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PreviewAdvancedSpecial charactersHelpHeadingLevel 2Level 3Level 4Level 5FormatInsertLatinLatin extendedIPASymbolsGreekGreek extendedCyrillicArabicArabic extendedHebrewBanglaTamilTeluguSinhalaDevanagariGujaratiThaiLaoKhmerCanadian AboriginalRunesÁáÀàÂâÄäÃãǍǎĀāĂ㥹ÅåĆćĈĉÇçČčĊċĐđĎďÉéÈèÊêËëĚěĒēĔĕĖėĘęĜĝĢģĞğĠġĤĥĦħÍíÌìÎîÏïĨĩǏǐĪīĬĭİıĮįĴĵĶķĹĺĻļĽľŁłŃńÑñŅņŇňÓóÒòÔôÖöÕõǑǒŌōŎŏǪǫŐőŔŕŖŗŘřŚśŜŝŞşŠšȘșȚțŤťÚúÙùÛûÜüŨũŮůǓǔŪūǖǘǚǜŬŭŲųŰűŴŵÝýŶŷŸÿȲȳŹźŽžŻżÆæǢǣØøŒœßÐðÞþƏəFormattingLinksHeadingsListsFilesDiscussionReferencesDescriptionWhat you typeWhat you getItalic''Italic text''Italic textBold'''Bold text'''Bold textBold & italic'''''Bold & italic text'''''Bold & italic textDescriptionWhat you typeWhat you getReferencePage text.<ref>[https://www.example.org/ Link text], additional text.</ref>Page text.[1]Named referencePage text.<ref name="test">[https://www.example.org/ Link text]</ref>Page text.[2]Additional use of the same referencePage text.<ref name="test" />Page text.[2]Display references<references />↑ Link text, additional text.↑ Link text==Scholarly works== ===Translation of the Bible (382–405)=== [[File:St Jerome by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio.jpeg|left|thumb|''Saint Jerome Writing'', by [[Caravaggio]], 1607, at St John's Co-Cathedral, [[Valletta, Malta]]]] Jerome was a scholar at a time when that statement implied a fluency in Greek. He knew some Hebrew when he started his [[translation project]], but moved to [[Jerusalem]] to strengthen his grip on Jewish scripture commentary. A wealthy Roman aristocrat, Paula, funded Jerome's stay in a monastery in the nearby city of [[Bethlehem]], where he settled next to the [[Church of the Nativity]] – built half a century prior on orders of [[Emperor Constantine]] over what was reputed to be the site of the [[Nativity of Jesus]] – and he completed his translation there. He began in 382 by correcting the existing Latin-language version of the New Testament, commonly referred to as the ''[[Vetus Latina]]''. By 390 he turned to translating the [[Hebrew Bible]] from the original Hebrew, having previously translated portions from the [[Septuagint]] which came from Alexandria. He believed that the mainstream [[Rabbinical Judaism]] had rejected the Septuagint as invalid Jewish scriptural texts because of what were ascertained as mistranslations along with its [[Hellenistic Judaism|Hellenistic]] [[Heresy|heretical]] elements.{{efn|name=ndq}} He completed this work by 405. Prior to Jerome's Vulgate, all Latin translations of the [[Old Testament]] were based on the Septuagint, not the Hebrew. Jerome's decision to use a Hebrew text instead of the previous-translated Septuagint went against the advice of most other Christians, including [[St. Augustine|Augustine]], who thought the Septuagint [[Biblical inspiration|inspired]]. Modern scholarship, however, has sometimes cast doubts on the actual quality of Jerome's Hebrew knowledge. Many modern scholars believe that the Greek [[Hexapla]] is the main source for [[Iuxta Hebraeos|Jerome's "iuxta Hebraeos"]] (i.e. "close to the Hebrews", "immediately following the Hebrews") translation of the Old Testament.<ref>Pierre Nautin, article "Hieronymus", in: ''Theologische Realenzyklopädie'', Vol. 15, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin & New York 1986, pp. 304–315, [309–310].</ref> However, detailed studies have shown that to a considerable degree Jerome was a competent Hebraist.<ref>Michael Graves, ''Jerome's Hebrew Philology: A Study Based on his Commentary on Jeremiah'', Brill, 2007: 196–198 [197] (ISBN 978-90-47-42181-8): "In his discussion he gives clear evidence of having consulted the Hebrew himself, providing details about the Hebrew that could not have been learned from the Greek translations."</ref> === Biblical onomastica === Jerome also produced two [[Wiktionary:onomasticon|onomastica]]: * ''Liber de Nominibus Hebraicis'', a list of names of people in the Bible and etymologies, based on a work attributed to [[Philo]] and expanded by [[Origen]] * A translation and expansion of the [[Onomasticon (Eusebius) |''Onomasticon'' of Eusebius]], listing and commenting on places mentioned in the Bible === Commentaries (405–420) === [[File:Antonello da Messina - St Jerome in his study - National Gallery London.jpg|thumb|St Jerome in His Study by [[Antonello da Messina]] ]] For the next 15 years, until he died, Jerome produced a number of commentaries on Scripture, often explaining his translation choices in using the original Hebrew rather than suspect translations. His [[patristics|patristic]] commentaries align closely with Jewish tradition, and he indulges in [[allegorical]] and [[mystical]] subtleties after the manner of [[Philo]] and the [[Alexandrian school]]. Unlike his contemporaries, he emphasizes the difference between the Hebrew Bible "Apocrypha" and the ''Hebraica veritas'' of the [[protocanonical books]]. In his [[Vulgate#Prologues|Vulgate's prologues]], he describes some portions of books in the Septuagint that were not found in the Hebrew as being non-[[biblical canon|canonical]] (he called them ''[[biblical apocrypha|apocrypha]]'');<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/bible/prologi.shtml |title=The Bible |access-date=14 December 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160113204339/http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/bible/prologi.shtml |archive-date=13 January 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref> for [[Book of Baruch|Baruch]], he mentions by name in his ''Prologue to Jeremiah'' and notes that it is neither read nor held among the Hebrews, but does not explicitly call it apocryphal or "not in the canon".<ref>{{citation |url=http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=233 |title=Jerome's Prologue to Jeremiah |first=Kevin P. |last=Edgecomb |access-date=14 December 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131231002043/http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=233 |archive-date=31 December 2013 |url-status=live }}</ref> His ''[[Prologus Galeatus|Preface to the Books of Samuel and Kings]]''<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf206.vii.iii.iv.html |title=Jerome's Preface to Samuel and Kings |access-date=14 December 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151202094009/http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf206.vii.iii.iv.html |archive-date=2 December 2015 |url-status=live }}</ref> (commonly called the ''Helmeted Preface'') includes the following statement: <blockquote>This preface to the Scriptures may serve as a "helmeted" introduction to all the books which we turn from Hebrew into Latin, so that we may be assured that what is not found in our list must be placed amongst the Apocryphal writings. [[Book of Wisdom|Wisdom]], therefore, which generally bears the name of Solomon, and the book of [[Ben Sira|Jesus, the Son of Sirach]], and [[Book of Judith|Judith]], and [[Book of Tobit|Tobias]], and the [[The Shepherd of Hermas|Shepherd]] are not in the canon. The [[1 Maccabees|first book of Maccabees]] I have found to be Hebrew, [[2 Maccabees|the second]] is Greek, as can be proved from the very style.</blockquote> [[File:Francisco de Zurbarán 023.jpg|thumb|''Jerome in the desert, tormented by his memories of the dancing girls'', by [[Francisco de Zurbarán]], 1639, [[Monastery of Santa María de Guadalupe]]]] === Historical and hagiographic writings === ==== Description of vitamin A deficiency ==== The following passage, taken from Jerome's ''Life of St. Hilarion'' which was written {{Circa|392|lk=no}}, appears to be the earliest account of the [[etiology]], symptoms and cure of severe [[vitamin A deficiency]]:<ref name="Vitamin" /> {{blockquote|From his thirty-first to his thirty-fifth year he had for food six ounces of [[barley bread]], and vegetables slightly cooked without oil. But finding that his eyes were growing dim, and that his whole body was shrivelled with an eruption and a sort of stony roughness (''impetigine et pumicea quad scabredine'') he added oil to his former food, and up to the sixty-third year of his life followed this temperate course, tasting neither fruit nor pulse, nor anything whatsoever besides.<ref name="Vitamin">{{cite journal |author=Taylor, F. Sherwood |author-link=F. Sherwood Taylor |title=St. Jerome and Vitamin A |journal=Nature |volume=154 |pages=802 |date=23 December 1944 |issue=3921 |doi=10.1038/154802a0|bibcode=1944Natur.154Q.802T |s2cid=4097517 |doi-access=free }}</ref>|author=|title=|source=}} === Letters === [[File:MatthiasStom-SaintJerome-Nantes.jpg|thumb|left|''[[Saint Jerome (Stom)|Saint Jerome]]'' by [[Matthias Stom]], 1635]] Jerome's letters or [[epistle]]s, both by the great variety of their subjects and by their qualities of style, form an important portion of his literary remains. Whether he is discussing problems of scholarship, or reasoning on cases of conscience, comforting the afflicted, or saying pleasant things to his friends, scourging the vices and corruptions of the time and against [[Pederasty in ancient Greece|sexual immorality]] among the clergy,<ref>"regulae sancti pachomii 84 rule 104.</ref> exhorting to the [[Asceticism|ascetic life]] and renunciation of the [[World (theology)|world]], or debating his theological opponents, he gives a vivid picture not only of his own mind, but of the age and its peculiar characteristics. (See [[Plowboy trope]].) Because there was no distinct line between personal documents and those meant for publication, we frequently find in his letters both confidential messages and treatises meant for others besides the one to whom he was writing.<ref>W. H. Fremantle, "Prolegomena to Jerome", V.</ref> Due to the time he spent in Rome among wealthy families belonging to the Roman upper class, Jerome was frequently commissioned by women who had taken a vow of virginity to write to them in guidance of how to live their life. As a result, he spent a great deal of his life corresponding with these women about certain abstentions and lifestyle practices.{{sfn|Williams|2006|p=}} [[File:Francescostjerome.jpg|thumb|''[[Francesco St Jerome]]'' by [[Jacopo Palma il Giovane]], {{c.|1595|lk=no}}]] === 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. 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. 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 I, p. 449 |editor1=Schaff, Philip |editor2=Wace, Henry |title=St. 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. 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 2 as the [[Neo-Babylonian Empire]], the [[Achaemenid Empire|Medes and Persians]], [[Macedon]], and Rome.<ref name=jeromedaniel/>{{rp|style=ama|at=ch. 2, vv. 31–40}} Jerome identified the stone cut out without hands as "namely, the Lord and Savior".<ref name=jeromedaniel/>{{rp|style=ama|at=ch. 2, v. 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. 7, v. 8}} Jerome believed that Cyrus of Persia is the higher of the two horns of the Medo-Persian ram of Daniel 8:3.<ref name=jeromedaniel/> The he-goat is Greece smiting Persia.<ref name=jeromedaniel/>{{rp|style=ama|at=ch. 8, v. 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> ===Reception by later Christianity=== [[File:Saint Jerome ( Hieronymus ).JPG|thumb|upright|Statue of Saint Jerome, Church of St Catherine, [[Bethlehem]]]] Jerome is the second-most voluminous writer – after [[Augustine of Hippo]] (354–430) – in ancient Latin Christianity. The [[Catholic Church]] recognizes him as the [[patron saint]] of translators, librarians, and [[encyclopedist]]s.<ref>{{cite web |title=St. Jerome: Patron saint of librarians |website=Luther College Library and Information Services (lis.luther.edu) |place=Decorah, IA |publisher=[[Luther College (Iowa)|Luther College]] |url=http://lis.luther.edu/preus40th/jerome |url-status=live |access-date= 2 June 2014 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130704102421/http://lis.luther.edu/preus40th/jerome |archive-date= 4 July 2013}}</ref> Jerome translated many biblical texts into Latin from Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. His translations formed part of the ''[[Vulgate]]''; the ''Vulgate'' eventually superseded the preceding Latin translations of the Bible (the ''[[Vetus Latina]]''). The [[Council of Trent]] in 1546 declared the ''Vulgate'' authoritative "in public lectures, disputations, sermons, and expositions".<ref>{{cite web |title=Is the ''Vulgate'' the Catholic Church's official Bible? |type=blog |url=https://www.ncregister.com/blog/is-the-vulgate-the-catholic-church-s-official-bible |access-date=8 December 2021 |newspaper=[[National Catholic Register]] |date=5 September 2017 |language=en |quote= '[This] sacred and holy Synod – considering that no small utility may accrue to the Church of God, if it be made known which out of all the Latin editions, now in circulation, of the sacred books, is to be held as authentic – ordains and declares, that the said old and vulgate edition, which, by the long use of so many years, has been approved of in the Church, be, in public lectures, disputations, sermons and expositions, held as authentic; and that no one is to dare, or presume to reject it under any pretext whatever' [''Decree Concerning the Edition and Use of the Sacred Books'', 1546].}}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Vulgate |year=2005 |dictionary=The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-280290-3 |pages=1722–1723|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fUqcAQAAQBAJ |via=Google Books}}</ref> Jerome showed more zeal and interest in the ascetic ideal than in abstract speculation. He lived as an ascetic for 4~5 years in the Syrian desert, and later near Bethlehem for 34 years. Nevertheless, his writings show outstanding scholarship<ref>{{cite book |last=Power |first=Edward J. |date=1991 |title=A Legacy of Learning: A history of western education |publisher=SUNY Press |isbn=978-0-7914-0610-6 |page=102 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Upup1CZKAsEC&pg=PA102 |language=en |quote=his exceptional scholarship produced ...}}</ref> and his correspondence has great historical importance.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Louth |first=Andrew |date=2022 |title=Jerome |dictionary=The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-263815-1 |pages=872–873 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3CNeEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT2305 |lang=en |quote=His correspondence is of great interest and historical importance.}}</ref> The [[Church of England]] [[Calendar of saints (Church of England)|honours]] Jerome with a [[Commemoration (Anglicanism)|commemoration]] on 30 September.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Calendar |website=[[The Church of England]] |language=en |url=https://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-and-worship/worship-texts-and-resources/common-worship/churchs-year/calendar |access-date=8 April 2021 }}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. 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