[1] On the variant traditions in the Hebrew text and the Septuagint,
see the commentaries on Kings.
[2] See also JONAH. In 2 Kings xiv. 28, "Hamath, _which had belonged_
to Judah" (R.V.) is incorrect; Winckler (_Keilinschrift. u. Alte
Test._, 2nd ed., 262) suspects a reference to Israel's overlordship
in Judah; Burney (_Heb. Text of Kings_) reads: "how he fought with
Damascus and how he turned away the wrath of Yahweh from Israel"; see
also _Ency. Bib._ col. 2406 n. 4, and the commentaries.
JEROME, ST (HIERONYMUS, in full EUSEBIUS SOPHRONIUS HIERONYMUS) (c.
340-420), was born at Strido (modern Strigau?), a town on the border of
Dalmatia fronting Pannonia, destroyed by the Goths in A.D. 377. What is
known of Jerome has mostly been recovered from his own writings. He
appears to have been born about 340; his parents were Christians,
orthodox though living among people mostly Arians and wealthy. He was at
first educated at home, Bonosus, a life-long friend, sharing his
youthful studies, and was afterwards sent to Rome. Donatus taught him
grammar and explained the Latin poets. Victorinus taught him rhetoric.
He attended the law-courts, and listened to the Roman advocates pleading
in the Forum. He went to the schools of philosophy, and heard lectures
on Plato, Diogenes, Clitomachus and Carneades; the conjunction of names
show how philosophy had become a dead tradition. accuracy of his
version: "Let him who would challenge aught in this translation," he
says, "ask the Jews." The result of all this labour was the Latin
translation of the Scriptures which, in spite of much opposition from
the more conservative party in the church, afterwards became the Vulgate
or authorized version; but the Vulgate as we have it now is not exactly
Jerome's Vulgate, for it suffered a good deal from changes made under
the influence of the older translations; the text became very corrupt
during the middle ages, and in particular all the Apocrypha, except
Tobit and Judith, which Jerome translated from the Chaldee, were added
from the older versions. (See BIBLE: _O.T. Versions_.)
Notwithstanding the labour involved in translating the Scriptures,
Jerome found time to do a great deal of literary work, and also to
indulge in violent controversy. Earlier in life he had a great
admiration for Origen, and translated many of his works, and this lasted
after he had settled at Bethlehem, for in 389 he translated Origen's
homilies on Luke; but he came to change his opinion and wrote violently
against two admirers of the great Alexandrian scholar, John, bishop of
Jerusalem, and his own former friend Rufinus.
At Bethlehem also he found time to finish _Didymi de spiritu sancto
liber_, a translation begun at Rome at the request of Pope Damasus, to
denounce the revival of Gnostic heresies by Jovinianus and Vigilantius
(_Adv. Jovinianum lib. II._ and _Contra Vigilantium liber_), and to
repeat his admiration of the hermit life in his _Vita S. Hilarionis
eremitae_, in his _Vita Malchi monachi captivi_, in his translations of
the Rule of St Pachomius (the Benedict of Egypt), and in his _S.
Pachomii et S. Theodorici epistolae et verba mystica_. He also wrote at
Bethlehem _De viris illustribus sive de scriptoribus ecclesiasticis_, a
church history in biographies, ending with the life of the author; _De
nominibus Hebraicis_, compiled from Philo and Origen; and _De situ et
nominibus locorum Hebraicorum_.[1] At the same place, too, he wrote
_Quaestiones Hebraicae_ on Genesis,[2] and a series of commentaries on
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, the Twelve Minor Prophets, Matthew
and the Epistles of St Paul. About 394 Jerome came to know Augustine,
for whom he held a high regard. He engaged in the Pelagian controversy
with more than even his usual bitterness (_Dialogi contra pelagianos_);
and it is said that the violence of his invective so provoked his
opponents that an armed mob attacked the monastery, and that Jerome was
forced to flee and to remain in concealment for nearly two years. He
returned to Bethlehem in 418, and after a lingering illness died on the
30th of September 420.
Jerome "is one of the few Fathers to whom the title of Saint appears to
have been given in recognition of services rendered to the Church rather
than for eminent sanctity. He is the great Christian scholar of his age,
rather than the profound theologian or the wise guide of souls." His
great work was the Vulgate, but his achievements in other fields would
have sufficed to distinguish him. His commentaries are valuable because
of his knowledge of Greek and Hebrew, his varied interests, and his
comparative freedom from allegory. To him we owe the distinction between
canonical and apocryphal writings; in the _Prologus Galeatus_ prefixed
to his version of Samuel and Kings, he says that the church reads the
Apocrypha "for the edification of the people, not for confirming the
authority of ecclesiastical doctrines." He was a pioneer in the fields
of patrology and of biblical archaeology. In controversy he was too fond
of mingling personal abuse with legitimate argument, and this weakness
mars his letters, which were held in high admiration in the early middle
ages, and are valuable for their history of the man and his times.
Luther in his _Table Talk_ condemns them as dealing only with fasting,
meats, virginity, &c. "If he only had insisted upon the works of faith
and performed them! But he teaches nothing either about faith, or love,
or hope, or the works of faith."
Editions of the complete works: Erasmus (9 vols., Basel, 1516-1520);
Mar. Victorius, bishop of Rieti (9 vols., Rome, 1565-1572); F.
Calixtus and A. Tribbechovius (12 vols., Frankfort and Leipzig,
1684-1690); J. Martianay (5 vols., incomplete Benedictine ed., Paris,
1693-1706); D. Vallarsi (11 vols., Verona, 1734-1742), the best;
Migne, _Patrol. Ser. Lat._ (xxii.-xxix.). The _De viris illust._ was
edited by Herding in 1879. A selection is given in translation by W.
H. Fremantle, "Select Library of Nicene and Post Nicene Fathers," 2nd
series, vol. vi. (New York, 1893). Biographies are prefixed to most of
the above editions. See also lives by F. Z. Collombet (Paris and
Lyons, 1844); O. Zöckler (Gotha, 1865); E. L. Cutts (London, 1878); C.
Martin (London, 1888); P. Largent (Paris, 1898); F. W. Farrar, _Lives
of the Fathers_, ii. 150-297 (Edinburgh, 1889). Additional literature
is cited in Hauck-Herzog's _Realencyk. für prot. Theol._ viii. 42.