Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Vol. 6 (Jerome: Letters)

Prolegomena to Jerome

The Septuagint (LXX), of which almost every copy varied from every other. His first effort, therefore, was to translate, or to revise the existing translations, from a correct version of the Septuagint. He used this revised version in his informal teachings at the monastery (Apology ii. 24, Vol. iii. 515), though a great part of it was lost even in his lifetime (280), and all that now remains is Job, the Psalms, and the Preface to the Books of Solomon (494). But even the most correct text of the Septuagint, as he saw at once, was insufficient. In Origen’s Hexapla A six-column edition of the Bible comparing different Greek versions with the Hebrew., the versions of Theodotion, Aquila, and Symmachus were provided alongside two others called the Quinta and Sexta, in parallel columns with the Septuagint. These constantly differed, and the only way to decide between them was by returning to the Hebrew—the Hebraica Veritas (Hebrew Truth), as he constantly calls it (80, 486, 494).

Accordingly, he set himself at once, in his settlement at Bethlehem, to the preliminary labors required for this task. In the sketch of his works in the Catalogue (Vol. iii. 384; On Illustrious Men, 135) he says: "I have restored the New Testament according to the Greek original; the Old, I have translated in accordance with the Hebrew." However, no portion was as yet published. In the following year, he published the Prophets (80) and sent other portions of his Old Testament version to Marcella at Rome, keeping the rest locked in his study (80), awaiting his friends' judgment on the submitted portions. He intended from the start to publish the whole, as we see from what he calls his "helmeted preface" to the Books of Samuel and Kings (489). But it was published in fragments, as he had the leisure to give it a final revision or as circumstances were favorable. The series of Prefaces (487-494) shows that some parts were written or revised in great haste (492, 494), while others were extracted from him by the importunity of his friends (488; see Apology ii. 25, in Vol. iii. 515). He was subjected to severe criticism and misunderstanding, to which he was extremely sensitive; at times he shrank from publicity so much that he wished his friends only to read it privately; and he was often, especially in later portions, dependent on his friends to provide the copyists (492, 494).

The order of publication can be traced: the Books of Samuel and Kings came first, then Job and the Prophets, Ezra and Nehemiah, and the Book of Genesis. Thus far he had proceeded in the year 393, when a break of three years occurred due to external hindrances, chiefly the panic of the Hun invasion. He then, at the entreaty of Chromatius and Heliodorus (492), completed the Books of Solomon, intending to proceed systematically to the end. But illness intervened, after which he notes that the first eight books were still missing in the copies made for the Spaniard Lucinius (153). Publication did not resume until five years later, when the remaining books from Exodus to Ruth and the Book of Esther were brought out (489, 491). The whole was then collected—by others rather than by himself—and it gradually superseded all other Latin versions. Coupled with the New Testament version previously made, it became the received, or Vulgate, edition of the Bible.

The second period of Jerome's stay at Bethlehem is the period of his great controversies. These are six in number: (1) That with Jovinian on ascetic practices. (2) That with the Origenists, in which he worked with Theophilus of Alexandria and the Western Bishops. (3) That with John, Bishop of Jerusalem. (4) That with Rufinus. (5) That with Vigilantius. (6) That with Augustine. These may be described briefly, the reader being referred for a more detailed statement to the Letters and Treatises themselves and the notices prefixed to them.

(1) Jovinian. Jovinian was a Roman monk—or rather, a solitary (for many took private monastic vows without entering any order or monastery)—who perceived the danger of devaluing ordinary Christian life that lurked in the profession of asceticism. He was not, to judge by Jerome's quotations from him (347), a man of superior ability, but there are no apparent grounds for the imputations Jerome throws upon his character. He put off the monastic dress and lived like other men; and, though he refused to marry, he maintained his right as a Christian to do so. He argued that the conditions of virginity, marriage, and widowhood were equal in God's sight, provided men lived in faith and piety, and that eating and fasting were indifferent if men gave God thanks. He seems to have had some influence, and it is stated that some who had made vows of virginity were led by his teaching to marry. Certainly his views were condemned by Pope Siricius, by Ambrose, and by Augustine. He published a book in Rome maintaining these opinions, along with others of a more speculative character; this was sent to Jerome, who immediately answered it in his treatise "Against Jovinian" (346-416). He deals with the more speculative matters calmly, but he treats the anti-ascetic views with violence and contempt. "These are the hissings of the old serpent; by these the dragon expelled man..."