Jerome, Illustrious Men 3.1-8
https://caesarea-maritima.org/testimonia/285
Context
Among his many works, St. Jerome wrote a catalog of renowned thinkers
of the Roman world during the first years after his move from Rome to Bethlehem. In
mostly brief sketches he describes the intellectual achievements, particularly writings,
of 135 men, many leaders in the early Church. In his life of Matthew the evangelist, he
discusses the Hebrew version of the gospel, which was available in the ecclesiastical
library at Caesarea.
Text
Mattheus qui et Levi, ex publicano apostolus, primus in Iudea propter
eos qui ex circumcisione crediderunt evangelium Christi hebreis litteris verbisque
conposuit; quod quis postea in graecum transtulerit, non satis certum est. Porro ipsum
hebraicum habetur usque hodie in Caesariensi bibliotheca, quam
Pamphilus martyr studiosissime confecit. Mihi quoque a Nazareis qui in Veria, urbe
Syriae, hoc volumine utuntur, describendi facultas fuit.1
Textual Note
Ed. Bernoulli 1895Translation
Matthew, also known as
Levi, a tax-farmer who became an Apostle, wrote the gospel of Christ at first published in
Judaea in Hebrew for the sake of circumcised believers; someone later translated it into
Greek, but the authorship is uncertain. Moreover, the Hebrew itself has been preserved until
the present day in the Library at Caesarea which Pamphilus the Martyr
so diligently assembled. I have also been able to have the book described to me by the
Nazarenes in Beroea, a city in Syria, who use it.2
Translation Note
Adapted from Schaff 1892 and Halton 1999Works Cited
- 1 Jerome, De Viris Inlustribus: Machine Readable Text, ed. Carl Albrecht Bernoulli (Madison, WI: Google; University of Wisconsin - Madison, 2009), p: 3, line: 1-8.
- 2 Jerome, Saint Jerome: On Illustrious Men, trans. Thomas P. Halton, The Fathers of the Church: A New Translation (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 1999), p: 10, ch: 3.1-2.
How to Cite This Entry
Joseph L. Rife, “Jerome, Illustrious Men 3.1-8,” in Caesarea Maritima: A Collection of Testimonia, entry published October 19, 2022, https://caesarea-maritima.org/testimonia/285.
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Bibliography:
Joseph L. Rife, “Jerome, Illustrious Men 3.1-8.” In Caesarea Maritima: A Collection of Testimonia, edited by Joseph L. Rife., edited by Joseph L. Rife. Caesarea City and Port Exploration Project, 2022. Entry published October 19, 2022. https://caesarea-maritima.org/testimonia/285.About this Entry
Entry Title: Jerome, Illustrious Men 3.1-8
Authorial and Editorial Responsibility:
- Joseph L. Rife, general editor, Vanderbilt University
- Joseph L. Rife, editor, Caesarea Maritima: A Collection of Testimonia
- David A. Michelson, Daniel L. Schwartz, and William L. Potter, technical editor, “Jerome, Illustrious Men 3.1-8”
- Joseph L. Rife, entry contributor, “Jerome, Illustrious Men 3.1-8”
Additional Credit:
- TEI encoding by William L. Potter
- Electronic text added by Joseph L. Rife
- Testimonia identified by Joseph L. Rife