A friend told me St. Jerome had a lot to do with the Bible translation. Didn’t he live long ago?
St. Jerome (345-420), whose feast is celebrated on September 30, is accepted as the model of biblical scholarship and study. His knowledge of Hebrew, Greek and Latin enabled him to translate the Bible from the original languages into vibrant and readable Latin known as the Vulgate. That translation was still in use during the Second Vatican Council of 1962-1965. Modern biblical scholarship owes much to the scholarship model that Jerome established. Two significant papal encyclicals and other significant biblical documents are associated with Jerome’s scholarship.
Pope Pius XII released his encyclical, Divino Afflante Spiritu, “Inspired by the Divine Spirit,” on September 30, 1943, in honor of St. Jerome. Pius’ encyclical commemorated the fiftieth anniversary of Leo XIII’s encyclical promoting Catholic biblical scholarship, Providentissimus Deus, “The God of all Providence,” written in 1893. In November 1965, the Second Vatican Council issued its Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Relation, Dei Verbum, “The Word of God,” incorporating much of the understanding of modern biblical scholarship.
Jerome’s scholarship continues to be the inspiration for much of today’s Catholic biblical study. Thank God for Jerome and for the insights of the church’s modern biblical documents.
©2009 Liturgical Publications Inc, New Berlin, WI 53151
Used with permission
From Arland Jacobson:
I enjoyed the “Electronic Voice,” and noted the lead
article about St. Jerome could have added that he did most of his
translation work in a crypt beneath the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem(note the obvious link between your church and its counterpart in Bethlehem!). You can still see this crypt today, or at least what they claimis his crypt, plus the little cave that served as his chapel. It’s a lovelylittle chapel. There is a nice web page about the Nativity Church inBethlehem at
http://www.sacred-destinations.com/israel/bethlehem-church-of-the-nativity.htm.