THE AUTHOR
"There are none, almost, who have handled the Scriptures more foolishly and more absurdly than Origen and Jerome."
Martin Luther
Bondage of the Will
"This all breathes of nothing but Jerome, who dares to say, in more places than one, with a supercilious brow and a sacrilegious mouth, 'that those things are made to be of force in Paul, which, in their own places, are of no force.' ...
Thus, when Jerome ought to be read with judgment, and this saying of his to be numbered among those many things which that man impiously wrote, (such was his yawning inconsiderateness, and his stupidity in understanding the Scriptures), the Diatribe [by Erasmus] drags him in without any judgment; and not thinking it right that his authority should be lessened by any mitigating gloss whatever, takes him as a most certain oracle, whereby to judge of, and attemper the Scriptures.
And thus it is; we take the impious sayings of men as rules and guides in the Holy Scripture, and then wonder that it should become 'obscure and ambiguous,' and that so many fathers should be blind in it; whereas, the whole proceeds from this impious and sacrilegious Reason."
Martin Luther
Bondage of the Will
"Believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God."
1 John 4:1
"These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so."
Acts 17:11
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NEW QUOTES ADDED
JUNE 6, 2023
QUOTATIONS: WORDS OF WISDOM
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St. Jerome Quotes (340-420 AD)
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The works of those commonly called or traditionally called "Church Fathers" ought to be resorted to not as the Father's of the Church, for this term in a Biblical and correct sense is reserved for those Apostles and Prophets by whose writings and revelations the Church from the beginning is established and built up. Jesus himself warned, and Paul warned, and John warned, of a darkness and an era of apostasy that would come upon the Church, even a flood, which would be spewed out of the mouth of the dragon, a mystery of iniquity, which would if possible deceive even the elect, if it were possible. In the greater context of the end times, the Church Fathers, in so many volumes preserved, are the record of that falling away that would come and that would allow the man of sin - the Antichrist - to be revealed (2 Thessalonians 2:3). After the good beginning of the Gospel, we watch, in these writings and epistles, as the overseers (episkopous) and bishops themselves begin to stray from the Gospel that was originally preached, and finally turn aside "speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them," (Acts 20:28-30). Let all those who seek the truth of the Gospel, refer to the Gospel, to Christ the source and the Spirit of holiness, but let us not establish Christian doctrine upon the corruptions and traditions of men. |
CHURCH FATHERS:St Jerome or Eusebius Hieronymus (c. 340-420 AD) is a canonized Saint and Doctor (Doctores Ecclesiae) of the Roman Catholic Church. Jerome was a hermit monk, and the standardizing translator of the Latin Bible (Latin Vulgate Bible), which he completed under Pope Damasus I (c. 366-384). Jerome became a friend, advisor and secretary to Pope Damasus I (c. 382) after attending a synod in Rome, in which the primacy among the Catholic Bishoprics was officially proclaimed for the Roman See. Jerome lived during an era in which the ecclesiastical church, or rather the Catholic Sect within Christianity, sinking into the apostasy that become Medieval Roman Catholicism, was highly regarded and respected. In fact, two years prior to the Roman See's proclamation, Roman Emperors Gratian (of the West) and Theodosius (of the East) had declared Catholicism the only legal religion within the Roman Empire, empowering the Catholic Sect over all other forms of Christianity, including Biblical Christianity. Even before Jerome was born, the Roman Empire had been imposing civil penalties against non-Catholic Christians as "heretics and schismatics" (c. 326, 'De haeretics,' Theodosian Code).
"We authorize the followers of this law to assume the title Catholic Christians; but as for the others, since in our judgment they are foolish madmen ['dementes'], we decree that they shall be branded with the ignominious name of heretics, and shall not presume to give their conventicles the name of churches. They will suffer in the first place the chastisement of divine condemnation and the second the punishment of our authority." (Feb. 27, 380 AD, 'De fide catholica,' Imperatoris Theodosiani Codex).
As an early Catholic, St Jerome was an aggressive proponent of a variety of unbiblical doctrines (as forewarned in 1 Timothy 4), including asceticism, monasticism, the superiority and singular holiness of virginity, abstinence within marriage, the perpetual virginity of Mary and Joseph, the innate sinfulness or impurity of the marriage bed, and the sinfulness of second marriages, even for widows (see Notorious Quotations from St Jerome). Although Jerome's theology is very often unbiblical, his writings do refute a number of more progressive Catholic doctrines, of which he knew nothing whatsoever. The following quotations are selected from the writings of St. Jerome.
"In the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and teachings of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, being seared in their own conscience, forbidding [κωλυω; forbid, hinder, keep from, not suffer, withstand] to marry, saying to abstain from foods which God has created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For every creation of God is good, and nothing to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving. For it is sanctified through the Word of God and prayer." (1 Timothy 4:1-5)
St Jerome on the Authority of Scripture, Etc.
The following quotations from the writings of St Jerome assert the final, determinate authority of the written Scriptures, over and above all other teachings and traditions (Sola Scriptura). The contrary belief in the final and determinate authority of the Roman Catholic Church, her Unwritten Traditions and Unwritten Scripture, as progressively revealed through the ages in that church's teaching decrees—over and above the plainest language of the Bible—later became an absolute and indispensable doctrine of Roman Catholicism, as it developed into it's medieval and modern forms.
"As we do not deny what is written, so we do reject what is not written." – St. Jerome
Source: The Perpetual Virginity of Blessed Mary by St Jerome (Letters and Select Works, Treatises).
"We do not so much reject prophecy ... as refuse to receive prophets whose utterances fail to accord with the Scriptures old and new." – St. Jerome
Source: Letter XLI, To Marcella by St Jerome (Nicene & Post-Nicene Fathers, Series II, Vol VI, Letters and Select Works).
"You with marvelous effrontery contend that the reading of the Greek manuscripts is corrupt, although it is that which nearly all the Greek writers have left us in their books, and not only so, but several of the Latin writers have taken the words the same way. Nor need we now consider the variations in the copies, since the whole record both of the Old and New Testament has since that time been translated into Latin, and we must believe that the water of the fountain flows purer than that of the stream." – St. Jerome
Source: The Perpetual Virginity of Blessed Mary by St Jerome (Letters and Select Works, Treatises).
"As, then, the Church reads Judith, Tobit, and the books of Maccabees, but does not admit them among the canonical Scriptures, so let it read these two volumes for the edification of the people, not to give authority to doctrines of the Church." – St. Jerome
Source: Prefaces to the Books of the Vulgate Version of the Old Testament by St Jerome (Nicene & Post-Nicene Fathers, Series II, Vol VI, Letters and Select Works).
"Let it be her [your young daughter's] task daily to bring to you the flowers which she has culled from Scripture. Let her learn be heart so many verses in the Greek, but let her be instructed in the Latin also. ... Let her treasures be not silks or gems but manuscripts of the Holy Scriptures; and in these let her think less of gilding, and Babylonian parchment, and arabesque patterns, than of correctness and accurate punctuation. Let her begin by learning the Psalter, and then let her gather rules of life out of the Proverbs of Solomon. From the Preacher let her gain the habit of despising the world and its vanities. Let her follow the example set in Job of virtue and of patience. Then let her pass on to the Gospels never to be laid aside when once they have been taken in hand. Let her also drink in with a willing heart the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles. As soon as she has enriched the storehouse of her mind with these treasures, let her commit to memory the prophets, the heptateuch, the books of Kings and of Chronicles, the rolls also of Ezra and Esther. When she has done all these she may safely read the Song of Songs but not before: for, were she to read it at the beginning, she would fail to perceive that, though it is written in fleshly words, it is a marriage son of a spiritual bridal. And not understanding this she would suffer hurt from it. Let her avoid all apocryphal writings, and if she is led to read such not by the truth of the doctrines which they contain but out of respect for the miracles contained in them; let her understand that they are not really written by those to whom they are ascribed, that many faulty elements have been introduced into them, and that it requires infinite discretion to look for gold in the midst of dirt." – St. Jerome
Source: Letter CVII, to Laeta, by St Jerome.
St Jerome on Using the Gospel for Worldly and Financial Gain
Quotations from the writings of St Jerome the Clergy Using the Gospel for Worldly and Financial Gain (Reference Scripture: "Woe unto them! for they have ... ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward." Jude 1:11):
"But now persons who profess religion are not ashamed to seek unjust profits and the good name of Christianity is more often a cloak for fraud than a victim to it. I am ashamed to say it, yet it must be said—we are at least bound to blush for our infamy—while in public we hold out our hands for alms we conceal gold beneath our rags; and to the amazement of every one after living as poor men we die rich and with our purses well-filled." – St. Jerome
Source: Letter CXXV, to Rusticus by St Jerome (Letters and Select Works).
"If apostles who had the right to live of the Gospel labored with their own hands that they might be chargeable to no man, and bestowed relief upon others whose carnal things they had a claim to reap as having sown unto them spiritual things; why do you not provide a supply to meet your needs? Make creels of reeds or weave baskets out of pliant osiers. Hoe your ground; mark out your garden into even plots." – St. Jerome
Source: Letter CXXV, to Rusticus by St. Jerome (Letters and Select Works).
"Quite recently we have seen to our sorrow a fortune worthy of Croesus brought to light by a monk’s death, and a city’s alms, collected for the poor, left by will to his sons and successors. ... In this there is, however, nothing strange, for the man had for his companion and teacher one who turned the hunger of the needy into a source of wealth for himself and kept back sums left to the miserable to his own subsequent misery. Yet their cry came up to heaven and entering God’s ears overcame His patience. Wherefore, He sent an angel of woe to say to this new Carmelite, this second Nabal, 'Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided?'" – St. Jerome
Source: Letter CXXV, to Rusticus by St Jerome (Letters and Select Works).
"I wish to see the monastic schools turn out soldiers ... who are too conscientious to invent—as some silly men do—monstrous stories of struggles with demons, designed to magnify their heroes in the eyes of the crowd and before all to extort money from it." – St. Jerome
Source: Letter CXXV, to Rusticus by St. Jerome (Letters and Select Works).
St Jerome on Prayer; Praying with the Understanding
Quotation(s) from the writings of St Jerome on prayer and praying with the understanding; not with words that cannot be understood, or prayed and felt with emotion.
"The Apostle says: 'I will pray with the spirit and I will pray with the understanding also,' (1 Corinthians 14:15) and to the Ephesians, 'make melody in your hearts to the Lord.' (Ephesians 5:19) For he had read the precept of the psalmist: 'Sing ye praises with understanding.' (Psalm 47:7)" – St. Jerome
Source: Letter CXXV, To Rusticus by St Jerome (Letters and Select Works).
St Jerome on the Pearl of Great Price; Seeking First the Kingdom of Heaven
Quotation(s) from the writings of St Jerome on the Pearl of Great Price and seeking first the kingdom of heaven; the ardent and diligent manner in which a Christian must seek Christ.
"If the merchants of the world undergo such hardships to win a doubtful and passing gain, and if after seeking it through many dangers they only keep it at risk of their lives; what should Christ’s merchant do who 'selleth all that he hath' that he may acquire the 'one pearl of great price;' who with his whole substance buys a field that he may find therein a treasure which neither thief can dig up nor robber carry away?" – St. Jerome
Source: Letter CXXV, To Rusticus by St Jerome (Letters and Select Works).