Biblia Sacra Vulgatae: Clementine Vulgate Latin Bible (1804) - Page 27

HIERONYMI PRÆFATIONES. xxiii

located, and they are found to be different in the others: there will be no doubt that the passage which the number of that specific canon shows to be repeated twice or three times, was said only once by these writers in their own volume. One or another of them speaks just as many times with one and the same meaning as they have indicated by the difference in the numbering. This method shall be observed in the comparison of all nine canons. However, in the tenth canon (since it contains only the material unique to each individual writer), there can be no comparison against it, as it stands alone. I pray that you may be strong in Christ, and remember me, most blessed Pope. This concludes Jerome's famous letter to Pope Damasus regarding the revision of the Latin Gospels.

From the same author's Catalogue of Ecclesiastical Writers. This work, also known as "On Famous Men" (De Viris Illustribus), provided short biographies of important Christian figures.

Paul the Apostle, previously called Saul, was not among the original number of the twelve Apostles. He was of the tribe of Benjamin and from the Judean town of Gischala; Jerome records a tradition that Paul's family moved from Gischala in Galilee to Tarsus after a Roman conquest. when it was captured by the Romans, he moved with his parents to Tarsus in Cilicia. Sent by them to Jerusalem to study the Law, he was educated by the most learned Gamaliel, whom Luke mentions. Although he was present at the death of the martyr Stephen, and had received letters from the High Priest of the temple to persecute those who believed in Christ, he was heading to Damascus when he was compelled toward faith by a revelation, as written in the Acts of the Apostles. He was transformed from a persecutor into a "chosen vessel." original: "vas electionis" When Sergius Paulus, the proconsul of Cyprus, first believed through his preaching, Paul took his name from him because he had brought him under the faith of Christ. Joining with Barnabas and traveling through many cities, he returned to Jerusalem and was ordained the Apostle to the Gentiles by Peter, James, and John. Because the Acts of the Apostles describes his life most fully, I will only say this: in the twenty-fifth year after the Lord’s passion (that is, the second year of Nero), at the time when Festus the procurator of Judea succeeded Felix, he was sent bound to Rome. Staying there for two years in free custody, he disputed daily against the Jews concerning the coming of Christ. It should be known that during his first defense (when Nero’s rule was not yet solidified, nor had he broken out into such great crimes as history relates of him), Paul was dismissed by Nero so that he might preach the Gospel of Christ in the western parts as well. This is as he himself writes in his second epistle to Timothy, at the time when he also suffered; he dictated the epistle from his chains: "At my first defense no one stood with me, but all deserted me: may it not be charged against them. But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the preaching might be fulfilled, and all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered from the mouth of the lion." 2 Timothy 4:16–17 He most clearly signifies Nero as the "lion" because of his cruelty. And in the following verses: "I was delivered from the mouth of the lion." And immediately: "The Lord delivered me from every evil work and saved me for his heavenly kingdom," because he felt his imminent martyrdom was at hand. For in that same epistle he had already written: "For I am already being poured out, and the time of my departure is near." Thus, in the fourteenth year of Nero, on the same day as Peter, he was beheaded at Rome for Christ and buried on the Ostian Way, in the thirty-seventh year after the Lord's passion. He wrote nine epistles to seven Churches: one to the Romans, two to the Corinthians, one to the Galatians, one to the Ephesians,

one to the Philippians, one to the Colossians, and two to the Thessalonians. In addition, he wrote to his disciples: two to Timothy, one to Titus, and one to Philemon. As for the epistle which is circulated "To the Hebrews," it is not believed to be his because of the difference in style and language. Some think it belongs to Barnabas (according to Tertullian), others to Luke the Evangelist, and others to Clement (later Bishop of the Roman Church), who they say arranged and adorned Paul’s thoughts in his own words. Or certainly, because Paul was writing to the Hebrews and had removed the title of greeting at the beginning due to the hatred they felt for his name, he wrote as a Hebrew to Hebrews in Hebrew—that is, most eloquently in his own tongue—so that those things written eloquently in Hebrew might be translated even more eloquently into Greek. This is said to be the reason it seems to differ from Paul’s other epistles. Some also read an epistle "To the Laodiceans," but it is rejected by everyone.

From the same author's Catalogue of Ecclesiastical Writers.

James, who is called the brother of the Lord and surnamed "the Just," was—as some think—the son of Joseph by another wife; but as it seems to me, Jerome famously argued that the "brothers" of Jesus were actually cousins, to defend the doctrine of Mary's perpetual virginity. he was the son of Mary, the sister of the Lord's mother, whom John mentions in his book. Immediately after the Lord's passion, he was ordained Bishop of Jerusalem by the Apostles. He wrote only one epistle, which is one of the seven Catholic Epistles; it is claimed by some to have been published by someone else under his name, though it has gradually gained authority over time. Hegesippus, who lived near the times of the Apostles, relates in the fifth book of his Commentaries concerning James: "After the Apostles, James the brother of the Lord, surnamed the Just, took charge of the Church in Jerusalem; for many were named James. He was holy from his mother's womb; he drank no wine or strong drink, ate no meat, never cut his hair, never anointed himself with oil, and never used the bath. To him alone it was permitted to enter the Holy of Holies, for he wore not woolen garments but linen. He would enter the temple alone and was found kneeling on his knees, praying for the people, so much so that his knees were believed to have acquired the hardness of a camel's hide." He says many other things which would be long to list. But also Josephus, in the twentieth book of his Antiquities, and Clement in the seventh book of the Sketches original: "ὑποτυπώσεων" (Hypotyposeis) report that after the death of Festus, who ruled Judea, Nero sent Albinus as his successor. Since Albinus had not yet arrived in the province, the High Priest Ananus—a young man of the priestly line—seized the opportunity of the "respite" original: "ἀναψύξεως" (anapsyxeos), meaning the gap in Roman oversight between governors and called a council. He publicly compelled James to deny Christ as the Son of God, and when James refused, he ordered him to be stoned. Having been thrown down from a wing of the temple with his legs broken, and still half-alive, he stretched his hands toward heaven, saying, "Lord, forgive them, for they know not what they do." He died after being struck in the head by a fuller's club A "fuller" was someone who cleaned and thickened cloth; they used heavy clubs in their work. used for wringing out wet clothes. Josephus also records that he was of such great holiness and fame among the people that the destruction of Jerusalem was believed to have happened because of his murder.