“Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15).
He was born as Eusebius Hieronymus, and he came into the world about the year 342, having been born in a little village in northeast Italy, then known as Aquileia in Dalmatia. The world, though, knows this man as St. Jerome. Catholics are more conversant with his name than Protestants. But anyone who loves the Bible and has a commitment to the truth of God’s Word as it was originally rendered owes a great deal of gratitude to this man.
Jerome, of course, didn’t write the Bible—not a single word or sentence of it. He lived a couple of centuries even after the Bible had been written, even after the time when thirty-nine Old Testament books, and twenty-seven New Testament books were rather universally accepted as being the Canon, or the accepted texts which God intended for our edification and knowledge.
So, what did this man do which merited a bookmark in the history of the Bible? Here’s a thumbnail bio of his life. The long road of scholarship and commitment to the Bible was begun when young Jerome was shipped off to school at Rome, a few hundred kilometers from home. There, he studied Latin under a taskmaster named Donatus. But he was no ordinary teacher. He was a master of the language and a famous grammarian. Eventually, Jerome mastered the language and gained a love for it.
Today, Latin is thought of as a dry, dusty, dead language not worthy of our time—a myth, when the reality is that Latin is still the basis of the Romance languages and a powerful tool for anyone who really wants to master the English language. But in the fourth century, Latin had become the common language of the day, widely used throughout Italy and much of the world. And the Bible had been translated into Latin, but the translation was bad and often misrepresented the original languages, Hebrew and Greek.
After he finished his studies in Rome, Jerome went to Israel, where he studied Hebrew and began to translate the Gospels into Latin. Somewhere along the line, he was commissioned by Pope Damascus as a Bible translator. But his serious contribution of history came after the death of Damascus, when Jerome went to Bethlehem and there labored for years translating the Bible into Latin, and his translation became the standard of the Church until about the time of Martin Luther.
Why do I admire this man who was beatified as St. Jerome? Among the reasons is the fact he was a champion of what the Hebrew and Greek texts really said, rejecting the corrupt Old Latin texts that were widely used, and for this he was vilified and hated. Jerome never compromised, either. He stood by his convictions in spite of the fact it cost him friends and acclaim. He had a commitment to excellence in the face of adversity, too, something we desperately need today, when it seems that mediocrity is not only the standard but the curse of education. Last of all, Jerome persevered.
If you ever get to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, you will undoubtedly visit the grotto where a silver star marks the birthplace of Jesus, but don’t rush off to your bus or spend your time buying junk souvenirs outside. Ask to be shown the grotto adjacent to the church where Jerome spent thirty long years translating the Bible into the language of his day. And thank God for the men who without thanks or celebration dedicated their lives to preserving the text of Scripture and giving it to people in languages they understand.
Saint Jerome was a tough man, as bold as the lions painters have fancifully envisioned as sitting in his study as he worked. There was something about this man’s spirit that I like, something we need today.
Resource reading: 2 Timothy 2.
