Jerome — Commentary on Scripture

1 Timothy 1:15

They may choose to read, “It is a man’s saying, and worthy of all acceptation.” We are content to err with the Greeks, that is to say, with the apostle himself, who spoke Greek. Our version, therefore, is, “it is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation.”

Letters 27.3

1 Timothy 1:17

But if you think that God is seen by those who are pure in heart in this world, why did Moses, who had previously said, “I have seen the Lord face to face, and my life is preserved,” afterwards plead that he might see him distinctly? And because he said that he had seen God, the Lord told him, “You cannot not see my face. For no one shall see my face and live.” For this reason also the apostle calls him the only invisible God, who dwells in light unapproachable, whom no man has seen nor can see.

Against the Pelagians 3.12

1 Timothy 2:8

Whenever we lift up pure hands in prayer, without diverting distractions or contention, we are playing to the Lord with a ten-stringed instrument. We play, as the psalmist wrote, “with ten-stringed instrument and lyre, with melody upon the harp.” Our body and soul and spirit—our harp—are all in harmony, all their strings in tune.

HOMILIES ON THE PSALMS 21

1 Timothy 3:1

Should the entreaties of your brethren induce you to take orders, I shall rejoice that you are lifted up and fear lest you may be cast down. You will say, “if a man desire the office of a bishop, he desires a good work.” I know that; but you should add what follows: such a one “must be blameless, the husband of one wife, sober, chaste, prudent, well-prepared, given to hospitality, apt to teach, not given to wine, no striker but patient.” … Woe to the man who goes in to the supper without a wedding garment.

LETTERS 14.8

1 Timothy 3:3

Let your breath never smell of wine, lest the philosopher’s words be said to you, “Instead of offering me a kiss, you are giving me a taste of wine.” Priests given to wine are both condemned by the apostle and forbidden by the old law.… Whatever intoxicates and disturbs the balance of the mind, avoid as you would wine. I do not say that we are to condemn what is a creature of God. The Lord himself was called a “wine-bibber,” and wine in moderation was allowed to Timothy because of his weak stomach. I only require that drinkers should observe that limit which their age, their health or their constitution requires.

LETTERS 52.11

1 Timothy 3:6

Realize how evil pride is from the very fact that there is no excuse for it. Other vices harm only those who commit them. Pride inflicts far more injury on everyone. I am saying all this lest you consider pride a trifling sin. What, in fact, does the apostle say? “Lest he incur the condemnation passed on the devil.” The man who is puffed up with his own importance falls into the judgment of the devil.

HOMILIES 95

1 Timothy 3:13

Woe to him who, when he has received a talent, has bound it in a napkin; and while others make profits, only preserves what he has received. His angry Lord shall rebuke him in a moment. “You wicked servant,” he will say. “Why then did you not put my money into the bank, and at my coming I could have collected it with interest?” That is to say you should have laid before the altar what you were not able to bear. For while you, a slothful trader, keep a penny in your hands, you occupy the place of another who might double the money. Thus as one who ministers well purchases to himself a good degree, so one who approaches the cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.

LETTERS 14.8

1 Timothy 4:3

Have I not, I would ask, in the very forefront of my work set the following preface: “We are no disciples of Marcion or of Manichaeus, to detract from marriage. Nor are we deceived by the error of Tatian, the chief of the Encratites, into supposing all cohabitation unclean. For he condemns and reprobates not marriage only but foods also which God has created for us to enjoy. We know that in a large house there are vessels not only of silver and of gold but of wood also and of earth. We know, too, that on the foundation of Christ which Paul the master builder has laid, some build up gold, silver and precious stones; others, on the contrary, hay, wood and stubble.”

Letters 48.2

1 Timothy 4:14

The apostle clearly teaches that presbyters are the same as bishops.… Writing to Titus the apostle says, “For this cause I left you in Crete, that you should set in order the things that are wanting, and appoint presbyters in every city, as I had instructed. If any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having believing children not accused of wantonness or unruly. For a bishop must be blameless as the steward of God.” And to Timothy he says, “Neglect not the gift of prophecy that is in you, which was given you through the laying on of hands of the presbytery.”

Letters 146.1

1 Timothy 5:3

[Paul] is training a church still untaught in Christ and making provision for people of all stations but especially for the poor, the charge of whom has been committed to himself and Barnabas. Thus he wishes only those to be supported by the exertions of the church who cannot labor with their own hands and who are widows indeed, approved by their years and by their lives.

LETTERS 79.7

1 Timothy 5:5

A widow who has ceased to have a husband to please, and who in the apostle’s language is a widow indeed, needs nothing more earnestly than perseverance. Remembering past enjoyments, she knows what gave her pleasure and what she has now lost. By rigid fasting and vigils she must quench the fiery darts of the devil.

LETTERS 54.7

1 Timothy 5:6

It is difficult, or rather impossible, when we are swimming in luxury or pleasure, not to think of what we are doing. And it is an idle pretense which some put forward that they can take their fill of pleasure with their faith and purity and mental uprightness unimpaired. It is a violation of nature to revel in pleasure, and the apostle gives a caution against this very thing when he says, “She that gives herself to pleasure is dead while she lives.” The bodily senses are like horses madly racing, but the soul like a charioteer holds the reins. And as the horses without a driver go at breakneck speed, so the body, if it be not governed by the reasonable soul, rushes to its own destruction.

AGAINST JOVINIAN 2.9-10

1 Timothy 5:12

The apostle, in concluding his discussion of marriage and virginity, is careful to observe a right balance in discriminating between them. Turning neither to the right hand nor to the left, he keeps to the King’s highway and thus fulfills the injunction, “Be not righteous overmuch.” … Do we not clearly show by this language what is typified in the Holy Scriptures by the terms right and left, and also what we take to be the meaning of the words “Be not righteous overmuch”? We turn to the left if, following the lust of Jews and Gentiles, we burn for sexual intercourse. We turn to the right if, following the error of the Manichaeans, we under a pretense of chastity entangle ourselves in the meshes of unchastity. But we keep to the King’s highway if we aspire to virginity yet refrain from condemning marriage. Can anyone, moreover, be so unfair in his criticism of my poor treatise as to allege that I condemn first marriages, when he reads my opinion of second ones as follows, “The apostle, it is true, allows second marriages, but only to such women as are bent upon them, to such as cannot…

The apostle, in concluding his discussion of marriage and virginity, is careful to observe a right balance in discriminating between them. Turning neither to the right hand nor to the left, he keeps to the King’s highway and thus fulfills the injunction, “Be not righteous overmuch.” … Do we not clearly show by this language what is typified in the Holy Scriptures by the terms right and left, and also what we take to be the meaning of the words “Be not righteous overmuch”? We turn to the left if, following the lust of Jews and Gentiles, we burn for sexual intercourse. We turn to the right if, following the error of the Manichaeans, we under a pretense of chastity entangle ourselves in the meshes of unchastity. But we keep to the King’s highway if we aspire to virginity yet refrain from condemning marriage. Can anyone, moreover, be so unfair in his criticism of my poor treatise as to allege that I condemn first marriages, when he reads my opinion of second ones as follows, “The apostle, it is true, allows second marriages, but only to such women as are bent upon them, to such as cannot contain, lest ‘when they have begun to wax wanton against Christ they marry, having condemnation because they have rejected their first faith,’ and he makes this concession because many ‘are turned aside after Satan.’ But they will be happier if they abide as widows.”

Letters 48.8

1 Timothy 5:13

Paul speaks of idle persons and busybodies, whether virgins or widows, such as go from house to house calling on married women. They display an unblushing effrontery greater than that of a stage parasite. Cast them from you as you would the plague. For “evil communications corrupt good manners,” and women like these care for nothing but their lowest appetites. They will often urge you, saying, “My dear creature, make the best of your advantages, and live while life is yours,” and, “Surely you are not laying up money for your children.” Given to wine and wantonness, they instill all manner of mischief into people’s minds and induce even the most austere to indulge in enervating pleasures.

LETTERS 22.29

1 Timothy 5:13

It is true that in writing to Timothy the apostle from fear of fornication is forced to countenance second marriage.… He is offering not a crown to those who stand but a helping hand to those who are down. What must a second marriage be if it is looked on merely as an alternative to the brothel!

LETTERS 79.10

1 Timothy 5:19

When a man is advanced in years, you must not be too ready to believe evil of him. His past life is itself a defense, and so also is his rank as an elder. Still, since we are human and sometimes in spite of the ripeness of our years fall into the sins of youth, if I do wrong and you wish to correct me, accuse me openly of my fault. Do not backbite me secretly.

LETTERS 125.19

1 Timothy 5:23

Notice the reasons why wine is allowed: it is to cure pain in the stomach and to relieve a frequent infirmity and hardly then. And lest perchance we should indulge ourselves on the ground of illness, Paul recommends that but a little wine should be taken, advising rather as a physician than as an apostle—although indeed an apostle is a spiritual physician.

LETTERS 22.8

1 Timothy 5:25

The words mean this: Certain persons sin so deliberately and flagrantly that you no sooner see them than you know them at once to be sinners. But the defects of others are so cunningly concealed that we only learn them from subsequent information. Similarly the good deeds of some people are public property, while those of others we come to know only through long intimacy with them.

LETTERS 54.8

1 Timothy 6:5

It is of all of us … that the apostle speaks. Christ is a pauper, let us blush with shame. Christ is lowly, let us be made lowly. Christ was crucified. He did not rule. He was crucified in order to rule. He conquered the world, not in pride but in humility. He destroyed the devil, not by derisive laughter but by weeping; he did not scourge but was scourged. He received a blow but did not give blows. Let us, therefore, imitate our Lord.

HOMILIES ON MARK 83

1 Timothy 6:8

Let us now speak in particular about the interior man. A wheel, as you know, rests upon the ground with a very slight base. Nor does it merely rest; it rolls along; it does not stand still but barely touches the ground and passes on. Further, when it rolls onward, it always mounts higher. So the saintly man, because he has a human body, has to give some thought to earthly matters. When it comes to food and clothing and other such things, he is content with what he has, and merely touching the ground with them, hastens on to higher things.

HOMILIES ON THE PSALMS 10