Jerome Bettis

No. 36
Running back
Personal information
Date of birth: (1972-02-16) February 16, 1972 (age 40)
Place of birth: Detroit, Michigan
Career information
College: Notre Dame
NFL Draft: 1993 / Round: 1 / Pick: 10
Debuted in 1993 for the Los Angeles Rams
Last played in 2006 for the Pittsburgh Steelers
Career history
Los Angeles/St. Louis Rams (1993–1995) Pittsburgh Steelers (1996–2005)
Career highlights and awards
AP NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year (1993) PFWA Offensive Rookie of the Year (1993) 6× Pro Bowl selection (1993, 1994, 1996, 1997, 2001, 2004) 3× All-Pro selection (1993, 1996, 1997) Super Bowl champion (XL) AP NFL Comeback Player of the Year (1996) PFWA Comeback Player of the Year (1996) Walter Payton Man of the Year (2001) 3× Pittsburgh Steelers Team MVP (1996, 1997, 2000) Sixth-leading rusher of All-Time Pittsburgh Steelers All-Time Team
Career NFL statistics
Rushing yards 13,662 Rushing average 3.9 Touchdowns 94 Stats at NFL.com

Jerome Abram "The Bus" Bettis (born February 16, 1972) is a retired American football halfback who played for the NFL's Los Angeles/St. Louis Rams and Pittsburgh Steelers. Bettis is considered one of the best big backs ever because of his footwork and power, and is currently sixth on the National Football League's all-time rushing list. He retired in 2006 after a Super Bowl victory at Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan, his city of birth.

Early life[link]

Bettis was born February 16, 1972, in Detroit, Michigan. He is the youngest of three children of Gladys Elizabeth (née Bougard) and Johnnie E. Bettis.^[1] Bettis did not start playing football until high school, as his primary passion as a youth had been bowling. He attended Mackenzie High School in Detroit, where he was a standout running back and linebacker. As a senior, he was rated the top player in the state by the Detroit Free Press, and was the Gatorade Circle of Champions Player of the Year award winner.^{[citation needed]}

College career[link]

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At the University of Notre Dame, Bettis finished his career with 337 rushing attempts for 1912 yards (5.7 yards per rushing attempt avg.), and made 32 receptions for 429 yards (13.4 yards per reception). In his last game as a junior, a 28-3 win by Notre Dame over Texas A&M in the Cotton Bowl, he rushed 20 times for 75 yards.

National Football League career[link]

Rams[link]

Jerome Bettis was picked in the first round (10th overall) of the 1993 NFL draft by the Los Angeles Rams. On July 22, 1993, Bettis signed a three-year $4.625 million contract with a signing bonus in excess of $2 million.^[2] As a rookie he flourished under Chuck Knox's ground-oriented offense. He quickly earned the nickname "The Battering Ram" as he rushed for 1,429 yards, and was named a First-team All-pro and Offensive Rookie of the Year. He rushed for over 1,000 yards in each of his first two seasons with the Rams.

The Rams moved to St. Louis for the 1995 season. New coach Rich Brooks instituted a more pass-oriented offense, a major reason why Bettis was limited to 637 yards—a significant dropoff from his 1993 and 1994 totals.^{[citation needed]} Brooks asked Bettis to move to fullback for the upcoming 1996 season or if he preferred to be traded. Bettis stated he thought he could still help a NFL team with his running. On April 20, 1996, he was traded to the Pittsburgh Steelers with a 3rd round pick in the 1996 NFL Draft in exchange for a second round selection in the same draft and a fourth round selection in the 1997 NFL Draft.^[3]

Steelers[link]

The Steelers needed a running back because Bam Morris, their power running back in the 1995 season, was arrested in March 1996 for marijuana possession.^{[citation needed]} With his playing status unknown, Pittsburgh acquired Bettis. Morris eventually pled guilty to marijuana possession and was cut by the team in June 1996, leaving Bettis as the featured back.

Bettis rushed for over 1,000 yards in each of his first six seasons with the Steelers between 1996 and 2001. Included in that run were three campaigns of over 1,300 yards. In 1997, Bettis rushed for a career-best 1,665 yards in the team's first 15 games. However, because the team had already wrapped up its playoff position, he was rested for the regular season finale and finished 26 yards short of the team's single-season record.

Bettis was leading the league with 1,072 rushing yards in 2001 when he suffered an injury that sidelined him for the remainder of the regular season. Injuries would also cost him part of the 2002 season and he then began the 2003 season as a backup to Amos Zereoue. Despite regaining his starting role midway through the 2003 season, Bettis again found himself a backup to start the 2004 season, this time to Duce Staley. But when an injury took Staley out of action mid-way through the year, Bettis stepped in and gained 100+ yards in six of the next eight games and would have likely topped 1,000 yards for the season if not for the decision to rest him in the Steelers' meaningless final regular season game. The remarkable late season effort led to the sixth Pro-Bowl berth of his career.

Bettis spent the 2005 season as a short yardage running back, but managed two notable games along the way: First, a 101 yard, two touchdown effort in a pivotal week 14 win over Chicago (his second-to-last game in Pittsburgh). This game included a play in which he ran over Bears' linebacker Brian Urlacher on the goal line during a heavy snow squall. Secondly, he scored three touchdowns in a win over Detroit to clinch a playoff berth on the last day of the season, which was his last game in Pittsburgh. He would finish the season and his career as the NFL's 5th leading all-time rusher.

Bettis was also at the center of one of the most controversial calls in NFL history.^{[citation needed]} During a Thanksgiving Day game with the Detroit Lions on November 26, 1998, Bettis was sent out as the Steelers representative for the overtime coin toss. Bettis appeared to call "tails" while the coin was in the air but referee Phil Luckett declared that Bettis called "heads" and awarded possession to Detroit, who would go on to win the game before Pittsburgh had the chance to have possession. After reviewing the incident, the NFL changed the rule and declared that the call of "heads" or "tails” would be made before the coin was tossed rather than during the coin toss and that at least two officials would be present during the coin toss. The readers of ESPN voted the incident as the #8 on its list of the top ten worst sports officiating calls of all time, even though later sound enhancements of the audio showed that Bettis said "hea-tails" and Bettis admitted starting to call "heads" before changing it to tails.^[4]

Bettis later put together one of the most bizarre single game statistics in NFL history. In the 2004 season opener, he carried the ball five times for a total of only one yard, a 0.2 yards per carry average.^{[citation needed]} However, he scored 18 points on those carries with three touchdowns.

During that 2004 season, Bettis and New York Jets running back Curtis Martin dueled for position on the all-time rushing yards leaderboard. Bettis entered the season in 6th place all-time and 684 yards ahead of Martin in 9th place. Because Bettis was the backup in Pittsburgh for the start of the season, Martin was able to pass Bettis in week 13 until the Steelers played their game later in the day and Bettis retook the lead by 6 yards. When the Jets traveled to Martin's home town of Pittsburgh to play the Steelers the following week, both backs would cross the 13,000-yard mark, making this the first time two players crossed the 13,000 yard mark (or other similarly high yardage milestones) in the same game. Their combined career totals were also one of the biggest combined career totals for opposing running backs in history. At the end of the game, Martin would lead Bettis by 9 yards. Two weeks later in week 16, Bettis would again pass Martin and establish himself with a lead of 81 yards. In doing so, Bettis passed Eric Dickerson for 4th place on the all-time list. Bettis sat out the final week of the season, and when Martin rushed for 153 yards that week he passed Dickerson and Bettis for the final time.

After the Steelers' defeat in the 2004 AFC Championship Game on January 23, 2005, Bettis announced that he was considering retirement, but would not make a final decision for several months to prevent the sting of the defeat from clouding his judgment. Later, Bettis agreed to stay with the Steelers for another season. He stated he would love to play in the Super Bowl in 2006 since it was to be played in his hometown of Detroit. His wish came true as the Steelers played in, and won, Super Bowl XL (40) against the Seattle Seahawks 21-10 on February 5, 2006.

Bettis finished his 13 NFL seasons as the NFL's 5th all-time leading rusher with 13,662 yards and 91 touchdowns. He also caught 200 passes for 1,449 yards and 3 touchdowns. He was named to the Pro Bowl in 1993, 1994, 1996, 1997, 2001, and 2004. Bettis won the NFL Comeback Player of the Year award in 1996, and in 2002 he was the recipient of the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award. While Bettis finished with 1,542 more yards than Franco Harris on the NFL's all-time rushing list, Harris remains the Steelers all-time leading rusher because 3,091 of those yards came while Bettis was with the Rams.

Radio color commentator Myron Cope popularized the nickname The Bus after hearing a brother of a fellow Notre Dame alumni call Jerome "Bussy" in Green Bay.^{[citation needed]} The nickname comes from his ability to carry multiple defenders on his back, like a bus ride, during his carries. It was during the Green Bay broadcast that Cope started using the nickname "The Bus." Jerome credits the Notre Dame school newspaper with first using the nickname.^{[citation needed]}

Another lesser known nickname for Bettis was "The Closer." He was given this nickname by former Steeler head coach Bill Cowher because whenever Pittsburgh was ahead and was ready to close out the game, Cowher would send in Bettis to run out the clock. He did this because of Bettis's very low fumbling percentage and the fact that he was difficult to tackle.^{[citation needed]}

The road to Super Bowl XL[link]

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Shortly after the Steelers lost the 2004-2005 AFC Championship game to the eventual Super Bowl XXXIX champion New England Patriots, Ben Roethlisberger approached Bettis. He promised Bettis that if he came back for one last season, he would get him to the Super Bowl. Apparently, it was this promise that got Jerome Bettis to play one last season. In 12 NFL seasons, Bettis had reached the playoffs 5 times, but had never been in the Super Bowl.

In week 17 of the 2005 NFL season, Bettis rushed for 41 yards and three touchdowns against the Detroit Lions. The Steelers won 35-21, and thanks to Bettis's three touchdowns, they clinched a playoff berth. When Bill Cowher pulled Bettis from the game late in the fourth quarter, he was given a standing ovation from the Steeler fans. This game would be the last home game (not including the neutral-site Super Bowl) for Jerome Bettis.

Bettis contributed 52 yards and a touchdown in the Steelers' wildcard playoff victory over the Cincinnati Bengals on January 8. After their wildcard win, Ben Roethlisberger revealed to the team that he promised to Bettis that he would get him to the Super Bowl, in order to get him to come back for the 2005 season.

On January 15, 2006, Bettis was the center of one of football's most memorable endings in a divisional playoff game against the Indianapolis Colts. While the Steelers offensive attack was mostly pass driven during the game, Bettis ran well, taking in 46 yards on 17 rushes, including one touchdown. When the Steelers took possession of the ball on the Indianapolis 2 yard line with 1:20 remaining in the game, leading 21-18, the outcome seemed almost certain. The first play from scrimmage went to the surehanded Bettis, who had not fumbled once the entire year. As Bettis ran towards the end zone, Colts linebacker Gary Brackett popped the ball out of Jerome's hands, where, in seemingly another occurrence of the Sports Illustrated "cover jinx," it was picked up by cornerback Nick Harper, who was stopped from returning the fumble all the way for a touchdown by Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. Ultimately, however, Bettis's mistake did not result in a Steelers loss, as Colts kicker Mike Vanderjagt missed a 46-yard game-tying field goal, ending the game with a 21-18 Steelers victory.

The next week, the Steelers were set to face off against the Denver Broncos in the AFC Championship game. Bettis, who had never been to a Super Bowl in his storied career, delivered a rousing speech to his teammates the day before the game, asking them to "Just get me to Detroit," his hometown, where Super Bowl XL was to be played. Bettis's wish was granted, as he and the Steelers advanced to Super Bowl XL with a 34-17 win over the Broncos, led by Ben Roethlisberger's arm and Bettis's 39 yards on 15 carries, including a touchdown. After the game was over, Bettis found his parents in the crowd and mouthed the words "We're going home" to them.

Retirement from football[link]

Asked about the possibility of retirement, Bettis announced, "It's been an incredible ride. I played this game to win a championship. I'm a champion, and I think the Bus's last stop is here in Detroit." Thus, Jerome Bettis officially announced his retirement standing on the champions' podium, holding the Vince Lombardi Trophy. Hines Ward, the MVP of the game, said during the Super Bowl commercial, "I'm going to Disney World and I'm taking The Bus!"

While the Steelers no longer officially retire numbers, they have not reissued Bettis's #36 since he retired, and it is generally understood that no Steeler will ever wear that number again.^{[citation needed]}

On January 31, 2006, Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and the City Council presented the key to the city to Bettis and declared the week "Jerome Bettis Week" for being "a shining example of what a kid with a dream from Detroit can accomplish with hard work and determination."^[5] Jerome moved to Atlanta, Georgia at the end of his career and is currently living there.^{[citation needed]}

Governor Jennifer M. Granholm of the State of Michigan declared February 1, 2006 to be Jerome Bettis Day.^[6]

On May 21, 2006 Bettis received an honorary Doctoral degree from Lawrence Technological University in Southfield, Michigan.

Before the Steelers' home opener of the 2006 NFL season, a large school bus drove onto the field, and Bettis stepped out to a massive crowd ovation. He was one of several Steelers players being honored as part of the celebration of their five Super Bowl victories; Lynn Swann and Franco Harris were also present.

Post-football career[link]

Bettis speaking at a sports convention.

In February 2006, at the 2006 Winter Olympics, NBC Sports announced that Bettis had been signed as a studio commentator for NBC's new Football Night in America Sunday night pregame show where he was through the 2008 season.

Wikinews has related news: Pittsburgh's Bettis to work as NBC studio analyst

In April 2006, Bettis and his parents teamed up with Don Barden, the head of PITG Gaming LLC, in a bid for a casino on Pittsburgh's Northside to be called the Majestic Star. Their plan would aid the NHL's Pittsburgh Penguins with funding for a new ice arena. Barden said that he would give $7.5 million a year for 30 years to help build a new arena.^[7]

Bettis opened a restaurant called "Jerome Bettis' Grille 36" on June 5, 2007 on Pittsburgh's Northside.^[8][9]

Bettis makes a cameo as himself in season 3 of the NBC comedy series The Office. Signing autographs at a paper convention, Michael Scott tries to invite him to a room party, which Bettis declines. Later, Michael claims Bettis is nicknamed "The Bus" because he is afraid of flying.

In 2010, Bettis joined School of the Legends (SOTL), an online community and partner of the NFLPA.^[10] He was featured in an article on the D1 Training website in February 2011 and filmed training courses for SOTL that focused on his position as a running back.^[11]

Bettis is currently the host of The Jerome Bettis Show on WPXI-TV, filmed at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, airing Saturdays at 7:00 PM and 1:00 AM. He is a commentator for the NFL Network and a former NBC studio analyst for Football Night in America.

Personal life[link]

Bettis lives in a suburb of Atlanta, Roswell, Georgia. He and his family also maintain a home in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

In July 2006, Bettis married his long time girlfriend, Trameka Boykin, in Montego Bay, Jamaica. The couple has a daughter, Jada, and a son, Jerome Jr., together.

Bettis had made political donations to both Democratic and Republican candidates; specifically the Congressional campaign of Democratic U.S. Representative Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, and the 2004 campaign of Republican President George W. Bush.^[12] On March 29, 2008, Bettis accompanied Barack Obama on a campaign visit to the US Steel plant in Braddock, Pennsylvania.^[13]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Jerome Bettis

• Jerome Bettis at ESPN.com
• Jerome Bettis at Pro-Football-Reference.com
• The Jerome Bettis Show on WPXI
• NFL's all-time leading rushers
• The Bus Stops Here Foundation
• Sunday Night Football on NBC
• Triumph Books publisher of Driving Home: My Unforgettable Super Bowl Run

Saint Jerome
Saint Jerome visited by angels by Bartolomeo Cavarozzi
Priest, Confessor, Theologian, Historian and Doctor of the Church: Doctor Biblicus[1]
Born	c. 347 Stridon (possibly Strido Dalmatiae, on the border of Dalmatia and Pannonia)
Died	420 Bethlehem, Judea
Honored in	Roman Catholic Church Eastern Orthodoxy Anglican Communion Lutheranism Oriental Orthodoxy Aglipayan Church
Major shrine	Basilica of Saint Mary Major, Rome, Italy
Feast	30 September (Western Christianity) 15 June (Eastern Christianity)
Attributes	lion, cardinal attire, cross, skull, trumpet, owl, books and writing material
Patronage	archeologists; archivists; Bible scholars; librarians; libraries; school children; students; translators
Major work(s)	The Vulgate De viris illustribus Chronicon

Saint Jerome (c. 347 – 30 September 420; (also Hierom or Jerom) (Latin: Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus; Ancient Greek: Εὐσέβιος Σωφρόνιος Ἱερώνυμος) was a Roman Christian priest, confessor, theologian and historian, and who became a Doctor of the Church. He was the son of Eusebius, of the city of Stridon, which was on the border of Dalmatia and Pannonia. He is best known for his translation of the Bible into Latin (the Vulgate), and his list of writings is extensive.^[2]

He is recognised by the Catholic Church as a saint and Doctor of the Church, and the Vulgate is still an important text in Catholicism. He is also recognized as a saint by the Eastern Orthodox Church, where he is known as St. Jerome of Stridonium or Blessed Jerome.^[3]

Life[link]

St. Jerome in His Study (1480), by Domenico Ghirlandaio.

Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus was born at Stridon around 347.^[4] He was not baptized until about 360 or 366, when he had gone to Rome with his friend Bonosus (who may or may not have been the same Bonosus whom Jerome identifies as his friend who went to live as a hermit on an island in the Adriatic) to pursue rhetorical and philosophical studies. He studied under the grammarian Aelius Donatus. There Jerome learned Latin and at least some Greek,^[5] though probably not the familiarity with Greek literature he would later claim to have acquired as a schoolboy.^[6]

As a student in Rome, he engaged in the superficial activities of students there, which he indulged in quite casually but suffered terrible bouts of repentance afterwards. To appease his conscience, he would visit on Sundays the sepulchers of the martyrs and the Apostles in the catacombs. This experience would remind him of the terrors of hell:

Often I would find myself entering those crypts, deep dug in the earth, with their walls on either side lined with the bodies of the dead, where everything was so dark that almost it seemed as though the Psalmist’s words were fulfilled, Let them go down quick into Hell.^[7] Here and there the light, not entering in through windows, but filtering down from above through shafts, relieved the horror of the darkness. But again, as soon as you found yourself cautiously moving forward, the black night closed around and there came to my mind the line of Vergil, “Horror ubique animos, simul ipsa silentia terrent”.^[8][9]

Jerome used a quote from Vergil — “The horror and the silences terrified their souls” — to describe the horror of hell. Jerome initially used classical authors to describe Christian concepts such as hell that indicated both his classical education and his deep shame of their associated practices, such as pederasty. Although initially skeptical of Christianity, he was eventually converted.^[10] After several years in Rome, he travelled with Bonosus to Gaul and settled in Trier where he seems to have first taken up theological studies, and where he copied, for his friend Tyrannius Rufinus, Hilary of Poitiers' commentary on the Psalms and the treatise De synodis. Next came a stay of at least several months, or possibly years, with Rufinus at Aquileia, where he made many Christian friends.

Some of these accompanied him when he set out about 373 on a journey through Thrace and Asia Minor into northern Syria. At Antioch, where he stayed the longest, two of his companions died and he himself was seriously ill more than once. During one of these illnesses (about the winter of 373–374), he had a vision that led him to lay aside his secular studies and devote himself to God. He seems to have abstained for a considerable time from the study of the classics and to have plunged deeply into that of the Bible, under the impulse of Apollinaris of Laodicea, then teaching in Antioch and not yet suspected of heresy.

St. Jerome reading in the countryside, by Giovanni Bellini

Seized with a desire for a life of ascetic penance, he went for a time to the desert of Chalcis, to the southwest of Antioch, known as the Syrian Thebaid, from the number of hermits inhabiting it. During this period, he seems to have found time for study and writing. He made his first attempt to learn Hebrew under the guidance of a converted Jew; and he seems to have been in correspondence with Jewish Christians in Antioch. Around this time he had copied for him a Hebrew Gospel, of which fragments are preserved in his notes, and is known today as the Gospel of the Hebrews, and which the Nazarenes considered was the true Gospel of Matthew.^[11] Jerome translated parts of this Hebrew Gospel into Greek.^[12]

Returning to Antioch in 378 or 379, he was ordained by Bishop Paulinus, apparently unwillingly and on condition that he continue his ascetic life. Soon afterward, he went to Constantinople to pursue a study of Scripture under Gregory Nazianzen. He seems to have spent two years there, then left, and the next three (382–385) he was in Rome again, attached to Pope Damasus I and the leading Roman Christians. Invited originally for the synod of 382, held to end the schism of Antioch as there were rival claimants to be the proper patriarch in Antioch. Jerome had accompanied one of the claimants, Paulinus back to Rome in order to get more support for him, and distinquished himself to the pope, and took a prominent place in his councils.

He was given duties in Rome, and he undertook a revision of the Latin Bible, to be based on the Greek manuscripts of the New Testament. He also updated the Psalter containing the Book of Psalms then at use in Rome based on the Septuagint. Though he did not realize it yet, translating much of what became the Latin Vulgate Bible would take many years and be his most important achievement (see Writings– Translations section below).

In Rome he was surrounded by a circle of well-born and well-educated women, including some from the noblest patrician families, such as the widows Lea, Marcella and Paula, with their daughters Blaesilla and Eustochium. The resulting inclination of these women to the monastic life and from the indulgent lasciviousness in Rome, and his unsparing criticism of the secular clergy of Rome, brought a growing hostility against him among the Roman clergy and their supporters. Soon after the death of his patron Damasus (10 December 384), Jerome was forced by them to leave his position at Rome after an inquiry was brought up by the Roman clergy into allegations that he had an improper relationship with the widow Paula.

Additionally, his condemnation of Blaesilla's hedonistic lifestyle in Rome had led her to adopt aescetic practices, but it affected her health and worsened her physical weakness to the point that she died just four months after starting to follow his instructions; much of the Roman populace were outraged at Jerome for causing the premature death of such a lively young woman, and his insistence to Paula that Blaesilla should not be mourned, and complaints that her grief was excessive, were seen as heartless, polarising Roman opinion against him.^[13]

In August 385, he left Rome for good and returned to Antioch, accompanied by his brother Paulinianus and several friends, and followed a little later by Paula and Eustochium, who had resolved to end their days in the Holy Land. In the winter of 385, Jerome acted as their spiritual adviser. The pilgrims, joined by Bishop Paulinus of Antioch, visited Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and the holy places of Galilee, and then went to Egypt, the home of the great heroes of the ascetic life.

At the Catechetical School of Alexandria, Jerome listened to the catechist Didymus the Blind expounding the prophet Hosea and telling his reminiscences of Anthony the Great, who had died 30 years before; he spent some time in Nitria, admiring the disciplined community life of the numerous inhabitants of that "city of the Lord," but detecting even there "concealed serpents," i.e., the influence of Origen of Alexandria. Late in the summer of 388 he was back in Israel, and spent the remainder of his life in a hermit's cell near Bethlehem, surrounded by a few friends, both men and women (including Paula and Eustochium), to whom he acted as priestly guide and teacher.

Painting by Niccolò Antonio Colantonio, showing St. Jerome's removal of a thorn from a lion's paw.

Amply provided by Paula with the means of livelihood and of increasing his collection of books, he led a life of incessant activity in literary production. To these last 34 years of his career belong the most important of his works; his version of the Old Testament from the original Hebrew text, the best of his scriptural commentaries, his catalogue of Christian authors, and the dialogue against the Pelagians, the literary perfection of which even an opponent recognized. To this period also belong most of his polemics, which distinguished him among the orthodox Fathers, including the treatises against the Origenism later declared anathema, of Bishop John II of Jerusalem and his early friend Rufinus. Later, as a result of his writings against Pelagianism, a body of excited partisans broke into the monastic buildings, set them on fire, attacked the inmates and killed a deacon, forcing Jerome to seek safety in a neighboring fortress (416).

It is recorded that Jerome died near Bethlehem on 30 September 420. The date of his death is given by the Chronicon of Prosper of Aquitaine. His remains, originally buried at Bethlehem, are said to have been later transferred to the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome, though other places in the West claim some relics — the cathedral at Nepi boasting possession of his head, which, according to another tradition, is in the Escorial.

Translations and commentaries[link]

St Jerome, by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, 1607, at St John's Co-Cathedral, Valletta, Malta

Jerome was a scholar at a time when that statement implied a fluency in Greek. He knew some Hebrew when he started his translation project, but moved to Jerusalem to strengthen his grip on Jewish scripture commentary. A wealthy Roman aristocrat, Paula, funded his stay in a monastery in Bethlehem and he completed his translation there. He began in 382 by correcting the existing Latin language version of the New Testament, commonly referred to as the Vetus Latina. By 390 he turned to translating the Hebrew Bible from the original Hebrew, having previously translated portions from the Septuagint which came from Alexandria. He was aware the Council of Jamnia, or the mainstream rabbinical Judaism, had rejected the Septuagint as valid Jewish scriptural texts because of what were ascertained as mistranslations along with its Hellenistic heretical elements.^[14][15] He completed this work by 405. Prior to Jerome's Vulgate, all Latin translations of the Old Testament were based on the Septuagint not the Hebrew. Jerome's decision to use a Hebrew text instead of the previous translated Septuagint went against the advice of most other Christians, including Augustine, who thought the Septuagint inspired. Modern scholarship, however, has cast doubts on the actual quality of Jerome's Hebrew knowledge; the Greek Hexapla is now considered as still the main source also for Jerome's "iuxta Hebraeos" translation of the Old Testament.^[16]

For the next 15 years, until he died, Jerome produced a number of commentaries on Scripture, often explaining his translation choices in using the original Hebrew rather than suspect translations. His patristic commentaries align closely with Jewish tradition, and he indulges in allegorical and mystical subtleties after the manner of Philo and the Alexandrian school. Unlike his contemporaries, he emphasizes the difference between the Hebrew Bible "apocrypha" and the Hebraica veritas of the protocanonical books. Evidence of this can be found in his introductions to the Solomonic writings, the Book of Tobit, and the Book of Judith. Most notable, however, is the statement from his introduction to the Books of Samuel:

This preface to the Scriptures may serve as a helmeted [i.e. defensive] introduction to all the books which we turn from Hebrew into Latin, so that we may be assured that what is outside of them must be placed aside among the Apocryphal writings.^[17]

Jerome's commentaries fall into three groups:

• His translations or recastings of Greek predecessors, including fourteen homilies on the Book of Jeremiah and the same number on the Book of Ezekiel by Origen (translated ca. 380 in Constantinople); two homilies of Origen of Alexandria on the Song of Solomon (in Rome, ca. 383); and thirty-nine on the Gospel of Luke (ca. 389, in Bethlehem). The nine homilies of Origen on the Book of Isaiah included among his works were not done by him. Here should be mentioned, as an important contribution to the topography of Israel, his book De situ et nominibus locorum Hebraeorum, a translation with additions and some regrettable omissions of the Onomasticon of Eusebius. To the same period (ca. 390) belongs the Liber interpretationis nominum Hebraicorum, based on a work supposed to go back to Philo and expanded by Origen.
• Original commentaries on the Old Testament. To the period before his settlement at Bethlehem and the following five years belong a series of short Old Testament studies: De seraphim, De voce Osanna, De tribus quaestionibus veteris legis (usually included among the letters as 18, 20, and 36); Quaestiones hebraicae in Genesim; Commentarius in Ecclesiasten; Tractatus septem in Psalmos 10-16 (lost); Explanationes in Michaeam, Sophoniam, Nahum, Habacuc, Aggaeum. After 395 he composed a series of longer commentaries, though in rather a desultory fashion: first on Jonah and Obadiah (396), then on Isaiah (ca. 395-ca. 400), on Zechariah, Malachi, Hoseah, Joel, Amos (from 406), on the Book of Daniel (ca. 407), on Ezekiel (between 410 and 415), and on Jeremiah (after 415, left unfinished).
• New Testament commentaries. These include only Philemon, Galatians, Ephesians, and Titus (hastily composed 387-388); Matthew (dictated in a fortnight, 398); Mark, selected passages in Luke, Revelation, and the prologue to the Gospel of John. Treating Revelation in his cursory fashion, he made use of an excerpt from the commentary of the North African Tichonius, which is preserved as a sort of argument at the beginning of the more extended work of the Spanish presbyter Beatus of Liébana. But before this he had already devoted to the Revelation another treatment, a rather arbitrary recasting of the commentary of Saint Victorinus, with whose chiliastic views he was not in accord, substituting for the chiliastic conclusion a spiritualizing exposition of his own, supplying an introduction, and making certain changes in the text.

Jerome in the desert, tormented by his memories of the dancing girls of Rome.

The works of Hippolytus of Rome and Irenaeus greatly influenced Jerome's interpretation of prophecy.^[18] He noted the distinction between the original Septuagint and Theodotion's later substitution.^[19]

Jerome warned that those substituting false interpretations for the actual meaning of Scripture belonged to the “synagogue of the Antichrist”.^[20] “He that is not of Christ is of Antichrist,” he wrote to Pope Damasus I.^[21] He believed that “the mystery of iniquity” written about by Paul in 2 Thessalonians 2:7 was already in action when “every one chatters about his views.”^[22] To Jerome, the power restraining this mystery of iniquity was the Roman Empire, but as it fell this restraining force was removed. He warned a noble woman of Gaul:

“He that letteth is taken out of the way, and yet we do not realize that Antichrist is near. Yes, Antichrist is near whom the Lord Jesus Christ “shall consume with the spirit of his mouth.” “Woe unto them,” he cries, “that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days.”... Savage tribes in countless numbers have overrun all parts of Gaul. The whole country between the Alps and the Pyrenees, between the Rhine and the Ocean, has been laid waste by hordes of Quadi, Vandals, Sarmatians, Alans, Gepids, Herules, Saxons, Burgundians, Allemanni, and—alas! for the commonweal!-- even Pannonians.^[23]

His Commentary on Daniel was expressly written to offset the criticisms of Porphyry,^[24] who taught that Daniel related entirely to the time of Antiochus IV Epiphanes and was written by an unknown individual living in the 2nd century BC. Against Porphyry, Jerome identified Rome as the fourth kingdom of chapters two and seven, but his view of chapters eight and 11 was more complex. Jerome held that chapter eight describes the activity of Antiochus Epiphanes, who is understood as a "type" of a future antichrist; 11:24 onwards applies primarily to a future antichrist but was partially fulfilled by Antiochus. Instead, he advocated that the “little horn” was the Antichrist:

We should therefore concur with the traditional interpretation of all the commentators of the Christian Church, that at the end of the world, when the Roman Empire is to be destroyed, there shall be ten kings who will partition the Roman world amongst themselves. Then an insignificant eleventh king will arise, who will overcome three of the ten kings... after they have been slain, the seven other kings also will bow their necks to the victor.^[25]

In his Commentary on Daniel, he noted, “Let us not follow the opinion of some commentators and suppose him to be either the Devil or some demon, but rather, one of the human race, in whom Satan will wholly take up his residence in bodily form.”^[25] In interpreting 2 Thessalonians's claim that the Antichrist will sit in God's temple, Jerome preferred the view that the "temple" should be interpreted as the Church, not as the Temple in Jerusalem.^[26]

Jerome identified the four prophetic kingdoms symbolized in Daniel 2 as the Neo-Babylonian Empire, the Medes and Persians, Macedon, and Rome.^[27] Jerome identified the stone cut out without hands as "namely, the Lord and Savior".^[28]

Jerome refuted Porphyry's application of the little horn of chapter seven to Antiochus. He expected that at the end of the world, Rome would be destroyed, and partitioned among ten kingdoms before the little horn appeared.^[29]

Jerome believed that Cyrus of Persia is the higher of the two horns of the Medo-Persian ram of Daniel 8:3.^[30] The he-goat is Greece smiting Persia.^[31] Alexander is the great horn, which is then succeeded by Alexander's half brother Philip and three of his generals.

Historical and hagiographic writings[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

In the Middle Ages, Jerome was often ahistorically depicted as a cardinal.

Jerome is also known as a historian. One of his earliest historical works was his Chronicle (or Chronicon or Temporum liber), composed ca. 380 in Constantinople; this is a translation into Latin of the chronological tables which compose the second part of the Chronicon of Eusebius, with a supplement covering the period from 325 to 379. Despite numerous errors taken over from Eusebius, and some of his own, Jerome produced a valuable work, if only for the impulse which it gave to such later chroniclers as Prosper, Cassiodorus, and Victor of Tunnuna to continue his annals.

Important also is De viris illustribus, written at Bethlehem in 392, the title and arrangement of which are borrowed from Suetonius. It contains short biographical and literary notes on 135 Christian authors, from Saint Peter down to Jerome himself. For the first seventy-eight authors Eusebius (Historia ecclesiastica) is the main source; in the second section, beginning with Arnobius and Lactantius, he includes a good deal of independent information, especially as to western writers.

Four works of a hagiographic nature are:

• the Vita Pauli monachi, written during his first sojourn at Antioch (ca. 376), the legendary material of which is derived from Egyptian monastic tradition;
• the Vitae Patrum (Vita Pauli primi eremitae), a biography of Saint Paul of Thebes;
• the Vita Malchi monachi captivi (ca. 391), probably based on an earlier work, although it purports to be derived from the oral communications of the aged ascetic Malchus originally made to him in the desert of Chalcis;
• the Vita Hilarionis, of the same date, containing more trustworthy historical matter than the other two, and based partly on the biography of Epiphanius and partly on oral tradition.

The so-called Martyrologium Hieronymianum is spurious; it was apparently composed by a western monk toward the end of the 6th or beginning of the 7th century, with reference to an expression of Jerome's in the opening chapter of the Vita Malchi, where he speaks of intending to write a history of the saints and martyrs from the apostolic times.

Letters[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

Jerome's letters or epistles, both by the great variety of their subjects and by their qualities of style, form an important portion of his literary remains. Whether he is discussing problems of scholarship, or reasoning on cases of conscience, comforting the afflicted, or saying pleasant things to his friends, scourging the vices and corruptions of the time, exhorting to the ascetic life and renunciation of the world, or breaking a lance with his theological opponents, he gives a vivid picture not only of his own mind, but of the age and its peculiar characteristics.

The letters most frequently reprinted or referred to are of a hortatory nature, such as Ep. 14, Ad Heliodorum de laude vitae solitariae; Ep. 22, Ad Eustochium de custodia virginitatis; Ep. 52, Ad Nepotianum de vita clericorum et monachorum, a sort of epitome of pastoral theology from the ascetic standpoint; Ep. 53, Ad Paulinum de studio scripturarum; Ep. 57, to the same, De institutione monachi; Ep. 70, Ad Magnum de scriptoribus ecclesiasticis; and Ep. 107, Ad Laetam de institutione filiae.

Theological writings[link]

St. Jerome, by Palma il Vecchio

Practically all of Jerome's productions in the field of dogma have a more or less vehemently polemical character, and are directed against assailants of the orthodox doctrines. Even the translation of the treatise of Didymus the Blind on the Holy Spirit into Latin (begun in Rome 384, completed at Bethlehem) shows an apologetic tendency against the Arians and Pneumatomachoi. The same is true of his version of Origen's De principiis (ca. 399), intended to supersede the inaccurate translation by Rufinus. The more strictly polemical writings cover every period of his life. During the sojourns at Antioch and Constantinople he was mainly occupied with the Arian controversy, and especially with the schisms centering around Meletius of Antioch and Lucifer Calaritanus. Two letters to Pope Damasus (15 and 16) complain of the conduct of both parties at Antioch, the Meletians and Paulinians, who had tried to draw him into their controversy over the application of the terms ousia and hypostasis to the Trinity. At the same time or a little later (379) he composed his Liber Contra Luciferianos, in which he cleverly uses the dialogue form to combat the tenets of that faction, particularly their rejection of baptism by heretics.

In Rome (ca. 383) he wrote a passionate counterblast against the teaching of Helvidius, in defense of the doctrine of the perpetual virginity of Mary and of the superiority of the single over the married state. An opponent of a somewhat similar nature was Jovinianus, with whom he came into conflict in 392 (Adversus Jovinianum, Against Jovinianus) and the defense of this work addressed to his friend Pammachius, numbered 48 in the letters). Once more he defended the ordinary Catholic practices of piety and his own ascetic ethics in 406 against the Gallic presbyter Vigilantius, who opposed the cultus of martyrs and relics, the vow of poverty, and clerical celibacy. Meanwhile the controversy with John II of Jerusalem and Rufinus concerning the orthodoxy of Origen occurred. To this period belong some of his most passionate and most comprehensive polemical works: the Contra Joannem Hierosolymitanum (398 or 399); the two closely connected Apologiae contra Rufinum (402); and the "last word" written a few months later, the Liber tertius seu ultima responsio adversus scripta Rufini. The last of his polemical works is the skilfully composed Dialogus contra Pelagianos (415).

Reception by later Christianity[link]

Jerome is the second most voluminous writer (after St. Augustine) in ancient Latin Christianity. In the Roman Catholic Church, he is recognized as the patron saint of translators, librarians and encyclopedists.

He acquired a knowledge of Hebrew by studying with a Jew who converted to Christianity, and took the unusual position (for that time) that the Hebrew, and not the Septuagint, was the inspired text of the Old Testament. The traditional view is that he used this knowledge to translate what became known as the Vulgate, and his translation was slowly but eventually accepted in the Catholic Church.^[32] The later resurgence of Hebrew studies within Christianity owes much to him.

He showed more zeal and interest in the ascetic ideal than in abstract speculation. It was this strict asceticism that made Martin Luther judge him so severely. In fact, Protestant readers are not generally inclined to accept his writings as authoritative. The tendency to recognize a superior comes out in his correspondence with Augustine (cf. Jerome's letters numbered 56, 67, 102-105, 110-112, 115-116; and 28, 39, 40, 67-68, 71-75, 81-82 in Augustine's).

Despite the criticisms already mentioned, Jerome has retained a rank among the western Fathers. This would be his due, if for nothing else, on account of the great influence exercised by his Latin version of the Bible upon the subsequent ecclesiastical and theological development.

In art[link]

The vision of Saint Jerome by Louis Cretey, 17th century, oil on canvas, 150,5 x 127 cm, private collection.

In art, he is often represented as one of the four Latin doctors of the Church along with Augustine of Hippo, Ambrose, and Pope Gregory I. As a prominent member of the Roman clergy, he has often been portrayed anachronistically^[33] in the garb of a cardinal. Even when he is depicted as a half-clad anchorite, with cross, skull and Bible for the only furniture of his cell, the red hat or some other indication of his rank as cardinal is as a rule introduced somewhere in the picture.

He is also often depicted with a lion, "a figment" found in the thirteenth-century Golden Legend by Jacobus de Voragine,^[34] and less often with an owl, the symbol of wisdom and scholarship.^[35] Hagiographies of Jerome talk of his having spent a lot of his years in the Syrian desert, and multiple artists have titled their works "St Jerome in the wilderness"; some of them include Pietro Perugino and Lambert Sustris.^[36] Writing materials and the trumpet of final judgment are also part of his iconography.^[35] He is commemorated on 30 September with a memorial.

See also[link]

Wikisource has original works written by or about: Jerome

• Church Fathers
• Bible translations
• Order of St. Jerome
• Genesius of Arles
• Letter of Jerome to Pope Damasus
• Ferdinand Cavallera

References[link]

Notes

Bibliography

• J.N.D. Kelly, "Jerome: His Life, Writings, and Controversies" (Peabody, MA 1998)
• S. Rebenich, "Jerome" (London and New York, 2002)
• "Biblia Sacra Vulgata," Stuttgart, 1994. ISBN 3-438-05303-9
• This article uses material from Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religion.

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Jerome

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Saint Jerome

• St. Jerome (pdf) from Fr. Alban Butler's Lives of the Saints
• The Life of St. Jerome, Priest, Confessor and Doctor of the Church
•  "St. Jerome". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913. 
• Jewish Encyclopedia: Jerome
• St. Jerome – Catholic Online
• St Jerome (Hieronymus) of Stridonium Orthodox synaxarion
• Early Church Fathers. Jerome: Great Translator
• Further reading of depictions of Saint Jerome in art
• What happened on July 21, 365 A.D.? Jerome vindicated

Latin texts[link]

Latin Wikisource has original text related to this article: Biblia Sacra

• Chronological list of Jerome's Works with modern editions and translations cited
• Opera Omnia (Complete Works) from Migne edition (Patrologia Latina, 1844-1855) with analytical indexes, almost complete online edition

Facsimiles[link]

• Migne volume 23 part 1 (1883 edition)
• Migne volume 23 part 2 (1883 edition)
• Migne volume 24 (1845 edition)
• Migne volume 25 part 1 (1884 edition)
• Migne volume 25 part 2 (1884 edition)
• Migne volume 28 (1890 edition?)
• Migne volume 30 (1865 edition)

English translations[link]

• English translations of Biblical Prefaces, Commentary on Daniel, Chronicle, and Letter 120 (tertullian.org)
• Jerome's Letter to Pope Damasus: Preface to the Gospels
• English translation of Jerome's De Viris Illustribus
• The Perpetual Virginity of Blessed Mary
• Lives of Famous Men (CCEL)
• Apology Against Rufinus (CCEL)
• Letters, The Life of Paulus the First Hermit, The Life of S. Hilarion, The Life of Malchus, the Captive Monk, The Dialogue Against the Luciferians, The Perpetual Virginity of Blessed Mary, Against Jovinianus, Against Vigilantius, To Pammachius against John of Jerusalem, Against the Pelagians, Prefaces (CCEL)

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