209 Revising the Vulgate: Jerome and his Jewish Interlocutors

Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden ZRGG 64, 3 (2012)

Also available online - www.brill.nl
GRGE K. HASSELHOFF
Revising the Vulgate:
Jerome and his Jewish Interlocutors
1
Sophronius Eusebius Hieronymus was born at Stridon around 347.
2
As a teen-
ager he went to Rome to pursue rhetorical, philological, and philosophical
studies. He studied under the grammarian Aelius Donatus, and learned at least
the Greek and Latin languages. In Rome he became baptised in about 360 or
366. That means he already was strongly influenced by the pagan Roman
culture before he became a Christian. In other words, Jeromes Christianity
bears markers of Roman rhetoric et alia. Much later in life this is expressed by
Jerome himself when he referred to a voice in a dream which said to him:
Ciceronianus es, non Christianus. (You are a Ciceronian. You are not a Christ-
ian.)
3
After the years in Rome he travelled to Gaul until he reached Trier where he
settled for a while and where he met Rufinus. With Rufinus he moved to Aquileia.
In about 373 he travelled through Thrace (Trakia) and Asia Minor to northern
Syria. After a serious illness at Antioch he devoted himself to God. One of his
teachers at that time was Apollinaris of Laodicea who later in life was called a
heretic.
From Antioch Jerome went for a time to the desert of Chalcis (southwest of
Antioch, known as the Syrian Thebaid) to join a number of hermits. Here he
seems to have found time for study and writing, and, important for our general
The Church Father Jerome is well-known for his translation (or revision) of the
Latin Bible which later was named Vulgate. He did not translate from the Greek
as was the case with the so-called Vetus Latina but he sought the Hebrew truth
(hebraica veritas). However, this raises the question as to how good his
understanding of the Hebrew language actually was. Therefore it is asked where
Jerome might have learned Hebrew and who his Jewish interlocutors might have been.
1
An earlier draft of this paper was presented at the International Symposium Trading Reli-
gion, Bochum, 25-27 January, 2010. I thank Peter Wick (Bochum), Loren T. Stuckenbruck
(Princeton, NJ), and two unnamed referees for helpful remarks, and Ann Giletti (Rome) for editing
and useful suggestions.
2
For Jeromes biography cf. Georg Grtzmacher. Hieronymus: Eine biographische Studie zur
alten Kirchengeschichte. 3 vols. in 1 (Aalen: Scientia Verlag, 1986 = Leipzig / Berlin 1901-1908);
Ferdinand Cavallera. Saint Jrme: Sa vie et son uvre, 2 vols. (Louvain: Spicilegium Sacrum
Lovaniense Bureaux/Paris: Champion, 1922); J. N. D. Kelly. Jerome: His Life, Writings, and Con-
troversies (London: Duckworth, 1975); Stefan Rebenich. Jerome (London/New York: Routledge,
2002); Alfons Frst. Hieronymus: Askese und Wissenschaft in der Sptantike (Freiburg et al.: Herder,
2003); for his early lifetime see also Alan D. Booth The Date of Jeromes Birth. Phoenix: The
Journal of the Classical Association of Canada 33 (1979): 346-353; id. The Chronology of
Jeromes Early Years. Ibid. 35 (1981): 237-259; for a survey of most of the contemporaries with
whom Jerome had contact see Stefan Rebenich. Hieronymus und sein Kreis: Prosopographische
und sozialgeschichtliche Untersuchungen (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 1992).
3
Hieronymus, Ep. 22, 30 (CSEL 54, ed. Hilberg, p. 190).
Some Remarks on Jeromes Biography
210 GRGE K. HASSELHOFF
subject, he made his first attempt to learn Hebrew under the guidance of a
converted Jew.
4
Whether he also learned Aramaic is uncertain.
5
In 378 or 379, Jerome returned to Antioch where he was ordained a priest by
Bishop Paulinus. Soon after, he moved to Constantinople to study with Gregory
of Nazianz, one of the so-called Cappadocian Fathers. After about two years in
382, Jerome returned to Rome, where he became the secretary of Pope
Damasus I. He stayed in Rome for about three years. These years were impor-
tant for several reasons. One of them was that Damasus asked Jerome to
revise the Latin Bible. During the years in Rome, Jerome was in close contact
with a number of well-born and well-educated women, including some from
the noblest patrician families, such as the widows Lea, Marcella and Paula,
with their daughters Blaesilla and Eustochium. The close contact with these
women seems to be the reason why Jerome, after the popes death, was forced
to leave Rome.
6
In August 385, Jerome returned to Antioch. He was accompanied by a
group of young men, among them his brother Paulinianus. A little later, his
female patron Paula and her daughter Eustochium also joined him. The two
women had decided to end their days in the Holy Land. In the winter of 385,
Jerome and the women started a pilgrimage to the Holy Land where they
visited Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and the holy places of Galilee, and then went to
Egypt.
7
(Egypt at that time was the home of a number of great ascetics.)
At the Catechetical School of Alexandria, Jerome became a student of
Didymus the Blind who later, like Apollinaris, was called an Origenist heretic.
Didymus at that time expounded on the Book of Hosea. Later in life, Jerome
translated and used it among other great parts from Didymus commentary on
Zachariah.
8
In Egypt, Jerome spent some time in Nitria, a centre for ascetics in
the desert.
In the late summer or early autumn of 388, Jerome moved to the village of
Bethlehem where he spent the rest of his life as a hermit. He had a mens
monastery and a womens convent built in which, among others, Paula and
Eustochium lived. It is not certain which languages he employed in every-day
communication. Within the monasteries the language may have been Latin, as
most of the inhabitants came from Rome. Later, also Greek-speaking monks
became members of the monastery. On the streets of Bethlehem the language
4
See Hieronymus (Jerome), Ep. 18A, 10 (CSEL 54, ed. Hilberg, p. 86); Ep. 125, 12 (CSEL 56/
1, ed. Hilberg, p. 131).
5
See Michael Graves. Jeromes Hebrew Philology: A Study Based on his Commentary on
Jeremiah (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2007), 85-86.
6
See, e.g., Yves-Marie Duval. Sur Trois Lettres Mconnues de Jrme Concernant Son Sjour
Rome (382-385). In Jerome of Stridon: His Life, Writings and Legacy, edited by Andrew Cain
and Josef Lssl, pp. 29-40 (Farnham/Burlington, VT: Ashgate 2009).
7
Cf. Hieronymus, Ep. 108 (CSEL 55, ed. Hilberg, p. 306-51); Brouria Bitton-Ashkelony. En-
countering the Sacred: The Debate on Christian Pilgrimage in Late Antiquity (Berkeley/Los
Angeles/London: University of California Press, 2005), 65-105.
8
See Aline Canellis. LIn Zachariam de Jrme et la Tradition Alexandrine. In Jerome of
Stridon: His Life, Writings and Legacy, edited by Andrew Cain and Josef Lssl, pp. 153-162
(Farnham/Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2009).
211 Revising the Vulgate: Jerome and his Jewish Interlocutors
used seems to have been Koine (Greek), which Jerome had mastered. Whether
people also spoke Aramaic remains uncertain.
Before Jerome died, near Bethlehem on 30 September 419 or 420, he had a
very fruitful and active time in Bethlehem. He translated the Hebrew Bible into
Latin;
9
he commented on several Old as well as New Testament books; and he
translated a number of Greek writings into Latin. He also fought a number of
battles against other theologians, among them his former friend Rufinus.
This brief outline should be sufficient to show Jerome as a scholar, who in
the first part of his life travelled a great deal and used his encounters with other
scholars to receive a broad basis of knowledge. As Adam Kamesar, Michael
Graves and others have convincingly shown, that oeuvre bears strong marks of
the philological ideal represented by his teacher Donatus.
10
In the second part
of his life, Jerome lived as a hermit and created his magnificent work which,
next to Augustines, is the largest of any Latin Father of antiquity.
The Bible in its Various Languages: The Jewish-Christian Bible
Even today there is no commonly accepted and fixed canon of the Christian
Bible. Nonetheless, already in antiquity the shape of the Biblical canon was
roughly visible. The Christian Bible falls into two parts, namely the Old and the
New Testament. This structure had taken place after long debates until at least
the fourth century CE, perhaps even later.
11
The Old Testament is shared
between Jews and Christians, although there are some differences in the re-
spective receptions. The Old Testament was originally written in Hebrew (and
in parts in Aramaic) and falls into three parts. The first part consists of the five
Books of Moses. This part is undisputed between Christians and Jews; only the
Samaritans have a slightly different version of these books.
12
In the Hebrew
Bible follow the books of the Prophets, which consist of some of the historical
books, the twelve Minor Prophets and the three Major Prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah
9
For the date of the several translations see the survey by Christoph Markschies. Hieronymus
und die Hebraica Veritatis: Ein Beitrag zur Archologie des protestantischen Schriftverstndnis-
ses? In Die Septuaginta zwischen Judentum und Christentum, edited by Martin Hengel and Anna
Maria Schwemer, pp. 131-181 (Tbingen: Mohr, 1994), 150 and note 117.
10
See Adam Kamesar. Jerome, Greek Scholarship, and the Hebrew Bible: A Study of the Quaes-
tiones Hebraicae in Genesim (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993); Markschies, Hieronymus und die
Hebraica Veritatis, 133-7; Graves, Jeromes Hebrew Philology, 13-75.
11
See, e.g., Jack N. Lightstone. The Rabbis Bible: The Canon of the Hebrew Bible and the
Early Rabbinic Guild. In The Canon Debate, edited by Lee Martin McDonald and James A. Sand-
ers, pp. 163-184 (Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson Publ., 2002) (2
nd
printing 2004); David Stern. On
Canonization in Rabbinic Judaism. In Homer, the Bible, and Beyond: Literary and Religious
Canons in the Ancient World, edited by Margalit Finkelberg and Guy G. Stroumsa, pp. 227-252
(Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2003); Gnter Stemberger. La formation et la conception du canon dans la
pense rabbinique. In Recueils normatifs et canons dans lAntiquit: Perspectives nouvelles sur
la formation des canons juif et chrtien dans leur contexte culturel, edited by Enrico Norelli, pp.
113-131 (Lausanne: d. du Zbre, 2004); Philip S. Alexander. The Formation of the Biblical
Canon in Rabbinic Judaism. In The Canon of Scripture in Jewish and Christian Tradition, edited
by Philip S. Alexander and Jean-Daniel Kaestli, pp. 57-80 (Lausanne: d. du Zbre, 2007).
12
This was already mentioned by Jerome, see Hieronymus, Prologus in libro regum (Galeatus)
(Vulgata ed. Weber, 364).
212 GRGE K. HASSELHOFF
and Ezekiel. The third part consists of the rest including the Psalms and the
Book of Daniel. Its content was never really fixed, and theoretically the num-
ber of books could be larger than those printed in every common Hebrew
Bible.
13
This, then, is the Hebrew Bible. There is also a Jewish Greek translation
from antiquity, the Septuagint. There is much on-going scholarly debate about
the age and versions of the Septuagint,
14
but one thing is certain: at least the five
Books of Moses were already translated in the third century BCE. The books of
the Prophets, the historical writings, and at least parts of the other books fol-
lowed soon thereafter. These parts differ from the Hebrew version in several
respects, such as the order of books and their length, including different chap-
ters. We can, however, state that in the first century CE there was a Jewish
Greek Bible which was used by Jews, e.g., Philo of Alexandria, and by Chris-
tians. That Greek Bible quickly became the Christian Bible, whereas after a
longer process the Jewish communities had retained the Hebrew version as
their Bible. Nonetheless there were also further Greek translations within Juda-
ism, e.g., those of Theodotion and Aquila. The text of the Hebrew Bible was
transmitted with the Hebrew letters written only as consonants, i.e. as a text in
which the vowels were missing. To comprehend its meaning required more
than the ability to read. It required knowledge of how to find the right under-
standing of the Hebrew words and of the complete text.
Within the developing Christian community already in the first century, a
kind of Midrash was created that combined the exegesis of the Bible (the Old
Testament) and the Jesus narrative, namely the New Testament. The Christ-
ian process of forming one Bible including the Old and New Testaments was
forced by various occurrences.
15
I only mention here the challenge of Markion
and his reduced Bible.
16
But and this must be emphasised until the end of
the fourth century it was still disputed as to which books should be included in
the Greek Christian Bible. Within the canon of the New Testament the inclu-
sion of several of the letters (or Epistles), further books of acts and apocalypses
were disputed.
17
The canon of the Old Testament was disputed too, as can be
seen from the different lists attributed, for example, to Meliton of Sardis (2
nd
century CE) and to Origen (3
rd
century CE).
18
What must be emphasised here is
that the Septuagint comprises more books then the Hebrew Bible, and, in addi-
13
See Lightstone, The Rabbis Bible, 170-84.
14
See, e.g., Martin Karrer, Wolfgang Kraus, and Martin Meiser, eds. Die Septuaginta: Texte,
Theologien und Einflsse (Tbingen: Mohr-Siebeck, 2010); Martin Karrer/Siegfried Kreuzer/
Marcus Sigismund, eds. Von der Septuaginta zum Neuen Testament: Textgeschichtliche
Errterungen (Berlin/New York: De Gruyter, 2010); Siegfried Kreuzer/Martin Meiser/Marcus
Sigismund, eds. Die Septuaginta Entstehung, Sprache, Geschichte (Tbingen: Mohr-Siebeck,
2012).
15
See, e.g., Lee Martin McDonald. The Biblical Canon: Its Origin, Transmission, and Author-
ity (Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson Publ., 2007, updated and revised 3
rd
ed.).
16
See recently Sebastian Moll. The Arch-Heretic Marcion (Tbingen: Mohr-Siebeck, 2010).
17
See, e.g., Hermann von Lips. Der neutestamentliche Kanon: Seine Geschichte und Bedeutung
(Zrich: Theologischer Verlag, 2004), 13-116.
18
Eusebius Caesarensis, h. e., IV, 26, 14 (for Melito); VI, 25, 2 (for Origen).
213 Revising the Vulgate: Jerome and his Jewish Interlocutors
tion, within some books it has different texts, e.g., in the Book of Daniel and in
the Book of Jeremiah.
Before proceeding to the content of the Bible versions, we should pause to
consider a question which, in my opinion, is important for the understanding of
early Christian history, namely: what did Judaism mean at that time?
Judaism and Christianity: A Parting of the Ways?
A common Jewish and Christian tradition is that with Paul and his mission to
the gentiles the separation of Jews and Christians came to be.
19
In fact, the
separation of Church and Synagogue was not concluded that early. There is
much evidence that the separation was completed only by imperial force in the
fourth century, although the separation processes had, of course, already begun
in the first century.
20
Regarding the Christian side of the story, it will suffice to
give two examples. First, the reports on the Council of Nicaea (325 CE) state
that the Christian calendar had to be separated from the Jewish calendar with
regard to the date of Easter.
21
Why would this command be necessary if the
religious groups had been separated centuries before? Second, why did Chris-
tian theologians such as Melito and Origen have, as mentioned above, a differ-
ent, but growing, canon of the Old Testament which, at least with respect to the
Book of Esther, was similar to the growing Jewish canon? (Melito leaves it out;
it seems to have been inserted in the 3
rd
century). In addition, we must remem-
ber that the Christians were by far not a homogeneous group. One of the many
branches of the early Christianity was the group that by some modern mission-
aries to Jews are called the Jewish believers in Jesus.
22
I prefer the more
neutral term Jewish-Christians. That group, which was of some importance
for Jerome, kept the Jewish rites but believed in Jesus as their messiah.
Concerning the Jewish side of the parting process, I highlight two current
scholarly debates. First, although Peter Schfer in his book Jesus in the Talmud
seems to exaggerate in stating that the Talmud is an answer to the Christian
community
23
there is certainly an interesting point in his argument. Although
19
See, e.g., Giorgio Jossa. Jews or Christians? The Followers of Jesus in Search of their own
Identity. Translated by Molly Rogers (Tbingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2006. English Translation of Giudei
o cristiani? I seguaci di Gsu in cerca di una propria identit, Brescia: Paideia Editrice, 2004),
who argues that the split took place already in the first century.
20
James D. G. Dunn, ed. Jews and Christians: The Parting of the Ways A.D. 70 to 135 (Tbingen:
Mohr, 1992); Adam H. Becker/Annette Yoshiko Reed, eds. The Ways that Never Parted: Jews and
Christians in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages (Tbingen: Mohr-Siebeck, 2003).
21
Sacha Stern. Calendar and Community: A History of the Jewish Calendar, 2
nd
Century BCE
10
th
Century CE (Oxford et al.: Oxford University Press, 2001), 80-84; Roger T. Beckwith. Cal-
endar and Chronology, Jewish and Christian: Biblical, Intertestamental and Patristic Studies
(Leiden/New York/Kln: Brill, 1996), 51-70.
22
Cf. Oskar Skarsaune/Reidar Hvalik, eds. Jewish Believers in Jesus (Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
Publ., 2007); see also Ray A. Pritz. Nazarene Jewish Christianity: From the End of the New Testament
Period until Its Disappearance in the Fourth Century (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 2010 [= 1988]); James
Carleton Paget. Jews, Christians and Jewish Christians in Antiquity (Tbingen: Mohr-Siebeck, 2010).
23
Cf. Peter Schfer. Jesus in the Talmud (Princeton, NJ/Woodstock, Oxfordshire: Princeton
University Press, 2007); id. Die Geburt des Judentums aus dem Geist des Christentums: Fnf
Vorlesungen zur Entstehung des rabbinischen Judentums (Tbingen: Mohr-Siebeck, 2010).
214 GRGE K. HASSELHOFF
the year 200 is always given as the date of the completion of the Mishnah and
the middle of the 5
th
century as the date of the completion of the Gemarrah
there is evidence that both corpora were not written down before the end of the
fifth or the sixth century (or even later).
24
The codification may have been an
answer to non-Jewish movements, among them certainly the established Church
which may already have left some traces. Second, there is an on-going debate,
which was initiated within the Wissenschaft des Judentums, as to whether Christ-
ian writings of the Early Church could serve as sources for understanding of the
development of the Haggadah.
25
But why would Christian writers transmit Jew-
ish knowledge if there were no close connections and contact between the
religious groups?
In my opinion the relation between Christians and Jews in the first centuries
seems to have been closer than normally assumed. The encounters related to
everyday life, to cultic practices and to the scriptural basis. This latter aspect
we have to keep in mind with regard to Jerome.
Inner-Christian Transformations of the Bible
As explained above, the Christian Bible was the Septuagint for the Old Testa-
ment and the Greek New Testament. As a collection it comprised more books
than the Hebrew Bible, although it seems that the contents of the canon were
not as clearly established as is generally thought which can be seen in the
choices of Melito and Origen.
A further problem arises with regard to the language. Until the end of the
second century Christianity was mainly an Aramaic and Greek phenomenon.
The Aramaic-speaking people in the Syrian area were a tradition on its own
that needs no treatment with regard to our discussion. The Greek-speaking
Christians seem to have been spread all over the Roman Empire. It soon at-
tracted not only the Greeks but also the Latin-speaking people. For liturgical
practice, but also for mere interest, large parts of the Greek Bible seem to have
been translated into Latin. This translation, known as the Vetus Latina, is for
the most part preserved or can be reconstructed. Most parts of that version of
the Bible are edited today.
26
Even the Christians in the East were not happy with the translation of the
Septuagint. Already Origen, the most important Greek-speaking father of the
third century, collected several Greek translations together with the Hebrew
text and a transcription of the Hebrew in Greek letters, presenting these mul-
tiple versions in parallel text in the so-called Hexapla. Today the Hexapla is
24
Hillel I. Newman. Louis Ginzberg, The Legends of the Jews, and the Church Fathers. In
Grge K. Hasselhoff, ed. Die Entdeckung des Christentums in der Wissenschaft des Judentums, pp.
183-194 (Berlin/New York: De Gruyter, 2010), 189 and note 22; but see the critical evaluation of
an oral redaction of the Mishna by Gnter Stemberger. Mndliche Tora in schriftlicher Form: Zur
Redaktion und Weitergabe frher rabbinischer Texte. In Die Textualisierung der Religion, edited
by Joachim Schaper, pp. 222-237 (Tbingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2009), 227-228.
25
Cf. Newman, Louis Ginzberg; G. K. Hasselhoff. Sapientes docent traditiones: Der
Rabbiner Moritz Rahmer und der Kirchenvater Hieronymus. In Ibid., pp. 137-163.
26
See the online-surveys at http://www.vetuslatina.org and http://www.vetus-latina.de (accessed
September, 8
th
, 2011).
215 Revising the Vulgate: Jerome and his Jewish Interlocutors
lost, and only parts of it can be reconstructed, but in Jeromes day it could still
be used.
27
And Jerome did so.
28
During his time in Rome, Jerome was asked by Pope Damasus I to revise
that Latin Bible according to the Greek tradition in order to have a more precise
and reliable Bible text.
29
Between 382 and 384, Jerome revised the translations
of the New Testament as well as the translations of several Old Testament
books, including the Psalms. The translation of the Old Testament material,
which is part of the Vulgate, is called iuxta septuagintam (according to the
Septuagint). The revision of the rest of the Old Latin Translation was done in
Bethlehem, and then not always according to the Greek tradition but some-
times according to the Hebrew tradition, because Jerome expected the Hebrew
to be superior to the Greek since it was the first language of the Bible. He called
it Hebraica veritas.
30
To translate directly from the Hebrew required a cer-
tain knowledge of the Hebrew language. Jerome acquired that knowledge from
some of his Jewish and Jewish-Christian interlocutors.
Jeromes Jewish and Jewish-Christian Interlocutors
How good Jeromes actual ability to speak Hebrew was is still heavily dis-
puted. Some scholars judge him from todays Gesenius grammar knowledge,
and say that he was unable to speak and read Hebrew, and that all his transla-
tions were made according to Origens Hexapla.
31
This seams to be as unfair
and inaccurate as the opposite opinion claiming his overwhelming knowledge
of the Hebrew language. Adam Kamesar, Stefan Rebenich, Michael Graves,
and Hillel Newman, among others, have recently demonstrated that Jeromes
skill in reading Hebrew was fairly good.
32
His speaking ability cannot be judged
27
For an edition of the remnants of the Hexapla see Origenis Hexaplorum quae supersunt sive
veterum interpretum graecorum in totum vetus testamentum fragmenta, edited by Fredericus Field,
2 vols. (Hildesheim: Olms, 1964 [= Oxford, 1875]); Giovanni Mercati. Osservazioni a proemi del
Salterio di Origene, Ippolito, Eusebio, Cirillo Alessandrino e altri con frammenti inediti (Vatican-
City: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 1948); Alison Salvesen, ed. Origens Hexapla and Frag-
ments (Tbingen: Mohr-Siebeck, 1998).
28
See, e.g., the references in the Vulgate prologues to Joshua (Vulgata ed. Weber, 285) and Job
(Vulgata, ed. Weber, 732).
29
Hieronymus, Prologus in evangelio (Vulgata ed. Weber, 1515-1516).
30
Christoph Markschies (Hieronymus und die Hebraica Veritatis, 175-176) has shown that
Jerome after his quarrels with Augustine and Rufinus more or less seems to have abandoned that
particular term.
31
See, e.g., Pierre Nautin. Hieronymus. Theologische Realenzyklopdie, edited by Gerhard
Mller, vol. 15, pp. 304-315 (Berlin/New York: De Gruyter, 1986), 309-310. The earlier debate is
documented by Stefan Rebenich. Jerome: The Vir Trilinguis and the Hebraica Veritas. Vigiliae
Christianae 47 (1993): 50-77, at 56-57 and 72 notes 61-65; Josef Lssl. Hieronymus und
Epiphanius von Salamis ber das Judentum ihrer Zeit. Journal for the Study of Judaism 33 (2002):
411-436, at 413 f.
32
See, e.g., Eitan Burstein. La comptence de Jrme en hbreu. Revue des tudes
Augustiniennes 21 (1975): 3-12; Stefan Rebenich, Jerome: The Vir Trilinguis and the Hebraica
Veritas, 57-65; Graves, Jeromes Hebrew Philology, 84-98; 117-127; Hillel I. Newman. How
Should We Measure Jeromes Hebrew Competence? In Jerome of Stridon: His Life, Writings and
Legacy, edited by Andrew Cain and Josef Lssl, pp. 31-140 (Farnham/Burlington, VT: Ashgate,
2009).
216 GRGE K. HASSELHOFF
in every detail, but we do have some information. Jerome not only demon-
strates that he had some competence in Hebrew grammatical and lexical ques-
tions (which might be explained differently as well), but also presents a large
number of what were at that time non-written Hebrew exegetical traditions.
Thus he seems to have had either good speaking ability or good teachers to
explain to him in another language. With Hillel Newman we have to state:
The precise extent of Jeromes command of Biblical Hebrew is ultimately
unknowable.
33
Jerome himself claims to have good expertise of Hebrew, whereas he says
he was unable to read Aramaic. In the preface to the Vulgate Book of Tobit,
which is not part of the Hebrew Bible, but of the Septuagint Jerome makes an
interesting remark. He claims to have had an Aramaic Vorlage and writes:
I do not cease to wonder at the constancy of your [i.e. Cromatius and
Heliodors] demanding. For you demand that I bring a book written in
Chaldean words into Latin writing, indeed the Book of Tobias, which the
Hebrews exclude from the catalogue of Divine Scriptures, being mindful
of those things which they have titled Hagiographa. I have done enough
for your desire, yet not by my study. For the studies of the Hebrews rebuke
us and find fault with us, to translate this for the ears of Latins contrary to
their canon. But it is better to be judging the opinion of the Pharisees to
displease and to be subject to the commands of bishops. I have persisted
as I have been able, and because the language of the Chaldeans is close to
Hebrew speech, finding a speaker very skilled in both languages, I took to
the work of one day, and whatever he expressed to me in Hebrew words,
this, with a summoned scribe, I have set forth in Latin words. I will be paid
the price of this work by your prayers, when, by your grace, I will have
learned what you request to have been completed by me was worthy.
34
Several scholars have claimed that what Jerome says could not be true be-
cause his Latin translation was a revision of the Septuagint text; but Joseph
Fitzmyer, in his extensive commentary on Tobit, gives evidence that things are
not that simple. He writes:
The relation of the V[ul]g[ate] to the short Greek recension is problemati-
cal, because, on the one hand, Jerome often retained words and phrases
33
Newman, How Should We, 140.
34
Hieronymus, Prologus in Tobiae (Vulgata ed. Weber, 676): Mirari non desino exactionis
vestrae instantiam. Exigitis enim, ut librum chaldeo sermone conscriptum ad latinum stilum
traham, librum utique Tobiae, quem Hebraei de catalogo divinarum Scripturarum secantes, his
quae Agiografa memorant manciparunt. Feci satis desiderio vestro, non tamen meo studio. Arguunt
enim nos Hebraeorum studia et inputant nobis, contra suum canonem latinis auribus ista transferre.
Sed melius esse iudicans Pharisaeorum displicere iudicio et episcoporum iussionibus deservire,
institi ut potui, et quia vicina est Chaldeorum lingua serrnoni hebraico, utriusque linguae
peritissimum loquacem repperiens, unius diei laborem arripui et quicquid ille mihi hebraicis
verbis expressit, haec ego accito notario, sermonibus latinis exposui. Orationibus vestris
mercedem huius operis conpensabo, cum gratum vobis didicero me quod iubere estis dignati
conplesse. Translation by Kevin P. Edgecomb (http://www.bombaxo.com/prologues.html;
accessed January 24
th
, 2010).
35
Joseph A. Fitzmyer. Tobit (Berlin/New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2003), 6.
217 Revising the Vulgate: Jerome and his Jewish Interlocutors
from the Vetus Latina (VL), but on the other, he often paraphrased sen-
tences and clauses, and apparently exercised great freedom in adding
details to the text, which are not found in any other ancient version.
35
Since the Aramaic version Jerome claims to have used is lost we cannot say
whether his claim is true. As other ancient translations were made from the
Greek, it is possible that the Aramaic version was a translation from the Greek
as well.
36
The method Jerome claims to have used, having someone translate
from the Aramaic into Hebrew, from which Jerome dictated a Latin transla-
tion, might be an explanation for both the alleged nearness to the Greek and the
distance from it, because of two intermediate languages between the original
and the Latin translation.
Apart from that Jerome gives further information which is useful for our
enquiry. He says he employed at least two persons. One of them was able to
speak Hebrew and Aramaic, and the second one was a scribe able to write
Latin. I will leave aside the scribe and concentrate on the translator from the
Aramaic. If Jeromes words are true and he made his translation from the
Hebrew, then he must have had quite a good understanding of that language. If
not, we have to ask in what language he talked to his translator. Was he able to
speak Greek? Did the translator translate into Latin? In any case Jerome would
have had to silence the scribe. Although Jerome quarrelled with quite a number
of people, there are, as far as I know, no reports from a scribe claiming that it
was not Jerome but someone else who did the dictating. We have to leave that
question open, but must keep in mind that it may be true that Jerome was able
to understand some Hebrew.
During the following years, Jerome seems to have learned enough Aramaic
to be able to translate Daniel and the apocryphal Book of Judith. In the preface
to his translation of the Book of Daniel he writes:
Indeed, a Hebrew was encouraging me, and he was often repeating to me
by his language Persistent work conquers all, as in me I saw an amateur
among them, I began again to be a student of Chaldean. And so I might
confess the truth, to the present day I am better able to read and under-
stand than to pronounce the Chaldean language.
37
And in the preface to Judith he writes:
Among the Hebrews the Book of Judith is found among the Hagiographa,
the authority of which toward confirming those which have come into
contention is judged less appropriate. Yet having been written in Chaldean
36
See Fitzmyer, Tobit, 3; Stuart Weeks/Simon J. Gathercole/Loren Stuckenbruck, eds. The
Book of Tobit: Texts from the Principal Ancient and Medieval Traditions, with Synopsis, Concor-
dances, and Annotated Texts in Aramaic, Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and Syriac (Berlin/New York: De
Gruyter, 2004).
37
Hieronymus, Prologus in Danihele propheta (Vulgata ed. Weber, 1341): Verum, adhortante
me Hebraeo et illud mihi sua lingua crebrius ingerente: labor omnia vicit inprobus, qui mihi
videbar sciolus inter eos, coepi rursum discipulus esse chaldaicus. Et ut vere fatear, usque ad
praesentem diem magis possum sermonem chaldeum legere et intellegere quam sonare.. Trans-
lation by Kevin P. Edgecomb (http://www.bombaxo.com/prologues.html; accessed January 24
th
,
2010).
218 GRGE K. HASSELHOFF
words, it is counted among the histories. But because this book is found by
the Nicene Council to have been counted among the number of the Sacred
Scriptures, I have acquiesced to your request, indeed a demand, and works
having been set aside from which I was forcibly curtailed, I have given to
this (book) one short nights work translating more sense from sense than
word from word. I have removed the extremely faulty variety of the many
books; only those which I was able to find in the Chaldean words with
understanding intact did I express in Latin ones.
38
This indicates that Jerome, even at a later time, employed teachers.
In other instances we are informed that (and how) Jerome learned Hebrew.
Jerome mentions five persons from whom he learned Hebrew.
39
Already in the
desert of Chalcis he sought contact with a Jewish-Christian who taught him
some Hebrew. Much later in life he says: I set myself to learn an alphabet and
strove to pronounce hissing, breathtaking words.
40
In the same passage he
writes that everything connected with learning Hebrew, i.e., speaking, writing,
and reading, was difficult for him as a Latin-speaking man.
Later in life, before he started to translate the Book of Chronicles he re-
ceived help from an unnamed person from Tiberias:
In order to translate the Book of the Paralipomenon [i.e. the Chronicles]
into Latin, I took someone from Tiberias, a certain teacher of the Law,
who is admired by the Hebrews.
41
A similar case is reported by Jerome for the Book of Job, for which he had the
help from someone from Lydda:
I remember I paid not a little money toward understanding of this scroll,
for an instructor from Lydda who among the Hebrews was thought to have
first rank, with whose teaching I know not whether I accomplished any-
thing; this one thing I know: for me not to have been able to translate
anything that I did not understand before.
42
38
Hieronymus, Prologus in Iudith (Vulgata ed. Weber, 691): Apud Hebraeos liber Iudith inter
Agiografa legitur; cuius auctoritas ad roboranda illa quae in contentione veniunt, minus idonea
iudicatur. Chaldeo tamen sermone conscriptus inter historias conputatur. Sed quia hunc librum
sinodus nicena in numero Sanctarum Scripturarum legitur conputasse, adquievi postulationi vestrae,
immo exactioni, et sepositis occupationibus quibus vehementer artabar, huic unam lucubratiunculam
dedi, magis sensum e sensu quam ex verbo verbum transferens. Multorum codicum varietatem
vitiosissiraam amputavi; sola ea quae intellegentia integra in verbis chaldeis invenire potui, latinis
expressi. Translation by Kevin P. Edgecomb (http://www.bombaxo.com/prologues.html; ac-
cessed January 24
th
, 2010).
39
See Ilona Opelt. San Girolamo e i suoi maestri ebrei. Augustinianum 28 (1988): 327-338;
Sandro Leanza. Gerolamo e la tradizione ebraica. In Motivi letterari ed esegetici in Gerolamo,
edited by Claudio Moreschini and Giovanni Menestrina, pp. 17-38 (Brescia: Morcelliana, 1997).
40
Hieronymus, Ep. 125, 12 (CSEL 56/1, ed. Hilberg, p. 131), translation: Dennis Brown. Vir
Trilinguis: A Study in the Biblical Exegesis of Saint Jerome (Kampen: Kok Pharos, 1992), 72.
41
Hieronymus, Praefatio in librum paralipomenon iuxta LXX interpretes (PL 29, 423B): ut
vobis librum Paralipomenon Latino sermone transferrem, de Tiberiade legis quondam doctorem,
qui apud Hebros admirationi habebatur, assumpsi [...] (my own translation).
42
Hieronymus, Prologus in libro Iob (Vulgata ed. Weber, 731): Memini me ob intellegentiam
huius voluminis lyddeum quemdam praeceptorem qui apud Hebraeos primas habere putabatur, non
parvis redemisse nummis, cuius doctrina an aliquid profecerim nescio, hoc unum scio non potuisse
219 Revising the Vulgate: Jerome and his Jewish Interlocutors
Only in one instance we do have the name of the person who helped Jerome
with a translation. In a letter to Pammachius and Oceanus from 400/1 (Ep. 84,
3) he mentions a certain Baranina whom he persuaded to help him. That Baranina
only came at night to teach him because he was afraid of his fellow Jews; for
that reason Jerome calls him a second Nicodemus:
43
[...] rursum Hierosolymae et Bethleem quo labore, quo pretio Baraninam nocturnum
habui praeceptorem [sic!] timebat enim Iudaeos et mihi alterum exhibebat
Nicodemum. horum omnium frequenter in opusculis meis facio mentionem.
44
It is not unlikely that Baranina stood for Bar Chanina, a name quite common in
those days. Already Moritz Rahmer gave reference to several (einige) Jews of
that name in Jeromes day.
45
Although it is not clear whether one of them lived in
Jerusalem or Bethlehem it is possible that Jerome met one of them.
We can sum up as follows. It is quite likely that Jerome had Jewish teach-
ers. It seems that in some areas it was not problematic for Jews to teach a
Christian priest, whereas in other areas it might have been. Regardless of
whether there was a problem, at least four well-educated Jewish scholars spent
some time teaching Jerome at least some aspects of the Hebrew language, and
helped him to translate parts of the Hebrew Bible. Although only one of them is
mentioned by name, two of the other teachers were located in centres of
Halakhic studies, namely Tiberias and Lydda. The teacher of Lydda is even
called a sapiens and deutertes, i.e., a teacher of the Mishnah. Whether and
how much Jerome paid to his teachers is not transmitted.
The Vulgate and the Commentaries
By 405 Jerome had finished his enterprise of translating the Bible into Latin (or
to revise the older Latin version, the Vetus Latina).
46
His prior aim, to translate
according to the Hebrew tradition instead of according to the Greek tradition,
lead to some quarrels with his contemporaries. Augustine sharply criticised
Jerome for his use of the principle of a Hebraica veritas.
47
Although today it is
me interpretari nisi quod ante intellexeram. Translation by Kevin P. Edgecomb (http://
www.bombaxo.com/prologues.html; accessed January 24
th
, 2010). Possibly the same person is re-
ferred to in Hieronymus, Commentarius in Abacuc 2, 15-17 (CC.SL 76A, ed. Adriaen, p. 610).
43
We should recall that Jews were still permitted to inhabit Jerusalem and its surroundings, so
that it may be true that Baranina actually came at night not because of his fellow Jews but
because of the Roman law. On that legal aspect (without that consequence) see Gnter Stemberger.
Hieronymus und die Juden seiner Zeit. In Begegnungen zwischen Christentum und Judentum in
Antike und Mittelalter: FS Heinz Schreckenberg, edited by Dietrich-Alex Koch and Hermann
Lichtenberger, pp. 347-364 (Gttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1993), 355 and note 32.
44
Hieronymus, Ep. 84, 3 (CSEL 55, ed. Hilberg, p. 123), Ep. 84, 3; Rufinus, indulging in polem-
ics against Jerome, confirms the existence of that teacher: he transmogrifies the name to Barrabas
(see Rufinus, Apologia Contra Hieronymum II, 15, CC.SL 20, ed. Simonetti, p. 95).
45
Cf. Moritz Rahmer. Die hebrischen Traditionen in den Werken des Hieronymus: Durch eine
Vergleichung mit den jdischen Quellen kritisch beleuchtet (Breslau: Schlettersche Buchhandlung,
1861), 8. On that passage see also Grge K. Hasselhoff, Sapientes docent traditiones, 157-158.
46
See, e.g., Brown, Vir Trilinguis, 102.
47
Cf. Ralph Hennings. Der Briefwechsel zwischen Augustinus und Hieronymus und ihr Streit
um den Kanon des Alten Testaments und die Auslegung von Gal. 2, 11-14 (Leiden/New York/Kln:
220 GRGE K. HASSELHOFF
disputed as to whether Jerome solely relied on the Hebrew traditions or made
extensive use of the Hexapla his main principle had a Wirkungsgeschichte of
its own. We can say that the results of the Christian-Jewish encounter in
Bethlehem at the turn of the fifth century resulted in a Bible translation that
after a while became the Latin standard version for the Western Church. In the
sixteenth century at the Council of Trent (Sessio IV, 8 April 1546) the Roman
Catholic Church finally declared it was the official version.
But Jeromes work with his contemporary Jews did not only result in that
particular Bible translation. Jerome also commented on a number of Biblical
books. In those commentaries, he every now and then introduces explanations
that he received from his Jewish interlocutors.
48
For example, in his commen-
taries on the Minor Prophets, he translates one or more verses according to the
Hebrew text. He then gives a translation of the Greek version if it differs from
the Hebrew version. He then goes on to explain the deviations of the Greek
version, sometimes with an introduction such as: The Hebrew, who taught me
the Scripture, told me ... (Hebraeus qui me in scriptures instituit ...).
49
The commentaries have been transmitted and were used by other commen-
tators in their explanations of Biblical texts. Here, too, we can note a certain
Wirkungsgeschichte which Benjamin Kedar-Kopfstein appropriately
characterised: [T]his man built the most important bridge between the classic
Jewish culture and Western Europe. Nolens volens he did it; but then, history is
full of such ironic twists.
50
Another field in which Jerome shared his acquired Hebrew knowledge are
the letters in which he occasionally provides transcriptions of Hebrew words.
Here further research is needed to determine whether Jerome relied solely on
Origens Hexapla or made use of explanations of his teachers.
51
Finally I would like to raise another question: what does that exchange of
religious knowledge mean for (Jeromes) Christianity? We may say that
Jeromes study of the Hebrew language was apart from a philological desire
Brill, 1994); Markschies, Hieronymus und die Hebraica Veritatis, 163-169; Alfons Frst.
Augustins Briefwechsel mit Hieronymus (Mnster: Aschendorff, 1999); Id. Hieronymus und
Augustinus. In Id. Von Origenes und Hieronymus zu Augustinus: Studien zur antiken
Theologiegeschichte, pp. 337-358 (Berlin/New York: De Gruyter, 2011); Id. Veritas Latina:
Augustins Haltung gegenber Hieronymus Bibelbersetzungen. In Ibid., pp. 359-383.
48
For Jeromes commentary on Isaiah see Pierre Jay. Lexgse de saint Jrme daprs son
Commentaire sur Isae (Paris: tudes Augustiniennes, 1985), especially 127-379; for the com-
mentary on Jeremiah see Graves, Jeromes Hebrew Philology, 128-192; for Daniel see Jay Braverman.
Jeromes Commentary On Daniel: A Study of Comparative Jewish and Christian Interpretations
of the Hebrew Bible (Washington, DC: The Catholic Biblical Association of America, 1978), 53-
136; on one passage of the commentary on Qohelet, see Matthew Kraus, Christian, Jews, and
Pagans in Dialogue: Jerome on Ecclesiastes 12:1-7. Hebrew Union College Annual 70-1 (1999-
2000): 183-231.
49
Hieronymus, Commentarius in Sophoniam 3, 9 (CC.SL 76A, ed. Adriaen, p. 702). There are
numerous quotations and references introduced alike. For analyses compare, e.g., the literature
mentioned in the note [48] above.
50
Benjamin Kedar-Kopfstein. Jewish Traditions in the Writings of Jerome. In The Aramaic
Bible: Targums in their Historical Context, edited by D. R. G. Beattie and M. J. McNamara, pp. 420-
30 (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1994), 430.
51
A study on these transcriptions by this author is in preparation.
221 Revising the Vulgate: Jerome and his Jewish Interlocutors
intended to reveal the deeper truth of Christianity. Since the basic scripture,
the Old Testament, was originally written in Hebrew, the quest for the real truth
meant to study the Hebrew Scriptures themselves. That study was not a static
process but followed the famous dictum: dies diem docet. With regard to Jerome
that means he did not rest with the achievement of his Bible translation. When
writing his commentaries he supplied a translation that in parts was revised,
and in parts was newly translated.
A second meaning related to Hebraica veritas was the questioning of the
canon of the Septuagint because it differed from the Hebrew versions. Jeromes
response to that challenge was bipartite. On the one hand, he searched for
Semitic versions of only Greek-transmitted writings, as I demonstrated with the
translation of the Book of Tobit. But, on the other hand, we must make note of
Jeromes cowardice in not following through on the consequences of his in-
sight, for example, by not excluding the so-called apocrypha, i.e., the additions
to the Septuagint. They remained a part of Jeromes Bible translation.