Creator Bio
Jerome
347–420
Jerome was a church father, theologian, and Bible translator and commentator. His translation of the Bible, known as the Vulgate, was the first Latin translation to use the Hebrew rather than the Greek Septuagint for its Old Testament, and his commentaries likewise rely on Hebrew readings. Jerome differentiated between the writings found in the Hebrew Bible, which he considered canonical, and those found only in the Septuagint, which he called by the Greek term apocrypha (lit., “hidden”).
Content by Jerome
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The Jews Battle Their Neighbors
Chronicon, 223rd Olympiad
The Jews, who were in Libya, fight against their foreign-born neighbors. Likewise in Egypt, in Alexandria, and even Cyrene and the Thebaid, they struggle with great rebellion; but a portion of the…
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Julian Pretends to Love the Jews
Commentary on Daniel 11:34–35
And all these events took place, he asserts, for the purpose of testing and choosing out the saints, that they might be made white until the time before appointed, inasmuch as victory was deferred…
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A Reference to the Patriarchate in Jerome’s Letter to Pammachius
Epistle 57.3
At the outset before I defend my version, I wish to ask those persons who confound wisdom with cunning, some few questions. Where did you get your copy of the letter? Who gave it to you? How have you…
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Jerome’s Annotated Canonical List
Preface to the Books of Samuel and Kings
That the Hebrews have twenty-two letters is testified by the Syrian and Chaldaean languages, which are closely related to the Hebrew, for they have twenty-two elementary sounds that are pronounced the…
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Jerome on the Authorship of Daniel
Preface to the Book of Daniel
Porphyry wrote his twelfth book against the prophecy of Daniel, denying that it was composed by the person to whom it is ascribed in its title, but rather by some individual living in Judaea at the…
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Jerome on Translation
Preface to Eusebius’ Chronicle
Jerome to Vincentius and Gallienus: Greetings
It is a venerable custom that scholars should keep their talents in trim as it were by taking unfinished Greek works and…
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The Late Roman Period in History and Memory
3rd–6th Centuries
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Debates over Authorship amid Canonization
3rd–5th Centuries