jewish-christian gospels recovered as the new pope. Jerome also became entangled with scandalous events
which involved rumors about the character of his relationship with Paula.
The details of the conflict Jerome experienced in Rome are not known
but the hatred and resentment he expressed towards “Babylon,” make it
clear that for him there was no other option but to leave. Paula also left
Rome later on and joined Jerome for a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. They
visited the holy sites of Palestine and concluded their journey with a trip
to Alexandria where they visited monasteries and Jerome studied with
Didymus the Blind. They were already back in Palestine in and settled
down there in Bethlehem which was to be the place of their monasteries.
Jerome commenced feverish literary activity. Several translations,
studies and commentaries were published within a couple of years.
Among these were the commentaries on Paul’s letters to Philemon, Gala-
tians, Ephesians and Titus. The writing of these commentaries was com-
pleted within a few months, in /. Especially in the commentary on
theEphesians,JeromemadeextensiveuseofOrigen.EvenJeromehim-
self acknowledges this in his preface but he also says that he had the expo-
sitions of Didymus, Apollinaris and others stored in his mind when he
was dictating the commentary.^37 In view of the hasty writing and all the
acknowledgments, it is quite possible that the citation from the Hebrew
gospel was derived from another Christian author:
... as we read in the Hebrew Gospel that the Lord said to the disciples: And
never rejoice, he said, unless when you look at your brother in love.
(Comm. Eph. .; trans. Klijn ).
The source of the citation may have been Origen, but could have been
some of the other authors he had stored in his mind as well. Given that
Jerome was just starting a monastery with “brothers” and that he had
visited several monastic communities in Egypt, it is no wonder that he
had the saying in his mind. But whether he had recently picked it up in
Egypt or remembered it from the times he himself had tried monastic
life or from the lectures of Apollinaris that he had listened to in Antioch,
cannot be known. All these options are equally possible.Commentary on Micah and All Those “Illustrious Men”
The years – mark a turning point in Jerome’s career as a writer.
By that time, he started to devote more and more time to the study
of the Hebrew Bible in its original language. In his commentary on(^37) See, Kelly , –.