Sixteen Centuries of St. Jerome

Jerome has been one of the most influential Bible scholars in the history of Christianity.[1] He was the first to translate most of the biblical texts into Latin, and his translation, known as the Vulgate, was commonly accepted as authoritative in the Christian West for more than a millennium. Already during his lifetime his exegetical works were used by eminent figures such as Augustine of Hippo. Throughout the Middle Ages and at the beginning of the modern era he was considered an excellent example of ascetic learning. Along with Ambrose, Augustine and Gregory, he was revered as one of the great doctors of the Latin Church, and Pope Boniface VIII confirmed him as such in 1295. Still today one of the most popular single-volume commentaries on the Bible is called The Jerome Biblical Commentary.

What was the key to Jerome’s success? In the following pages we will explore some aspects of his life and show how, mutatis mutandis, they can serve as a model for contemporary Bible scholars.

Literary and linguistic studies

Born around 347 in the town of Stridone, in present-day Croatia, an outlying region of the Roman Empire, Jerome spent his adolescence in Rome studying Latin language and literature under Aelius Donatus, who was then the most respected grammarian in the field and whose books continued to be reference works even in medieval times. “With regard to Latin,” wrote Jerome in his Prologue to Job, “I spent my life, almost from the cradle, among grammarians, rhetoricians and philosophers.” It seems that he perfected his knowledge of Greek during his first trip to the East when he was about thirty years old (373-379). More exceptional, however, was the study of the Hebrew language, which Jerome began at the same time, spending two years in the Syrian desert. His knowledge of Hebrew became deeper and deeper as he translated the books of the Old Testament with the help of Jewish experts. He also learned the rudiments of Aramaic and Syriac.

Unlike today’s Hebrew students Jerome did not have textbooks or Hebrew grammars. He had to acquire his understanding of Hebrew texts, devoid of pointing, through scrupulous personal study and with the help of his teachers. In his writings he recalled the suffering caused him by the study of the language. After reading great Latin works, such as those of Cicero and Pliny, “I had to learn,” he wrote, “a new alphabet and repeat the strident and aspirated [Hebrew] words. I will not tell you the hard work that it cost me and the difficulties I had to face! Every once in a while I despaired, several times I gave up; but then I started again because of the obstinate decision to learn. My conscience knows something about it (I know what I suffered!) and that of those who lived with me. Now I thank the Lord that from the bitter seed of such studies I reap tasty fruits” (Letter 125, 12).[2]

Jerome was not the only Christian of antiquity to learn the biblical languages. And while he attests that Epiphanius of Salamis knew these languages, he may have been the last Christian author of the Patristic period to have acquired a profound knowledge of Hebrew for a period of many centuries. It was only with the growing interest of Christians in the Kabbalah during the 15th century and the humanistic passion for the sources of antiquity that Hebrew studies became prestigious among Christian writers. Jerome asserted with pride, and rightly so, that he was considered a scholar of “Hebrew, Greek and Latin, trilingual” (Contra Rufinum, III, 6), and was therefore dubbed vir trilinguis.

During his life he approached the sources of the Bible both geographically and linguistically: he studied Latin in Rome, Greek in Constantinople and Antioch, and Hebrew in Syria and Palestine. The quality of his work on the Bible was based on his willingness to devote much time and energy to the study of biblical languages, helped by his earlier studies of Latin grammar and literature.

Monastic enthusiasm for the Bible

Although we know little about Jerome’s childhood, it seems that a classical education preceded his fervent interest in the Bible. He was baptized in Rome around the age of twenty, in 367. He then went to the imperial foundation of Augusta Treverorum (today Trier, Germany), where he came into contact with the monastic movement and decided to join it, renouncing any aspiration to a secular career.

Early Christian monasticism involved learning by heart the Psalter and other biblical texts. To “meditate” meant to “ruminate,” that is, to repeat and devour every single word of Sacred Scripture, just as the Shema’ Israel suggests: “These precepts that I give you today, keep fixed in your heart. You will repeat them to your children, you will speak of them when you are in your house, when you walk along the street, when you lie down and when you get up” (Deut 6:6-7). Referring to the opening verse of the Psalter – “Blessed is the one who […] finds joy in the law of the Lord” (Psalm 1:1-2) – Jerome writes: “What other life could there be if we exclude the science of Scripture? It is thanks to it that one comes to know Christ, who is the life of those who believe! […] The others, let them keep their riches, let them drink from precious chalices, let them shine in silk garments, let them enjoy popular favor, and – even when they experience every kind of pleasure – let them try in vain to exhaust their wealth! Our joy lies in meditating day and night on the law of the Lord” (Letter 30:7.13).

Memorization was a fundamental element of classical education and, along the same line, Jerome recommended learning entire biblical books by heart (cf. Letter 107:12). With assiduous reading of Scripture and prolonged meditation, a devout Christian makes the heart “like a library of Christ” (Letter 60:10). He considered the Bible essentially as “Sacred Scripture.” He lived with it as a monk and habitual preacher. His work as a translator was also guided by a spiritual attitude. In his preface to the Pentateuch, he asks Desiderius for prayers “so that I may translate these books into Latin with the same spirit in which they were written.”

His enthusiasm for the Bible grew over the decades and gave him the energy to complete his impressive work of translations, commentaries and treatises. About Origen, Jerome wrote that “he knew the Scriptures by heart and worked day and night studying their meaning […]. How can one not admire his spirit that burned for the Scriptures?” (Letter 84:8). In the same way a certain Postumianus praised Jerome’s dedication to his work: “He is always absorbed in reading, always concentrated on books: he gives himself no respite either by day or by night: he is always reading or writing something.”[3]

Jerome’s work ethos was inspired by a deep intellectual fervor, which was at the same time a spiritual desire: to know in depth the biblical writings in order to experience their gift to the spiritual life. Thus both intellectual fervor and spiritual desire nourished his academic work.

Different teachers of exegesis

After studying classical literature in Rome, Jerome went to the centers of Christian culture in the East: Constantinople, Antioch and Alexandria. This is what he wrote to Pammachius and Oceanus: “In my younger days I was carried away with a great passion for learning, yet I was not, like some, presumptuous enough to teach myself. At Antioch I frequently listened to Apollinaris of Laodicea, and attended his lectures.” And in his typically pungent tone he emphasized that he was a student with a critical spirit: “I learned from him many things about Sacred Scripture, but I never accepted his questionable teaching about the intellect of Christ” (Letter 84, 3).

In Constantinople (380-382) he studied with Gregory of Nazianzus and met Gregory of Nyssa. Four years later (386), almost 40 years old, he went to Egypt and studied for four weeks in Alexandria with the famous exegete, Didymus the Blind.

In addition to meeting the great exegetes of his time, Jerome owed his knowledge and hermeneutical skills to the reading of previous authors, in particular Origen (circa 185-254) and Eusebius of Caesarea (circa 260-340). Although he later wrote against Origen, his commentaries show how much he was indebted to this prolific biblical scholar.

Jerome not only tried to get in touch with the most authoritative Biblical scholars past and present, and to visit the most famous cultural centers, but he also explored original avenues of research. He often interacted with Jews, not only in his study of Hebrew, but also to make use of their knowledge of the rabbinical tradition of Bible interpretation. Although he occasionally pretended to consult Jewish writers while in fact copying Christian authors, he engaged in personal contact with Jews and their knowledge, as can be seen in his Liber Quaestionum Hebraicarum in Genesim a work of philological studies on Genesis. He even consulted the Samaritan Pentateuch (Samaritanorum hebraea volumina).  He consulted all the resources at his disposal and entered into relationships with experts of different backgrounds in order to acquire deeper knowledge and understanding.

A study center in the Holy Land

After studying and traveling in the first 40 years of his life, Jerome finally settled in the Holy Land to establish his own center of monastic life and scientific work. With the financial help of rich women from Rome – especially Paula – who accompanied him to devote themselves to a monastic life, he founded a female monastery and a male one near Bethlehem, where he spent the last 30 years of his life (389-419).

A millennium before printed books became widespread in Europe, setting up one’s own library was a huge and extremely expensive undertaking. Agents had to be sent all over the Mediterranean to bring back copies of the required manuscripts from wherever they were kept. Jerome had developed a love for books from his youth. Already in his early twenties he had acquired many classical works, and during his second stay in Rome (382-385) he had copied numerous writings in Hebrew. Besides the acquisition of manuscripts, a common practice among those who loved books was the exchange of texts. When he traveled, Jerome always carried his entire collection of writings with him; the library he collected in Bethlehem was one of the largest of its kind. He also consulted the library of Caesarea, which contained the writings of Origen and had been expanded by Eusebius of Caesarea. Collecting and comparing biblical manuscripts, he worked intensively on what in recent biblical studies has become known as “textual criticism.”

The choice of residence was by no means accidental. Bethlehem, far from any political or economic center, provided him with the necessary tranquility to concentrate on his work as a scholar. At the same time, his stay in the Holy Land facilitated the study of the geographical and natural environment of the Bible, as can be deduced, for example, from his revision of a Greek work dedicated to Jewish place names, De situ et nominibus locorum hebraicorum, written around 390.

Most of Jerome’s biblical commentaries and philological works were produced in Bethlehem. While he had revised the translations of the Gospels during his second stay in Rome (382-385), his new translation of the Hebrew Bible was prepared during the first twenty years he spent in Bethlehem (about 390-410). Jerome became a leading figure not only as a translator, but also as a translation theorist, as evidenced in particular by his letter to Pammachius on the best method of translation (cf. Letter 57). He produced one of the most influential translations of the Bible, which has become a significant monument in the cultural history of Western Christianity. Although he commented on a large part of the Bible, his commentaries on the prophets have a special value. His exegetical writings were widely known and held in high esteem in later centuries.

Academic network and political reality

Although he was known as a difficult character, Jerome was certainly a great communicator; otherwise he would not have been able to carry out projects that involved complex organizational tasks. The construction of his monasteries and library in Bethlehem required considerable fundraising, work that we can reconstruct today from the corpus of letters that have survived and from the dedications of his works to rich benefactors. His network spread throughout the Mediterranean, from remote Bethlehem to present-day Egypt, Tunisia, Turkey, Germany, Italy, France and Spain.

However, Jerome’s skill in communicating was not limited to diplomatic writing, but was rooted in personal relationships. He devoted himself to meetings  involving theological discussion, especially with women on the Aventine in Rome, and managed to convince some of them to devote themselves to monastic life in the Holy Land. How important friendship was for him is revealed by his grief over Paula’s death in 404: for two years he was unable to complete any important work.

Jerome certainly needed communicative strength to defend his innovative work from criticism and opposition. These concerned above all his revision of biblical translations, because the ancient Latin versions, despite being at variance in places, were considered by many to be definitive and untouchable. In his foreword to his translation of the Gospels, he said that anyone who perceived the changes he made in his new translation would call him “a forger and sacrilegious, [because] I dare to add, change and correct anything in the ancient books.” Translating the Old Testament from Hebrew, Jerome had to argue with many authors who considered the Septuagint version to be inspired. After translating much of the Greek version of the Bible, he claimed that his work conveyed “Jewish truth” (Hebraica veritas).

The tension between monastic self-isolation and the inability to escape the great social changes of his time marked the last period of Jerome’s life. The conquest and looting of Rome by the Visigoths, in August, 410, upset him so much that, “as the popular adage says, I did not even remember my name anymore. I kept silent for quite some time, knowing that it was the time of tears” (Letter 126, 2; cf. Qo 3-4). Two years later, Palestine and Egypt were invaded by barbarians, and in 416, when his monastery was besieged, sacked and set on fire, Jerome managed to save himself and most of his companions in the fortified tower of the building.

This event seems to have put an end to his activity as a scholar. The commentary on Jeremiah he was working on at that time remained unfinished. Probably his library was destroyed in the course of those upheavals, or was lost not long after his death; his works, however, had already spread throughout the Mediterranean and have been preserved, to a large extent, until the present.

Prosper of Aquitaine (about 390-455) reports in his Chronicle that Jerome died on September 30, 420, but today historians consider as a more probable time of his death the autumn of 419. His bones were first buried in a cave of Bethlehem, and then moved in the 13th century to Rome, to the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, where they are still venerated today.[4]

In the footsteps of Jerome

Jerome was a model for monastic learning in the Middle Ages, and Erasmus of Rotterdam considered him an example of humanistic erudition. However, Martin Luther had a less enthusiastic view of Jerome’s use of allegory, and the formalization of the Vulgate’s status at the Council of Trent in contrast to the spread of vernacular translations by the reformers contributed to the “catholicizing” of Jerome’s image in later centuries.

To commemorate the 15th centenary of his death, on September 15, 1920, Pope Benedict XV dedicated to him the encyclical Spiritus Paraclitus, honoring him with the title doctor maximus, given by God to the Church “for the understanding of the Scriptures.” The encyclical invited the bishops to remind their priests of the importance of their knowledge of Sacred Scripture, recommending in particular their study at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome, founded by Pius X in 1909. The editors of the Institute’s magazine Biblica celebrated Jerome as a point of reference for Catholic exegesis. While at that time the Institute took him as an example of traditional exegesis in apologetic defense against Protestant and modernist historical criticism, today the Institute’s role has changed a great deal, and Jerome is seen in a different light. It can be said that the 350 students who come from all over the world are engaged in in-depth philological and exegetical studies at the Institute’s two sites in Rome and Jerusalem. They follow courses led by Christian and Jewish exegetes from different schools, and are following in the footsteps of Jerome.

He was one of the most dynamic spirits of the first millennium of Christianity, a man who traveled and studied languages with incomparable rigor and ascetic passion. A versatile communicator, he confronted the great traditions of exegesis of his time, as well as engaging in dialogue with the Jews, despite the infamous animosity between them and the Christians. He supported Hebraica veritas, reconnecting more closely the Latin world of Christianity with its Jewish and Hebrew roots. The Reformation followed his example, promoting the translation of the Bible from the original languages to the vernacular, and the Catholic Church has proceeded in the same direction since the Second Vatican Council.

Today, Jerome can be an example to exegetes and all Bible scholars of how to approach their task with an open mind; they must use all the means at their disposal and communicate with any person of relevant learning to understand the Scriptures more deeply for our times. In addition, the study of languages and cultures should enable them to become translators and mediators, people capable of promoting integration.

DOI: La Civiltà Cattolica, En. Ed. Vol. 4, no. 11 art. 2, 1120: 10.32009/22072446.1120.2

[1].    For biographical information on Jerome we refer to the monograph by A. Fürst, Hieronymus: Askese und Wissenschaft in der Spätantike, Freiburg im Breisgau, Herder, 2016. A brief introduction to Jerome’s life and work can be found in A. Kamesar, “Jerome”, in J. C. Paget – J. Schaper (edd.), The New Cambridge History of the Bible: Vol. 1: From the Beginnings to 600, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2013, 653-675. On his reception, see in particular T. Scheck et al., “Jerome”, in Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception, vol. 13, 2016, 986-997

[2].    The quotations of the Letters of Jerome cited in the article are taken from Jerome, Le lettere, edited by S. Coda, Rome, Città Nuova, 1997, vol. 1-4.

[3].    Sulpicius Severus, “Dialogue” I, 9, in Id., Lettere e dialoghi, edited by D. Fiocco, Rome, Città Nuova, 2007, 130.

[4].    I. Ivi?, “Recubo praesepis ad antrum: The Cult of Saint Jerome in the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome at the End of the 13th Century”, in Il capitale culturale 21 (2020) 87-119 (cf. riviste.unimc.it/index.php/cap-cult/article/view/2234).