I love Jerome. I just…
I cannot, therefore, be surprised if a poor little fellow like me is exposed to the gruntings of vile swine who trample our pearls under their feet, when some of the most learned of men, men whose glory ought to have hushed the voice of ill will, have felt the flames of envy. – St Jerome
Many years ago now I asked one of my Seminary profs what he did for a daily devotional. He said ‘study scripture as intensely as I can, digging into every nook and cranny till i understand the text as best I can at that moment.’
‘But you don’t have a daily devotional?’ I asked.
‘That IS my daily devotional. Don’t let anyone tell you that hard academic work is anything less than utter devotion and spiritual discipline.’ Was his response.
And he was right. Academic pursuits are just as aimed at growing in faith as any bible reading plan added to prayer. Maybe more so, since the aim is to really understand the text and not just read through it.
I would even be so bold as to say that intense academic work is the highest form of devotional activity.
Well this and many other reasons:
Augustine thought it was natural to allegorise Gen 1-2 and much harder to attempt a literal commentary. Similarly, in a homily on the psalms Origen says, I always found this verse hard so I read it figuratively; but as I studied more, I wondered if it might even be true literally. – Ben Myers
Slackers. And lazy exegetes.
Roland Bainton, Here I Stand (New York, 1950), pages 351-352
With thanks to the various folk on twitter who pointed it out.
After a bit of looking I found the passage in the WA, 27, 408ff.
Photos from the kindly Christoph Markschies:
The last one, of him as a youngster, is extraordinary. I had never seen a picture of him that early in life. I appreciate Christoph sharing these and I also appreciate that there are others who still find this extraordinary scholar worth reading and understanding.
Once Christianity presented itself in the eyes of the law and the authorities as a religion distinct from that of Judaism, its character as a religio illicita was assured. No express decree was needed to make this plain. In fact, the “non licet” was rather the presupposition underlying all the imperial rescripts against Christianity. After the Neronic persecution, which was probably instigated by the Jews, though it neither extended beyond Rome nor involved further consequences, Trajan enacted that provincial governors were to use their own discretion, repressing any given case,3 but declining to ferret Christians out. Execution was their fate if, when suspected of lèse-majesté as well as of sacrilege, they stubbornly refused to sacrifice before the images of the gods of the emperor, thereby avowing themselves guilty of the former crime. On the cultus of the Cœsars, and on this point alone, the state and the church came into collision. The apologists are really incorrect in asserting that the Name itself (“nomen ipsum”) was visited with death. At least, the statement only becomes correct when we add the corollary that this judicial principle was adopted simply because the authorities found that no true adherent of this sect would ever offer sacrifice. He was therefore an atheist and an enemy of the state.*
You’ll search far and wide for a contemporary scholar who understands early Christianity and the history of dogma better than von Harnack. In fact, to be frank, none exist.
_____________________
*The Mission and Expansion of Christianity in the First Three Centuries, Vol. 1, pp. 488–489).
This is all down to Bibi and his racist genocidal policies and the IDF chief’s actions and the general environment of hate that they’ve ginned up against human beings.
Bibi is a war criminal. And he should spend the rest of his life in prison for murdering tens of thousands of innocent men, women, and children.
Niels Peter Lemche informs me, after seeing the earlier photo of von Harnack, that
… his political engagement is worth mentioning, and his sons and daughters followed up. One of his sons was executed for resistance against Hitler, one of them for participating in the attack on 20 JUL 1944. So this family represent the best of what we know of German excellency, and paid for it.
Devils dribble. Amen.
That’s the day, 39 years ago, that I was ordained. What would I tell my younger self about ministry if I could time travel back to that day?
If I could time travel, these are the things I would tell my younger self.
The King James Version of the Bible was published in Britain. And no, the one you carry around with you that says KJV on the spine isn’t the same at all! If your Bible doesn’t look like this, you don’t have a KJV 1611:
What you carry around with you is a revision of the KJV that was made in 1769- over 150 years afterwards. The language was revised (as can be seen by simply comparing the spellings from the KJV on your shelf with the photo of the 23rd Psalm from the 1611 KJV) and font (the old Gothic font is no longer used because most people can’t read it).
The KJV has been transformed over the years, much of it’s language is now outdated, and many cannot use it because it is no longer comprehensible.
What matters isn’t the translation one reads: what matters is that one reads a reliable translation that they can understand (because there’s no use in reading the Bible if you can’t comprehend it).
If you need help in choosing a reliable translation, just ask. I’m happy to make recommendations.
Have a modestly depressing day.
I saw this on Facebook and liked it. That’s reason enough to share it.
Zwinglius Redivivus 
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