Jerome & The Vulgate

The cantankerous scholar who translated the Bible that ruled the West for 1,000 years.

St. Jerome, a brilliant and infamously bad-tempered scholar, translated the entire Bible from its original Hebrew and Greek into Latin. His translation—the "Vulgate"—became the authoritative Bible of the Western Catholic Church for over a millennium.

Verified Facts

• Jerome was one of the very few Christians of his era who actually learned Hebrew to translate the Old Testament directly from the original language, rather than relying on the Greek Septuagint. This was controversial—many church leaders considered the Septuagint divinely inspired.
• He lived as a hermit ascetic in a cave in Bethlehem for the last 34 years of his life, spending his days translating, writing, and firing off legendarily savage letters insulting his theological opponents.
• His Vulgate was so dominant that when the Council of Trent (1546) declared an official Bible for the Catholic Church, they chose Jerome's Vulgate—over a thousand years after he wrote it.
• He was famous for his terrible temper. He called his opponents "two-legged donkeys," described one rival's writing as "vomit," and told another to "go back to his pigsty." Despite this, he was canonized as a saint and named a Doctor of the Church.

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources & Further Reading

• Wikipedia: Jerome
• Wikipedia: Vulgate

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