jewish-christian gospels recovered in which obeli and asterisks were used to indicate the readings from
Hebrew as compared to the Septuagint. During the years preceding
the writing ofOn Illustrious Men, Jerome prepared several works that
required much collating and compiling. In addition to Eusebius’ work
he collated information from various Christian and rabbinical sources
for hisHebrew Names,Biblical PlacesandHebrew Questions.Healso
prepared a small exegetical work on Psalms (Commentarioli). This was
based on Origen’sEnchiridion, which Jerome had supplemented with the
remarks that Origen had made on the Psalms in his larger works.^49 Thus,
it is quite conceivable that along with these projects, he also planned
a translation of the “Gospel according to Hebrews” and was compiling
material for that. However, he never managed to get hold of a complete
copy of it and he had to rely on various “Jewish” gospel fragments he was
able to collect from other authors and some also from Syriac Christians
known as Nazarenes.
... AGreekTranslation?....................................
InOn Illustrious Men,Jeromesaysthathehastranslatedthe“Gospel
according to the Hebrews” into Greek and Latin. If the Greek translation
was mentioned only inOn Illustrious Men, one might think that Greek
is there because Jerome wants to compare himself with Origen and point
out that he is a man who is able to translate from the original Hebrew
into Greek and Latin. However, the Greek translation is also referred
to in hisCommentary on Matthewin a story about a mason with a
withered hand, and there without Latin (Comm. Matt. .; see below).
Had Jerome derived the information directly from a gospel in a Semitic
language, he would hardly have spoken only about a Greek translation
while he was writing in Latin to Latin audience. In my view, the references
indicate that the material Jerome had at hand was at least partly in
Greek.^50
(^49) See, Kelly , –.Commentarioliis not mentioned in Jerome’s list of pub-
lications inOn Illustrious Men, but on the basis of Jerome’s other remarks, it must have
been written earlier.
(^50) This suggest that the source of the story about the mason was not necessarily the
same as in the cases where Jerome talks about a gospel used by the Nazarenes. Note that
in this connection, Jerome also refers to the Ebionites, which he does not do anywhere
else in the quotations. More on the classification of this and Jerome’s other fragments in
the next chapter.