Commentaries on the Twelve Prophets, Volume 2

by Jerome

Publisher:

IVP Academic

, 2017

Overview

Jerome (c. 347–419/20), one of the West’s four doctors of the church, was recognized early on as one of the church’s foremost translators, commentators, and advocates of Christian asceticism. Skilled in Hebrew and Greek in addition to his native Latin, he was thoroughly familiar with Jewish traditions and brought this expertise to bear on his understanding of the Old Testament. Beginning in 379, Jerome used his considerable linguistic skills to translate Origen’s commentaries and, eventually, to translate and comment on Scripture himself. Jerome began writing commentaries on the twelve minor prophets in 392 while preparing his Latin Vulgate translation of the Bible. After completing Nahum, Micah, Zephaniah, Haggai, and Habakkuk, he was interrupted in 393 by the Origenist controversy, after which he became a vocal critic of Origen of Alexandria. He finished his commentaries on Jonah and Obadiah in 396. These seven commentaries are available in volume 1 of this set. The Origenist controversy and his commentary on Matthew occupied Jerome’s time for the next several years. He finally completed his commentaries on the rest of the twelve prophets in 406. This volume, edited by Thomas Scheck, includes those final five commentaries on Zechariah, Malachi, Hosea, Joel, and Amos. Throughout these commentaries, Jerome refers frequently to the work of previous commentators, and his spiritual exegesis relies heavily on the exegetical work of Origen—though he acknowledges that “I have not followed them in everything.” Jerome hears in these texts God’s judgment and mercy not only on Israel but especially on the Christian community. In Amos, for example, he says that “whatever we have said about Judah refers to the church.” He wrestles especially with the scandalous message of Hosea, which he refers to as drowning with Pharaoh during the crossing of the Red Sea. But he trusts that “the ways of the Lord are the reading of the Old and New Testament, the understanding of the holy Scriptures.”

Contents

Top Highlights

“And because no crop whatsoever grows in dry and sandy soil, the entire area is full of shepherds so that they might compensate for the barrenness of the land through the abundance of their herds.” (Page 301)

“Socrates and Plato, Xenophon and Theophrastus, Zeno and Aristotle, the Stoics and the Peripatetics” (Page 304)

“We understand from this that evils often happen to us by God’s providence, in order that we not have what we want and, oppressed by various calamities and misfortunes of this life, we may be forced to return to the service of God. We should understand the lovers of Jerusalem and of the Judean people to be, according to the history of that time, the Assyrians and Chaldeans and Egyptians and other nations, with whose idols she fornicated, from whom in time of war and pressing evils she hoped in vain for help.” (Page 162)

“At the same time, we may consider that in the Holy Scriptures one becomes a son and a servant by one’s will, not from the necessity of nature.⁴⁵ For the one who receives the spirit of adoption is turned into a son of God; but he who receives a spirit of servitude unto fear is made servant of God.⁴⁶ And so God wills in the first place that we be his sons and do good willingly; if we want to attain at least to his regarding us as his slaves, we should also retreat from evils for the fear of punishment.” (Page 120)

“After the food was cut off, and joy and gladness were taken away from the house of God,¹⁰⁶ the beasts of burden have also rotted in their dung, or, according to the spiritual understanding, they ‘grew frisky in their mangers’ and kicked back against their Creator, that what is written might be fulfilled: ‘If they will not be satisfied, they shall murmur.’¹⁰⁷ He rots in his dung whose belly is his God¹⁰⁸ and who says: ‘Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we shall die.’¹⁰⁹ His barns of future happiness are destroyed, and his storehouses of eternal abundance are broken down; or his ‘winepresses are broken down’ For if there will be no crops and wine, the barns and winepresses are being made ready in vain.” (Pages 273–274)

Product Details

• Title: Commentaries on the Twelve Prophets, Volume 2
• Author: Jerome
• Series: Ancient Christian Texts
• Volume: 2
• Publisher: IVP Academic
• Print Publication Date: 2017
• Logos Release Date: 2017
• Era: era:nicene
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subjects: Bible. O.T. Zechariah › Commentaries; Bible. O.T. Malachi › Commentaries; Bible. O.T. Hosea › Commentaries; Bible. O.T. Joel › Commentaries; Bible. O.T. Amos › Commentaries
• ISBNs: 9780830892532, 9780830829170, 9780830829163, 0830892532, 0830829172, 0830829164
• Resource ID: LLS:ACTPROPHVOL2
• Resource Type: Bible Commentary
• Metadata Last Updated: 2024-03-25T19:05:35Z

About Jerome

St. Jerome (c. 347–30 September 420) (formerly Saint Hierom) was an Illyrian Catholic priest and apologist. He was the son of Eusebius, of the city of Stridon, which was on the border of Dalmatia and Pannonia. He is best known for his translation of the Bible into Latin, and his list of writings is extensive. He is recognized by the Catholic Church as a saint and Doctor of the Church, and the Vulgate is still an important text in Catholicism.