jewish-christian gospels recovered with Origen’s commentary and the surviving fragments of Apollinarius
and Theodore of Heraclea show that at least these were consulted.^41
The commentary includes a total of six quotations from a Jewish-
Christian gospel. These are central for the reconstruction of the materials
that Jerome received from the Nazarenes and they will be discussed in
detail in the following chapter.Commentary on Isaiah, Commentary on Ezechiel and Dialogue Against
Pelagius
After theCommentary on MatthewJerome refers to a Jewish-Christian
gospel in three of his writings:Commentary on Isaiah,Commentary on
Ezekieland his polemical writingDialogue Against Pelagius.Sincethe
Commentary on Isaiahwas written between and , there is almost a
ten-year gap in Jerome’s referencesto Jewish-Christian gospels.However,
the writings produced meanwhile are not totally without significance
for the study of the early Jewish Christianity since Jerome’s letter to
Augustine where he refers to the doctrines of the Nazarenes—discussed
above in Chapter .. (Epist. )—was written towards the end of the
year .
When Jerome exchanged letters with Augustine he was also distressed
by Paula’s prolonged illness. In his first reply to Augustine (Epist. ;
ce)—where Jerome did not yet answer Augustine but complained
that Augustine’s letter had been so widely circulated in Rome without
Jerome knowing anything about it—Jerome excused himself for not
answering earlier because of the time he had been sitting at Paula’s sick
bed.^42
Paula died in January and for some months after that Jerome was
unable do any literary work. However, towards the end of the year ,
Jerome was working again effectively. After having translated Pachomius’
monastic rule into Latin, he was also able to finish two projects. He
finally sent his answer to Augustine in a letter which he rhetorically
labeled as a hasty draft but which in truth was very carefully crafted. In
late or early , he also finally completed his translation/revision
of the Old Testament on the basis of the Hebrew original.^43 As regards
exegesis, commentaries on four minor prophets—Zechariah, Malachi,
(^41) Kelly , –.
(^42) Kelly , , .
(^43) Kelly , , –.