Jerome on commentators and private judgment

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DTK

Puritan Board Junior
Jerome (347-420): What is the function of commentators? They expound the statements of someone else; they express in simple language views that have been expressed in an obscure manner; they quote the opinions of many individuals and they say: ‘Some interpret this passage in this sense, others, in another sense’; they attempt to support their own understanding and interpretation with these testimonies in this fashion, so that the prudent reader, after reading the different interpretations and studying which of these many views are to be accepted and which rejected, will judge for himself which is the more correct; and, like the expert banker, will reject the falsely minted coin. FC, Vol. 53, St. Jerome - Dogmatic and Polemical Works, The Apology Against the Books of Rufinus, Book I, §16 (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 1965), p. 79.

Jerome (347-420) says toward the end of his commentary on Habbakkuk: And thus have I briefly delivered to you my opinion; but if any one produce that which is more exact and true, take his exposition rather than mine. John Daillé, A Treatise on the Right Use of the Fathers (Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publication, 1856), p. 229.
Latin text: Haec a me breviter dicta sunt. Si quis autem his sagaciora et veriora repererit, illius magis explanationi praebete consensum. Commentaria in Abacuc, Liber Secundus, PL 25:1332.

Jerome (347-420) says at the close of his commentary on the 2nd chapter of Zephaniah: We have now done our utmost endeavour, in giving an allegorical exposition of the text; but if any other can bring that which is more probable and agreeable to reason than that which we have delivered, let the reader be guided by his authority rather than by ours. John Daillé, A Treatise on the Right Use of the Fathers (Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publication, 1856), pp. 229-230.
Latin text: Haec diximus, ut potuimus interpretationi allegoricae servientes. Si quis autem magis verisimilia, et habentia rationem quam a nobis sunt disserta repererit, illius magis lector auctoritate ducatur. Commentariorum In Sophoniam Prophetam, PL 25:1372.

Jerome (347-420) says again elsewhere: This we have written according to the utmost of our poor ability, and have given a short sketch of the divers opinions, both of our own men and of the Jews; yet if any man can give me a better and truer account of these things, I shall be very ready to embrace them. John Daillé, A Treatise on the Right Use of the Fathers (Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publication, 1856), p. 230.
Latin text: Haec ut quivimus, et ut vires ingenioli nostri ferre potuerunt, locuti sumus, et Hebraeorum et nostrorum varias opiniones breviter perstringentes, si quis melius immo verius dixerit, et nos libenter melioribus acquiescimus. Commentariorum In Zachariam Prophetam, PL 25:1446-1447.

Jerome (347-420) says of authors in the Church who have died: Then we judge of their worth and parts only, not considering at all the dignity of their name: and the reader has regard only to what he reads, and not to the author of the work. So that whether he were a bishop or a layman, a general and a lord, or a common soldier and a servant; whether he lie in purple and silk, or in the vilest and coarsest rags, he shall be judged, not according to his degree of honour, but according to the merit and worth of his works. John Daillé, A Treatise on the Right Use of the Fathers (Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publication, 1856), p. 221.
Latin text: tunc sine nominum dignitate, sola judicantur ingenia: nec considerat qui lecturus est, cujus; sed quale sit quod lecturus est: sive ille episcopus, sive sit laicus, imperator et dominus, miles et servus; aut purpura et sericio, aut vilissimo panno jaceat: non bonorum diversitate, sed operum merito judicabitur. Commentaria in Osee, Liber Secundus, PL 25:861.

Jerome (347-420) speaking of Church fathers who have preceded him: It may be that they have erred out of mere ignorance, or else that they wrote in some other sense than we understand them; or that their writings have been gradually corrupted, through the ignorance of the transcribers; or else before the appearing of that southern devil Arius, in Alexandria, they let some things fall from them innocently, and not so warily as they might have done; and such as can hardly escape the cavils of wrangling spirits. John Daillé, A Treatise on the Right Use of the Fathers (Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publication, 1856), p. 223.
Latin text: Fieri enim potest, ut vel simpliciter erraverint, vel alio sensu scripserint, vel a librariis imperitis eorum paulatim scripta corrupta sint. Vel certe antequam in Alexandria quasi daemonium meridianum Arius nasceretur, innocenter quaedam, et minus caute locuti sunt, et quae non possint perversorum hominum calumniam declinare. In Libros Contra Rufinum Admonitio, Liber Secundus, PL 23:440.

Jerome (347-420): Tertullian is packed with meaning but his style is rugged and uncouth. The blessed Cyprian like a fountain of pure water flows softly and sweetly but, as he is taken up with exhortations to virtue and with the troubles consequent on persecution, he has nowhere discussed the divine scriptures. Victorinus, although he has the glory of a martyr’s crown, yet cannot express what he knows. Lactantius has a flow of eloquence worthy of Tully: would that he had been as ready to teach our doctrines as he was to pull down those of others! Arnobius is lengthy and unequal, and often confused from not making a proper division of his subject. That reverend man Hilary gains in height from his Gallic buskin; yet, adorned as he is with the flowers of Greek rhetoric, he sometimes entangles himself in long periods and offers by no means easy reading to the less learned brethren. I say nothing of other writers whether dead or living; others will hereafter judge them both for good and for evil. NPNF2: Vol. VI, The Letters of St. Jerome, Letter 58 - To Paulinus, §10.

Jerome (347-420): Our care is to speak, not what each may be able or willing to speak, but what the Scriptures direct. William Goode, The Divine Rule of Faith and Practice, 2nd ed., 3 Vols. (London: John Henry Jackson, 1853), Vol. 3, p. 150.
Latin text: Nobis curae est, non quid unusquisque possit, aut velit; sed quid Scripturae praecipiant, dicere. Epistola XLVIII, Seu Liber Apologeticus, Ad Pammachium, Pro Libris Contra Jovinianum, PL 22:506.

Jerome (347-420): The error, neither of parents nor ancestors, is to be followed; but the authority of the Scriptures, and the government of God as our teacher. William Goode, The Divine Rule of Faith and Practice, 2nd ed., 3 Vols. (London: John Henry Jackson, 1853), Vol. 3, p. 151.
Latin text: Ergo nec parentum nec majorum error sequendus est: sed auctoritas Scripturarum, et Dei docentis imperium. Commentariorum in Jeremiam, Liber Secundus, Cap. IX, v. 12, PL 24:743.

Jerome (347-420): Other men have erred concerning the faith, both Greeks and Latins, but I must not mention their names lest I should be supposed to defend Origen not by his own merits but by the errors of others. This, you will say, is to accuse them and not to excuse him. You would be right, if I had declared him not to have erred, or if I had professed a belief that the apostle Paul or an angel from heaven ought to be listened to in a depravation of the faith. But as it is seeing I frankly admit him to be wrong, I may read him on the same terms as I read others, because if he is wrong so also are they. But you may say, If error is common to many, why do you assail him alone? I answer, because he alone is praised by you as an apostle. Take away your exaggerated love for him, and I am ready to take away the greatness of my dislike. While you gather other men’s faulty statements out of their books merely to defend Origen in his error, you extol this latter to the sky and will not allow that he has erred at all. Whosoever you are who are thus preaching new doctrines, I beseech you, spare the ears of the Romans, spare the faith of a church which an apostle has praised. Why after four hundred years do you try to teach us Romans doctrines of which until now we have known nothing? Why do you publicly proclaim opinions which Peter and Paul refused to profess? Until now no such teaching has been heard of, and yet the world has become Christian. NPNF2: Vol. VI, The Letters of St. Jerome, Letter 84 - To Pammachius and Oceanus, §8.

Jerome (347-420): There is no argument that is so forcible, as a passage from the Holy Scriptures. William Goode, The Divine Rule of Faith and Practice, 2nd ed., 3 Vols. (London: John Henry Jackson, 1853), Vol. 3, p. 152.
Latin text: nihil enim ita percutit, ut exemplum de Scripturis sanctis. Jacques Paul Migne, Patrologiae Latinae, Commentariorum In Zachariam Prophetam, 10:15-16, PL 25:1488 (Paris: J.-P. Migne, 1857-87).

DTK
 
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