Voices June 30, 2020
Jerome translated the Bible into Latin, as well as into deeds
By Father Anthony Ho
St. Jerome was born in Stridon, Dalmatia (now in Croatia), in about 345. At the age of 12 he went to Rome to study classics under Donatus and was baptized there around age 19.
Jerome went to Trier (in today’s Germany) to study theology and spent a few years (368–72) in Aquileia (northern Italy) living a quasi-monastic life with friends.
Starting off for the Holy Land he fell sick and had a vision of being judged. He wrote: “Suddenly I was caught up in the spirit and dragged before the judgment seat of the Judge; and here the light was so bright, and those who stood around were so radiant, that I cast myself upon the ground and did not dare to look up. Asked who and what I was I replied: ‘I am a Christian.’ But He who presided said: ‘You lied, you are a follower of Cicero and not of Christ. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.’”
Jerome perfected his Greek at Antioch and studied Hebrew in the desert of Chalcis, where he lived as a monk. He was ordained a priest in Antioch in 379. He returned to Rome in 382 and became secretary to Pope St. Damasus, who asked him improve the Latin translations of the Scriptures.
After Pope Damasus died, Jerome left Rome and went to Bethlehem, where he founded a monastery, opened a school for boys, and spent the remainder of his life writing.
Jerome composed On Illustrious Men, a listing of 135 authors, from St. Peter to himself, who exercised an influence on Christian thought. This work demonstrated the importance and validity of Christian literature, which had by then become a real culture that deserved to be compared with classical literature.
Between 391 and 406, Jerome translated the Bible to Latin in his rock-hewn cell in Bethlehem. His translation eventually became known as the Vulgate from the Latin word for common, vulgus. It was his greatest achievement.
Jerome said, “Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ.” He wrote to a young noble woman, “Do you pray? You speak to the Bridegroom. Do you read? He speaks to you.”
Pope Benedict XVI said we can learn from St. Jerome to love the Word of God in Sacred Scripture. He said, “We must not read Sacred Scripture as a word of the past but as the Word of God that is also addressed to us, and we must try to understand what it is that the Lord wants to tell us … although it is always a personal Word, it is also a Word that builds community, that builds the Church. We must therefore read it in communion with the living Church.”
During the ordination to the diaconate, the bishop hands the Book of the Gospel to the newly ordained deacon and says, “Receive the Gospel of Christ, whose herald you have become. Believe what you read, teach what you believe, and practise what you teach.”
St. Jerome emphasized the importance of practising the teachings of the Bible. He wrote to a priest, “May your actions never be unworthy of your words, may it not happen that, when you preach in church, someone might say to himself: ‘Why does he therefore not act like this?’ How could a teacher, on a full stomach, discuss fasting; even a thief can blame avarice; but in the priest of Christ the mind and words must harmonize.”
During the sack of Rome, as refugees fled east, Jerome wrote, “I cannot help them all but I grieve and weep with them. And, completely given up to the duties which charity imposes on me, I have put aside my commentary on Ezekiel and almost all study. For today, we must translate the words of Scripture into deeds, and instead of speaking saintly words we must act them.”
Jerome died in Bethlehem on Sept. 30, 420. He has been venerated as a Doctor of the Church since the eighth century.
業樂實踐聖言
345年，聖業樂出生於今天隸屬克羅地亞、達爾馬提亞的斯特里登。十二歲到羅馬作為多納圖斯門生，修讀古典學；十九歲接受洗禮。後來，他轉到今天德國的特里爾修讀神學；368-372年，和友人在意大利北部的阿奎萊亞，渡了幾年類似隱修的生活。
當業樂起程去聖地，生了病；病榻中他得了神視。他寫道：「我的靈魂突然被提昇到至尊者審判台前，哪裡的光芒十分麗亮，連在旁席的人，都發出耀目的光；我嚇得不敢抬頭，俯伏地上。我對審判者表明我是基督徒；誰知那首席審判者斥責我說：『不，你說謊！你只是跟隨了西塞羅，不是基督。因為你的財寶在哪裡，你的心也在哪裡。』」
業樂在安提亞修畢希臘文，隨即到查爾斯沙漠，一邊渡隱修生活，另一邊學習希伯來文。379年，業樂在安提亞晉鐸，382年返回羅馬，任教宗聖達甦秘書。教宗後來命他優化聖經的拉丁譯本。
教宗聖達甦去世後，業樂離開羅馬，到白冷建立一座修院，並開班教授男孩，以寫作渡其餘生。
業樂編撰「傑出的人」一書，從聖伯多祿到他的時代，列舉了一百三十五位具影響力的基督徒作家。他此舉顯示和確認了基督宗教文學的重要，成了一個真實的文化，可與古典文學比美。
391-406年，身處白冷的業樂，在山石鑿成的洞穴內，用拉丁文翻譯聖經，被公認為是他最大的成就，統稱為「拉丁聖經通俗本」。
業樂說：「不認識聖經，不認識耶穌。」他曾致函一位貴族婦女，說：「你祈禱嗎？那在向新郎說話。你閱讀聖經嗎？那是祂向你講話。」教宗本篤十六世認為，我們可以學習聖業樂愛慕聖經所載的聖言；他說：「我們不應該把聖經看做過去的話，而是向我們說出的天主聖言，我們必須嘗試明白主願意告訴我們什麼…。雖然聖言是為個人的，聖言也是為建樹團體。所以，我們必須在教會共融中閱讀聖言。」
晉升執事聖職禮儀時，主教會把一本聖經交給新執事說：「請接受基督的福音，你已經是基督的使者，請注意，你要信仰你所宣讀的，要教導你所信仰的，要實行你所教導的。」聖業樂強調實踐聖經教導的重要。他給一位神父寫道：「別讓你的行為，不相稱你的言語；當你在聖堂訓導時，別讓人說你行不乎語。肚滿腸肥的人，怎能與人談論齋戒嚴呢？甚至當盜賊的亦會指責別人貪婪；但作為基督的司祭，心思與言語應該一致。」
眼看羅馬搶略猖獗，難民東逃，聖業樂記載著：「我無法幫助所有的人，但我與他們同憂同泣。我要完全投入愛德所加於我的義務，並放下我在詮釋的厄則厄耳先知書及幾乎所有的研讀。因為今天我們必須將聖經的話譯成行為，不要只説化聖善的話語而是要實踐。」
420年9月20日，業樂在白冷逝世。自八世紀，他已被尊為教會聖師。