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The article attempts to shed light on the function of the bizarre martyrdom episode at the beginning of Jerome’s Life of Paul the First Hermit, which, due to its indecency, causes embarrassment among scholars. It, at first glance, seems to be a superfluous and somewhat awkward attempt to make the narrative about the founder of the Egyptian eremitic movement more entertaining. Considering how much space the author devotes to this anecdote in this fairly short text and in what detail he describes the unusual sexual torture, it is apparent that this is not just a titillating interlude to amuse the reader. The “torture” by the woman therefore plays a much more important role in the structure of the text. In this scene, Jerome reverses the standard martyrological pattern of the female martyr being subjected to sexual torture by male persecutors, in an attempt to show the ethos of the new Eastern ascetic movements of which he became an enthusiastic advocate. The entire scene can thus be seen as an allegorical parable about the inner spiritual struggle of an adept at the ascetic life with sexual temptation. This can only be overcome at the cost of physical suffering, which the ascetic inflicts on himself by the strict suppression of his own bodily desires, and which can match the torture that the martyrs have to undergo. He thus makes a connection between martyrdom and the ascetic life, placing both forms of extraordinary faith on the same level. The fact that this struggle with carnal temptation is not thematized in the following narrative of the first hermit is the result of a specific narrative strategy based on the use of the isolated fragments of the story between which there are large narrative gaps. The link, however, between the seemingly unrelated opening martyrdom episode and the main narrative of Paul’s eremitic career may not only be the symbolic meaning of the scene as a parable about the struggle with carnal temptation, but also the word meretrix (harlot) itself, which also appears in the main body of the text in the phrase civitas meretrix (harlot city), which Saint Anthony uses to refer to Alexandria. The martyr’s radical break with his female tormentor may prefigure the hermit’s equally uncompromising break with depraved urban civilization and all its worldly temptations. The strange martyrdom episode can thus also be interpreted as a hidden message about the nature of radical eremitic asceticism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay explores the relationship of solitude to place in Jerome's fourth-century Life of Saint Hilarion. It does so through the medium of Burrus's own experience of solitude and place. In 2020, having planned to visit Hilarion's mountaintop hermitage in Cyprus, she found herself instead weathering the pandemic at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts. Thus she came to know Hilarion's Cyprus by developing a relationship with the northern Berkshires; she came to know Hilarion's solitude by experiencing her own. The essay reperforms this interspatial dynamic, reading Jerome through the mediation of four objects of art that Burrus encountered on the Clark campus in 2020–21. Three are contemporary sculptures—Kelly Akashi's A Device to See the World Twice (2020), Thomas Schütte's Crystal (2015), and Giuseppe Penone's Le foglie delle radici (The Leaves of Roots) (2011)—and one is a seventeenth-century map. Burrus suggests that solitude allows us to know place (and ourselves as part of it) more deeply and intimately, offers a vantage point for seeing further and more clearly, undoes our sense of distinctiveness as humans, and transforms the intervals and flows of our movements in space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholarship on the New Testament canon regularly relies on criterial and reception-historical methodologies to antedate the Christian scriptural collection well before its first advocacy as a "rule" of scripture in the 39th Festal Letter of Athanasius of Alexandria (367 CE). Pushing back against these narratives and associated tendencies, this article prefers a functional or forensic approach to the institution of a twenty-seven-book New Testament and highlights evidence demonstrating how the Athanasian episcopal canon was amplified, amended, and accepted in the Christian East and West in the decades following its promulgation. Against suggestions that the canon existed as early as the second century, this handling of data on the New Testament, a scriptural instrument set forth with authoritative and exclusionary intentions, fits the guidelines of creative discourse and historical redescription so as to credit Athanasius, in the fourth century, as the inventor of the canon regnant into the present day. Among other foci, tracing the fortunes of a subcanonical category of books shows the potential for new histories of familiar canonical evidence that may ensue, especially those that plumb the possibility of dissent to the Athanasian scriptural boundaries or augment our awareness of the place and value of such an established standard within institutional, monastic, academic, imperial, and even so-called heretical contexts in and beyond the fourth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although religious ethicists commonly assess the content of public communication to determine its merits, this article argues that the style and techniques of communication deserve similar analysis. Propaganda often employs rhetorical techniques that impress the recipient through persuasive sleight-of-hand or emotional appeal. Drawing on the church fathers' suspicion of classical rhetoric, as well as Augustine's guarded defense of a specific type of rhetoric, the author formulates two principles of ethical propaganda that may assist public communicators in persuading ethically. These two principles are the procedural movement of beauty from truth, and the use of caritas as a primary motivator in persuasion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In parallel with the well-known Easter controversy in Orient, another controversy took place in Occident too, during the second half of the 4th century. Object of such contention was the meaning of the word pascha. Ambrosiaster and Jerome were the protagonists of such dispute. The first, supported the Latin traditional thesis (pascha = passio); the second, promoted a reinterpretation of the Alexandrinian exegesis (pascha = transitus). Through a detailed analysis of their polemic allusions to this issue, here are the reconstructed stages of the Occidental Easter controversy, which was maybe incited by an unaware Ambrose and saw Ambrosiaster as the fiercest competitor. The focus on Ambrosiaster' s Quaestio 96, carried out in parallel with the study of Jerome' s passages, finally suggests a revision of Ambrosiaster' s chronology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Origen adopted two critical signs from the philological tradition in Alexandria: the obelos, which denotes the elements found in the Septuagint (LXX) but not in the Hebrew Bible, and the asteriskos, which designates the elements found in the Hebrew text but not in the LXX. By examining how Origen and other Church Fathers (including Epiphanius, Jerome, and Augustine) understood the critical signs, this study raises the question of what their attitude toward the Bible was. Therefore, I analyze whether they regarded the obelized elements as an excess in the LXX or a lack in the Hebrew text, or whether they regarded the asterisked elements as an omission in the LXX or an addition in the Hebrew text. This form of analysis leads to the conclusion that Origen and Epiphanius are LXX-centered, Jerome is Hebrew-centered, and Augustine is both LXX-centered and Hebrew-centered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper focuses on a hagiographic adaptation of novelistic conventions and narrative techniques in Jerome’s The Life of Malchus, the Captive Monk used to promote the ideal of virginal chastity. The central novelistic motif of chastity and premarital sexual abstinence is transformed in Jerome’s text into the motif of lifelong celibacy, which pushes aside the institution of marriage. Legitimate marital union is no longer the final target ending the adventurous wandering of the central couple. Instead, it is a test of their ascetic constancy, which should verify the faithfulness of the vow of continence. While a desire to marry is an essential element of the romance plot and marriage represents the final happy ending, in The Life of Malchus the driving force is instead the aversion of the main hero to this institution and everything leads to the final separation of the main characters. This end of the story of the married monk, reflecting the official church approach towards syneisactism, is, however, problematized by the contradiction between the frame narrative and the narrative embedded, which provides an alternative solution to the relationship between man and female ascetics. Although their separation is in general desirable, in some circumstances their living together can work, as genuine chastity can never be taken captive (pudicitiam numquam esse captivam), not even in a marital union. It can be transformed into a “marriage of chastity” (coniugium pudicitiae) in which both partners voluntarily renounce any physical contact and undertake to live in chastity and renunciation. Thus, at least in a novelistic perspective, this opens up the possibility of an incorporeal relationship between two persons of the opposite sexes, which are united together by circumstances and forced to share the same household. In this way the author also provides an answer to the critics of his personal relationship with the rich widow Paula. The story about the captive Syrian monk and his involuntary marriage can therefore be perceived as a distinctive novelistic parable about the possibility and impossibility of spiritual cohabitation of man and woman, not affected by carnal lust. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the example of Epistula 3 Jerome's citation technique is analyzed in detail. For this purpose, a comprehensive classification grid of intertextual references is introduced for the first time, which allows a systematization of the narrative examination of citations and allusions. Thus, not only differences in the use of Bible verses and quotations of classics can be highlighted transparently but also a (radical) syntactic, structural, and semantic incorporation of biblical and classic pre-texts by Jerome's text can be substantiated. In stark contrast to former, rather negative verdicts on Jerome's "cento style" and semantic incoherences in his writing, this approach is capable of showing a high functionality and authority in Jerome's strategy of referencing, which shapes the narrative of the friendship letter not only aesthetically but also significantly helps to constitute its semantics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I propose to approach a selection of Jerome's Letters with the theory of generic modes as established by Alastair Fowler and Klaus W. Hempfer, and with the concept of generic enrichment developed by Stephen J. Harrison. Using these concepts the epistolary genre, which is known for its open nature and diverse forms, can be approached from a shifted aesthetical perspective. My analysis focuses on two exemplary letters. In the first of these two letters, Jerome asks a friend to join him in his ascetic lifestyle in the desert (Hieronymus, Epistula 14). To illustrate the progress of his arguments Jerome employs traditional nautical metaphors and develops a literary celeuma. He does this by turning it into a model for the letter's form and by extending the epistolary genre through a hymn-like mode. Thus, the author christianises the celeuma and turns it into a hymn. In the second letter, Jerome asks a Christian widow to leave Rome and to join him in Bethlehem (Hieronymus, Epistula 46). The author integrates a satirical mode in some passages that allude to the pagan and biblical traditions of satire. He therefore turns his satirical description into an argument supporting his purpose. Both the hymn-like elements and the satirical passages do not have the complete outer form of the according genres but do rather correspond to the concept of modes. The epistolary genre is therefore extended but not replaced by these modes and gains additional meaning through their integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The book of Kohelet has been interpreted in very different, even opposing ways. There are rather divergent views on its main theme. Is Kohelet a God-fearing sage or a hedonistic sceptic? A godly preacher or a godless provocateur? This article shows three important interpretations of the book through the centuries and highlights their presuppositions, methods and results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Chronicle by Marcellinus was intended as a sequel to its predecessor Jerome but demonstrates marked differences concerning the underlying historiographic and narrative ideas. The text is distinctly orthodox and emphasizes both the history of salvation and pronounced panegyrics. In his praefatio , Marcellinus voices a clearly individual concept. The summa brevitas of the chronicle is substituted by long passages and the 'chronological present tense' by the tenses of historical narrative. Marcellinus carefully chooses ideologically striking (hitherto unnoticed) quotations both from classical authors and the Old Testament. These intertextual signals underline the author´s interpretation of the historical facts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In several places the anonymous Roman presbyter, now known as "Ambrosiaster," expressed concern over the compensation given to presbyters. This article examines his comments in the context of several fourth-century developments: first, restrictions imposed on the members of the curial class in respect to holding clerical office, a phenomenon attested both in imperial legislation and in patristic sources; second, the spread of ascetical ideals of clerical life, fostered especially by writers such as Ambrose and Jerome. While Ambrosiaster shared the view that a member of the clergy (ecclesiasticus) should abstain from "worldly business activities" (negotia saecularia), in contrast to his more ascetic contemporaries, he stressed the importance of adequate payment for the clergy and encouraged wealthy Christians to provide it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Tintoretto's Saint Jerome and Saint Andrew (Venice, Gallerie dell'Accademia), St. Jerome glances at an open book. Some have speculated that the book in the painting is a Hebrew Bible, similar to those published in Tintoretto's time, and consistent with classic iconography of Jerome and his Latin Bible translation. This study argues that the book can be positively identified as the 1550‐1551 edition of Maimonides' Mishneh Torah. The timing of the painting coincided with an intensified persecution of the Hebrew printing press which originated with an attack on the same Mishneh Torah edition. Placing the painting in the context of this milieu has led to a new interpretation of the painting and its placement in the Palazzo dei Camerlenghi cycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although Jerome, in speaking about translation, often introduces the opposition between uerba and sensus, this contrast mainly serves to highlight the difficulties of the translator's work and does not actually indicate the need to choose between different methods of translation. In fact, the translator must first of all understand the text, and for rendering it faithfully -- which includes the delicate case of sacred texts -- there is not just one possible method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The primary aim of this paper is to emphasize Jerome's Dalmatian origins, on the occasion of the 1,600th anniversary of his death. There is still no consensus among experts on where Jerome's birthplace was located. Therefore, the author sets out to present the interesting theory of the Croatian archaeologist Frane Bulić, according to which ancient Stridon, Jerome's birthplace, was located in the area between Grahovo and Glamoč in Bosnia and Herzegovina, together with theories on this issue as a contribution to the discussion that began in the Middle Ages. The paper is divided into three parts. The first and second parts briefly present Jerome's life and work with a view to allowing the reader to learn more about this great Western Church Father, especially as we are celebrating the anniversary of his death. The third part deals with theories about the location of Stridon, presenting the arguments of four groups of authors who have dealt with this issue, in order to assess their theories. Finally, the author presents his own argument starting from patristic sources, the texts of Jerome's contemporaries, and Jerome's own texts, seeking to demonstrate that his contemporaries considered Jerome a Dalmatian, leaving the more precise location of Stridon to archaeologists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the last book of the Pentateuch, Deuteronomy was considered divine law par excellence in early and medieval Christianity. Circa AD 400, Jerome, Ambrose and Augustine, each with their own emphasis, provided expositions for this biblical book, thus shaping the beginning of the Latin exegesis of Deuteronomy. Jerome transmitted to the Latin world Origen’s typological motif and his allegorical expositions; as he was meanwhile developing a philology-based exegetical approach of his own. Ambrose was interested in expounding the “precepts of the Law,” and used them as the guide to the ethics of the Christian common life. Augustine searched for the link between the Old Law and the Gospel via “spiritual understanding”; he was more inclined to study “the proper sense” of the biblical text later in his life. The exegetical heritage of these three Fathers was then gradually received by the Latin exegetes of later centuries, and functioned as the diverse foundation for the Latin exegetical tradition of Deuteronomy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper asks why the Greek translator decided to interpret the expression םירפא ירכש in Isa 28,1.3 differently than the Masoretes and all the other ancient versions. It shows that the different vocalisation of the Hebrew Vorlage does not provide a sufficient answer. The paper tries to ponder various possibilities for translator's thinking, including the option that the Septuagint translation could echo the events of the 2nd century B.C. It finds that the translator had to have a reason to choose his rather surprising translation, considering the context of Isa 28. The choice of «hirelings» instead of «drunkards», was probably led by desire to express all possible motifs in the opening verses of Isa 28 and not to suppress the motif of hiring next to the already present motif of drunkenness. The option that the translator wanted to allude to events of the 2nd century B.C remains hypothetical, but it is not excluded. Jerome's approach to the same prophetic utterance betrays the fact that the ancient authors were used to see and exploit the richness of interpretation possible in unvocalized Hebrew. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The version of the book of Judith of the Vulgate presents with respect to the text of the LXX and the versions of the Veteres differences that seem to be attributable to the author' s desire to propose a different image of the heroine: first objective of this study is therefore to discuss how Jerome, translating the book of Judith, modifies the text with additions in order to make the biblical book a edifying for the readers. After an introduction that aims to identify the translation criteria of the book (par. 1 and 2), those passages of the Vulgate in which the intervention of Jerome emerges clearly through the comparison with the versions of the LXX and of the Veteres are analyzed (par. 3). The author's modifications seem to be oriented towards a double purpose: on the one hand Jerome modify the text in order to emphasize some of the virtues of Judith (chastity, par. 3.1; the simplicity of customs, par. 3.2; a secluded lifestyle, paragraph 3.3) and, through the example of Judith, to exalt the model of the mulier virilis (par. 3.4); on the other hand, Jerome modifies the text in order to exalt the values of penance and prayer (par. 3.5). In order to understand the reasons for these changes in the light of the ideology of the predictions of Jerome, the passages of the Vulgate are compared to extracts from other Geronimian works. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Against many defenders of the LXX, such as Hilary of Poitiers and Augustine, Jerome tries to prove the superiority of the Hebrew text as a source text of translation. To do so, in his Preface to the Chronicles (iuxta Hebraeos), Jerome relies on three authorities: the Hebrews, the Apostles, and Christ. The Hebrews philologically endorse Jerome's translation, by judging whether it literally agrees with the Hebrew text. The Apostles support Jerome's position both philologically and theologically: sometimes their Old Testament quotations literally agree with the Hebrew text; at other times they spiritually agree with the Hebrew text, even though they do not literally. Christ functions as the highest authority. Relying on these three, Jerome's real purpose concerning Hebraica veritas is not only the philological discussion between the Hebrew text and the LXX, but also the theological discussion between these two texts and the Old Testament quotations in the New Testament. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deconstructing one's adversary's image is a traditional tool of judicial rhetoric. Cicero, for example, represents adversaries as illiterate, unable to write or speak. The heresiologists, as Jerome or Augustin, could have been influenced by this strategy. They ask, Do the heretics know how to write ? Their answers vary according to which authors they have in mind and which text genre they use. In the Catalogue of Famous Men Jerome emphasizes the heretics' literary talent, because of the genre in which he is writing, but also since they are dead. In his polemical works, influenced by judicial speech, he represents the relevant heretic as unable to write, because, as a heretic, he is unable to do anything, and because he is outside the church ; by deconstructing the heretic's image, Jerome wants to avoid the others to be contamined by heresy. For Augustine, the heretic can write well, even too well ; and for him the problem is precisely that. Augustin emphasizes the heretic's skill to highlight the heretic's danger, caused by his eloquence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to offer a new interpretation of the apparently 'neutral' epistolary exchange between Jerome and Paulinus of Nola, focusing on Hier. epist. 85 in terms of both content and language. By arguing for a significant uniformity in the use of Origen over the years, the article explores the possibility that the Origenist controversy and Jerome's self-defence are the central issues in a letter normally neglected by scholars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the historical period that we call late antiquity, strongly marked by the tension between continuity and rupture, the epistolar genre undergoes a renewal, particularly under the influence of Christianity. This documentary typology, not only heir to the classical period, but also deeply inserted in the Roman cultural universe, is diversified into different forms from the personal missive to the Pontifical Epistles. Our goal in this opportunity is to reflect the appropriation of the Paidéia by Christianity, as well as the conflicts existing in the intellectual field Christian, from the epistles exchanged between two of the most important thinkers who live during the late Antiquity, which is: Augustine and Jerome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most important theological questions in the first Origenist controversy was that of the resurrection of the dead. Jerome accused both Origen and contemporary "Origenists" of speaking only of the resurrection of the body, and not of the flesh, and he claimed that an idea of resurrection without the flesh could not guarantee the identity between the body living on earth and the resurrected body. I argue that although Jerome attempted to maximize the difference between himself and Origen by speaking of flesh instead of body, and by emphasizing the sameness of the body, it is clear that he, too, thought that the resurrection would imply a profound change. At closer scrutiny, Jerome's way of understanding this change, namely as the nature remaining the same while the glory increases, shows striking similarities to Origen's explanation of change. I argue that Jerome was dependent on Origen's ideas about the resurrection, even in his polemics against him. Jerome's heresiological strategies, I argue, have had consequences for modern historical reconstructions of his eschatological thought, which is often presented in opposition to Origen's more spiritual understanding. Awareness of the rhetorical strategies used by Jerome in the context of controversy is crucial, I claim, in assessing a continuing reception of Origen in his theology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This note identifies Jerome's commentary on Paul's Epistle to Titus 3:9 as a source for §4 of Isidore of Seville's De ecclesiasticis officiis 2.11, i.e. the chapter De lectoribus , which forms an important document in the history of linguistic education and the historical (socio)linguistics of early 7th-century Visigothic Spain. This source identification provides the basis for a suggestion of textual criticism and for two more general observations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the place of Hebrew in Jerome's work by situating it in wider patterns of late antique masculinity and shame. Drawing on Sedgwick and Fanon, it shows how shame is a spatial affect. Discussions of Hebrew in Jerome's work emphasise the particular spaces in which Hebrew is written, read, or transported. One space is particularly important for Jerome's translations of Hebrew: the space of the mouth as it inhales and exhales language. Focussing on space, language, and breath reveals why Hebrew is particularly shameful for Jerome and explains some of the apparent ambiguities in his discussions of translation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how the chronological contradiction in Abraham's departure from Haran (Gen 11:26, 32; 12:4) has been explained in the history of biblical interpretation, especially in rewritten Scripture from Qumran (4Q252 and Jubilees), Josephus, and rabbinic literature (Genesis Rabbah), including the lost Jewish tradition preserved by Jerome. According to Ben Zion Wacholder, who dealt with a different case of chronology in Genesis, the rabbinic and the Qumranic views are too different to be reconcilable, whereas the Graeco-Jewish writers and Qumran literature present similar views. This study, however, demonstrates that rabbinic interpretation of Abraham's departure share some important ideas both with Qumran literature and Josephus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article deals with Pierius of Alexandria’ s (late 3rd c.) homily On the beginning of Hosea which, like his other writings, is lost. First, it reconstructs the title, circumstances and content of Pierius’ homily on the basis of explicit references by ancient authors. Second, it presents a hitherto unnoticed witness, Cyril of Alexandria: in his In Oseam, Cyril criticizes the pamphlet of a renowned exegete and transmits four fragments of the purely allegorical interpretation this author, who is to be identified with Pierius, gave of Hosea’s marriage to a prostitute (Os 1,2-3). Third, it compares Cyril’s witness with Jerome’s (independent) witness in his In Osee. The explicit references to Pierius’ homily, Cyril’s non explicit reference and the fragments he preserved, not previously identified, and their parallel with Jerome are all quoted and translated in the appendix. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores, in the first place, Jerome's creation of pro-virginal propaganda in a selection of his treatises and letters, through the employment of scriptural justification by means of ascetic exegesis and rhetorical strategies. The study focuses, in particular, on his Epistulae 22 and 130, both addressed to virgins, and his treatise Adversus Iovinianum. Jerome interpreted and deployed carefully selected biblical texts and employed classical rhetorical conventions to construct his ascetic ideal mainly based on sexual renunciation. The article argues that by extolling the virginal body through metaphorical figurations and careful textualisation, this 'apostle of virginity' aimed to create, in the first instance, for ascetically minded virgins, a means of achieving perfection and union with God, and receiving the awards of heaven. The analysis of the selected works and of Jerome's ascetic exegesis, however, also reveals some significant markers, indicating his own carefully disguised quest for personal redemption and regaining paradise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay explores Augustine's spirituality of Scripture in select epistolary exchanges. It argues that Augustine's use of Scripture in the following epistolary exchanges was meant for building up faith, hope, and love in order to help his recipients faithfully pursue the Christian life in the present day, and prepare for eternity to come. Both in the Scripture's transformative power and its ability to shape and define one's life, Augustine presents a multi-faceted view of spirituality centered on Scripture. This essay begins by calling attention to Augustine's theology of Scripture. This summary leads to an assessment of Augustine's view of Scripture as the vehicle for prayer. Augustine also provides a perspective on the humble nature of Scripture, which informs his spirituality. Additionally, the spirituality of Scripture in Augustine relates directly to Christian doctrine. In sum, for Augustine, a spirituality centered on Scripture is the only sound basis for the Christian life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The contribution takes inspiration from two passages of Jerome' s Commentary on Isaiah in which the Stridonian' s argumentation, which refutes the literal interpretation of the millenarians, draws from the Stoic doctrine those notions, which, as it were, attribute a spiritual explanation of the two passages from Isaiah. Now, if on the one hand the Stoic sources used by Jerome have been reported mostly with precision, and sometimes even re-dimensioned, on the other we feel the need to focus on how they are used by the Stridonian. In this way it is possible to bring out, especially in the polemical contexts, the richness of such an undertaking, which goes far beyond the mere display of erudition. This perspective, suitably combined with a doxographic criterion and articulated according to some wide homogeneous thematic areas, can offer a rather complex cross-section of the cultural synthesis developed by Jerome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper argues for the identification of an indeterminate biblical quotation in Augustine' s De consensu evangelistarum III 48 as the second part of Jb 37,10 cited according to Jerome' s first version, a revision indeed of the book of Job based on the hexaplar Greek text. A comparison with Augustine' s Adnotationes in Iob, relying upon the same version of the book of Job, makes the identification sure. The paper also provides a comparison of Jerome' s two versions of Job 37,10, as the second one (based on the Hebrew text) notably differs from the first one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that Jerome saw Jewish Nazariteship as providing a foundation for Christian asceticism. Jerome perceived Naziriteship as an epitome of saintly life, prefiguring the lives of the apostles, and realized in the lives of the Desert Fathers and Mothers, in their extreme devotion and standing above the rest of the community, but in an honourable way. Jerome's vision of asceticism reflected his ambiguous relationship with Jewish tradition, both admiring Nazarite ideals and critical of its practice by Law observant followers of Jesus. Understanding the tradition of the Jewish Nazirites through the eyes of Jerome is central not only to understanding the ascetic tradition in the region that saw the birth of Christianity, but to illustrating an important tension within the Christian tradition in general, between emphasis on a personal relationship with God and separation from the community to that end, and emphasis on a common life organized and supported by the hierarchy of the Church. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay is a study of how Jerome reads Jeremiah (Jer) 20:7-18. It presents the exegetical practice of Jerome within his Christian theological frame of reference and examines how he approaches a difficult text of the Old Testament (OT) as Christian Scripture. This essay is in five parts. The first briefly introduces the reader to Jer 20:7-18, sets the context for the importance of hearing premodern interpreters in contemporary biblical and theological scholarship, and presents a caveat to the reader with methodological issues. The second part focuses briefly on situating Jerome as a reader of Scripture within the general patristic exegesis, its interfaces between literal and allegorical modes of reading Scripture and how Jerome receives and modifies the exegetical tradition inherited from the patristics. The third part presents quite extensively Jerome's exposition of Jer 20:7-18 and engages with his reading in order to hear his own voice as a distinctive Christian interpreter of this text. The fourth part provides some hermeneutical reflections on Jerome's reading of Jer 20:7-18 which may illustrate his theological usage of the OT. The final part evaluates Jerome's interpretation and concludes the essay by saying that his mode of reading the OT engages with the concerns of a life of faith and represents well the Christian usage of the OT in respect to issues of the church. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article I offer three brief notes on Ambrosiaster's Q. 101, De iactantia Romanorum leuitarum. First, I discuss its relation to Letter 146 of Jerome, which also deals with the rivalry between presbyters and deacons and which bears a close resemblance to Q. 101; second, I examine the peculiar features of the church hierarchy at Rome that led the anonymous deacon to claim a superior status to presbyters and third, I explore some indications in Q. 101 and in Jerome, Letter 146, which point to the activity of deacons in elite households at Rome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The primary aim of this article is to present Jerome's view of the origins of Pelagianism, and to describe the way in which he fought against this heresy characterizing it as the "offspring of Origenism" in his Epistula ad Ctestiphontem (Ep. 133: "Doctrina tua Origenis ramusculus est.”) We should not be surprised by this characterization. For the Fathers of the Church, connecting dubious teaching with already condemned heresies had the function of accelerating the condemnation of such teaching. In this case, Jerome after the first Origenist controversy, intended to connect Pelagianism to the already condemned Origensim. For greater clarity, the introduction explains what Jerome is referring to when he equates Pelagianism with the Origenism ofEvagrius Ponticus. There is a brief survey of Pelagianism, focusing on the term impeccantia, the contention that man, if he wishes, can be without sin. This is followed by a brief presentation of the Origenism ofEvagrius Ponticus, focusing on the first Origenist controversy. There is a definition of the terms impeccantia and ccnaBeia, the possibility of man achieving a complete separation from the passion and pleasures that surround him. Clement of Alexandria, Origen, and especially Evagrius Ponticus studied this term, which is why it is necessary to return to the first Origenist controversy in order to identify the relationship between Pelagianism and Origenism. Relating Origenism and Pelagianism, the article introduces some writings that had a significant impact on Pelagius's thought, and examines the term anaBeia in a way that may provide a clear answer to the question: Was Jerome correct when he equated the terms impeccantia and anadcia? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses two problems of interpretation in the entry on Dexter in Jerome's De viris illustribus (Hier. vir. ill.). In particular, it offers the first detailed discussion of the information we possess on Dexter's omnimoda historia, and suggests that it may have been a Latin translation and/or adaptation of the first part of the chronicle of Eusebius, the so-called chronography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent research on the textual tradition of Latin versions of the Testimonium Flavianum prompts another enquiry into the original text and the transmission of the famous passage. It is suggested here that the Greek/Latin versions highlight a western/eastern early history of the Testimonium and that in turn directs our attention back to the original circumstances of its composition and publication in the city of Rome in the later years of the first century. Restored to its original historical context, the Testimonium emerges as a carefully crafted attack upon the post-Pauline community of Christ-followers in the city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The origins of Pelagianism are not clear, especially according to the anti-Pelagian theologians, such as Augustine, Jerome, Orosius and Marius Mercator, who proposed different hypotheses concerning the origins of this heresy. This article examines one of these hypotheses, namely the reliability of Jerome's charge against Pelagius of being a follower of Origen. It is known that Jerome attacks Pelagius and his followers of being the heirs of several previous heretical movements, including Origenism. In this regard, it will be shown the possibility that Jerome's attack is based upon a probable influence of Origen's exegesis of Luke 1,6 on Pelagius, through Ambrose of Milan. Thus, Jerome's rhetorical construction of Pelagianism as the heir of ancient heresies has, at least partially, exegetical basis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This issue of Church History and Religious Culture celebrates the five hundred years of influence to both religious life and piety and to scholarship that the publication of the Novum Instrumentum engendered. Truly, littera scripta manet. The essays gathered here challenge presently held notions of what Erasmus was doing in creating a critical Greek New Testament, his status as a theologian, his relationship to Jerome and the fashioning of a biblical eleoquence, his relationship to Martin Luther, and even the influence of Erasmus’s work itself. By challenging presently held notions, these essays pay tribute to the example that Erasmus set, and offer a fitting remembrance to the 500th anniversary of his Novum Instrumentum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the fourth century A.D., crowds of Christian pilgrims began to stream into Palestine in order to visit the sites where biblical events had taken place. Among them was also a rich Roman widow, Paula, whose travels around the Holy Land are described in Jerome’s Letter 108, written after the death of this noblewoman in 404 A.D. The aim of this letter is primarily encomiastic and hagiographic, and the account of the pilgrimage to holy places incorporated in it aids to create a picture of Paula as a devout woman shrouded in an aura of sanctity. This article is focussed both on the concept of pilgrimage to the Holy Land and the meaning of this phenomenon in the life of a devout Christian woman, as expressed by Jerome in his letter. First of all. for Jerome, Palestine represents a textual land where the traces of the biblical past are still visible, and first-hand experience with it therefore enhances one’s understanding of the Scripture. At the same time, it is a region where biblical history unfolds before the eyes of the pilgrims, so long as they are gifted with the ability of oculi fidei. Thus, according to Jerome, journeying to the Holy Land has great importance for the Christian believer and benefits him extraordinarily both on the intellectual and the spiritual level. Peregrinatio ad loca sancta, for Jerome, is essential to those who consider themselves to be serious about their faith, especially in the case of women. In this light, Paula appears as an exemplary pilgrim illustrating Jerome’s concept, and demonstrating what it is like to experience the holy places first-hand. Jerome was the first Latin Christian thinker who presented the concept of the Holy Land as a spiritual centre of the Christian world and made an attempt to establish a new religious practice: pilgrimage to the Holy Land. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to elucidate the prophecies of Ezekiel, especially those against Egypt in Book 29, Jerome reconstructed the siege of Tyre by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar. He seems to have done this not so much on the basis of the predictions recorded in the Bible (to say nothing of accurate records), as by comparison with accounts of Alexander the Great's siege of the same city more than two hundred years later. Jerome seems particularly dependent on the account of Alexander's siege of Tyre given by Quintus Curtius Rufus. The following investigation broadens our understanding of the authors known and used by Jerome, the uses to which he put his historical reading, and the methods of his Biblical exegesis, especially historical reconstruction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fine commentary which Andrew Cain has recently devoted to Jerome's influential Epitaphium S. Paulae endeavours to improve Hilberg's canonical text. The present note endeavours to show that many of Cain's Verbesserungen are Schlimmbesserungen. The resultant discussion would appear to throw interesting light on Jerome's compositional method in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last forty years the figure of Gregory of Neocaesarea has been the subject of a complicated debate, in particular after Pierre Nautin raised serious doubts about the ascription of the In Origenem Oratio Panegyrica and supposed it the result of a mistake made by Eusebius of Caesarea. In this article we will first re-evaluate the main hypotheses put forward by Nautin and other scholars which go against Gregory's traditional figure. Then we will take into consideration the information about Gregory of Neocaesarea from later authors, such as Gregory of Nvssa, Jerome and Socrates of Constantinople, who have been generally overlooked by scholars. In fact, a more careful survey of all the main accounts on Gregory suggests a different perspective of investigation into some aspects of the dispute and provides further arguments in confirmation of the reliability of Gregory's traditional biography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Im Fokus stehen zwei verderbte Textstellen, die sich als höchst problematisch erweisen. Sie betreffen einerseits Tertullian, Von der Taufe und andererseits den Kommentar des Hieronymus zum Buch Ezechiel. Tert. Bapt. 5,4 wird sprachlich und textkritisch untersucht. Anhand zahlreicher literarischer Belege wird die übliche Erläuterung der Stelle überprüft: Sie erweist sich als unhaltbar. Demgegenüber wird vermutet, dass hinter der crux ‚esietos’ die griechische Lesart CEICTOC bzw. CEICTOYC stand: Sie dürfte von einem Schreiber, der kein Griechisch konnte, missverstanden, und deswegen falsch transkribiert worden sein. Eine teilweise neue Interpretation der gesamten Stelle wird vorgeschlagen. Hier. In Ezech 1,1,6-8 wird mit der entsprechenden Origenes-Exegese sowie mit den gnostischen Quellen verglichen. Anhand der sprachlichen Untersuchung der Textüberlieferung wird eine neue Konjektur vorgeschlagen, um den Ursprung des Wortes synderesis zu klären: Das Rätsel des locus corruptus kann durch das griechische Wort σπινθήρ entschlüsselt werden. Neben den zwei genannten Konjekturvorschlägen bezweckt der vorliegende Beitrag, eine komparatistische Analyse zur Sprache patristischer Texte auf der Basis solider Editionen als noch immer dringendes Desiderat hervorzuheben. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to elucidate the prophecies of Ezekiel, especially those against Egypt in Book 29, Jerome reconstructed the siege of Tyre by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar. He seems to have done this not so much on the basis of the predictions recorded in the Bible (to say nothing of accurate records), as by comparison with accounts of Alexander the Great's siege of the same city more than two hundred years later. Jerome seems particularly dependent on the account of Alexander's siege of Tyre given by Quintus Curtius Rufus. The following investigation broadens our understanding of the authors known and used by Jerome, the uses to which he put his historical reading, and the methods of his Biblical exegesis, especially historical reconstruction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jerome of Stridon and Sidonius Apollinaris, two authors particularly sensitive to languages and linguistic differences, frequently evaluate the correctness, adequacy, and aesthetic qualities of 'classical' Latin on the one hand, and of 'foreign' or 'barbarian' languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, or 'Germanic') on the other. They also evaluate variation within the Latin language, mostly in a negative way. In this paper, I look at Jerome's and Sidonius' evaluative statements about languages and language varieties from the socio linguistic perspective of language attitude research. I start by defining the concepts of 'language attitude' and 'social connotations hypothesis', and then proceed to the analysis of linguistic evaluations in Jerome's and Sidonius' works. In accordance with the social connotations hypothesis, I argue that these evaluations about languages or language varieties are strongly biased by the socio-cultural stereotypes the authors hold about the speakers of these languages or language varieties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jerome's 40th letter opens by comparing the moralist to a surgeon. Here the phrase clementi secare ferro has been found problematical: recently Palla has maintained that clementi should be altered to inclementi. The present note endeavours to defend clementi on grounds of linguistic usage and of rhetorical technique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this article is to present the role and contribution of St. Jerome in refuting some elements of Pelagianism, such as those connected to the grace of God, free will, infant baptism, and, in particular, human capacity to be without sin (impeccantia). Jerome was among the first to refute the heretical theses of Pelagius, which he came to know through the works of St. Augustine that were available to him at that time [Ðe peccatorum meritis et remisione et baptismo parvulorum and Epistula ad HilariumJ. After briefly reviewing the attitudes of Christians in this period when they had just been emancipated within the Roman Empire, the article deals with the historical events surrounding the beginnings of the Pelagian controversy, as well as with the main theses taught by Pelagius, which were notin accordance with the deposit of faith of that time, as Jerome noted. Therefore, on the basis of his works Epistula ad Ctestiphontem and Dialogus adversus Pelagianos the article presents his response to the Pelagian theses. The controversy greatly confused people at that time and continued to baffle many after the death of the main actors in the dispute. In any case, Jerome's contribution was crucial in the sense that by his actions he helped to preserve the purity of our faith regarding Christ's redemptive role on the cross. There is no doubt that the popes had in mind the commitment of this great Dalmatian when, ex cathedra, they condemned this heretical teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jerome's Epistula prima is a remarkably hybrid text. It contains a miraculous account of the trial and failed execution of a woman from Vercelli, who is falsely accused of adultery and eventually saved from further persecution by Jerome's patron, Evagrius of Antioch. In our article we discuss the martyrological and novelistic elements of Jerome's text and analyze how he related a cruel, but trivial trial with anonymous protagonists to contemporary Church politics and gave it an ascetical undertone. Furthermore, we link these elements to the interests of Jerome's intended readership. Overall, we argue that Jerome wrote the Epistula prima not only as a hyper-rhetorical showcase to advertise himself as a Christian writer or to eulogize Evagrius, but that he included subtle yet meaningful literary and ideological references in his text. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the way in which Roman Catholic and Protestant interpreters of the early Reformation era (1516–1553) explained and evaluated the use of apocryphal and/or extra-biblical sources in the Epistle of Jude. These interpreters were agreed in identifying two cases of such use: (1) the dispute between Michael and Satan concerning the body of Moses in Jude 9; and (2) the prophecy of Enoch in Jude 14–15. Drawing heavily on patristic testimony, they voiced strikingly diverse opinions, however, regarding the sources themselves and the consequences of such citation for Jude's apostolic authority and status within the New Testament canon. Early sixteenth-century exposition of Jude 9 and Jude 14–15 not only sheds light on the reception history of the book(s) of Enoch and the Ascension of Moses (as it was called) in early modern Europe; it also reflects broader Reformation debates concerning the authority of Scripture, tradition (written and unwritten), the church, and the church fathers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]