Today is the Feast Day of Saint Jerome, probably the greatest biblical scholar of the Patristic period and a Doctor of the Church. Jerome was skilled in translation and is responsible for much of the translation of the Latin Bible that came to be known as the Vulgate. He was conversant with the translations of the Old Testament in Greek and the Hebrew text itself. He was also familiar with the traditions of rabbinical interpretation. As F.X. Murphy writes in the New Catholic Encyclopedia,

“Jerome brought to his exegesis an enormous erudition beginning with his knowledge of the classics and amplified with a close attention to Hebrew tradition and an on-site appreciation of the milieu in which the Scriptures were composed. He had an original mind and excellent human intuition. He employed a well-defined hermeneutical method, borrowing what was good from all three traditions of exegesis, the Alexandrian, Antiochene, and Rabbinical, and while his earlier works abound in allegorical interpretation, his later demonstrate a well-balanced utilization of the best thought then available for “giving my Latin readers the hidden treasures of Hebrew erudition” in keeping with the true meaning of the Scriptures” (759)

He remains in so many ways a model for Scripture scholars today, as his attention to languages, hermeneutics, literary and social context and a close relationship with Jewish methods and scholars reveals. He is even more a model for all lovers of Scripture. In his letter to Laeta concerning her infant daughter Paula (Letter 107), who was to be raised as a consecrated virgin, Jerome advises that the Scriptures be a part of daily life for the little girl. Dei Verbum 25 cites his famous dictum, “for ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ” (St. Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah, Prol.: PL 24,17). His extensive work on the Bible, which even more significantly was careful and skillful, demonstrates just how intimate he was with Christ.  The best way to celebrate his Feast Day is obvious: read as much Scripture as you are able! Not just today, but everyday.

 John W. Martens

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John W. Martens is an associate professor of theology at the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minn,where he teaches early Christianity and Judaism. He also directs the Master of Arts in Theology program at the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity. He was born in Vancouver, B.C. into a Mennonite family that had decided to confront modernity in an urban setting. His post-secondary education began at Tabor College, Hillsboro, Kansas, came to an abrupt stop, then started again at Vancouver Community College, where his interest in Judaism and Christianity in the earliest centuries emerged. He then studied at St. Michael's College, University of Toronto, and McMaster University, with stops at University of Haifa and University of Tubingen. His writing often explores the intersection of Jewish, Christian and Greco-Roman culture and belief, such as in "let the little children come to me: Children and Childhood in Early Christianity" (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2009), but he is not beyond jumping into the intersection of modernity and ancient religion, as in "The End of the World: The Apocalyptic Imagination in Film and Television" (Winnipeg: J. Gordon Shillingford Press, 2003). He blogs at  www.biblejunkies.com and at www.americamagazine.org for "The Good Word." You can follow him on Twitter @biblejunkies, where he would be excited to welcome you to his random and obscure interests, which range from the Vancouver Canucks and Minnesota Timberwolves, to his dog, and 70s punk, pop and rock. When he can, he brings students to Greece, Turkey and Rome to explore the artifacts and landscape of the ancient world. He lives in St. Paul with his wife and has two sons. He is certain that the world will not end until the Vancouver Canucks have won the Stanley Cup, as evidence has emerged from the Revelation of John, 1 Enoch, 2 Baruch, and 4 Ezra which all point in this direction.