Jerome and the Jewish

PeopleAmy Downey – Director

Friend, Foe or Something Else?

Problematic Issues in Early Church History…

Problematic Issues for Early Church History…

Jerome(331/347-

420)• Born to nominal Christian parents in Stridon, Dalmatia (modern-day Eastern Europe)

• Sought to be an ascetic but was a spectacular failure – not cut out for living in a cave

Cave Livin’ Was Not

the Life for Him…(Sing

Along!)

Jerome(331/347-

420)• Lived the life of a monastic in "Palestine" until his death

• Known for a spectacularly bad temper & including women in the work of ministry

Jerome(331/347-

420)• Jewish believers by the time of Jerome had been almost fully assimilated

• Only exception were the heretical Ebionites who rejected the divinity of Yeshua

Jerome and Exegesis

• One of the few Patristic Fathers to include rabbinical views into his hermeneutical opinions (reflected in some of his commentaries)

• Utilized a literal, moral and allegorical approach for his hermeneutical style along with prayer

Jerome and Exegesis

• Dealt with accusations of “plagiarism” and being dependent on the works of Origen and others

• Battled with Augustine over the Vulgate translation of the Tanakh from the original Hebrew (i.e., Augustine preferred Septuagint)

Jerome and Exegesis

• Considered the battle worthwhile in order to secure a translation that was “ad litteram or iuxta historiam”

• Controversy grew when he translated Jonah 4:6 as “ivy” instead of “gourd” as did the Septuagint

Jerome and Judaism

• 392 – Lives of Famous Men included Jewish men

• Learned Hebrew from Jewish scholars

• Believed Jewish believers should be allowed to continue Jewish practices if it did not contradict the doctrines of Christianity

Jerome and Judaism

BUT in a Letter to Augustine -- “I may boldly declare that the Jewish ceremonies are to Christians both hurtful and fatal; and that whoever observes them, whether he be Jew or Gentile originally, is cast into the pit of perdition.”

Jerome and Judaism

“…If, however, there is for us no alternative but to receive the Jews into the Church,… if, in short, it shall be declared lawful for them to continue in the Churches of Christ what they have been accustomed to practice in the synagogues of Satan, I will tell you my opinion of the matter, they will not become Christians, but they will make us Jews .”

Jerome and Judaism

• Jerome’s commentaries taught …• Jewish people were Edom’s true face

in Obadiah• Haggai’s prophecies taught

Supersessionism• But … Jerome never wrote an

Adversus Judaeos• Jerome attacked Rufinus for being

anti-Jewish

“…how can the Jews, the people to whom God first spoke, the keepers of the Hebrew Bible, be cut off from the new dispensation, while at the same time still be of surpassing interest to him [Jerome]?”JOEL ITZKOWITZ – WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY

Jerome and the Jewish

PeopleFriend, Foe or Something Else?

… YES…