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17 May 2021

Numerous Gospels



Notum enim vobis facio, fratres, Evangelium quod evangelizatum est a me: quia non est secundem hominem, neque enim ego ab homine accepi illud, neque didici; sed per revelationem Jesu Christi.

Nec putemus in verbis Scripturarum esse Evangelium, sed in sensu: non in superficie, sed in medulla; non in sermonum foliis, sed in radice rationis. Dicitur in propheta de Deo: Sermones ejus boni sunt cum eo. Tunc Scriptura utilis est audientibus, cum absque Christo non dicitur, cum absque patre non profertur, cum sine Spiritu non eam insinuat ille qui praedicat. Alioquin et diabolus qui loquitur de Scripturis, et omnes haereses, secundum Ezechielem, inde sibi consuunt cervicalia, quae ponant sub cubito universae aetatis. Ego quoque ipse qui loquor, si Christum in me habeo, non habeo Evangelium hominis; si autem peccator sum, dicitur mihi: Peccatori dixit Deus: Quare tu enarras justitias meas: et assumis in labiis tuis Testamentum meum? Tu autem odisti disciplinam, et projectisti verba mea post te, et caetera quae sequuntur. Grande periculum est in Ecclesia loqui, ne forte interpretatione perversa, de Evangelio Christi, hominis fiat Evangelium: aut quod pejus est, diaboli.

Sanctus Hieronymus, Commentariorum in Epistolam ad Galatas, Liber I


Source: Migne PL 26.322c-d
For I would have you know, brothers, that the Gospel I preached is not from man. Indeed I neither received it nor learnt it from a man, but through the revelation of Jesus Christ. 1

We should not think that the Gospel is in the words of Scripture, but in the actual meaning, not on the surface but in the innermost parts, not in the leaves of speech but in the root of reason. The Prophet says of God: 'His words are good to him.' 2 Scripture is useful to its hearers when it is spoken with Christ, when it is proclaimed with the Father, and when he who preaches imbues it with the Spirit. Even the devil speaks about Scripture, 3 and from it, according to Ezekiel, all the heresies stitch together pillows which they place under the elbow of every age. 4 As for me, if I have Christ in me as I speak, I do not have the gospel of man. But if I am a sinner, it is said to me: 'To the sinner God has said, Why do you speak of my commandments and take my covenant on your lips? You hate discipline and you have cast my words behind you,' 5 and what follows. Most dangerous it is to the Church when by some perverse interpretation of the Gospel of Christ it becomes the gospel of man, or, what is worse, the gospel of the devil.


Saint Jerome, Commentary on the Letter to the Galatians, Book 1

1 Galat 1.11-12
2 Mich 2.7
3 cf Mt 4.1-11, Lk 4.1-13
4 Ezek 13.18
5 Ps 49.16-17

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