Jerome

Saint Jerome (/dʒəˈroʊm/; Latin: Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus; Greek:

Saint Jerome
Εὐσέβιος Σωφρόνιος Ἱερώνυμος; c. 27 March 347 – 30 September 420) was a
Christian priest, confessor, theologian, and historian. He was born at Stridon, a
village near Emona on the border of Dalmatia and Pannonia.[2][3][4] He is best
known for his translation of most of the Bible into Latin (the translation that became
known as the Vulgate), and his commentaries on the Gospels. His list of writings is
extensive.[5]

The protégé of Pope Damasus I, who died in December of 384, Jerome was known
for his teachings on Christian moral life, especially to those living in cosmopolitan
centers such as Rome. In many cases, he focused his attention on the lives of women
and identified how a woman devoted to Jesus should live her life. This focus
stemmed from his close patron relationships with several prominent female ascetics
who were members of affluent senatorial families.[6]

Jerome is recognised as asaint and Doctor of the Church by the Catholic Church, the
Eastern Orthodox Church, the Lutheran Church, and the Anglican Communion.[7]
His feast day is 30 September.
Saint Jerome in the Desert by
Bernardino Pinturicchio
Hermit and Doctor of the Church
Contents Born c. 27 March 347
Life Stridon (possibly
Conversion to Christianity Strido Dalmatiae, on
After Rome the border of
Dalmatia and
Death
Pannonia)
Translation of the Bible (382–405)
Commentaries (405–420)
Died 30 September 420
(aged c. 73)[1]
Historical and hagiographic writings
Description of vitamin A deficiency Bethlehem,
Palaestina Prima
Letters
Theological writings Venerated in Catholic Church
Eschatology Eastern Orthodox
Reception by later Christianity Church
Anglican Communion
In art
Lutheranism
See also
Oriental Orthodoxy
References
Major shrine Basilica of Saint
Further reading
Mary Major, Rome,
External links
Latin texts
Italy
Facsimiles Feast 30 September
English translations (Western
Christianity)
15 June (Eastern
Life Christianity)
Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus was born at Stridon around 347[8] He was of Attributes lion, cardinal attire,
Illyrian ancestry and his native tongue was the Illyrian dialect.[9][10] He was not cross, skull, trumpet,
baptized until about 360–366, when he had gone toRome with his friend Bonosus of owl, books and
Sardica (who may or may not have been the same Bonosus whom Jerome identifies writing material
as his friend who went to live as a hermit on an island in the Adriatic) to pursue Patronage archeologists;
rhetorical and philosophical studies. He studied under the grammarian Aelius archivists; Bible
Donatus. There Jerome learned Latin and at least some Greek,[11] though probably scholars; librarians;
not the familiarity with Greek literature he would later claim to have acquired as a libraries; school
schoolboy.[12] children; students;
translators; Morong,
As a student in Rome, Jerome engaged in the superficial escapades and sexual
Rizal
experimentation of students there, which he indulged in quite casually but for which
Major works The Vulgate
he suffered terrible bouts of guilt afterwards.[13] To appease his conscience, he
De viris illustribus
would visit on Sundays the sepulchres of the martyrs and the Apostles in the
Chronicon
catacombs. This experience would remind him of the terrors ofhell:

Often I would find myself entering those crypts, deep dug in the earth, with their walls on either side lined with the
bodies of the dead, where everything was so dark that almost it seemed as though the Psalmist's words were fulfilled,
Let them go down quick into Hell.[14] Here and there the light, not entering in through windows, but filtering down
from above through shafts, relieved the horror of the darkness. But again, as soon as you found yourself cautiously
moving forward, the black night closed around and there came to my mind the line of Vergil, "Horror ubique animos,
simul ipsa silentia terrent".[15][16]

Jerome used a quote from Virgil—"On all sides round horror spread wide; the very silence
breathed a terror on my soul"[17] —to describe the horror of hell. Jerome initially used
classical authors to describe Christian concepts such as hell that indicated both his classical
education and his deep shame of their associated practices, such aspederasty which was found
in Rome.

Conversion to Christianity
Although initially skeptical of Christianity, he was eventually converted.[18] After several
years in Rome, he travelled with Bonosus to Gaul and settled in Trier where he seems to have
first taken up theological studies, and where, for his friend Tyrannius Rufinus, he copied
Hilary of Poitiers' commentary on the Psalms and the treatise De synodis. Next came a stay of
at least several months, or possibly years, with Rufinus at Aquileia, where he made many
Christian friends.
St. Jerome in His Study
(1480), by Domenico
Some of these accompanied Jerome when about 373, he set out on a journey through Thrace
Ghirlandaio.
and Asia Minor into northern Syria. At Antioch, where he stayed the longest, two of his
companions died and he himself was seriously ill more than once. During one of these
illnesses (about the winter of 373–374), he had a vision that led him to lay aside his secular studies and devote himself to God. He
seems to have abstained for a considerable time from the study of the classics and to have plunged deeply into that of the
Bible, under
the impulse of Apollinaris of Laodicea, then teaching in Antioch and not yet suspected ofheresy.

Seized with a desire for a life of ascetic penance, Jerome went for a time to the desert of Chalcis, to the southeast of Antioch, known
as the "Syrian Thebaid", from the number of eremites inhabiting it. During this period, he seems to have found time for studying and
writing. He made his first attempt to learn Hebrew under the guidance of a converted Jew; and he seems to have been in
correspondence with Jewish Christians in Antioch. Around this time he had copied for him a Hebrew Gospel, of which fragments are
preserved in his notes, and is known today as the Gospel of the Hebrews, and which the Nazarenes considered to be the true Gospel
of Matthew.[19] Jerome translated parts of this Hebrew Gospel into Greek.
[20]

Returning to Antioch in 378 or 379, Jerome was ordained there by Bishop Paulinus,
apparently unwillingly and on condition that he continue his ascetic life. Soon afterward, he
went to Constantinople to pursue a study of Scripture under Gregory Nazianzen. He seems to
have spent two years there, then left, and the next three (382–385) he was in Rome again, as
secretary to Pope Damasus I and the leading Roman Christians. Invited originally for the
synod of 382, held to end the schism of Antioch as there were rival claimants to be the proper
patriarch in Antioch. Jerome had accompanied one of the claimants, Paulinus back to Rome in
order to get more support for him, and distinguishing himself to the pope, took a prominent
place in his papal councils.

St. Jerome in the Desert, by

Jerome was given duties in Rome, and he undertook a revision of the Latin Bible, to be based
Giovanni Bellini
on the Greek manuscripts of the New Testament. He also updated the Psalter containing the
Book of Psalms then in use in Rome, based on the Septuagint. Though he did not realize it
yet, translating much of what became the Latin Vulgate Bible would take many years and be his most important achievement (see
Writings – Translations section below).

In Rome Jerome was surrounded by a circle of well-born and well-educated women, including
some from the noblest patrician families, such as the widows Lea, Marcella and Paula, with
Paula's daughters Blaesilla and Eustochium. The resulting inclination of these women towards
the monastic life, away from the indulgent lasciviousness in Rome, and his unsparing
criticism of the secular clergy of Rome, brought a growing hostility against him among the
Roman clergy and their supporters. Soon after the death of his patron Pope Damasus I on 10
December 384, Jerome was forced to leave his position at Rome after an inquiry was brought
up by the Roman clergy into allegations that he had an improper relationship with the widow
Paula. Still, his writings were highly regarded by women who were attempting to maintain a
vow of becoming a consecrated virgin. His letters were widely read and distributed throughout
the Christian empire and it is clear through his writing that he knew these virgin women were
not his only audience.[6]

Additionally, Jerome's condemnation of Blaesilla's hedonistic lifestyle in Rome had led her to
adopt ascetic practices, but it affected her health and worsened her physical weakness to the
This painting by Antonio da
point that she died just four months after starting to follow his instructions; much of the
Fabriano II, depicts Saint
Jerome working in his study. Roman populace were outraged at Jerome for causing the premature death of such a lively
The writing implements, young woman, and his insistence to Paula that Blaesilla should not be mourned, and
scrolls, and manuscripts complaints that her grief was excessive, were seen as heartless, polarising Roman opinion
testify to Jerome's scholarly against him.[22]
pursuits.[21] The Walters Art
Museum.
After Rome
In August 385, Jerome left Rome for good and returned to Antioch, accompanied by his
brother Paulinian and several friends, and followed a little later by Paula and Eustochium, who had resolved to end their days in the
Holy Land. In the winter of 385, Jerome acted as their spiritual adviser. The pilgrims, joined by Bishop Paulinus of Antioch, visited
Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and the holy places ofGalilee, and then went to Egypt, the home of the great heroes of the ascetic life.

At the Catechetical School of Alexandria, Jerome listened to the catechist Didymus the Blind expounding the prophet Hosea and
telling his reminiscences of Anthony the Great, who had died 30 years before; he spent some time in Nitria, admiring the disciplined
community life of the numerous inhabitants of that "city of the Lord", but detecting even there "concealed serpents", i.e., the
influence of Origen of Alexandria. Late in the summer of 388 he was back inPalestine, and spent the remainder of his life working in
a cave near Bethlehem, the very cave where Jesus was born,[23] surrounded by a few friends, both men and women (including Paula
and Eustochium), to whom he acted as priestly guide and teacher
.

Amply provided for by Paula with the means of livelihood and for increasing his
collection of books, Jerome led a life of incessant activity in literary production. To
these last 34 years of his career belong the most important of his works; his version
of the Old Testament from the original Hebrew text, the best of his scriptural
commentaries, his catalogue of Christian authors, and the dialogue against the
Pelagians, the literary perfection of which even an opponent recognized. To this
period also belong most of his polemics, which distinguished him among the
orthodox Fathers, including the treatises against the Origenism later declared
anathema, of Bishop John II of Jerusalem and his early friend Rufinus. Later, as a
result of his writings against Pelagianism, a body of excited partisans broke into the
Painting by Niccolò Antonio
monastic buildings, set them on fire, attacked the inmates and killed a deacon,
Colantonio, showing Jerome's
forcing Jerome to seek safety in a neighboring fortress in 416.
removal of a thorn from a lion's paw.

Death
It is recorded that Jerome died near Bethlehem on 30 September 420. The date of his death is given by the Chronicon of Prosper of
Aquitaine. His remains, originally buried at Bethlehem, are said to have been later transferred to the basilica of Santa Maria
Maggiore in Rome, though other places in the West claim some relics, the cathedral at Nepi boasting possession of his head, which,
according to another tradition, is in theEscorial.

Translation of the Bible (382–405)

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 his stay in a monastery in Bethlehem 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
St Jerome, by Michelangelo Merisi mainstream Rabbinical Judaism had rejected the Septuagint as invalid Jewish
da Caravaggio, 1607, at St John's scriptural texts because of what were ascertained as mistranslations along with its
Co-Cathedral, Valletta, Malta
Hellenistic heretical elements.[24] 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, includingAugustine, who thought the Septuagintinspired. 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
Jerome's "iuxta Hebraeos" (i.e. "close to the Hebrews", "immediately following the Hebrews") translation of the Old Testament.[25]
ist.[26]
However, detailed studies have shown that to a considerable degree Jerome was a competent Hebra

Commentaries (405–420)
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 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's prologues, he describes some portions of books in the Septuagint that were not
found in the Hebrew as being non-canonical (he called them apocrypha);[27] for Baruch, he
mentions by name in hisPrologue to Jeremiah and notes that it is neither read nor held among
[28] His Preface to
the Hebrews, but does not explicitly call it apocryphal or "not in the canon".
The Books of Samuel and Kings[29] includes the following statement, commonly called the
Helmeted Preface:

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.
Wisdom, therefore, which generally bears the name of Solomon, and the book
Saint Jerome, unknown of Jesus, the Son of Sirach, and Judith, and Tobias, and the Shepherd are not in
Southern Dutch artist, 1520, the canon. The first book of Maccabees I have found to be Hebrew, the second
Hamburger Kunsthalle is Greek, as can be proved from the very style.

Although Jerome was once suspicious of the apocrypha, it is said that he later viewed them as Scripture. For example, in Jerome's
letter to Eustochium he quotes Sirach 13:2,[30] elsewhere Jerome also refers to Baruch, the Story of Susannah and Wisdom as
scripture.[31][32][33]

Jerome's commentaries fall into three groups:

His translations or recastings of Greek predecessors, including fourteen

homilies on the Book of Jeremiah and the same number on theBook of
Ezekiel by Origen (translated ca. 380 in Constantinople); two homilies of
Origen of Alexandria on the Song of Solomon (in Rome, ca. 383); and
thirty-nine on the Gospel of Luke (ca. 389, in Bethlehem). The nine
homilies of Origen on theBook of Isaiah included among his works were
not done by him. Here should be mentioned, as an important
contribution to the topography of Palestine, his bookDe situ et
nominibus locorum Hebraeorum,a translation with additions and some
regrettable omissions of theOnomasticon of Eusebius. To the same Jerome in the desert, tormented by
period (ca. 390) belongs theLiber interpretationis nominum
his memories of the dancing girls, by
Hebraicorum, based on a work supposed to go back toPhilo and
expanded by Origen. Francisco de Zurbarán. Rome.
Original commentaries on the Old T estament. To the period before his
settlement at Bethlehem and the following five years belong a series of
short Old Testament studies: De seraphim, De voce Osanna, De tribus quaestionibus veteris legis(usually included
among the letters as 18, 20, and 36);Quaestiones hebraicae in Genesim; Commentarius in Ecclesiasten; Tractatus
septem in Psalmos 10–16(lost); Explanationes in Michaeam, Sophoniam, Nahum, Habacuc, Aggaeum. After 395 he
composed a series of longer commentaries, though in rather a desultory fashion: first on Jonah and Obadiah (396),
then on Isaiah (ca. 395-ca. 400), on Zechariah, Malachi, Hoseah, Joel, Amos (from 406), on theBook of Daniel (ca.
407), on Ezekiel (between 410 and 415), and on Jeremiah (after 415, left unfinished).
New Testament commentaries. These includeonly Philemon, Galatians, Ephesians, and Titus (hastily composed
387–388); Matthew (dictated in a fortnight, 398);Mark, selected passages inLuke, Revelation, and the prologue to
the Gospel of John.

Historical and hagiographic writings

Jerome is also known as a historian. One of his earliest historical works was his Chronicle (or Chronicon or Temporum liber),
composed ca. 380 in Constantinople; this is a translation into Latin of the chronological tables which compose the second part of the
Chronicon of Eusebius, with a supplement covering the period from 325 to 379. Despite numerous errors taken over from Eusebius,
and some of his own, Jerome produced a valuable work, if only for the impulse which it gave to such later chroniclers as Prosper,
Cassiodorus, and Victor of Tunnuna to continue his annals.
Of considerable importance as well is the De viris illustribus, which was written at
Bethlehem in 392, the title and arrangement of which are borrowed from Suetonius.
It contains short biographical and literary notes on 135 Christian authors, from Saint
Peter down to Jerome himself. For the first seventy-eight authors Eusebius (Historia
ecclesiastica) is the main source; in the second section, beginning withArnobius and
Lactantius, he includes a good deal of independent information, especially as to
western writers.

Four works of a hagiographic nature are:

the Vita Pauli monachi, written during his first sojourn atAntioch (ca.
376), the legendary material of which is derived from Egyptian monastic
tradition;
the Vitae Patrum (Vita Pauli primi eremitae),a biography of Saint Paul of
Thebes;
the Vita Malchi monachi captivi(ca. 391), probably based on an earlier
In the Middle Ages, Jerome was
work, although it purports to be derived from the oral communications of
the aged ascetic Malchus of Syria originally made to him in the desert of often ahistorically depicted as a
Chalcis; cardinal.
the Vita Hilarionis, of the same date, containing more trustworthy
historical matter than the other two, and based partly on the biography
of Epiphanius and partly on oral tradition.
The so-called Martyrologium Hieronymianum is spurious; it was apparently composed by a western monk toward the end of the 6th
or beginning of the 7th century, with reference to an expression of Jerome's in the opening chapter of the Vita Malchi, where he
speaks of intending to write a history of the saints and martyrs from theapostolic times.

Description of vitamin A deficiency

The following passage, taken from Saint Jerome's "Life of St. Hilarion", which was written about A.D. 392, appears
to be the earliest account of the etiology, symptoms and cure of severe vitamin A deficiency. "From his thirty-first to
his thirty-fifth year he had for food six ounces ofbarley 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
[34]
his life followed this temperate course, tasting neither fruit nor pulse, nor anything whatsoever besides."

Letters
Jerome's letters or epistles, 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 sexual immorality among the
clergy,[35] exhorting to the ascetic life and renunciation of the world, or breaking a lance with his theological opponents, he gives a
vivid picture not only of his own mind, but of the age and its peculiar characteristics. 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
[36]
for others besides the one to whom he was writing.

Due to the time he spent inRome among wealthy families belonging to the Roman upper-class, Jerome was frequently commissioned
by women who had taken a vow of virginity to write them in guidance of how to live their life. As a result, he spent a great deal of his
life corresponding to these women about certain abstentions and lifestyle practices.[6] These included the clothing she should wear,
the interactions she should undertake and how to go about conducting herself during such interactions, and what and how she ate and
drank. The letters most frequently reprinted or referred to are of a hortatory nature, such as Ep. 14, Ad Heliodorum de laude vitae
solitariae; Ep. 22, Ad Eustochium de custodia virginitatis; Ep. 52, Ad Nepotianum de vita clericorum et monachorum, a sort of
 epitome of pastoral theology from the ascetic standpoint; Ep. 53, Ad Paulinum de
studio scripturarum; Ep. 57, to the same, De institutione monachi; Ep. 70, Ad
Magnum de scriptoribus ecclesiasticis; and Ep. 107, Ad Laetam de institutione
filiae.

Letter to Dardanus (Ep. 129)

You may
delineate the
Promised Land of
Moses from the
Book of Numbers
(ch. 34): as
bounded on the
Saint Jerome by Matthias Stom south by the
desert tract called
Sina, between the
Dead Sea and the
city of Kadesh-
barnea, [which is
located with the Francesco St Jerome – Jacopo
Arabah to the Palma il Giovane
east] and
continues to the
west, as far as the
river of Egypt, that
discharges into
the open sea near
the city of
Rhinocolara; as
bounded on the
west by the sea
along the coasts
of Palestine,
Phoenicia,
Coele‑Syria, and
Cilicia; as
bounded on the
north by the circle
formed by the
Taurus
Mountains[37] and
Zephyrium and
extending to
Hamath, called
Epiphany‑Syria;
as bounded on
the east by the
city of Antioch
Hippos and Lake
 Kinneret, now
called Tiberias,
and then the
Jordan River
which discharges
into the salt sea,
now called the
Dead Sea.[38][39]

Theological writings
Practically all of Jerome's productions in the field of dogma have a more or less vehemently polemical character, and are directed
against assailants of the orthodox doctrines. Even the translation of the treatise of Didymus the Blind on the Holy Spirit into Latin
(begun in Rome 384, completed at Bethlehem) shows an apologetic tendency against the Arians and Pneumatomachoi. The same is
true of his version of Origen's De principiis (ca. 399), intended to supersede the inaccurate translation by Rufinus. The more strictly
polemical writings cover every period of his life. During the sojourns at Antioch and Constantinople he was mainly occupied with the
Arian controversy, and especially with the schisms centering aroundMeletius of Antioch and Lucifer Calaritanus. Two letters to Pope
Damasus (15 and 16) complain of the conduct of both parties at Antioch, the Meletians and Paulinians, who had tried to draw him
into their controversy over the application of the terms ousia and hypostasis to the Trinity. At the same time or a little later (379) he
composed his Liber Contra Luciferianos, in which he cleverly uses the dialogue form to combat the tenets of that faction, particularly
their rejection of baptism by heretics.

In Rome (c. 383) Jerome wrote a passionate counterblast against the teaching of
Helvidius, in defense of the doctrine of the perpetual virginity of Mary and of the
superiority of the single over the married state. An opponent of a somewhat similar
nature was Jovinianus, with whom he came into conflict in 392 (Adversus
Jovinianum, Against Jovinianus) and the defense of this work addressed to his friend
Pammachius, numbered 48 in the letters). Once more he defended the ordinary
practices of piety and his own ascetic ethics in 406 against the Gallic presbyter
Vigilantius, who opposed the cultus of martyrs and relics, the vow of poverty, and
clerical celibacy. Meanwhile, the controversy with John II of Jerusalem and Rufinus
concerning the orthodoxy of Origen occurred. To this period belong some of his
most passionate and most comprehensive polemical works: the Contra Joannem
Hierosolymitanum (398 or 399); the two closely connected Apologiae contra
Rufinum (402); and the "last word" written a few months later, the Liber tertius
seuten ultima responsio adversus scripta Rufini. The last of his polemical works is The Virgin and Child with Saints
the skilfully composedDialogus contra Pelagianos(415). Jerome and Nicholas of Tolentino by
Lorenzo Lotto

Eschatology
Jerome warned that those substituting false interpretations for the actual meaning of Scripture belonged to the “synagogue of the
Antichrist”.[40] “He that is not of Christ is of Antichrist,” he wrote to Pope Damasus I.[41] He believed that “the mystery of iniquity”
written about by Paul in 2 Thessalonians 2:7 was already in action when “every one chatters about his views.”[42] 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 noble
woman of Gaul:

“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 run 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. [43]

His Commentary on Daniel was expressly written to offset the criticisms of Porphyry,[44] 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 11 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:

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
.[45]
kings... after they have been slain, the seven other kings also will bow their necks to the victor

In his Commentary on Daniel, 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.” [46] 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.” [47]

Jerome identified the four prophetic kingdoms symbolized in Daniel 2 as the Neo-Babylonian Empire, the Medes and Persians,
Macedon, and Rome.[48] Jerome identified the stone cut out without hands as "namely
, the Lord and Savior".[49]

Jerome refuted Porphyry's application of the little hornof chapter seven to Antiochus. He expected that at the end of the world, Rome
[50]
would be destroyed, and partitioned among ten kingdoms before the little horn appeared.

Jerome believed that Cyrus of Persia is the higher of the two horns of the Medo-Persian ram of Daniel 8:3.[51] The he-goat is Greece
smiting Persia.[52] Alexander is the great horn, which is then succeeded by Alexander's half brother Philip and three of his generals.

Reception by later Christianity

Jerome is the second most voluminous writer (after Augustine of Hippo) in ancient Latin Christianity. In the Catholic Church, he is
recognized as the patron saint of translators, librarians and encyclopedists.[53]

Jerome acquired a knowledge of Hebrew by studying with a Jew who converted to Christianity, and took the unusual position (for
that time) that the Hebrew, and not the Septuagint, was the inspired text of the Old eTstament. The traditional view is that he used this
knowledge to translate what became known as the Vulgate, and his translation was slowly but eventually accepted in the Catholic
Church.[54] The later resurgence of Hebrew studies within Christianity owes much to him.

Jerome showed more zeal and interest in the ascetic ideal than in abstract speculation. It was this strict asceticism that made Martin
Luther judge him so severely. In fact, Protestant readers are not generally inclined to accept his writings as authoritative. The
tendency to recognize a superior comes out in his correspondence with Augustine (cf. Jerome's letters numbered 56, 67, 102–105,
110–112, 115–116; and 28, 39, 40, 67–68, 71–75, 81–82 in Augustine's).

Despite the criticisms already mentioned, Jerome has retained a rank among the western Fathers. This would be his due, if for
nothing else, on account of the great influence exercised by his Latin version of the Bible upon the subsequent ecclesiastical and
theological development.[55]

In art
In art, Jerome is often represented as one of the four Latin doctors of the Church along with
Augustine of Hippo, Ambrose, and Pope Gregory I. As a prominent member of the Roman
clergy, he has often been portrayed anachronistically in the garb of a cardinal. Even when he
is depicted as a half-clad anchorite, with cross, skull and Bible for the only furniture of his
cell, the red hat or some other indication of his rank as cardinal is as a rule introduced
somewhere in the picture.

During Jerome's life, cardinals did not exist.

However, by the time of the Renaissance and
the Baroque it was common practice for a
secretary to the pope to be a cardinal (as
Jerome had effectively been to Damasus),
and so this was reflected in artistic
interpretations. Statue of Saint Jerome
(Hieronymus) – Bethlehem,
Jerome is also often depicted with a lion, in Palestine Authority, West
Saint Jerome in his studyby Pieter
reference to the popularhagiographical belief Bank
Coecke van Aelst and Workshop,
that Jerome had tamed a lion in the
Walters Art Museum
wilderness by healing its paw. The source for
the story may actually have been the second century Roman tale of Androcles, or
confusion with the exploits ofSaint Gerasimus (Jerome in later Latin is "Geronimus").[56][57][58] Hagiographies of Jerome talk of his
having spent many years in the Syrian desert, and artists often depict him in a "wilderness", which for West European painters can
take the form of a wood or forest.[59]

From the late Middle Ages, depictions of Jerome in a wider setting became popular.
He is either shown in his study, surrounded by books and the equipment of a scholar,
or in a rocky desert, or in a setting that combines both themes, with him studying a
book under the shelter of a rock-face or cave mouth. His attribute of the lion, often
shown at a smaller scale, may be beside him in either setting.

Jerome is often depicted in connection with the vanitas motif, the reflection on the
meaninglessness of earthly life and the transient nature of all earthly goods and
pursuits. In the 16th century Saint Jerome in his study by Pieter Coecke van Aelst
and workshop the saint is depicted with a skull. Behind him on the wall is pinned an
admonition, Cogita Mori (Think upon death). Further reminders of the vanitas motif
of the passage of time and the imminence of death are the image of the Last
glass.[60]
Judgment visible in the saint's Bible, the candle and the hour

Jerome is also sometimes depicted with an owl, the symbol of wisdom and
scholarship.[61] Writing materials and the trumpet of final judgment are also part of
Saint Jerome and the Paulines
his iconography.[61] He is commemorated on 30 September with a memorial. painted by Gabriel Thaller in the St.
Jerome Church in Štrigova,
Međimurje County, northern Croatia
See also (18th century)
Bible translations
Ferdinand Cavallera
Church Fathers
Genesius of Arles
Letter of Jerome to Pope Damasus
Order of St. Jerome
International Translation Day
References
Notes

1. "St. Jerome (Christian scholar)"(https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Jerome). Britannica Encyclopedia. 2

February 2017. Retrieved 23 March 2017.
2. Scheck, Thomas P. Commentary on Matthew (The Fathers of the Church, V
olume 117) (https://books.google.com/bo
oks?id=j0UmWBivNJgC&lpg=PA5&dq=Saint%20jerome%20born%20dalmatia%20pannonia&pg=P A5#v=onepage&q
&f=false). p. 5. ""
3. Maisie Ward, Saint Jerome, Sheed & Ward, London 1950, p. 7 "It may be taken as certain that Jerome was an
Italian, coming from that wedge of Italy which seems on the old maps to be driven between Dalmatia and Pannonia."
4. Tom Streeter, The Church and Western Culture: An Introduction to Church History, AuthorHouse 2006, p. 102
"Jerome was born around 340 AD at Stridon, a town in northeast Italy at the head of the Adriatic Ocean."
5. Schaff, Philip, ed. (1893). A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church
(https://books.
google.com/books?id=NQUNAAAAIAAJ). 2nd series. VI. Henry Wace. New York: The Christian Literature Company.
Retrieved 2010-06-07.
6. Megan Hale Williams, The Monk and the Book: Jerome and the Making of Christian Scholarship, (Chicago: The
University of Chicago Press, 2006)
7. In the Eastern Orthodox Church he is known asSaint Jerome of Stridoniumor Blessed Jerome. Though "Blessed" in
this context does not have the sense of being less than a saint, as in the W
est.
8. Williams, Megan Hale (2006),The Monk and the Book: Jerome and the making of Christian Scholarship
, Chicago
9. Pevarello, Daniele (2013).The Sentences of Sextus and the origins of Christian ascetiscism(https://books.google.co
m/books?id=2Fgfxmz2EToC&pg=PA1&dq=jerome+illyrian&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CEYQ6AE wCWoVChMIo5CUxPityAI
VAbksCh29gAkB#v=onepage&q=jerome%20illyrian&f=false). Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck. p. 1.ISBN 9783161525797.
10. Wilkes 1995, p. 266: "Alongside Latin the native Illyrian survived in the country areas, and St Jerome claimed to
speak his 'sermo gentilis' (Commentary on Isaiah 7.19)."
11. Walsh, Michael, ed. (1992),Butler's Lives of the Saints, New York: HarperCollins, p. 307
12. Kelly, JND (1975), Jerome: His Life, Writings, and Controversies, New York: Harper & Row, pp. 13–14
13. Payne, Robert (1951),The Fathers of the Western Church, New York: Viking Press, pp. 90–92
14. Psalm 55:15
15. Jerome, Commentarius in Ezzechielem, c. 40, v. 5
16. Patrologia Latina 25, 373: Crebroque cryptas ingredi, quae in terrarum profunda defossae, ex utraque parte
ingredientium per parietes habent corpora sepultorum, et ita obscura sunt omnia, ut propemodum illud propheticum
compleatur: Descendant ad infernum viventes(Ps. LIV,16): et raro desuper lumen admissum, horrorem temperet
tenebrarum, ut non tam fenestram, quam foramen demissi luminis putes: rursumque pedetentim acceditur , et caeca
nocte circumdatis illud Virgilianum proponitur (Aeneid. lib. II): "Horror ubique animos, simul ipsa silentia terrent."
17. P. Vergilius Maro, Aeneid Theodore C. Williams, Ed. Perseus Project (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=
Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0054%3Abook%3D2%3Acard%3D752)(retrieved 23 Aug 2013)
18. Payne, Robert (1951),The Fathers of the Western Church, New York: Viking, p. 91
19. Rebenich, Stefan (2002),Jerome, p. 211, "Further, he began to study Hebrew: 'I betookmyself to a brother who
before his conversion had been a Hebrew and...'
"
20. Pritz, Ray (1988), Nazarene Jewish Christianity: from the end of the New estament,
T p. 50, "In his accounts of his
desert sojourn, Jerome never mentions leaving Chalcis, and there is no pressing reason to think...
"
21. "Saint Jerome in His Study"(http://art.thewalters.org/detail/27087). The Walters Art Museum.
22. Joyce Salisbury, Encyclopedia of women in the ancient world, Blaesilla
23. Bennett, Rod (2015). The Apostasy That Wasn't: The ExtraordinaryStory of the Unbreakable Early Church. Catholic
Answers Press. ISBN 1941663494.
24. "(...) die griechische Bibelübersetzung, die einem innerjüdischen Bedürfnis entsprang (...) [von den] Rabbinen zuerst
gerühmt (...) Später jedoch, als manche ungenaue Übertragung des hebräischenextes T in der Septuaginta und
Übersetzungsfehler die Grundlage für hellenistische Irrlehren abgaben, lehte man die Septuaginta ab."erband
V der
Deutschen Juden (Hrsg.), neu hrsg. von W alter Homolka, Walter Jacob, Tovia Ben Chorin: Die Lehren des
Judentums nach den Quellen; München, Knesebeck, 1999, Bd.3, S. 43f f
25. Pierre Nautin, article Hieronymus, in: Theologische Realenzyklopädie, Vol. 15, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin – New York
1986, p. 304-315, here p. 309-310.
26. Michael Graves, Jerome's Hebrew Philology: A Study Based on his Commentary on Jeremiah, Brill, 2007: 196–198.
Page 197: "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."
27. "The Bible" (http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/bible/prologi.shtml).
28. Kevin P. Edgecomb, Jerome's Prologue to Jeremiah(http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=233)
29. "Jerome's Preface to Samuel and Kings"(http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf206.vii.iii.iv.html).
30. Barber, Michael (2006-03-06)."Loose Canons: The Development of the Old e
Tstament (Part 2)" (http://www.thesacre
dpage.com/2006/03/loose-canons-development-of-old_06.html)
. Retrieved 2007-08-01.
31. Jerome, To Paulinus, Epistle 58 (A.D. 395), inNPNF2, VI:119.: "Do not, my dearest brother, estimate my worth by
the number of my years. Gray hairs are not wisdom; it is wisdom which is as good as gray hairs At least that is what
Solomon says: "wisdom is the gray hair unto men.’[Wisdom 4:9]" Moses too in choosing the seventy elders is
told to take those whom he knows to be elders indeed, and to select them not for their years but for their discretion
[Num. 11:16]? And, as a boy, Daniel judges old men and in the flower of youth condemns the incontinence of age
[Daniel 13:55–59 aka Story of Susannah 55–59]"
32. Jerome, To Oceanus, Epistle 77:4 (A.D. 399), in NPNF2, VI:159.:"I would cite the words of the psalmist: 'the
sacrifices of God are a broken spirit,’ [Ps 51:17] and those of Ezekiel 'I prefer the repentance of a sinner rather than
his death,’ [Ez 18:23] and those ofBaruch, 'Arise, arise, O Jerusalem,’[Baruch 5:5] and many other proclamations
made by the trumpets of the Prophets."
33. Jerome, Letter 51, 6, 7, NPNF2, VI:87-8: "For in the book of Wisdom, which is inscribed with his name, Solomon
says: "God created man to be immortal, and made him to be an image of his own eternity ."[Wisdom
2:23]...Instead of the three proofs fromHoly Scripture which you said would satisfy you if I could produce them,
behold I have given you seven"
34. Taylor, F. Sherwood (23 December 1944). "St. Jerome and Vitamin A". Nature. 154: 802–802. doi:10.1038/154802a0
(https://doi.org/10.1038%2F154802a0).
35. "regulae sancti pachomii 84 rule 104.
36. W. H. Fremantle, "Prolegomena to Jerome",V.
37. Bechard, Dean Philip (1 January 2000).Paul Outside the Walls: A Study of Luke's Socio-geographical Universalism
in Acts 14:8–20 (https://books.google.com/books?id=BwoLOauyDcUC&pg=P A203). Gregorian Biblical BookShop.
pp. 203–205. ISBN 978-88-7653-143-9. "In the Second Temple period, when Jewish authors were seeking to
establish with greater precision the geographical definition of the Land, it became customary to construe "Mount Hor"
of Num 34:7 as a reference to the Amanus range of the aurus
T Mountains, which marked the northern limit of the
Syrian plain (Bechard 2000, p. 205, note 98.)"
38. Sainte Bible expliquée et commentée, contenant le texte de la u Vlgate (https://books.google.com/books?id=hOhWs
YkY8iEC&pg=PR41). Bibl. Ecclésiastique. 1837. p. 41."Quod si objeceris terram repromissionis dici, quae in
Numerorum volumine continetur (Cap. 34), a meridie maris Salinarum per Sina et Cades-Barne, usque ad torrentem
Aegypti, qui juxta Rhinocoruram mari magno influit; et ab occidente ipsum mare, quod Palaestinae, Phoenici, Syriae
Coeles, Ciliciaeque pertenditur; ab aquilone a
Turum montem et Zephyrium usque Emath, quae appellatur Epiphania
Syriae; ad orientem vero per Antiochiam et lacum Cenereth, quae nunc iberias
T appellatur, et Jordanem, qui mari
influit Salinarum, quod nunc Mortuum dicitur; (Image ofp. 41 (https://books.google.com/books?id=hOhWsYkY8iEC&
pg=PR41&img=1&zoom=3&hl=en&sig=ACfU3U1psds-cSbj-GaeBF3LBOIFGcp0Jg&ci=108%2C638%2C766%2C22
2&edge=0) at Google Books)"
39. Hieronymus (1910). "Epistola CXXIX Ad Dardanum de erraT promissionis (al. 129; scripta circa annum 414ce)".
Epistularum Pars III —Epistulae 121–154(https://archive.org/details/CSEL56), p. 171 (The fifty-sixth volume of
Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorumalso known as the Vienna Corpus: Letters Part 3, Containing letters
121–154 of St. Jerome.) Image ofp. 171 (https://ia600803.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip
=/6/items/CSEL56/CSEL56_jp2.zip&file=CSEL56_jp2/CSEL56_0182.jp2&scale=1&rotate=0) at Archive.org
40. See Jerome’s The Dialogue against the Luciferians(http://books.google.com/books?id=NQUNAAAAIAAJ&pg=P A31
5#PPT19,M1), p.334 in A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church : St. Jerome:
Letters and select works, 1893. Second Series By Philip Schaf
f, Henry Wace.
41. See Jerome’s Letter to Pope Damasus(http://books.google.com/books?id=NQUNAAAAIAAJ&pg=P A19), p.19 in A
Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church : St. Jerome: Letters and select works,
1893. Second Series By Philip Schaff, Henry Wace.
42. See Jerome’s Against the Pelagians, Book I(http://books.google.com/books?id=NQUNAAAAIAAJ&pg=PT134) ,
p.449 in A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church : St. Jerome: Letters and select
works, 1893. Second Series By Philip Schaff, Henry Wace.
43. See Jerome’s Letter to Ageruchia (http://books.google.com/books?id=NQUNAAAAIAAJ&pg=P A236), p.236-7 in A
Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church : St. Jerome: Letters and select works,
1893. Second Series By Philip Schaff, Henry Wace.
44. Eremantle, note on Jerome's commentary on Daniel, in NP
AF, 2d series, Vol. 6, p. 500.
45. See Jerome’s Commentary on Daniel(http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/jerome_daniel_02_text.htm)
46. See Jerome’s Commentary on Daniel(http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/jerome_daniel_02_text.htm)
47. See Jerome’s Commentary on Daniel(http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/jerome_daniel_02_text.htm)
48. Jerome, Commentaria in Danelem, chap. 2, verses 31-40(http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/jerome_daniel_02_text.ht
m)
49. Jerome, Commentaria in Danieluem, chap. 2, verse 40 (http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/jerome_daniel_02_text.htm)
50. Jerome, Commentario in Danielem, chap. 7, verse 8 (http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/jerome_daniel_02_text.htm)
51. Jerome, Commentario in Danielem(http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/jerome_daniel_02_text.htm)
52. Jerome, Commentaria in Danielem, chap. 8, verse 5 (http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/jerome_daniel_02_text.htm)
53. "St. Jerome: Patron Saint of Librarians | Luther College Library and Information Services"
(http://lis.luther.edu/preus4
0th/jerome). Lis.luther.edu. Retrieved 2014-06-02.
54. Stefan Rebenich, Jerome (New York: Routlage, 2002), pp. 52–59
55. "Jerome, St." Pages 872–873 inThe Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church
. Third Edition Revised. Edited by E.
A. Livingstone; F. L. Cross. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
56. Hope Werness, Continuum encyclopaedia of animal symbolism in art
, 2006
57. "Eugene Rice has suggested that in all probability the story of Gerasimus's lion became attached to the figure of
Jerome some time during the seventh century , after the military invasions of the Arabs had forced many Greek
monks who were living in the deserts of the Middle East to seek refuge in Rome. Rice conjecturesSaint ( Jerome in
the Renaissance, pp. 44–45) that because of the similarity between the names Gerasimus and Geronimus – the late
Latin form of Jerome's name – 'a Latin-speaking cleric . . . made St Geronimus the hero of a story he had heard
about St Gerasimus; and that the author ofPlerosque nimirum, attracted by a story at once so picturesque, so
apparently appropriate, and so resonant in suggestion and meaning, and under the impression that its source was
pilgrims who had been told it in Bethlehem, included it in his life of a favourite saint otherwise bereft of miracles.'"
Salter, David. Holy and Noble Beasts: Encounters With Animals in Medieval Literature(https://books.google.com/boo
ks?id=kctEkMyhztQC&pg=PA11). D. S. Brewer. p. 12. ISBN 9780859916240.
58. "a figment" found in the thirteenth-centuryGolden Legend by Jacobus de Voragine Williams, Megan Hale.The Monk
and the Book: Jerome and the Making of Christian Scholarship . Chicago: U of Chicago P. p. 1. ISBN 978-0-226-
89900-8.
59. "Saint Jerome in Catholic Saint info"(http://www.catholic-saints.info/patron-saints/saint-jerome.htm). Catholic-
saints.info. Retrieved 2014-06-02.
60. "Saint Jerome in His Study"(http://art.thewalters.org/detail/35964/saint-jerome-in-his-study/)
. The Walters Art
Museum.
61. The Collection: Saint Jerome(http://artdepartment.nmsu.edu/faculty/zarursite/retablo/col-saints.html)
, gallery of the
religious art collection ofNew Mexico State University, with explanations. Accessed August 10, 2007.

Bibliography

J.N.D. Kelly, Jerome: His Life, Writings, and Controversies(Peabody, MA 1998)

S. Rebenich, Jerome (London and New York, 2002)
"Biblia Sacra Vulgata", Stuttgart, 1994.ISBN 3-438-05303-9
This article uses material from Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religion.

Further reading
Saint Jerome, Three biographies: Malchus, St. Hilarion and Paulus the First Hermit Authored by Saint Jerome
,
London, 2012. limovia.net.ISBN 978-1-78336-016-1
External links
Letters of Jerome Dataset – corpus as structured data, with sender
, receiver, and letter-type classification
St. Jerome (pdf) from Fr. Alban Butler's Lives of the Saints
The Life of St. Jerome, Priest, Confessor and Doctor of the Church
Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913)."St. Jerome" . Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
Jewish Encyclopedia: Jerome
St. Jerome – Catholic Online
St Jerome (Hieronymus) of StridoniumOrthodox synaxarion
Further reading of depictions of Saint Jerome in art
Saint Jerome, Doctor of the Churchat the Christian Iconography web site
Here Followeth the Life of Jeromefrom Caxton's translation of the Golden Legend
Works of Saint Jerome at Somni

Beati Hyeronimi Epistolarum liber, digitized codex (1464)

Epistole de santo Geronimo traducte di latino, digitized codex (1475–1490)
Hieronymi in Danielem, digitized codex (1490)
Sancti Hieronymi ad Pammachium in duodecim prophetas , digitized codex (1470–1480)
Colonnade Statue in St Peter's Square

Latin texts
Chronological list of Jerome's Works with modern editions and translations cited
Opera Omnia (Complete Works) from Migne edition (Patrologia Latina, 1844–1855) with analytical indexes, almost
complete online edition
Lewis E 82 Vitae patrum (Lives of the Fathers) at OPenn
Lewis E 47 Bible Commentary at OPenn

Facsimiles

Migne volume 23 part 1 (1883 edition)

Migne volume 23 part 2 (1883 edition)
Migne volume 24 (1845 edition)
Migne volume 25 part 1 (1884 edition)
Migne volume 25 part 2 (1884 edition)
Migne volume 28 (1890 edition?)
Migne volume 30 (1865 edition)

English translations
Jerome (1887). The pilgrimage of the holy Paula. Palestine Pilgrims' Text Society.
English translations of Biblical Prefaces, Commentary on Daniel, Chronicle, and Letter 120 (tertullian.org)
Jerome's Letter to Pope Damasus: Preface to the Gospels
English translation of Jerome's De Viris Illustribus
The Perpetual Virginity of Blessed Mary
Lives of Famous Men (CCEL)
Apology Against Rufinus (CCEL)
Letters, The Life of Paulus the First Hermit, The Life of S. Hilarion, The Life of Malchus, the Captive Monk, The
Dialogue Against the Luciferians, The Perpetual V irginity of Blessed Mary, Against Jovinianus, Against Vigilantius, To
Pammachius against John of Jerusalem, Against the Pelagians, Prefaces (CCEL)
Audiobook of some of the Letters

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