chapter three
Hosea and Amos completed in —were followed by the writing of the
Commentary on Isaiahbetween and .
TheCommentary on Isaiahis the largest one of Jerome’s commentaries.
Its writing was accompanied by several misfortunes that delayed the
work: Jerome’s own frequent illnesses, shortage of professional stenog-
raphers, etc. The tone of the commentary is even more anti-Jewish
than usual. Jerome made extensive use of Origen’s and Eusebius’ works,
often borrowing sections from them verbatim. He also used many other
sources, such as Didymus, Apollinaris and Victorinus of Pettau, and the
acknowledgments in the preface to the commentary are exceptionally
long.^44 The commentary also included a mass of Jewish exegesis—which
was usually cited in order to be refuted—and interpretations that Jerome
had received from the Nazarenes (see above, Chapter ..). In theCom-
mentary on Isaiahthere are three quotations from a Jewish-Christian
gospel, two of which Jerome had presented earlier in other contexts
(Comm. Isa. .– =Comm. Mich..;Comm. Isa.Pro.=Vir. ill.
). In addition to these, there is description of Jesus’ baptism:
... but according to the Gospel which was written in the Hebrew language
and read by the Nazarenes: The whole fountain of the Holy Spirit came
upon him.
Further in the Gospel which we mentioned above we find that the follow-
ing is written: It happened when the Lord ascended from the water, that
the whole fountain of the Holy Spirit descended and rested upon him and
said to him: My son, I expected you among all the prophets that you should
come and that I should rest upon you: For you are my rest, you are my first-
born son, who shall reign in eternity.
(Jerome,Comm. Isa. .–; trans. Klijn ).
After finishing theCommentary on Isaiah, Jerome started to work on
Ezekiel. The work, however, was disturbed and halted by dreadful news
from the West: Rome had been seized by Alaric and many of Jerome’s
Christian friends had been killed. Jerome resumed the work in the winter
of but it was repeatedly interrupted by refugees from the West who
were swarming to the Holy Land. The commentary was not finished until
. Jerome again made extensive use of Origen, often word for word,
but he also describes how he had had “commentaries by Greeks” read to
him. By the time of writing theCommentary on Ezekiel,Jerome’seyesight
also became worse. He complained that because he had to take care of
the refugees by day, he had to try to work by night but this was difficult
(^44) Kelly , –.