Jerome

In his own words on Hebrews

• Hebrews 1:1

  The epistle which is called the Epistle to the Hebrews is not considered his [Paul's], on account of its difference from the others in style and language, but it is reckoned, either according to Tertullian to be the work of Barnabas, or according to others, to be by Luke the Evangelist or Clement afterwards bishop of the church at Rome, who, they say, arranged and adorned the ideas of Paul in his own language, though to be sure, since Paul was writing to Hebrews and was in disrepute among them he may have omitted his name from the salutation on this account. He being a Hebrew wrote Hebrew, that is his own tongue and most fluently while the things which were eloquently written in Hebrew were more eloquently turned into Greek and this is the reason why it seems to differ from other epistles of Paul.

  De Viris Illustribus (On Illustrious Men), Section 5

• Hebrews 1:2

  He, who first spoke through patriarchs and prophets, afterwards spoke in his own person. As the Song of Songs says, "that he would kiss me with the kisses of his mouth." He is saying, therefore, "Now, in my own person, I speak of him of whom I spoke through the prophets." The world could not hear him in his thundering, but may it hear him, at least, in his crying.

  HOMILIES ON THE PSALMS, ALTERNATE SERIES 66 (PSALM 88)

• Hebrews 3:17-18

  They died, for they could not enter the promised land. They merely looked over toward the land of promise, but they could not enter it. The Jews beheld the promised land but could not enter it. They died in the desert.… We, their children, under the leadership of Jesus, have come to the Jordan and entered the promised land.

  HOMILIES ON THE PSALMS 10 (PSALM 76)

• Hebrews 6:7-8

  Would you like to know in what way the faithful are compared with clouds in holy writ? Isaiah says, "I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon them." Moses was speaking as if he were a cloud when he said, "May my teaching drop as the rain." The letters of the apostles are spiritual rain for us. As a matter of fact, what does Paul say in his letter to the Hebrews?: "For land which has drunk the rain that often falls upon it," and again, "I planted, Apollos watered."

  HOMILIES ON THE PSALMS, ALTERNATE SERIES 73 (PSALM 96)

• Hebrews 7:3

  And Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought forth bread and wine; and he was the priest of the most high God. And he blessed him. Because our work, either the Hebrew Questions or the Collection of Traditions, is once for all, therefore let us infer what the Hebrews think of this. They say that he is the son of Shem, Noah's son; and by calculating the years of his life, they show that he lived until Isaac, and that all the firstborn of Noah, until Aaron assumed the priesthood, were priests. Furthermore, Jerusalem is called the king of Salem, which was previously called Salem. However, blessed Apostle to the Hebrews, mentioning one without a father or mother, refers to Christ, and through Christ to the Church of the Gentiles. For all the glory of the head is referred to the members, because he, having a foreskin, blessed the circumcised Abraham, and in Abraham the Levites, and through the Levites Aaron: from whom later the priesthood. From this he wants to gather that the priesthood of the Church, having a foreskin, blessed the synagogue with the circumcised priesthood. But as he says: You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek: our mystery is signified in the word of the order: not by offering irrational victims through Aaron, but by offering bread and wine: that is, the body and blood of the Lord Jesus.

  HEBREW QUESTIONS ON GENESIS 14.18-19

• Hebrews 11:36-37

  I know that some criticize this passage, questioning why only one evangelist, Judas, is mentioned as being upset, when it is said that all the apostles were indignant. They do not understand the figure of speech known as synecdoche, by which one person can be used to represent all, or one can be used to represent many. For even Paul, in his Epistle to the Hebrews (although many Latin writers doubt it), when he described the sufferings and merits of the saints, introduced the following: They were stoned, they were tested, they were sawn in two, they were killed by the sword (Heb. 11:37), since the Jews only admit that Isaiah the Prophet was sawn. We can also say that the apostles were truly indignant because of the poor: but Judas because of his gains. And his muttering is also attributed to the crime that he did not have care for the poor, but wanted to provide for his own theft.

  COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 4.26.9

• Hebrews 11:37-38

  Moses and the prophets went about in goatskins, wandering in their caves and in holes in the ground. They were poor men just like Lazarus, and they suffered calamities and endured hunger.

  ON LAZARUS AND DIVES 86

• Hebrews 12:2

  God has entered us as contestants in a racecourse where it is our lot to be always striving. This place, then, a valley of tears, is not a condition of peace, not a state of security, but an arena of struggle and of endurance.

  HOMILIES ON THE PSALMS 16 (PSALM 83)

• Hebrews 12:14

  The disciple of Christ must do more for the attainment of spiritual glory than the philosopher of the world, than the venal slave of flying rumors and the people's whims. It is not enough for you to despise wealth unless you follow Christ as well. And only the one who follows Christ forsakes his sins and walks hand in hand with virtue. We know that Christ is wisdom. He is the treasure which in the Scriptures a man finds in his field. He is the peerless gem which is bought by selling many pearls. But if you love a captive woman, that is, worldly wisdom, and if no beauty but hers attracts you, make her bald and cut off her alluring hair, that is to say, her adornments and pare away her dead nails. Wash her with the soap of which the prophet speaks, and then take your ease with her and say, "Her left hand is under my head, and her right hand embraces me." Then shall the captive bring to you many children; from a Moabitess she shall become an Israelite woman. Christ is that sanctification without which no one shall see the face of God. Christ is our redemption, for he is at once our redeemer and our ransom. Christ is everything, so that the one who has left everything for Christ may find one in place of everything and may be able to proclaim freely, "the Lord is my portion."

  LETTER 66.8