Saint Jerome was born in 342 or 347, and he died on 30 September 420. He is also known as Jerome of Stridon, and he was an early Christian priest, confessor, theologian, translator, and historian. His claim to fame is that he translated the Bible into Latin (the translation that became known as the Vulgate), and he wrote commentaries on the whole Bible. Saint Jerome tried to create a translation of the Old Testament based on a Hebrew version, before he translated the bible into Latin. St. Jerome’s list of writings is long. Saint Jerome also wrote polemical and historical essays. Had you ever heard of him?
Saint Jerome Biography
Saint Jerome was born at Stridon between 342 and 347. Saint Jerome was not baptized until about 369 in Rome, where he had gone with his friend Bonosus of Sardica to pursue rhetorical and philosophical studies. Saint Jerome also studied under Aelius Donatus. There he learned Latin and at least some Greek. This was important for his translations.
As a student, Jerome engaged in the superficial escapades and sexual experimentation of students in Rome; he indulged himself quite casually, but he suffered bouts of guilt afterwards. He was afraid of Christianity, and he eventually converted. He was known as St. Jerome in the Desert,
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 (hermits) inhabiting it.
Saint Jerome found time for studying and writing while in the desert. 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 himself a Hebrew Gospel, of which fragments are preserved in his notes.
Saint Jerome lived at the same time as Pope Damasus I, and he undertook a revision of the Latin Gospels based on Greek manuscripts. In Rome, Saint Jerome was surrounded by a circle of well-born and well-educated women. He was criticized for being with them. His letters were widely read in the entire Christian empire, and it is clear through his writing that he knew these virgin women were not his only audience.
Bible Translations
Saint Jerome is best known as a scholar. A wealthy Roman aristocrat, Paula, funded Jerome’s stay in a monastery in the nearby city of Bethlehem, where he settled next to the Church of the Nativity, built half a century prior on orders of Emperor Constantine over what was reputed to be the site. He began translating 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.
Before Saint 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 previously translated Septuagint went against the advice of most other Christians, including Augustine, who thought the Septuagint was inspired. Some modern scholars believe that the Greek Hexapla is the main source for Jerome’s “iuxta Hebrae.”
Conclusion
Saint Jerome wrote many commentaries and letters, and of course, we have his Bible translation. So, it is a little like this fourth-century saint lives today. As a prolific author, he is worthy of emulation. His relationships with women were controversial, though it is likely nothing much came of them after his conversion to Christianity. It is a little surprising that Jerome is not a Doctor of the church.
