At the Feet of the Fathers—St. Jerome on Reading Scripture

At the Feet of the Fathers

Monday, April 17, 2023

Saint Jerome

Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus, also known as Saint Jerome of Stridon (c. 342-347AD—September 30, 420AD), was a Christian priest, confessor, theologian, and historian. Jerome was born at Stridon, a village near Emona (now Ljubljana, capital of Slovenia) on the border of Dalmatia and Pannonia. He is best known for translating the Bible into Latin and for his commentaries on the entire Bible. Jerome attempted to create a translation of the Old Testament based on a Hebrew version rather than the Septuagint (the Greek Old Testament). Jerome was known for his teachings on Christian moral life, especially to those living in cosmopolitan centers such as Rome.

Reading Scripture is a Foretaste of Heaven

I beg you, dear brother, to live among these books—to meditate on them—to know nothing else, to look for nothing else. Do you not think a life like that seems like a foretaste of heaven here on earth?

Do not let the simplicity of Scripture or its simple vocabulary put you off. These things are either the fault of the translators or else for a deliberate purpose; in that way, it is better adapted to teaching an illiterate congregation—the educated person can take one meaning and the uneducated another from the same sentence.

I am not so stupid or vain as to tell you that I myself know it or that here on earth, I can pick up the fruit that has its root in heaven. But I confess that I would like to do so; I put myself before the man who sits idle and—making no claim to be a teacher—I readily promise to be a fellow student. “For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.” (Matthew 7:8 ESV). Here on earth, let us learn the knowledge that will stay with us in heaven.

- St. Jerome, Letter 53