&pg=PT134 |via=Google Books |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140101065949/https://books.google.com/books?id=NQUNAAAAIAAJ&pg=PT134 |archive-date=1 January 2014}}</ref> To Jerome, the power restraining this mystery of iniquity was the Roman Empire, but as it fell this restraining force was removed. He warned a noblewoman of [[Gaul]]:<ref>{{cite book |author=Jerome |section=Letter to Ageruchia |pages=236–237 |editor1=Schaff, Philip |editor2=Wace, Henry |title=St.&nbsp;Jerome: Letters and select works, 1893 |series=A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, Second Series  |section-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NQUNAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA236 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140101055138/https://books.google.com/books?id=NQUNAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA236 |archive-date=1 January 2014 }}</ref>

<blockquote>He that letteth is taken out of the way, and yet we do not realize that Antichrist is near. Yes, Antichrist is near whom the Lord Jesus Christ "shall consume with the spirit of his mouth". "Woe unto them," he cries, "that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days." ... Savage tribes in countless numbers have overrun all parts of Gaul. The whole country between the Alps and the Pyrenees, between the Rhine and the Ocean, has been laid waste by hordes of [[Quadi]], [[Vandals]], [[Sarmatians]], [[Alans]], [[Gepids]], Herules, [[Saxons]], [[Burgundians]], [[Allemanni]], and – alas! for the commonweal! – even [[Pannonians]].</blockquote>

His ''Commentary on Daniel'' was expressly written to offset the criticisms of [[Porphyry (philosopher)|Porphyry]],<ref>Eremantle, note on Jerome's commentary on Daniel, in NPAF, 2d series, Vol. 6, p. 500.</ref>{{full citation needed|date=November 2022}} who taught that Daniel related entirely to the time of [[Antiochus IV Epiphanes]] and was written by an unknown individual living in the second century BC. Against Porphyry, Jerome identified Rome as the fourth kingdom of chapters two and seven, but his view of chapters eight and eleven was more complex. Jerome held that chapter eight describes the activity of Antiochus Epiphanes, who is understood as a "type" of a future antichrist; 11:24 onwards applies primarily to a future antichrist but was partially fulfilled by Antiochus. Instead, he advocated that the "little horn" was the Antichrist:

<blockquote>We should therefore concur with the traditional interpretation of all the commentators of the Christian Church, that at the end of the world, when the Roman Empire is to be destroyed, there shall be ten kings who will partition the Roman world amongst themselves. Then an insignificant eleventh king will arise, who will overcome three of the ten kings. ... After they have been slain, the seven other kings also will bow their necks to the victor.<ref name=jeromedaniel>{{cite web |author=Jerome |title=''Commentario in Danielem'' |website=tertullian.org |url=http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/jerome_daniel_02_text.htm |access-date=6 May 2008 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100526033151/http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/jerome_daniel_02_text.htm |archive-date=26 May 2010}}</ref></blockquote>

In his ''Commentary on Daniel'',<ref name=jeromedaniel/> he noted, "Let us not follow the opinion of some commentators and suppose him to be either the Devil or some demon, but rather, one of the human race, in whom Satan will wholly take up his residence in bodily form."<ref name=jeromedaniel/> Instead of rebuilding the Jewish Temple to reign from, Jerome thought the Antichrist sat in God's Temple inasmuch as he made "himself out to be like God."<ref name=jeromedaniel/>

Jerome identified the four prophetic kingdoms symbolized in Daniel&nbsp;2 as the [[Neo-Babylonian Empire]], the [[Achaemenid Empire|Medes and Persians]], [[Macedon]], and Rome.<ref name=jeromedaniel/>{{rp|style=ama|at=ch.&nbsp;2, vv.&nbsp;31–40}} Jerome identified the stone cut out without hands as "namely, the Lord and Savior".<ref name=jeromedaniel/>{{rp|style=ama|at=ch.&nbsp;2, v.&nbsp;40}}

Jerome refuted Porphyry's application of the little horn of chapter seven to Antiochus. He expected that at the end of the world, Rome would be destroyed, and partitioned among ten kingdoms before the little horn appeared.<ref name=jeromedaniel/>{{rp|style=ama|at=ch.&nbsp;7, v.&nbsp;8}}

Jerome believed that Cyrus of Persia is the higher of the two horns of the Medo-Persian ram of Daniel&nbsp;8:3.<ref name=jeromedaniel/> The he-goat is Greece smiting Persia.<ref name=jeromedaniel/>{{rp|style=ama|at=ch.&nbsp;8, v.&nbsp;5}}

==== Soteriology ====
Jerome opposed the doctrine of [[Pelagianism]], and wrote against it three years before his death.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Philip Schaff: NPNF2-06. Jerome: The Principal Works of St. Jerome - Christian Classics Ethereal Library |url=https://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf206.vi.ix.i.html |access-date=2024-03-08 |website=www.ccel.org}}</ref> Jerome, despite being opposed to Origen, was influenced by Origenism in his soteriology. Although he taught that the Devil and the unbelieving will be eternally punished (unlike Origen), he believed that the punishment for Christian sinners, who have once believed but sin and fall away will be temporal in nature, stating: "He who with all his spirit has placed his faith in Christ, even if he die in sin, shall by his faith live forever".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kelly |first=J. N. D. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UivDgM0WywoC |title=Early Christian Doctrines |date=2000-11-20 |publisher=A&C Black |isbn=978-0-8264-5252-8 |language=en |quote=Jerome develops the same distinction, stating that, while the Devil and the impious who have denied God will be tortured without remission, those who have trusted in Christ, even if they have sinned and fallen away, will eventually be saved. Much the same teaching appears in Ambrose, developed in greater detail}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Goff |first=Jacques Le |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4dzynjFfX7kC |title=The Birth of Purgatory |date=1986-12-15 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-47083-2 |language=en |quote=Saint Jerome, though an enemy of Origen, was, when it came to salvation, more of an Origenist than Ambrose. He believed that all sinners, all mortal beings, with the exception of Satan, atheists, and the ungodly, would be saved: 'Just as we believe that the torments of the Devil, of all the deniers of God, of the ungodly who have said in their hearts, 'there is no God,' will be eternal, so too do we believe that the judgment of Christian sinners, whose works will be tried and purged in fire will be moderate and mixed with clemency.' Furthermore, 'He who with all his spirit has placed his faith in Christ, even if he die in sin, shall by his faith live forever.'"}}</ref>
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