St. Jerome

St Jerome is an Italian historian, theologian, priest and also a confessor. He was born at Stridon, which was a neighbouring village of Emona, which lied on the Pannonia and Dalmatia boarder, which is in north-eastern part of Italy (Jerome, Saint, & Philipp, 18). St. Jerome is commonly known for his translation skills, whereby he translated the Bible into Latin, which came to be known as the Vulgate (Jerome, 33). Jerome was also a good teacher, and he taught about Christian morals particularly to the people who lived in the urban areas of Italy. Jerome’s teachings were mainly based on how women who are devoted to Jesus are supposed to live their lives. He is currently remembered by different Christian denominations which commonly refer to him as the Doctor of the church.

Jerome strongly believed in the religion thus making him to lead an ascetic type of life. Due to his strong religious beliefs, Jerome could not entertain any forms of sin and so his life was focused committed to Christianity (Jerome, & Thomas, 68). He believed that Jesus died for the sinners, and people were therefore supposed to lead holy lives. In addition he challenged priests who were not serious with religious lives. He strongly opposed secular Christianity a move which made most priests and other clergy men to hate him (Jerome, 33). Later after the death of his patron Damasus, he was thrown out of Rome by the priests. Furthermore, Jerome highly valued virginity, and would strongly urge women to lead a peaceful life doing according to the teachings of Jesus. This was also not taken positively by the priests, who later alleged that he had an affair with Paula the widow.

St. Jerome was an intellectual, and he therefore understood Hebrew perfectly well, prompting him to start a translation project (Jerome, Saint, & Philipp, 18). He moved to Jerusalem in order to be able to clearly understand and continue writing his Jewish scripture commentary. In Bethlehem he successfully continued writing the commentary and later on completed it. In 382 he embarked on a mission of correcting an already existing New Testament Bible written in the Latin language which was commonly known as the Vulgate. Then he decided to translate the Hebrew Bible from the original Hebrew, and he had also translated some parts of the Septuagint which had come from Alexandria (Jerome, 33).

Jerome also produced commentaries on scriptures, where he would clearly explain his point of view according to certain scriptures. In addition, he would also challenge the work of other writers a thing which was not often taken positively by most authors (Jerome, Saint, & Philipp, 18). On the other hand, he wrote a commentary about the virginity of Mary the mother of Jesus stating that she remained a virgin after the birth of Jesus, and she never sired any children with Joseph. This commentary was not taken positively since most clergy men took it as an obscene way of talking about religious people. Jerome was also a historian, with one of his earliest works being his Chronicle. The chronicle was composed in Constantinople, it was a chronological transition of the tables into Latin, composing the parts of Eusebius and Chronicon. Jerome’s hagiographic works included the following: Vita Pauli Monachi, Vita Hilarionis, Vitae partum and Vita Malchi Monachi captive (Jerome, 34).

Jerome’s philosophy helped Christians to change their lives through educating them and making them to understand how important it is to focus their lives on Christianity (Jerome, Saint, & Philipp, 19). Moreover, through his writings concerning how women should live a life which impresses Jesus Christ, he was able to impact most people thus making them to change their ways of life. Furthermore, his philosophy encouraged Christians to be serious with the religion, thus bringing to an end secular Christianism (Jerome, & Thomas, 68). This therefore saw most people being able to take the religion seriously thus changing their ways of life. Rome which was more of a secular town with most priests advocating for secular christianism, changed and became a holy city. Most towns in Italy and in other parts of the world were impacted positively by Jerome’s philosophy thus changing the perception of Christianity. Christians also became ascetic hence making Christianity to be taken seriously and not to be treated as a way of life (Jerome, 35).

Jerome was mostly influenced by the Jewish philosophy. This is so because, he continued with his study in Jerusalem, where he was able to complete the translation of the New Testament Hebrew Bible (Jerome, Saint, & Philipp, 19). In addition, he was also able to read through a lot Jewish scriptures thus understanding the differences between Judaism and Christianity. He therefore learnt that Judaism was more concentrated on Hellenistic things. This consequently made him to have a better understanding of the bible thus motivating him to work very hard as a theologian. In Jerusalem he learnt more about the life of Jesus, thus making him to lead a very holy life. Jerome was therefore influenced by the Jewish philosophies hence he was able to perceive the religion with the utmost respect (Jerome, 35).

Work Cited

Jerome, Saint, and Philipp Schaff. The Sacred Writings of Saint Jerome. Altenmünster: Jazzybee Verlag, 2012. Internet resource.

Jerome, . Commentary on Isaiah: Including St. Jerome's Translation of Origen's Homilies 1-9 on Isaiah. , 2015. Print.

Jerome, and Thomas P. Scheck. St. Jerome's Commentaries on Galatians, Titus, and Philemon. Notre Dame, Ind: University of Notre Dame Press, 2010. Print.