Jerome — Commentary on Scripture

1 Timothy 5:13 · 2 passages

And withal they learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house; and not only idle, but tattlers also and busybodies, speaking things which they ought not.

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.

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!

1 Timothy 5:19

Against an elder receive not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses.

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.

1 Timothy 5:23

Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake and thine often infirmities.

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.

1 Timothy 5:25

Likewise also the good works of some are manifest beforehand; and they that are otherwise cannot be hid.

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.

1 Timothy 6:5

Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself.

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.

1 Timothy 6:8

And having food and raiment let us be therewith content.

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.

1 Timothy 6:20

O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called:

The apostle labors, and, although he has lived blameless, according to the justice that is from the law, he counts everything as worthless for Christ, that he may be found in Christ, not having his own justice which is from the law but that which is from the faith of Christ, from God.… Therefore, we are saved, not by the power of the free will but by the mercy of God. And, lest you think that the truth of faith can be subverted by vain argumentations which raise questions in the minds of the hearers, the same apostle writes to Timothy, “O Timothy, guard the trust and keep free from profane novelties in speech and the contradictions of so-called knowledge, which some have promised and have fallen away from the faith.” For the goodness and mercy of our Savior have saved us, not by reason of good works that we did ourselves but according to his mercy, in order that, justified by his grace, we may be heirs in the hope of life everlasting.

2 Chronicles 15:2

And he went out to meet Asa, and said unto him, Hear ye me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin; The LORD is with you, while ye be with him; and if ye seek him, he will be found of you; but if ye forsake him, he will forsake you.

When we have been baptized we are told, “Behold, you are made whole; sin no more lest a worse thing happen to you.” And again, “Don’t you know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone profanes the temple of God, God shall destroy him.” And in another place, “The Lord is with you so long as you are with him: if you forsake him, he will also forsake you.” Where is the person, do you suppose, in whom as in a shrine and sanctuary the purity of Christ is permanent and in whose case the serenity of the temple is saddened by no cloud of sin? We cannot always have the same countenance, though the philosophers falsely boast that this was the experience of Socrates; how much less can our minds be always the same! As people have many facial expressions, so also do the feelings of their hearts vary. If it were possible for us to be always immersed in the waters of baptism, sins would fly over our heads and leave us untouched. The Holy Spirit would protect us. But the enemy assails us, and when conquered he does not depart but is ever lying in ambush, that…

When we have been baptized we are told, “Behold, you are made whole; sin no more lest a worse thing happen to you.” And again, “Don’t you know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone profanes the temple of God, God shall destroy him.” And in another place, “The Lord is with you so long as you are with him: if you forsake him, he will also forsake you.” Where is the person, do you suppose, in whom as in a shrine and sanctuary the purity of Christ is permanent and in whose case the serenity of the temple is saddened by no cloud of sin? We cannot always have the same countenance, though the philosophers falsely boast that this was the experience of Socrates; how much less can our minds be always the same! As people have many facial expressions, so also do the feelings of their hearts vary. If it were possible for us to be always immersed in the waters of baptism, sins would fly over our heads and leave us untouched. The Holy Spirit would protect us. But the enemy assails us, and when conquered he does not depart but is ever lying in ambush, that he may secretly shoot the upright in heart.

2 Chronicles 17:3-6

And the LORD was with Jehoshaphat, because he walked in the first ways of his father David, and sought not unto Baalim;

Of Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, it is written, “And the Lord was with Jehoshaphat, who walked in the first ways of David, his father.” From this it is clear that Jehoshaphat possessed the justice that David first possessed and that he did not commit the sins that David later committed. “He trusted not in Baalim,” he says, “but in the God of his father and walked in his commandments, and not according to the sins of Israel. And the Lord established the kingdom in his hand and all Judah brought presents to Jehoshaphat. And he acquired immense wealth and riches and much glory.” “And when his heart had taken courage for the ways of the Lord, he took away also the high places and the groves out of Judah.”

2 Chronicles 22:8-9

And it came to pass, that, when Jehu was executing judgment upon the house of Ahab, and found the princes of Judah, and the sons of the brethren of Ahaziah, that ministered to Ahaziah, he slew them.

The Lord established the kingdom in Jehoshaphat’s hand, and all Judah brought presents to him. And he acquired immense wealth and riches and much glory.… And, lest we suppose that the justice he possessed in the past was destroyed by the fact that he committed this sin and was reproved by the prophet, it is written subsequently of Uzziah, his descendant, that Jehu found him lying in Samaria, and, when he was brought in, he killed him: “And they buried him,” he says, “because he was the son of Jehoshaphat, who has sought the Lord with all his heart.”

2 Chronicles 33:10-12

And the LORD spake to Manasseh, and to his people: but they would not hearken.

O happy penitence which has drawn down upon itself the eyes of God, and which has by confessing its error changed the sentence of God’s anger! The same conduct is in the Chronicles attributed to Manasseh, and in the book of the prophet Jonah to Nineveh, and in the gospel to the publican. The first of these not only was allowed to obtain forgiveness but also recovered his kingdom, the second broke the force of God’s impending wrath, while the third, striking his breast with his hands, “would not lift up so much as his eyes to heaven.” Yet for all that the publican with his humble confession of his faults went back justified far more than the Pharisee with his arrogant boasting of his virtues.

2 Chronicles 34:22-23

And Hilkiah, and they that the king had appointed, went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tikvath, the son of Hasrah, keeper of the wardrobe; (now she dwelt in Jerusalem in the college:) and they spake to her to that effect.

It is written in the book of Days: “Hezekiah fell because his heart was lifted up.” Certainly, no one but the ungodly will deny that Hezekiah was a just man. You may say, “He sinned in certain things, and, therefore, he ceased to be just.” But Scripture does not say this. For he did not lose the title of just because he committed small sins, but he possessed the title of just because he performed many good deeds. Say all this to prove, with the testimonies of sacred Scripture, that the just are not sinners simply because they have sinned on occasions, but they remain just because they flourish in many virtues. Of Josiah it is written, “He did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the way of David his father. He declined neither to the right nor to the left”; and yet, although he was a just man, in a time of need and dire necessity, he sent Hilkiah to Huldah, the prophet, the wife of Shallum, the son of Tokhath, the son of Hasrah, keeper of the wardrobe. “And she dwelled,” he says, “in Jerusalem in the second part” (a reference, undoubtedly, to that part of the…

It is written in the book of Days: “Hezekiah fell because his heart was lifted up.” Certainly, no one but the ungodly will deny that Hezekiah was a just man. You may say, “He sinned in certain things, and, therefore, he ceased to be just.” But Scripture does not say this. For he did not lose the title of just because he committed small sins, but he possessed the title of just because he performed many good deeds. Say all this to prove, with the testimonies of sacred Scripture, that the just are not sinners simply because they have sinned on occasions, but they remain just because they flourish in many virtues. Of Josiah it is written, “He did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the way of David his father. He declined neither to the right nor to the left”; and yet, although he was a just man, in a time of need and dire necessity, he sent Hilkiah to Huldah, the prophet, the wife of Shallum, the son of Tokhath, the son of Hasrah, keeper of the wardrobe. “And she dwelled,” he says, “in Jerusalem in the second part” (a reference, undoubtedly, to that part of the city that is enclosed by an inner wall). “And she answered, ‘Thus says the Lord the God of Israel: Go and tell the man that sent you to me.’ ” There is contained in these words a secret reproof of the king and priests and all men, because never was there any saint found among people who could predict the future.

2 Chronicles 35:22-25 · 2 passages

Nevertheless Josiah would not turn his face from him, but disguised himself, that he might fight with him, and hearkened not unto the words of Necho from the mouth of God, and came to fight in the valley of Megiddo.

It is true that in the holy Scriptures many are called righteous, as Zachariah and Elizabeth, Job, Jehosaphat, Josiah, and many others who are mentioned in the sacred writings. Of this fact I shall, if God gives me grace, give a full explanation in the work that I have promised; in this letter it must suffice to say that they are called righteous, not because they are faultless but because their faults are eclipsed by their virtues. In fact Zachariah is punished with dumbness, Job is condemned out of his own mouth, and Jehoshaphat and Josiah who are beyond a doubt described as righteous are narrated to have done things displeasing to the Lord. The first aligned himself with the ungodly Ahab and brought on himself the rebuke of Micaiah; and the second, though forbidden by the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah, went against Pharaoh Neco, king of Egypt, and was killed by him.

Finally, Josiah is killed by Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, because he would not listen to the words of the Lord from the mouth of the prophet Jeremiah, or, as it is written in the Paralipomenon: “Josiah would not return but prepared to fight against him and did not listen to the words of Neco from the mouth of God.” And it is stated, “And he died and was buried in the monument of his ancestors. And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for him, particularly Jeremiah, whose lamentations for Josiah all the singing men and singing women repeat to this day. And it became like a law in Israel: ‘Behold, it is found written in the Lamentations.’ ”

2 Corinthians 3:4

And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward:

The apostle Paul, after describing in a few words the benefits of God, states in conclusion: “And for such offices, who is sufficient?” Whence he also says in another place: “Such is the assurance we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything, as from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God. He also it is who made us fit ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the spirit; for the letter kills, but the spirit gives life.” Do we still dare to boast about the free will and treat with insult the benefits of God the Giver, when the chosen vessel [Paul] also writes very clearly: “But we carry this treasure in vessels of clay, to show that the abundance of our power is God’s and not ours”?

2 Corinthians 3:10

For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth.

And this is what the apostle writes in another place: “And yet what was glorified is without glory because of the surpassing glory”; for the justice of the law, to be sure, in comparison with the grace of the gospel would not appear to be justice. “For if that,” he says, “which is done away with is glorious, much more will that be glorious which abides.”

2 Corinthians 3:15

But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart.

The curtain of the temple is torn, for that which had been veiled in Judea is unveiled to all the nations; the curtain is torn and the mysteries of the law are revealed to the faithful, but to unbelievers they are hidden to this very day. When Moses, the Old Testament, is read aloud by the Jews on every Sabbath, according to the testimony of the apostle: “the veil covers their hearts.” They read the law, true enough, but they do not understand because their eyes have grown so dim that they cannot see. They are, indeed, like those of whom Scripture says: “They have eyes but see not; they have ears but hear not.”

2 Corinthians 4:4

In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

What is the face of God like? As his image, certainly, for as the apostle says, the image of the Father is the Son. With his image, therefore, may he shine upon us, that is, may he shine his image, the Son, upon us in order that he himself may shine upon us, for the light of the Father is the light of the Son. He who sees the Father sees also the Son, and he who sees the Son sees also the Father. Where there is no diversity between glory and glory, there glory is one and the same.

2 Corinthians 4:7

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.

We have a treasure in such vessels of clay. There are many who construe this last expression in reference to the body and to the Holy Spirit, meaning, of course, that we possess a treasure in earthen vessels. There is certainly that interpretation, but I think the better treasury-concept is that we have a most precious treasure in vessels of clay symbolizing the homely words of the Scripture.