Jerome and Three Thoughts on Scripture
Jerome and God's Word
In my studies of the early church fathers, I came across Jerome . And out
of attraction, I constantly had to come back to him - even after completion of my studies. But why Jerome?
During Jesus' time, many people questioned whether anything good could come out of a town like Nazareth, and similarly modern believers often pass over Jerome and the early church fathers, assuming they have little to offer to us today. Yet Jesus makes a profound promise in Matthew 7:7: "Seek, and you will find." When we set aside our initial hesitation and sincerely seek truth within the wisdom of earlier believers, the Spirit may reveal unexpected truths to us. A thorough journey through Jerome's work, challenges us to look closer, push deeper, and discover the living power of God’s Word.
The Bitter-Sweet Essence of Scripture
“What a toil it was, how difficult I found it! How often I was on the point of giving it up in despair, and yet in my eagerness to learn took it up again! Myself can bear witness of this, and so, too, can those who had lived with me at the time. Yet I thank God for the fruit I won from that bitter seed."
When it comes to everyone’s taste of the Bible, we often hear them call it ‘so sweet’ or ‘so bitter,’ but Jerome confesses the real dichotomy. In saying the above quote, Jerome agrees that it is really hard to read the Bible while also demonstrating that reading it is important. To all of us he shows how the life-giving Scriptures challenge our ways of life. What other tongue and mind has been this honest and comprehensive about the taste and relationship we hold to the Bible? At first, Jerome himself thought the works of Cicero to be better than Scripture, only later to be led to the conviction that the opposite was true: the problem was not the Bible but himself.
“… Since blind eyes do not see the light, I blamed the sun and not my own eyes … My swelling pride shrank from its modest garb, while my gaze could not pierce to what the latter [scripture] hid.”
Jerome leaves us with a humbling reality: the difficulty we encounter in reading Scripture often stems not from a defect in God's living Word, but from the pride within our own hearts. Until our spiritual eyes are opened and our stubbornness is broken, the wisdom of God will remain obscured. Like the angel in Revelation 10:9–10 who commands John to receive the divine message, Jerome bids us to eat the whole scroll of Scripture—fully aware that it is both bitter to our sinful nature and unspeakably sweet to our renewed souls.
A Buried Treasure of Life
“Just as we have to dig for Gold in the earth, so in Holy Scripture we have to dig deep for its divine meaning.”
Jerome discourages laziness when it comes to reading Scripture. The scriptures are like gold - to really get to divine meaning, one must dig deeper into their truth and holiness. In this, Jerome echoes Origen, who told us that the scriptures have layers, namely like a body and a soul. The soul of the scripture is its objective truth and wisdom, which is worth seeking in our reading of it. Without the soul, the Bible - just like the human body - would be reduced to a mere summation of parts. To us today, Jerome still calls out: "Depth! Depth! Depth!" Even with all our modern knowledge of exposition and literature, pursuing the life-giving heart of Scripture is essential to provide depth and nourish its many parts. Only so will they remain connected in wisdom, context, and meaning. Jerome calls us to read of deeper truth:
"Everything we read in the Sacred Books, shines and glitters even in its outer shell; but the marrow of it is sweeter. If you want the kernel you must break the shell.
Jerome understood that our affections are shaped by what we treasure most. He knew that the world constantly offers cheap, fleeting adornments to capture our hearts, but the believer finds far greater beauty in the living Word of God. Writing once to guide a young girl toward true spiritual elegance, he urged her to exchange transient worldly vanity for the lasting protection, honor, and glory of God's Word:
"Love the Bible and wisdom will love you; love it and it will preserve you; honor it and it will embrace you; these are the jewels which you should wear on your breast and in your ears.”
Time in the Word
Speaking with the saint Eustochium, Jerome once said:
"Read assiduously and learn as much as you can. Let sleep find you holding your Bible, and when your head nods let it be resting on the sacred page.”
What does sleep find us holding nowadays? In our modern age, especially for the young, the final moments of the day are often given over to smartphones, endless scrolling, and digital distractions that can be harmful to our faith. For others, it is video games or various earthly pursuits. Is it not time to reconsider how we and our children steward our time with God's Word?
Jerome has shown us that Scripture is gold, how to invest our time in them, dig deeper, and be nourished with the fruit of life. Jerome is not asking something of us which he never did, he spent a lifetime dedicated to the Scriptures, hence he was able to become a faithful servant who wrote works of several translations as well as many commentaries.
Jerome and his Mission
In truth, could one not consider Jerome to have been an ABC staff member at heart long before All the Bible in the Community ever bore its name? Returning to the Scriptures is not a novelty—it is an ongoing reformation. All the Bible in community was Jerome’s burning passion in his own day. In his own words, when our heads nod in weariness, let them rest on the sacred page, and may we sleep only after feasting on God's truth. While it is a blessing to study Jerome, his ultimate desire was always for us to know our Scriptures. May this brief reflection on his thoughts spark a renewed thirst to discover Jerome, return to the holy Word, and enjoy the rich heritage of church history, as we serve together in the hope of wiping out biblical illiteracy!