Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ -- St. Jerome

Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ

   I interpret as I should, following the command of Christ: Search the Scriptures, and Seek and you shall find. Christ will not say to me what he said to the Jews: You erred, not knowing the Scriptures and not knowing the power of God. For if, as Paul says, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God, and if the man who does not know Scripture does not know the power and wisdom of God, then ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.
     Therefore, I will imitate the head of a household who brings out of his storehouse things both new and old, and says to his spouse in the Song of Songs: I have kept for you things new and old, my beloved. In this way permit me to explain Isaiah, showing that he was not only a prophet, but an evangelist and an apostle as well. For he says about himself and the other evangelists: How beautiful are the feet of those who preach good news, of those who announce peace. And God speaks to him as if he were an apostle: Whom shall I send, who will go to my people? And he answers: Here I am; send me.
     No one should think that I mean to explain the entire subject matter of this great book of Scripture in one brief sermon, since it contains all the mysteries of the Lord. It prophesies that Emmanuel is to be born of a virgin and accomplish marvelous works and signs. It predicts his death, burial and resurrection from the dead as the Savior of all men. I need say nothing about the natural sciences, ethics and logic. Whatever is proper to holy Scripture, whatever can be expressed in human language and understood by the human mind, is contained in the book of Isaiah. Of these mysteries the author himself testifies when he writes: You shall be given a vision of all things, like words in a sealed scroll. When they give the writings to a wise man, they will say: Read this, he will reply: I cannot for it is sealed. And when the scroll is given to an educated man and he is told: Read this, he will reply: I do not know how to read.
     Should this argument appear weak to anyone, let him listen to the Apostle: Let two or three prophets speak, and let others interpret; if, however, a revelation should come to one of those who are seated there, let the first one be quiet. How can they be silent, since it depends on the Spirit who speaks through his prophets whether they remain silent or speak? If they understood what they were saying, all things would be full of wisdom and knowledge. But it was not the air vibrating with the human voice that reached their ears, but rather it was God speaking within the soul of the prophets, just as another prophet says: It is an angel who spoke in me; and again, Crying out in our hearts, Abba, Father, and I shall listen to what the Lord God says within me.
Source: The Liturgy of the Hours - Office of Readings

Eusebius Hieronymus Sophronius, known as Jerome, (c. 342-420) was born in Dalmatia, studied at Rome under Donatus, the famous pagan grammarian and acquired great skill and knowledge of the Latin, Greek and great classic authors. He became a Christian convert and was baptized by Pope Liberius at Rome in 360. He became an ascetic at Aquileia in 370 joining a group of scholars under Bishop Valerian among whom was Rufinus. The group broke up and Jerome traveled to Antioch. There, a vision of Christ caused Jerome to go to Chalcis in the Syrian desert where he lived as a hermit, praying, fasting, learning Hebrew and writing a life of St. Paul. On his return to Antioch he was ordained a priest by St. Paulinus.
   Jerome then went to Constantinople to study Scripture under St. Gregory Nazianzen, and in 382 he went to Rome to attend a council but remained there as secretary to Pope Damasus, who commissioned him to prepare the first complete Latin translations of the four gospels, St. Paul's epistles and the Psalms from their original Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic texts. While in Rome, Jerome also wrote a stinging refutation "Adversum Helvidium", denouncing a book by Helvidius declaring that The Virgin Mary had had several children besides Jesus. After the death of Pope Damasus, Jerome traveled to Bethlehem in 384.
   There he headed a monastery and during the next thirty four years completed his translation of the New Testament of the Bible into Latin and completed the a translation of the entire Old Testament from its original Hebrew texts into Latin. This monumental task is considered, even today, a feat of scholarship unequaled in the Church history. This version, called the "Latin Vulgate" was declared the official Latin text of the Bible for Catholics by the Council of Trent. It is reported that Jerome once removed a thorn from a lion's paw. In gratitude, the lion stayed with Jerome at his hermitage as a loyal companion for years. Numerous paintings by the masters depict Jerome with this lion.

   Jerome's monastery at Bethlehem was destroyed in 416 by a group of Plagian rebels angered over Jerome's written denunciation of Pelagianism. Jerome died at Bethlehem on September 30 in the year 420 following a lingering illness. He left some 120 letters of enormous historical merit as well as numerous other writings. He is buried at the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome. The above prologue is just one of his powerful spiritual commentaries.