Bearing The Stigmata

Ego autem stigmata Domini Jesu in corpore meo porto. Qui post adventum Christi in carne circumciditur, non portat stigmata Domini Jesu; sed habet gloriam in confusione sua. Qui vero in plagis supra modum, in carceribus frequenter, ter virgis caesus est, semel lapidatus est, et caetera quae in catalogo scripta sunt gloriandi, hic stigmata Domini Jesu in corpore suo portat. Forte et is qui macerat corpus suum, et subjicit servituti, ne aliis praedicans ipse reprobus inveniatur, portat stigmata Domini Jesu in corpore suo. Laetabantur et apostoli quod digni fuerant pro nomine Jesu contumeliam pati. Sanctus Hieronymus, Commentariorum in Epistolam ad Galatas, Liber III, Cap VI Source: Migne PL 26.438a

But I bear the stigmata of the Lord Jesus on my body... 1 He who after the coming of Christ is circumcised in the flesh does not bear the stigmata of the Lord Jesus, but he glories in his confusion. However he who receives blows for the way, and frequent imprisonments, and has fallen three times, and was once stoned, and the other things which are recorded for glory, 2 he bears the stigmata of the Lord Jesus on his body. And perhaps even he who emaciates his body and subjects it to servitude, lest he merit reproof when preaching to others, bears the stigmata of the Lord Jesus on his body. 3 And the Apostles rejoiced that they were worthy to suffer abuse for the name of Jesus. 4 Saint Jerome, Commentary on the Letter to the Galatians, Book 3, Chapter 6 1 Galat 6.17 2 2 Cor 23-25 3 1 Cor 9.27 4 Act 5.41

The Time Of Sowing

Ergo, dum tempus habemus, operemur bonum ad omnes, maxime autem ad domesticos fidei. Tempus sementis, ut diximus, tempus est praesens, et quam currimus. In hac licet nobis quod volumus seminare; cum ista vita transierit operandi tempus aufertur. Unde et Salvator ait: Operamini dum dies est: veniet nox, quando jam nullus poterit operari. Ortus est nobis Dei sermo, sol verus, et congregatae sunt bestiae recedentes in cubilia sua: procedamus ut homines ad opus nostrum, et usque ad vesperam laboremus, sicut mystice cantatur in psalmo: Posuisti tenebras, et facta est nox. In ipsa pertransibunt bestiae silvae, catuli leonum rugientes, ut rapiant, et quaerant a Deo escam sibi. Ortus est sol, et congregatae sunt, et in cubilibus suis dormierunt. Egredietur homo ad opus suum, et ad operationem suam usque ad vesperam. Sive aegrotamus, sive sani sumus, humiles, vel potentes, pauperes, divites, ignobiles, honorati, esurientes, sive vescentes, omnia in nomine Domini cum patientia et aequanimitate faciamus, et implebitur in nobis illud quod scriptum est: Diligentibus autem Dominum, omnia cooperantur in bonum. Ira ipsa et libido, et injuria quae desiderat ultionem, si me refrenem: si propter Deum taceam: si per singulos commotionis aculeos, et incentiva vitiorum, Dei desuper me videntis recorder, fiunt mihi occasio triumphorum. Ne dicamus in largiendo: Ille est amicus, hunc nescio: hic debet accipere, iste contemni. Imitemur Patrem nostrum, qui solem suum oriri facit super bonos et malos, et pluit super justos et injustos. Fons bonitatis omnibus patet. Servus et liber, plebeius et rex, dives et pauper, ex eo similiter bibunt. Lucerna cum accensa fuerit in domo, omnibus lucet aequaliter. Quod si in cunctos indifferenter liberalitatis frena laxantur, quanto magis in domesticos fidei, et in Christianos, qui eumdem habent Patrem, ejusque magistri appellatione censentur! Videtur autem mihi locus iste posse et superioribus cohaerere, ut domesticos fidei, magistros nominet, quibus supra omnia quae putantur bona, ab auditoribus suis jusserat ministrari. Breve est vitae istius curriculum. Hoc ipsum quod loquor, quod dicto, quod scribo, quod emendo, quod relego, de tempore meo mihi aut crescit, aut deperit. Titus, filius Vespasiani, qui in ultionem Dominici sanguinis, subversis Jerosolymis, Romam victor ingressus est, tantae dicitur fuisse bonitatis, ut cum quadam nocte sero recordaretur, in coena, quod nihil boni die illa fecisset, dixerit amicis: Hodie diem perdidi. Nos putamus non perire nobis horam, diem, momenta, tempus, aetates, cum otiosum verbum loquimur, pro quo reddituri sumus rationem in die judicii? Quod si hoc ille sine Lege, sine Evangelio, sine Salvatoris, et apostolorum doctrina, naturaliter et dixit, et fecit: quid nos oportet facere, in quorum condemnationem habet et Juno univiras, et Vesta virgines, et alia idola continentes? Beatus Joannes evangelista cum Ephesi moraretur usque ad ultimam senectutem, et vix inter discipulorum manus ad ecclesiam deferretur, nec posset in plura vocem verba contexere, nihil aliud per singulas solebat proferre collectas, nisi hoc: Filioli, diligite alterutrum. Tandem discipuli et fratres qui aderant, taedio affecti, quod eadem semper audirent, dixerunt: Magister, quare semper hoc loqueris? Qui respondit dignam Joanne sententiam: Quia praeceptum Domini est, et si solum fiat, sufficit. Hoc propter praesens Apostoli mandatum: Operemur bonum ad omnes: maxime autem ad domesticos fidei. Sanctus Hieronymus, Commentariorum in Epistolam ad Galatas, Liber III, Cap VI Source: Migne PL 26.432b-433c

Therefore while we have time, let us do good to everyone, especially to the servants of the faith. 1 The time of sowing, as we have said, is the present time, in which we run. In this we are permitted to sow what we will, and when this life shall have passed by the time of such labouring is finished. Whence the Saviour says: 'Work while it is still day. The night shall come when no one will be able to work.' 2 The sun of the word of God has risen on us, the true sun, and the beasts have been gathered up and withdrawn into their lairs, and so let us as men go to our work, and even to the evening let us labour, as is spiritually sung in the Psalm: 'You set down darkness and it was night. In it pass all the beasts of the wood, the roaring of lion whelps, that they might seize, and they seek from God food for themselves. The sun has risen, and they have been gathered up and in their lairs they sleep. Man goes out to his work, and to his labour until the evening.' 3 Whether we are sick or healthy, humble or powerful, poor or rich, obscure or honoured, hungry or full, let us do everything in the name of the Lord in patience and contentment, and we shall fulfill in ourselves what has been written: 'But for the lovers of the Lord everything works together for goodness.' 4 If I restrain myself from anger and lust and the injury that seeks vengeance, if for the sake of God I am silent, if through every sharp disturbance and incentive for vice I remind myself that God watches from above, there shall be for me an occasion of triumph. Let us not say in plenty, 'That fellow is a friend, this one I do not know. This one should be received, that one scorned.' Let us imitate our Father who makes the sun rise over the good and the wicked, and makes it rain upon the righteous and the unrighteous. 5 He opens the fount of kindness to all and from that slave and free, commoner and king, rich and poor, all likewise drink. A lamp that has been lit in a house shines equally on everyone, 6 whence if the reign of generosity is loosed impartially for everyone, how much more for those who are servants of the faith and Christians, who have the same Father, and those who are reckoned to be His teachers? It seems to me that it is possible to join this passage with those before, so that from hearers he exhorts service of those he names servants of the faith and teachers, whom are thought as goods above all. Brief is the time of this life. This which I say, and dictate, and write, and correct, and review, grows or perishes in my time. Titus, the son of Vespasian, who in revenge for the blood of the Lord, overthrew Jerusalem, entered Rome as victor, and it is said that such was his benevolence, that when late one night at a feast he remembered that he had done no good that day, he said to his friends, 'Today I have wasted a day.' Shall we not think that we have wasted an hour, a day, a moment, a year, an age, when we speak worthless words, for which we shall have to give a reason on the day of judgement? 7 If this fellow without the Law, without the Gospel, without the Saviour and the teaching of the Apostles, naturally said this and acted so, what is needful for us to do, for the condemnation of whom he had Juno of one husband, and the Vestal Virgins, and a collection of other idols? Blessed John the Evangelist, while he remained in Ephesus until final old age, had to be carried to the church by the hands of his followers, and unable to compose his voice for many words, he was accustomed to offer nothing else to the congregation but this: 'Little children, love one another.' 8Then when his pupils and brothers drew near, and being troubled with the repetition of what they always heard, said, 'Master, why do you always say this?' John replied with a worthy statement: 'Because it is the teaching of the Lord, and if this alone is done, it is enough.' Hence the command of this Apostle: 'Let us do good to everyone, especially to the servants of the faith.' Saint Jerome, Commentary on the Letter to the Galatians, Book 3, Chapter 6 1 Galat 6.10 2 Jn 9.4 3 Ps 103.20-23 4 Rom 8.28 5 Mt 5.45 6 Mt 5.15 7 Mt 12.36 8 cf 1 Jn 3.18

Weariness And The Good

Bonum autem facientes, non deficiamus: tempore enim suo metemus, non deficientes. Cohortatur eos ad studium perseverantiae, qui in hac vita mercedem boni operis exspectant, nescientes quia sicut in semine aliud sationis, aliud messis est tempus: sic et in praesenti vita, sementem esse opera, quae vel in spiritu, vel in carne metantur, messem vero futurum judicium, et pro qualitate vel diversitate sementis, diversas nos facere messuras, centesimum et sexagesimum, et tricesimum fructum, quam segetem nemo potest metere deficiens. Qui enim perseveraverit usque in finem, hic salvus erit. Sicut et in alio loco praecipitur: Esto non deficiens . Quale est autem, ut cum peccatores quotidie in malis operibus augeantur, nos in bono opere lassemur? Sanctus Hieronymus, Commentariorum in Epistolam ad Galatas, Liber III, Cap VI Source: Migne PL 26.432a

But in the doing of good, let us not become weary. We will reap in time if we do not become weary. 1 He exhorts them to have an eagerness for endurance, they who in this life hope for the reward of good works, not knowing that as there is one sort of satisfaction in sowing, there is another at the harvest, and so in this present life the works sown, whether reaped in the spirit or in the flesh, shall have the harvest of future judgement, and the type and difference of the sowing make different harvests for us, a hundred fold and sixty fold and thirty fold, 2 which crop no one is able to harvest if he wearies. 'He who endures until the end, he shall be saved.' 3 As in another place it is commanded: 'Do not become weary.' 4 Why is it that when every day sinners increase in wicked works, we should grow tired of good works? Saint Jerome, Commentary on the Letter to the Galatians, Book 3, Chapter 6 1 Galat 6.9 2 Mt 13.8 3 Mt 24.13 4 Isaiah 5.27

Sowing In The Flesh And In The Spirit

Quoniam qui seminat in carne sua, de carne et metet corruptionem. Qui autem seminat in spiritu, de spiritu metet vitam aeternam. Omne quod loquimur, agimus, cogitamus, in duobus seminatur agris, carne et spiritu. Si bona sunt, quae de manu, ore, corde promuntur, seminata in spiritu, vitae aeternae fructibus redundabunt. Si mala, ab agro carnis excepta, corruptionis nobis segetem pullulabunt. Aliter: qui legem carnaliter intelligit, repromissiones quoque carnales, et quae in praesenti saeculo corrumpuntur, exspectat. Qui autem spiritualis auditor est, seminat in spiritu, et de spiritu metet vitam sempiternam. Simul notemus sermonis consequentiam, et eam cum superioribus copulemus: hominem vocari in spiritu seminantem, qui quando coeperit vitam metere sempiternam, homo fortasse esse desistit. Cassianus, qui putativam? Christi carnem introducens, omnem conjunctionem masculi ad feminam immundam arbitratur, Encratitarum vel acerrimus haeresiarches, tali adversum nos sub occasione praesentis testimonii usus est argumento: Si quis seminat in carne, de carne metet corruptionem: in carne autem seminat, qui mulieri jungitur: ergo et is qui uxore utitur, et seminat in carne ejus, de carne metet corruptionem. Respondebitur ei, primum non dixisse Paulum, qui seminat in carne; sed, in carne sua. Nemo autem secum ipse concumbit, et in sua carne seminat. Deinde ut observationem hac quam annotavimus, in carne sua, ex abundanti ei concedamus, addendum est eos quoque, qui comedant et bibant, et dormiant et aliquid faciant ab refrigerium corporis, juxta illum seminare in carne, et de ea metere corruptionem. Quod si ad hoc confugerit, ut dicat eos qui, sive bibant, sive manducent, sive dormiant, in nomine tamen Domini omnia cum ratione perficiant, non in carne seminare, sed in spiritu; et nos ei similiter respondebimus, eos quoque qui Dei primam sententiam sequantur cum ratione facientes: Crescite et multiplicamini, et replete terram, non in carne, sed in spiritu seminare. Syllogismus itaque ejus futilis et caducus, sophismata primum decipit audientem. Caeterum diligenter inspectus, facile solvitur: neque enim possumus dicere, Abraham, Isaac et Jacob, et alios sanctos viros, qui de repromissione nati sunt, ipsum quoque Domini praecursorem, quia in carne natus est, de corruptionis germine pullulasse illud pariter observandum, quod qui seminat in carne, cum additamento suae carnis ponitur: qui autem seminat in spiritu, non dicitur in spiritu suo, sed simpliciter in spiritu. Qui enim bona seminat, non in suo quippiam, sed in Dei spiritu seminat, de quo et vitam est messurus aeternam. Sanctus Hieronymus, Commentariorum in Epistolam ad Galatas, Liber III, Cap VI Source: Migne PL 26.430d-432a

Because he who sows in his own flesh, reaps corruption from the flesh. But he who sows in the spirit, reaps eternal life from the spirit. 1 Everything that we say and do and think is sown in the field in two ways, in the flesh and in the spirit. If they are good things which come from the hand and the mouth and the heart, having sown in the spirit, they shall abound with the fruits of eternal life. If evil is taken up from the field of the flesh, there shall spring forth a crop of corruption for us. Otherwise, he who understands the law carnally, and also they who expect the things promised carnally in the present world, they are corrupted. He who is a spiritual hearer, he sows in the spirit, and from the spirit he reaps eternal life. At the same time let us note the consequence of the words and couple them with what has been said before. A man called to sow in the spirit, when he has begun to sow eternal life, perhaps he is a man who stops. Cassianus, 2 bringing in his supposed flesh of Christ, thought that every union of male and female was unclean, indeed he was a most severe Encratrite heresiarch, and he made use in argument against us the present testimony: 'If someone sows in the flesh, he reaps corruption from the flesh,' so that he who is joined to a woman is one who sows in the flesh, and therefore he who makes use of a wife so, sows in her flesh, from which he reaps corruption. It shall be answered firstly that Paul did not say he who sows in 'the flesh' but in 'his own flesh'. No man lies with himself and sows seed in his own flesh. Next, according to that observation that we have noted, 'in his own flesh,' we must allow greater scope to it, adding also those who eat and drink and sleep and do other things for the refreshment of the body, having that as a 'sowing in the flesh', and from which they reap corruption. Because if he shall flee to this, saying that those who either drink or eat or sleep do so, yet it is they who complete everything in the name of the Lord with reason who do not sow in the flesh but in the spirit. And we shall answer him similarly, concerning those who follow the first command of God and act rationally: 'Grow and multiply and fill the earth,' 3 that they do not sow in the flesh but in the spirit. Thus his argument is futile and unstable, an initial sophism to deceive the hearer. Besides, by diligent inspection, it is easily resolved: for we cannot say that Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and other holy men who were born from the promise, and who were also precursors of the Lord, because they were born in the flesh, sprang forth from the seed of corruption. So altogether it must be observed that he who sows in the flesh is described by the addition of 'his own flesh', but he who sows in the spirit does not sow in his own spirit but simply 'in the spirit'. For he who sows good things does not do so from himself, but he sows in the spirit of God, from which is life and the eternal harvest. Saint Jerome, Commentary on the Letter to the Galatians, Book 3, Chapter 6 1 Galat 6.8 2 Julius Cassianus, (see Clement of Alexandria, Stromata 3.13-14) 3 Genes 1.28 4 Eccl 7.11 5 1 Jn 5.19 6 1 Cor 15.32 7 Ephes 5.16

Present Evil

Dedit se autem Filius, ut injustitiam quae erat in nobis, justitia ipse subverteret. Tradidit se sapientia, ut insipientiam expugnaret. Sanctitas et fortitudo se obtulit, ut spurcitiam infirmitatem que deleret. Atque ita non solum in futuro saeculo iuxta promissam spem qua credimus, sed etiam hic de praesenti saeculo nos liberauit: dum commortui Christo, transfiguramur in novitatem sensus, et non sumus de hoc mundo, a quo merito nec amamur. Quaeritur quomodo praesens saeculum malum dictum sit. Solent quippe haeretici hinc capere occasiones, ut alium lucis et futuri saeculi, alium tenebrarum et praesentis asserant conditorem. Nos autem dicimus, non tam saeculum ipsum, quod die ac nocte, annis currit et mensibus, appellari malum, quam ὁμωνύμως, ea quae in saeculo fiant: quomodo sufficere dicitur diei malitia sua: et dies Iacob modici esse scribuntur et pessimi. Non quo spatium temporis, in quo vixit iacob, malum fuerit, sed quo ea quae sustinuit, per varia eum exercuerint tentamenta. Denique eo tempore quo ille pro coniugibus serviebat, et multis conflictabatur angustiis, Esau in requie erat, atque ita idem temporis spatium, alii bonum, alii malum fuit; nec scriptum esset in Ecclesiaste: Ne dixeris quia dies mei priores erant boni super istos, nisi ad discrimen malorum. Unde Ioannes ait: mundus omnis in maligno positus est. Non quod mundus ipse sit malus, sed quod mala in mundo fiant ab hominibus, manducemus et bibamus, dicentibus, cras enim moriemur. Et ipse Apostolus: redimentes, inquit, tempus, quia dies mali sunt. Infamantur et saltus, cum latrociniis pleni sunt, non quo terra peccet et siluae, sed quo infamiam homicidii loca quoque traxerint. Detestamur et gladium, quo humanus effusus est cruor, et calicem in quo venenum temperatum est, non gladii calicis que peccato, sed quod odium mereantur illi qui his male usi sunt. Ita et saeculum, quod est spatium temporum, non per semetipsum, aut bonum, aut malum est, sed per eos qui in illo sunt, aut bonum appellatur aut malum. Sanctus Hieronymus, Commentariorum in Epistolam ad Galatas, Liber I, Cap I Source: Migne PL 26.314a-d

The Son gave Himself that He might overthrow the unrighteousness in us by His righteousness. He handed himself over in wisdom to conquer foolishness. Holiness and strength offered itself to erase depraved infirmity. Not only has Christ freed us in the future age by the promises and hopes in which we believe, but He also Has freed us from the present age, during which we who have died together with Christ are being transformed by newness of mind, so that we are not of this world and rightly we are not loved by the world. 1 What does 'present evil age' mean? Heretics usually seize on this to assert that there is a ruler of light and the future age and another who rules over darkness and the present age. But we say that it is not the age itself, which passes in days, nights, years, and months, that is to be called evil, but rather, ὁμωνύμως, that is by use of homonym, we say that the things occurring during the age are evil, whence it is written that each day has enough evil for itself, 2 and that the days of Jacob were few and difficult. 3 It is not that the span of time in which Jacob lived was evil, but the things he endured through the various trials which troubled him. Then while he was serving to win hands of his wives and was assailed by many hardships, Esau was at rest, and so the same span of time was good for one but evil for another. Thus it would not be written in Ecclesiastes 'Do not say that my former days were better than these,' 4 unless there were a distinction of evils. This is also why John says, 'The whole world lies in wickedness.' 5 Not that the world itself is evil, but that evil things are done in the world by men who say, 'Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we shall die.' 6 And the Apostle says that we are redeeming the time because the days are evil. 7 Forests come into disrepute when bandits abound in them, not because the earth or trees sin but because they have gained a bad reputation as places where murders are committed. We also despise the sword by which human blood is poured out, as well as the cup in which is poison is mixed, not because the sword and the cup sin, but because those who use these things for evil purposes deserve to be reviled. So also the age, which is a span of time, is not in itself either good or evil, but depending on the people who live in it, it is called either good or evil. Saint Jerome, Commentary on the Letter to the Galatians, Book 1, Chapter 1 1 2 Tim 2.11, Rom 12.2, Jn 15.19 2 Mt 6.34 3 Gen 47.9 4 Eccl 7.11 5 1 Jn 5.19 6 1 Cor 15.32 7 Ephes 5.16

The Church Of Rome

Vultis scire, o Paula et Eustochium, quomodo Apostolus unamquamque provinciam suis proprietatibus denotarit? Usque hodie eadem vel virtutum vestigia permanent, vel errorum. Romanae plebis laudatur fides. Ubi alibi tanto studio et frequentia, ad Ecclesias et ad Martyrum sepulcra concurritur? ubi sic ad similitudinem coelestis tonitrui Amen reboat, et vacua idolorum templa quatiuntur? Non quod aliam habeant Romani fidem, nisi hanc quam omnes Christi Ecclesiae: sed quod devotio in eis major sit, et simplicitas ad credendum. Rursum facilitatis et superbiae arguuntur. Facilitatis, ut ibi: Rogo vos, fratres, ut observetis eos qui dissensiones et offendicula, praeter doctrinam quam vos didicistis, faciunt; et declinate ab illis: hujusmodi enim Christo Domino non serviunt, sed suo ventri; et per dulces sermones et benedictiones seducunt corda innocentium. Vestra enim obedientia in omnem locum pervulgata est. Gaudeo igitur in vobis: et volo vos sapientes esse in bono, et simplices in malo. Superbiae vero: Noli altum sapere, sed time. Et: Nolo vos ignorare, fratres, mysterium hoc, ut non sitis ipsi vobis sapientes. Et in sequentibus: Dico enim per gratiam quae data est mihi, omnibus qui sunt inter vos: non plus sapere quam oportet sapere; sed sapere ad sobrietatem. Et apertius: Gaudere cum gaudentibus, flere cum flentibus. Idipsum invicem sentientes. Non alta sapientes; sed humilibus consentientes. Nolite esse prudentes apud vosmetipsos. Sanctus Hieronymus, Commentariorum in Epistolam ad Galatas, Liber II Source: Migne PL 26.355b-356a

Do you wish to know, O Paula and Eustochium how the Apostle describes each province according to its own characteristic? Even until today remain the same traces of virtues, or errors. The faith of the Roman people is praised. 1 Where else do they hurry to the Churches and tombs of the Martyrs with such zeal and so often? Where else does Amen resound like a thunderclap in the sky, and where else are the empty temples of idols shaken? Not that the Romans have a different faith to that which all Christ's Churches have, but their devotion is greater and also their simplicity in belief. Yet they are rebuked for their pliability and pride. For pliability, where Paul says: 'I ask you, brothers, that you watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstructions contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them; such folk do not serve the Lord Christ but their own appetites. By charming talk and flattery they seduce the hearts of the innocent. Your obedience is known everywhere. Therefore I rejoice over you and wish you to be wise about what is good and innocent about what is evil.' 2 And for pride where he says: 'Do not have high minds, but fear.' 3 And: 'I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be wise to yourselves.' And later on: 'By the grace which has been given to me, I say to every one of you: do not know more than you should know, think soberly.' 4 And more openly: 'Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but associate with the humble. Do not be wise to yourselves.' 5 Saint Jerome, Commentary on the Letter to the Galatians, Book 2 1 Rom 1.8 2 Rom 16.17-19 3 Rom 2.20, 25 4 Rom 12.3 5 Rom 12.15-16

A Commentator's Complaint

Tertium ad Galatas, o Paula et Eustochium, volumen hoc cudimus: non ignari imbecillitatis nostrae, et exilis ingenii rivulum, vix parvo strepentem murmure sentientes. Jam enim et in Ecclesiis ista quaeruntur: omissaque apostolicorum simplicitate et puritate verborum, quasi ad Athenaeum, et ad auditoria convenitur, ut plausus circumstantium suscitentur: ut oratio rhetoricae artis fucata mendacio, quasi quaedam meretricula in publicum, non tam eruditura populos, quam favorem populi quaesitura, et in modum psalterii et tibiae dulce canentis, sensus demulceat audientium; ut vere illud prophetae Ezechielis nostris temporibus possit aptari, dicente Domino ad eum: Et factus es eis quasi vox citharae suave canentis, et bene compositae: et audiunt verba tua, et non faciunt ea. Verum quid agam? Taceamne? Sed scriptum est: Non apparebis in conspectu Domini tui vacuus. Et Isaias, sicut in Hebraeis tamen habetur voluminibus, ingemiscit: Vae mihi misero, quia tacui. Loquar? Sed omnem sermonis elegentiam, et Latini eloquii venustatem, stridor lectionis Hebraicae sordidavit. Nostis enim et ipsae, quod plus quam quindecim anni sunt, ex quo in manus meas numquam Tullius, numquam Maro, numquam gentilium litterarum quilibet Auctor ascendit: et si quid forte inde dum loquimur, obrepit, quasi antiqui per nebulam somnii recordamur. Quod autem profecerim ex linguae illius infatigabili studio, aliorum judicio derelinquo: ego qui in mea amiserem, scio. Accedit ad hoc, quia propter oculorum et totius corpusculi infirmitatem, manu mea ipse non scribo: nec labore et diligentia compensare queo eloquii traditatem: quod de Virgilio quoque tradunt, quia libros suos in modum ursorum feum lambendo figuraverit: verum accito notario, aut statim dicto quodcumque in buccam venerit: aut si paululum voluero cogitate, melius aliquid prolaturus, tunc me tacitus ille reprehendit, manum contrahit, frontem rugat, et se fustra adesse, toto gestu corprois contestatur. Oratio autem etsi de bonae indolis ingenio sit profecta, et distincta inventionibus, et oranta flore verborum: tamen nisi auctoris sui manu limata fuerit et polita, non est nitida, non habet mixtam cum decore gravitatem; sed in modum divitum rusticorum, opibus suis magis arguitur, quam exornatur. Quorsum ista? videlicet ut et vobis et caeteris, qui forte legere voluerint, sit responsum, me non panegyricum, aut controversiam scribere, sed commentarium, id est, hic habere propositum, non ut mea verba laudentur, sed ut quae ab alio bene dicta sunt, ita intelligantur ut dicta sunt. Offici mei est obscura disserere, manifesta perstringere, in dubiis immorari. Unde et a plerisque commentariorum opus, expalnation nominatur. Si quis eloquentiam quaerit, vel declamationibus delectatur, habet in utraque lingua Demosthenem et Tullium, Polemonem et Quintillianum. Ecclesia Christi non de Academia et Lyceo, sed de vili plebecula congregate est. Unde et Apostolus: Videte enim vocationem vestram, fratres, quia non multi sapientes secundum carnem, non multi potentes, non multi nobiles: sed quæ stulta sunt mundi elegit Deus, ut confundat sapientes: et infirma mundi elegit Deus, ut confundat fortia: et ignobilia mundi, et contemptibilia elegit Deus, et ea quæ non sunt, ut ea quæ sunt destrueret. Sanctus Hieronymus, Commentariorum in Epistolam ad Galatas, Liber III Source: Migne PL 26.399b-400d

We have pounded out this third volume on Galatians, Paula and Eustochium, not ignorant of our weakness, and feeling that the sound of the stream of our thin talent is scarcely a little murmur. For this is now found in the Churches: the simplicity of the Apostles and the purity of their words is laid aside for what is fitting to the Athenaeum and the lecture halls to arouse the applause of those who attend. So speech is painted with the lies of the rhetorical art, like a prostitute in the street, not to educate the people but to court their favour, and in the sweet manner of a psaltery and singing pipe it caresses the senses of the hearers. What the Lord said to the prophet Ezekiel suits our times: 'To them you are like the voice of a lute singing sweetly and well composed, and they hear your words but do not do them.' 1 And what shall I do? Shall I be silent? But it is written: 'You will not appear empty in the sight of the Lord.' 2 And Isaiah, as the Hebrew books have it, groans: 'Alas to me, a wretch, that I was silent.' 3 Shall I speak? But the grating of Hebrew reading has tarnished all elegance of speech and beauty of Latin eloquence. You yourselves know that it is more than fifteen years since my hands have picked up Cicero or Virgil or any author of Gentile letters; and if any should creep in while we speak, we recall them as if through the cloud of an old dream. What I might achieve from the indefatigable zeal for that tongue, I leave to the judgment of others; I know what I have lost in myself. Then it happens that because of the weakness of my eyes and the whole body, I do not write with my own hand, nor can I compensate for the dullness of my eloquence with labour and diligence, as they say about Vergil, that he fashioned his books like bears lick their young. With a scribe present, I either dictate immediately whatever comes into my mouth, or if I wish to think a little, that I might grasp something better, then he silently admonishes me, withdrawing his hand, furrowing his brow, and with every movement of his body proclaiming that there is no point him being there. Speech, though brought forth from a capable mind, and distinguished by invention, and adorned with the flower of words, unless it is smoothed and polished by the author's own hand, is not bright, it does not have gravity mixed with beauty, but in the manner of rustic wealth, it is more condemned by its riches than adorned. To what end is this? Let it be a response to you, and others who may wish to read it, that I do not write panegyric or polemic but commentary, that is, my intent is not that my words be praised but that what was well said by another should be understood as it was said. My duty is to discuss what is obscure, to bind together what is clear, to tarry over what is in doubt. That is why many name a work of commentary an explanation. If someone seeks eloquence or delights in declamation, he has in both languages Demosthenes and Cicero, Polemon and Quintilian. The Church of Christ is gathered not from the Academy and the Lycaeum, but from the common people. Whence the Apostle says: 'Consider your calling, brothers, that not many of you are wise according to the flesh, not many powerful, not many noble; but God chose the foolish things of this world to confound the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to confound the strong; God chose what is ignoble and contemptible in this world, the things that are not, that He destroy the things that are' 4 Saint Jerome, Commentary on the Letter to the Galatians, Book 3 1 Ezek 33.32 2 Exod.34.20 3 Isaiah 6.5 4 1 Cor 1.26-28

Elements And Learning

Ita et nos, cum essemus parvuli, sub elementia hujus mundi eramus servientes... Elementa mundi, eosdem quos supra tutores et actores dixerat, appellavit, quod sub ipsis primum praesidibus constituti, quia necdum Dei Filii capere ad nos poteramus adventum, erudiebamur in medio. Nonnulli eos esse angelos arbitrantur, qui quantor mundi elementis praesideant: terrae videlicet, aquae, igni, et aeri: et necesse esse, ut priusquam quis credat in Christo, illis arbitris gubernetur. Elementa mundi coelum et terram, et ea quae intra haec sunt, plerique appellata putant, quod videlicet solem, lunam, maria, silvarum, et montium deos, et sapientes Graeciae et Barbarae nationes, Romanique, omnium superstitionum sentina, venerentur: quibus cum Christus venerit, liberamur, intelligentes ea creatures esse, non numina. Alii elementa mundi, Legem interpretantur Moysi et eloquia prophetarum: quod per haec quasi initia et exordia litterarum, Dei timorem, qui sapientiae principium est, suscipiamus. Denique ad eos qui jam deberent esse perfecti, et veritate neglecta, adhuc disciplinarum principiis inhaerebant, scribit in Epistola ad Hebraeos Apostolus: Etenim cum deberetis esse magistri propter tempus, rursum necesse habetis ut doceamini quae sint elementa principii sermonum Dei. Econtrario nobis objici potest, quod ad Colossenses Paulus apostolus scribens, elementa mundi alia nuncuparit: Videte, dicens, ne quis vos depraedetur per philosophiam, et inanem deceptionem, secundum traditionem hominum: secundum elementa mundi, et non secundum Christum. Sed ex eo quod addidit, secundum traditionem hominum, et inanem deceptionem, ostendit non eadem elementa ad Colossenses et ad Galatas nominari. Ab his quippe elementis postquam venerit temporis plenitudo redimimur, et ad majora gradientes adoptionem recipimus filiorum. Ab illis vero nihil tale dicitur quid sequatur: sed simpliciter elementa pro litteris accipiuntur. Potest igitur, ut diximus, Moysi Lex et prophetae pro elementis accipi litterarum, quod per eas syllabae jungantur et nomina, et tam sui, quam alterius rei utilitate discantur: ut possimus orationem legere contextam, in qua sensus magis ordo verborum quam litterarum principia considerantur. Quod autem Legem et prophetas, elementa mundi interpretati sumus, mundus pro his qui in mundo sunt, accipi solet, eodem Paulo dicente: Deus erat in Christo, mundum reconcilians sibi. Et in Evangelio: Et mundus per eum factus est, et mundus eum non recipit. Quidam etiam in illa liberius evagantur: ut quia Lex umbram habet futurorum bonorum, requirant utrum in alio mundo, de quo Salvator ait: Ego non sum de mundo isto, primum parvuli simus, et sub elementis initiorum constituti, paulatim procedamus ad summum, et recipiamus adoptionis locum quem quondam amisimus. Sanctus Hieronymus, Commentariorum in Epistolam ad Galatas, Liber II Cap IV Source: Migne PL 26.371a-372a

Thus even we, when we were little, were enslaved beneath the elements of the world...1 He names the elements of the world in the same way as those guardians and trustees he had just spoken of, 2 that being first set beneath their governance, because we were not able yet to grasp for ourselves the coming of the Son of God, we were instructed among them. Some judge them to be angels, who preside over the elements of the world, that is, earth, water, fire and air, and it is necessary that before someone believes in Christ he be guided in their tutelage. The elements of the world are heaven and earth, and those things which are in them, which very many have thought to name gods, that is, the sun and moon and sea and woods and mountains, which even the wise Greeks and the barbarian peoples and the Romans venerated amid the dregs of all their superstitions, from which, when Christ came, we were liberated, understanding these things to be created things, not divinities. Others understand the elements of the world as the Law of Moses and the words of the Prophets, that by these, as a beginning and introduction of letters, we take up the fear of God, which is the beginning of wisdom. 3 Then to those who should already be perfected and have neglected the truth, yet who are still adhering to the beginnings of discipline, the Apostle writes in the letter to the Hebrews: 'Even when you should be teachers on account of your age, again it is necessary that you be taught what are the elements of the beginning of the words of God.' 4 It is possible to object against us that the Apostle Paul, writing to the Colossians, spoke of yet different elements of the world, saying: 'Take care lest you are despoiled by philosophy and vain deception, according to the traditions of men, according to the elements of the world, and not according to Christ.' 5 But on account of what he adds there, on account of 'the traditions of men', and 'vain deception', he shows that these elements which he speaks of to the Colossians are not the same as those of the Galatians. For from the latter elements, after He came in the fullness of time, we were redeemed, and with greater steps we received the adoption of sons; from the former, however, it is not said that such a thing follows, but simply that they are taken up as elements of letters. It is possible, then, as we have said, that the Law of Moses and the Prophets are received as the elements of letters, which are joined to make syllables and words, and so of itself, rather than any other thing, it is learned for its utility, so that we are able to read full speech, in which is considered the ordering of the sense of the words over the elements of the letters. So, then, we understand the Law and the Prophets as the elements of the world, a world for those who are in the world, with the same Paul saying, 'God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself.' 6 And in the Gospel: 'And through Him the world was made and the world did not receive Him.' 7 And indeed by that they are given more freedom to wander, that because the Law is a shadow of future goods, they should search in another world, according to which the Saviour said: 'I am not of this world.' 8 for first we are little ones, and set beneath the elements of the world, and little by little we proceed to the heights, and we attain the place of adoption which we once lost. Saint Jerome, Commentary on the Letter to the Galatians, Book 2, Chap 4 1 Galat 4.3 2 Galat 4.1-2 3 Prov 9.10 4 Hebr 5.12 5 Colos 2.18 6 2 Cor 5.9 7 Jn 1.10 8 Jn 7.23

Fools And Flesh

Sic stultis estis, ut cum Spiritu coeperitis, nunc carne consummemini? Si sanctum spiritum acceperant Galatae, quomodo stulti erant? Verum statim soluitur, coepisse quidem eos spiritum, sed cum carne consummarentur, spiritum ab eis fuisse sublatum. Unde sine causa passi sunt tanta quae passi sunt. Quod ne sibi post peccatum eveniret, David precatur, dicens: Spiritum Sanctum tuum ne auferas a me. Diligenter attendite quod qui Scripturas iuxta litteram sequitur, consummari carne dicatur. Quamobrem illud quod ad Corinthios scriptum est: in carne viventes, non iuxta carnem militamus, melius sic intelligi potest, ut hi militare dicantur in carne, qui vetus Testamentum humiliter edisserunt. Qui vero sequuntur intelligentiam spiritualem, sint quidem in carne, quia eamdem habeant litteram quam Iudaei, sed non iuxta carnem militent, a carne ad spiritum transcendentes. Quando videritis eum qui primum credit ex Gentibus, et ad Christi aratrum mittit manum, praevio aliquo doctore prudente, sic per Legis iter ad Evangelium pergere, ut omnia illa quae ibi scripta sunt, de sabbato, de azymis, de circumcisione, de victimis, digne Deo intelligat, et deinceps post Evangelii lectionem a Iudaeo aliquo aut Iudaeorum socio persuaderi, ut umbras et allegoriae nubila derelinquens, sic Scripturas interpretetur, ut scriptae sunt: de hoc potestis dicere: sic stultus es, ut cum Spiritu coeperis, nunc carne consummeris? Sanctus Hieronymus, Commentariorum in Epistolam ad Galatas, Liber I Cap III Source: Migne PL 26.350a-c

Are you such fools, that having begun in the spirit, you now make an end in the flesh? 1 If the Galatians received the Holy Spirit, how were they fools? Truly this may be quickly resolved, for he had established them in the Spirit, but when they would end in the flesh, the Spirit went from them. Whence without reason they had endured so much. Which lest it happen to him after sin David prayed, saying: 'Do not take your Holy Spirit from me.' 2 Carefully attend that he says that he who follows the Scriptures according to the letter ends in the flesh. As he wrote to the Corinthians: 'Living in the flesh we do not strive according to the flesh, 3 by which one is better able to understand that they are said to fight in the flesh who basely expound the Old Testament. However, they who follow the spiritual understanding, though they are in the flesh, though they have the same letter as the Jews, do not fight according to the flesh, but pass from the flesh to the spirit. If you were to see one who first believed from the nations and put his hand to the plough of Christ, 4 being led by a certain prudent teaching, advancing through the way of the Law to the Gospel, so that all things which are written there, concerning the sabbath, and the unleavened bread, and circumcision, and sacrifices, he might understand in a manner worthy of God, and then later, after reading the Gospel, he is persuaded by some Jew, or an associate of the Jews, so that forsaking the shadows and clouds of allegories, he understands the Scriptures in a literal manner, concerning him would you not be able to say: 'Are you such a fool, that when you have begun in the Spirit, now you end in the flesh?' Saint Jerome, Commentary on the Letter to the Galatians, Book 1, Chap 3 1 Galat 4.32 2 Ps 50.13 3 2 Cor 10.3 4 Lk 9.26

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

Angels And Apostles And Preaching

Sed licet nos, aut angelus de coelo evangelizet vobis, praeter quam quod evanglizavimus vobis, anathema sit. Sicut praediximus, et nunc iterum dico: si quis vobis evangelizaveir praeter id quod acceptistis, anathema sit.  Potest et hyperbolice dictum accipi, non quo aut apostolus, aut angelus aliter potuerint praedicare quam semel dixerant: sed etiamsi hoc posset fieri, ut et apostoli et angeli mutarentur: tamen non esse ab eo quod semel acceptum fuerat, recedendum: maxime cum ipse apostolus in alio loco firmitatem fidei suae ostendat dicens: Scio quia neque mors, neque vita, neque angelis, neque principatus, neque praesentia, neqye futura, neque fortitudo, neque altitduo, neque profundum, neque alia creatura, poterit nos separare a dilectione Dei, quae est in Christo Jesu Domino nostro. Veritatem dico, non mentior, testimonium mihi perhibente conscientia mea. Haec quippe dicta non sunt ejus possit a Christi fide et dilectione aliquando discedere. Qui autem nolunt καθ ὑποθέσις hoc dictum esse, sed vere: quod scilicet possint et apostoli et angeli ad pejora converti, illud opponunt, quod et ipse Paulus scierit posse se labi, si segnius? ageret, dicens: Subjicio autem corpus meum, et in servitutem redigo, ne aliis praedicens, ipse reprobus inveniar. Angelos quoque esse mutabiles, qui non servaverint principatum suum; sed relinquentes proprium domicilium, in judicio magni diei vinculis aeternis sub caligine reservantur. Dei solius naturam esse immutabilem, de quo scribantur: Tu vero ipse es. Et ipse de se: Ego Deus vester, et non mutor. Cecidisse luciferum, qui mane oriebatur; et eum qui mittebat quondam ad omnes gentes, in terra esse contritum. Eleganter in hoc loco vir doctissimus Terullianus, adversus Apellem, et ejus virginem Philumenem, quam angelus quidam diabolici spiritus et perversus impleverat, hunc esse scribit angelum, cui multo antequam Apelles nasceretur, Spriitus sancti vaticinio sit anathenma per Apostolum prophetatum. Porro ἀναθέμα verbum proprie Judaeroum est, et positum tam in Jesu Nave, quam in Numeris, quando omnia quae erant in Jericho et Madianitarum detestationi et anathemati habenda Dominus imperavit. Interrogemus eos, qui Christum et apostolum Paulum, boni Dei et usque ad illud tempus ignorati, vel filium asserunt esse, vel servum, qui maledicere nesciat, nec noverit aliquem condemnare: quomodo nunc Apostolus ejus, verbo Judaeorum, id est, Creatoris utatur: et perire vel angelum vel apostoulm velit, cum ipse non soleat ulcisci. Quod autem addidit, sicut praediximus, et nunc iterum dico, ostendit se et in principio hoc ipsum caventem, denuntiasse anathema eis qui aliter praedicaturi erant, et nunc postquam praedicatum est, id anathema decernere quod ante praedixerat. Propterea autem et sibi, quem aliud in Judea facere, aliud docere in gentibus criminabantur, et angelo quem majorem etiam praecessoribus suis apostolis esse constabat, anathema denuntiavit: ut non magna Petri et Joannis putaretur auctoritas, cum nec sibi liceret qui eos ante docuerat, nec angelo aliter praedicare, quam semel didicerant. Se itaque et angelum nominatim posuit: alios vero absque nomine. Si quis, inquit, vobis evangelizaverit, ut in generali vocabulo, nec praecessoribus faceret injuriam; et tamen nomina eorum latenter ostenderet Sanctus Hieronymus, Commentariorum in Epistolam ad Galatas, Liber I, Cap I Source: Migne PL 26.319b-320b

But even if we or an angel from heaven preach to you differently from what we have preached to you, let him be anathema. So we have said, and now we say again, if someone preaches to you differently to what you have received, let him be anathema. 1 One may understand that this as hyperbole, that neither an Apostle or an angel would be able to preach differently what has once been said, but even if it were so, that an Apostle or an angel were changed, however it must be conceded that it would not be received from him who once was; especially when the same Apostle, demonstrating the firmness of his faith, says in another place,  'I know that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor powers, nor present things, nor future things, nor strength, no height, nor depth, nor any created thing, is able to separate us from the love of God which is in our Lord Jesus Christ.' 2 And: 'I speak the truth, I do not lie, my conscience bears me witness.' 3 These things certainly are not said by one who at any time is able to be cut off from the faith and love of Christ. Those who are unwilling to accept this as a hypothesis, who say that it is possible that an Apostle and an angel might turn to the worse, oppose to it that which even Paul knew, that he could fall, if he acted sluggishly, saying, 'I subject my body and in servitude I am driven, lest preaching to others , I am found blameworthy.' 4 Angels are also changeable, those who did not serve their prince, but abandoning their proper place, are kept in eternal chains in darkness for the day of judgement. 5 The nature of God alone is immutable, concerning which it is written, 'You, however, are.' 6 And He says of Himself: 'I am your God, and I do not change.' Lucifer fell, he who arose in the morning, and he who was once sent to all the nations, was crushed into the earth. The most educated Tertullian speaks elegantly concerning this against Apelles and his virgin Philumenem whom an angel of a diabolic and perverse spirit possessed, writing that this is the angel whom by the foresight of the Holy Spirit the Apostle had made prophecy was anathema, long before Apelles was born. 6 Now anathema, is a word proper to the Jews and is used in Joshua the son of Nun 7 and in Numbers, 8 when the Lord commanded all those who were in Jericho and of Midianites to be held in detestation and anathema. Let us ask those who assert that neither Christ nor the Apostle Paul, neither the Son nor the servant, would curse or condemn those until that time ignorant of the good God, how it is  this Apostle uses this Jewish word, and so of the Creator, even to wish to destruction an angel or an Apostle, when he is not accustomed to vengeance? And then he adds, 'as we have preached and now again I say to you,' he shows that he has given warning of this even in the beginning, that those who were preaching otherwise should be denounced as anathema, and now after he has preached, he gives the judgement of anathema which before he had preached. On account of which he even applies it to himself who was accused of teaching one thing in Judea and another among the Gentiles, and he denounces as anathema even an angel, one greater even than the Apostles who preceded him, that neither the great authority of a Peter or a John be allowed, when neither to those who came before him, nor an angel is it given to preach otherwise what had been taught before. Thus he names himself and an angel and leaves others without a name. 'If someone,' he says, 'preaches to you,' using a general term, that he not do injury to his predecessors, and yet secretly showing their names. Saint Jerome, Commentary on the Letter to the Galatians, Book 1 Chap 1 1 Gal 1.8 2 Rom 8.38 3 Rom 9.1 4 1 Cor 9.27 5 Jude 6 6 Tertull Prescription of Heretics 30.3-6 7 Joshua 6.7 8 Numbers 21.3

Sons Of Promise

Nos autem, fratres, secundum Isaac promissionis filii sumus. Apostolum et similes ei secundum Isaac promissionis esse filios, nulla intellgentiae difficultas est. Sed quia Origenes hunc locum edisserens, ita Apostoli posuit exemplum: 'Vos autem, fratres, secundum Isaac promissionis filii estis, quaeritur quomodo Galatas, quos stultos appellarat, et incoepisse dixerat spiritu, carne finire, nunc secundum Isaac filios repromissionis vocet? Dicimus itaque Apostolum ideo eos appellare secundum Isaac filios repromissionis, quia non penitus eorum desperet salutem, et rursum eos ad spiritum quo coeperant aestimet reversuros, fiantque filii liberae. Qui si carne fuerint consummati, filii sunt ancillae. Sanctus Hieronymus, Commentariorum in Epistolam ad Galatas, Liber II, Cap IV Source: Migne PL 26.392a-b

We are, brothers, the sons of the promise, as Isaac. 1 That the Apostle and those like him are the sons of promise as Isaac is not difficult to understand. But since Origen also writes on this passage concerning the Apostle, when he says, 'You are, brothers, the sons of the promise, as Isaac,' and asks how the Galatians, whom the Apostle has called foolish, and whom he has said have begun in the spirit to end in the flesh, are now sons of promise according to Isaac, we say that the Apostle calls them sons of promise according to Isaac because he has not utterly despaired of their salvation, and again that he judges that they have begun to turn back to the spirit, and to become sons of the free woman. Those who, if they had reached the end of the flesh, would have been sons of the slave girl. Saint Jerome, Commentary on the Letter to the Galatians, Book 2 Chap 4 1 Gal 4.28

Where Is Your Blessedness?

Ubi est ergo beatitudo vestra? Testimonium enim perhibeo vobis: quia is fieri potuisset, oculos vestros eruissetis et dedissetis mihi. Ergo inimicus vobis factus sum veritatem dicens vobis? Beatus est qui ambulat in virtutum via, sed si ad virtutes usque pervenerit. Nec prodest a vitiis recessisse, nisi optima comprehendas. Quia non tam initia sunt in bonis studiis laudanda, quam finis. Sicut enim in vinea multi usque ad praelum uvae gradus sunt: et primum necesse est ut vitis gemmet in pampinis, spem promitat in floribus: dehinc ut flore decusso, futuri botri species defrometur, paulatimque turgescens uva parturiat, ut pressa torcularibus dulcia musta desudet. Ita et in doctrina singuli beatiduinum sunt provectus: ut audiat quis verbum Dei, ut concipiat, ut in utero animae ejus adolescat, et ad partum usque perveniat. Ut cum pepererit illum, lacte enutriat, et per infantiam, pueritiam, adolescentiam, juventutem, ad perfectum virum usque perducat. Cum ergo singuli, ut diximus, gradus, juxta provectus suos habeant beatitudinem: si finis, et ut ita loquar, extrema manus operi defuerit, totus labor irritus fiet; et dicetur: Ubi est ergo beatitudo? Quamvis, inquit, vos eo tempore quo Evangelium juxta carnem susceperatis, beatos dicerem quod in initiis fervebatis: tamen nunc quia non video aedifiio culmen impositum, et pene nequaquam jacta fundamine, cogor dicere: Ubi est ergo beatitudo vestra, qua vos beatos arbitrans ante laudabam? Vere enim et ipse fateor, quia sic me vobis humilia praedicantem vel persecutionis conflictatem, in principio dilexistis: ut si fieri posset, hyperbolice autem sunt accipienda quae loquitur, eruissetus vobis oculos; et mihi, ut omnium vestrum luminibus plus cernerem, dedissetis. Optabatis quippe vos caecos esse per ineffabilem in me charitatem; ut plus in meo corde Evangelii lumen oriretur, emolumentum meum vestris damnis crescere volebatis: et hoc illo tempore, quo vobis quasi parvulis atque lactentibus, sive propter infirmitatem carnis vestrae parva et humilia annuntiabam, sive propter meae carnis injurias, non dignus videbar fide. Nunc vero quia ab elementis et syllabis et lectione puerili coepi vos ad majora studia provocare, ut libros teneatis in manibus, ut plena eruditionis, et sensuum verba discatis, recalcitratis, irascmini, gravis vobis videtur esse perfectio doctrinarum: et intantum in alios mutati estis affectus, ut me quem quasi angelum et Christum suscepetatis, cui volebatis oculos vestros tradere, nunc habeatis inimicum: quia vobis plenam annuntio vertitatem. Eleganter autem sententiam terminavit, dicens: Ergo inimicus vobis factus sum veritatem dicens vobis? ut ostenderet initia praedicationis, non tam veritatem fuisse, quam umbram et imaginem veritatis. Similis est huic illa sententia nobilis apud Romanos poetae:   Obesequium amicos, veritas odium parit  Sanctus Hieronymus, Commentariorum in Epistolam ad Galatas, Liber II, Cap IV Source: Migne PL 26 381c-282c

Where is your blessedness? Witness I have given to you, that if it were possible, you would have plucked out your eyes and given them to me. 1 Blessed is he who walks in the way of the virtues, but only if he has come to the virtues. It does not profit to withdraw from vice unless the best things are gained. Because not so praiseworthy are the beginnings of good pursuits as the end. For as in a vineyard many grapes grow for the wine press, first it is necessary that the vine puts forth buds, promising hope in the flower, from which the flower is shaken off that the form of the future fairness be shaped, and little by little the grape matures and then it is pressed in the wine press and the sweet wine flows forth. Thus in each teaching there is a progress in blessedness, that he who hears the word of God conceives it and as in the womb of the soul it grows and so it comes to birth. Then when it is born, it is nourished on milk and passes through infancy and childhood and adolescence and youth until it arrives at the perfect man. When, then, as we have said, there is an advance by stages to blessedness, if the end, as I have said, of the work the hand does not obtain, all the work is in vain, and so the Apostle says, 'Where is your blessedness?' Although, he says, in that time you took up the Gospel according to the flesh, and I named you blessed because in the beginnings you were keen, however now because I see that you have not placed the roof on the building, and clearly have not lost the foundation, I am forced to ask, 'Where is your blessedness,' you who before I praised judging you blessed. Truly I confess, you loved me in the beginning when I preached simple things or the trials of persecution, that if it were possible, and here we understand him to be speaking in hyperbolic fashion, you would have plucked out your eyes and given them to me, that with the lights of all of you I might discern more. You desired to be blind in ineffable love of me, that more in my heart the light of the Gospel rise, wishing to grow from your ruin for my reward, and in that time, when you were as children and milk drinkers, on account of the weakness of the flesh, I spoke of little things and simply, or on account of the wounds of my flesh, I seemed not worthy of faith. However, now because I have begun to call you from letters and syllables and childish reading to greater studies, that you hold the books in your own hands, that you be full of learning, and you learn the meaning of the words, you are recalitrant, you are angry, and the perfect teaching seems to be a burden to you, and you have been so far changed in your disposition that I whom you once welcomed as an angel and as Christ, to whom you wished to give your eyes, you now have as an enemy, because I announce the full truth to you. Elegently he ends the exposition, saying, 'So I am made an enemy to you speaking the truth to you?' That he show the beginning of the preaching, was not so much the truth, as a shadow and an image of the truth. And in a similar noble manner this was spoken to the Romans by the poet: Fawning makes friends, truth births hate. 2 Saint Jerome, Commentary on the Letter to the Galatians, Book 2, Cap 4 1 Galat 4.15 2 Terence Andria 1.68

The Spirit and Distinction

Cum autem quis semel Christum indutus fuerit, et missus in flammam, Spiritus sancti ardore canduerit, non intelligitur aurum sit an argentum. Quamdie calor massam sic possidet, igneus color est, et omnis diversitas generis, conditionis et corporum aufertur istiusmodi verstimento. Non est enim Judaeus, neque Graecus. Pro Graeco Gentilem accipere debemus, quia Ἕλλην, et Graecum et Ethnicum utrumque significat. Nec Judaeus idcirco melior est, quia circumcisus est; nec Gentilis ideo deterior, quia praeputium habet; sed pro qualitate fidei, vel Judeaus, vel Graecus melior, sive deterior est. Servus quoque et liber, non conditione separantur, sed fide, quia potest et servus libero esse melior, et liber servum in fidei qualitate praevertere. Masculus similiter et femina, fortitudine et imbecillitate corporum separantur. Caeterum fides pro mentis devotione censetur, et saepe evenit ut et mulier viro cause salutis fiat, et mulierem vir in religione praecedat. Cum autem ita se res habeat, et totat diversitas generis, conditionis et corporum. Sanctus Hieronymus, Commentariorum in Epistolam ad Galatas, Liber II

When someone shall have put on Christ and the fire is sent and he blazes with the heat of the Holy Spirit, it is not to be thought that there is gold and silver there. However much heat one has, the color of fire is the same, and every difference of type, condition and body is removed by this vestment. There is neither Jew nor Greek. For Greek we are to understand Gentile, because 'Hellene' here means both Greek and Foreigner. Nor is a Jew better because he is circumcised, nor is a Gentile worse because he has a foreskin, but by the quality of faith either a Jew or a Greek is better or worse. The slave and the freeman should not be separated by status but by faith because in faith the slave is able to be better than the freeman and the freeman is able to be surpassed by the slave. So it is with male and female. Strength and weakness of body separate them. But when devotion of the faithful mind is reckoned often it is found that the woman is the cause of the salvation of the man and the man is surpassed by the woman in piety. And so it is with this and with every difference of type, condition and body. Saint Jerome, Commentary on the Letter to the Galatians, Book 2  1 Gal 3. 11-12  2 Hab 2.4  3 Philip. 3.6  4 Jn 9.25

Standing Fast

State et nolite iterum jugo servitutis contineri. Et ex hoc ostenditur, quia non stet qui jugo inhaereat servitutis. Et quia is qui a Christo liberatate donatus est, tamdiu fuerit sub jugo, quamdiu spiritum servitutis habuerit in timore, et Legis initia sit secutus. Quod autem ait, state, firmam et stabilem in Christo hortatur fidem, ut Ecclesiae Galatiae fixo in Salvatore permaneant pede. De quo et in alio loco justus loquitur: Statuit super petram pedes meos, pro eo quod est, super Christum: ne scilicet circumferantur omni vento doctrinae, et in diversa rapiantur. Unde et ad stantes dicitur: Et qui stat, videat ne cadat. Et in alio loco: State, viriliter agite, confortamini, ut stent cum eo, quem Stephanus a dextris Patris stantem vidit in martytio perseverans. Sanctus Hieronymus, Commentariorum in Epistolam ad Galatas, Liber III, Cap V

Stand fast and refuse to be placed again under the yoke of servitude 1 And from this it is shown that he does not stand fast who adheres to the yoke of servitude. And even this man who was gifted liberty by Christ, for as long as he was beneath the yoke, so long he had the spirit of slavery in fear, and the beginning of the law he followed. And so he says, stand fast, exhorting firm and stable faith in Christ, that the church of the Galatians remain with fixed foot with the Saviour. Concerning which in another place it is said: He stood my feet upon the rock. 2 that is, upon Christ, lest they be blown away by every wind of doctrine and seized in diverse ways. 3 Whence to those who stand fast he says, 'And he who stands, let him look, so that he does not fall.' 4 And in another place, 'Stand, act manfully, be strong,' 5 that they stand with Him who Stephen saw standing at the right hand of the Father while he persevered in martyrdom. 6 Saint Jerome, Commentary on the Letter to the Galatians, Book 3, Chap 5 1 Gal 5.1 2 Ps 39.3 3 Eph 4. 14 4 1 Cor 10.12 5 1 Cor 16.13 6 Acts 2

Two Testaments, Two Mothers, Two Sons

Haec enim sunt duo testamenta, unum quidem a monte Sina, in servitutem generans, quae est Agar. Sina enim mons est in Arabia, qui conterminus est ei, quae nunc est Jerusalem, et servit cum filiis suis. Illa autem quae sursum est Jerusalem, libera est, quae est mater omnium nostrum. Pene cunctorum super hoc loco ista est explanatio, ut Agar ancillam, interpretentur in Lege, et in populo Judaeorum: Saram autem liberam, in Ecclesia, quae de gentibus congregata est, quae mater sanctorum sit, Paulo dicente: Quae est mater omnium nostrum. Haec diu non peperit, antequam Christus de Virgine nasceretur, et sterilis fuit, necdum risu mundi Isaace de electo patre cum voce sublimium dogmatum resonante: siquidem et Abraham in nostra lingua, pater electus cum sonitu refertur. Agar autem quae interpretatur παροικία, id est, incolatus, sive peregrinatio, sive mora, generat Ismael, qui tantum audiat Dei praecepta, nec faciat hominem rusticum, sanguinarium, deserta sectantem: qui universis fratribus suis de libera procreatis inimicus sit, et adversa eis fronte resistat. Nec mirum vetus Testamentum, quod in monte Sina, qui est in Arabia, et confinis est ei, quae nunc est Jerusalem, constitutum est atque conscriptum, non esse perpetuum: cum et incolatus a perpetua possessione diversus sit, et Sina montis nomen tentationem sonet: et Arabia significet occasum: et econtrario quae sursum est Jerusalem, quae est libera materque sanctorum, demonstret hanc Jerusalem, quae in praesenti est, deo sum esse, et in humili infirmoque demersam. Sunt qui duo Testamenta et aliter intelligant: ut Scripturam divinam, tam veterem quam novam, juxta diversitatem sensus eorumque sententiam qui legunt, aut ancillam interpretentur, aut liberam, et eos, qui adhuc litterae serviant, et spiritum timoris habeant in servitutem, de Agar Aegyptia velint esse generatos: eos autem qui ad superiora conscendant, et allegorice velint sentire quae scripta sunt, filios esse Sarae, quae in lingua nostra, ἄρχουσα, id est, princeps, interpretatur, genere feminino. Et hoc ob illam necessitatem se asserunt usurpare: quia iniquum sit Moysen, et cunctos prophetas de ancilla, quoslibet vero gentilium de libera intelligere procreatos. Unde melius esse, ita non solum de his qui in Ecclesia sunt, pro diversitate, ut suprae diximus intellectuum, alios servus, alios liberos arbitremur: sed etiam de uno eodemque homine quamdiu sequitur historiam, ancillae eum es e filium: cum autem aperitente Jesu Scripturas, incensum fuerit cor ejus, et in fractione panis inspexerit eum quem antea non videbat: tunc et ipsum Sarae filium nominari.  Sanctus Hieronymus, Commentariorum in Epistolam ad Galatas, Liber II, Cap IV

For there are two testaments, one from Mount Sinai, birthing in servitude, which is Hagar. For Sinai is a mountain in Arabia, and it borders upon that which is now Jerusalem. and she serves with her sons. The latter is the Jerusalem which is above, free she is, and the mother of all of us. 1  Nearly everything about this passage has been explained, that Hagar is a slave girl, understood in the law and in the people of the Jews, and the free woman Sarah is the Church from which the Gentiles are gathered, she who is the mother of the saints, with Paul saying that she is the mother of all of us. 2 She did not give birth before Christ was born from the Virgin, sterile she was, not yet was the smile of Isaac in the world from the chosen father with voice resounding with sublime teaching; Abraham in our tongue meaning chosen father with a cry. And Hagar is translated as alien, or wanderer, or delayer, she who birthed Ismael, who may only hear the commandments of God, who cannot become a farming man, but he is a killer, cut off in the desert, an enemy to every brother  born free, and against them he thrusts his head. 3 It is not to be wondered that the Old Testament which was given and written on Mount Sinai which is in Arabia, bordering on that which is now Jerusalem, is not forever, when it was far from the perpetual possession. And Mount Sinai resounds with the name of temptation, and Arabia signifies murder, and on the contrary that which is the Jerusalem above, which is the free mother of the saints,  this Jerusalem declares which is in the present, with God I am, and amid the humble and lowest. But there are those who understand the two Testaments in a different manner, that the Divine Scripture, the old and the new, on account of the differing understanding of those who read, may be interpreted as the slave or the free woman, and those who are still servants of the letter and have the spirit of fear in servitude, they would have as children of Egyptian Hagar, and those who rise to the things above and wish in allegory to grasp what is written, they are the sons of Sarah, which in our tongue is princess, that is prince of the feminine class. And on account of this they must assert themselves superior, that Moses was inferior and all the Prophets were from the slave woman, and the children of the gentiles are from the free woman. Whence better it is, I think, that not only concerning those who are in the Church is there difference, as we have given the understanding above, with some slaves and some free, but that even the same man while he alone follows the narrative is the son of the slave woman, but when he does so with Jesus there is an opening of the Scriptures, his heart is on fire, and in the breaking of bread, he looks on him whom he did not see, 4 and then the same man is named a son of Sarah. Saint Jerome, Commentary on St Paul's Letter to the Galatians, Book 2 Chap 4 1 Gal 4. 24-26 2 Gal 4. 26  3 cf Gen 16. 11-12 3 Lk 24.30-32

Charity and Service

Sed per charitatem servite invicem, omnis enim lex in uno sermone impletur. Diliges proximum tuum sicut teipsum.    Qui cum esset liber ex omnibus, omnium se propter charitatem servum fecit, ut plures lucrifaceret, recte hortatur et caeteros, ut per charitatem sibi serviant: quae non quaerit quod suum est, sed quod proximi. Qui enim vult fieri primus, erit omnium servus: ut quomodo Salvator in forma Dei constitutus, non rapinam arbitratus est esse se aequalem Deo, sed seipsum exinanivit, formam servi accipiens, et habitu inventus ut homo, humiliavit semetipsum, factus obediens usque ad  mortem, mortem autem crucis: ita et nos quaecumque ante sub Legis necessitate facere videbamur, nunc sciamus, nobis liberis, magis per charitatem esse facienda. Tantum autum bonum est charitas, ut omnis lex in illa recapituletur. Enumerat et in alio loco Apostulus charitatis bona, dicens: Non zelatur, non agit perperam. Multisque in medio replicatis, in fine concludit: Omnia sperat, omnia sustinet, charitas numquam excidit. Et Salvator in Evangelico, hoc signum sui, ait, esse discipuli, si diligat proximum. Quod quidem puto non solum hominibus, sed etiam angelis convenire. Aliis verbis idipsum dicitur: Quae vobis fieri non vultis, aliis ne feceritis, et quae vultis ut vobis faciant homines, haec eadem et vos eis facite similiter. Nolo adulterari uxorem meam, nolo substaniam diripi, nolo me falso opprimi testimonio, et ut cuncta brevi sermone comprehendam, indigne fero aliquid mihi fieri quod injustum est. Haec eadem si per charitatem in me operantem, vel fecero alteri, vel voluero, lex omnis impleta est. Nec est difficle est docere quomodo universa praecepta, non occides, non adulterabis, non furaberis, non falsum testimonium dices, et caetera his similia, una charitatis observatione teneantur. Sanctus Hieronymus, Commentariorum in Epistolam ad Galatas, Liber III, Cap V

But in charity serve one another, for every law is in one phrase fulfilled: Love your neighbour as yourself. 1  He who when he is free from everything makes himself a servant of everyone through charity, that he might gain many 2, and rightly he exhorts others, that they should serve through charity, that a man care not for what is his own but for his neighbour. 3 For he who wishes to be first should be the servant of all 4 just as the Saviour 'in the form of God established, not seizing on judgement that he be equal to God, but emptying himself, receiving the form of a servant, and in such form discovered like a man, humbled himself, being obedient even to death, death on a cross.' 5 Thus even we who before beneath the necessity of the Law seemed to do, now we should know, freedom being granted to us, that more is to be done through charity. The only good is charity, in it is recapitulated every law. The Apostle enumerates in another place the goods of charity, saying, 'It is not zealous, it does not do wrong, '  and so on with many things, and at the end he concludes, It hopes everything, sustains everything, nothing exceeds charity. 6 And the Saviour in the Gospel says that this is the sign of his discipleship, that a man loves his neighbour. 6 So I think this befits not only men, but even angels. And with other words He says, what you do not wish done to yourself, do not do to a neighbour, and what you wish men do to you, this even do to others. 7 I do not wish my wife assaulted, I do not wish my property stolen, I do not wish to be assailed with false testimony, and all that, in short, understanding, unworthily I treat myself to take to injustice.  If this same charity is working in me, in what I do to another or wish to do, every law is fulfilled. It is not difficult to teach how every command, do not kill, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not speak false witness, and so on, are encompassed in the one observation of charity. Saint Jerome, Commentary on the Letter to the Galatians, Book 3, Chap 5 1 Gal 5. 13-14 2 1 Cor 9.19 3 Phillip 2.6-8 4 Mk 10.44 5 Philip. 2.6-8 6 1 Cor 13, 6-8  7 Mt 7.12