Letter 121: Jerome writes to a lady of Gaul named Algasia to answer eleven questions which she had submitted to him. They were as follows:— (1) How is Luke 7:18, 19, to be reconciled with John i. 36?
Jerome to the noble Algasia of Gaul — greetings.
Your eleven questions show a careful reader — and some of them are questions that learned men have debated for generations without reaching agreement. I will offer my best answers.
On John the Baptist and the doubts he seems to express in Luke 7 (question 1): John did not doubt personally; his disciples did. He sent them to Christ not for his own reassurance but to give his disciples direct contact with the one he had been pointing toward all along. A good teacher does not keep students tied to himself; he sends them on to the truth he has been announcing.
On "the bruised reed he will not break" (Matthew 12:20, question 2): This refers to those who are weak in faith — those whose faith flickers but has not gone out. Christ does not extinguish them. He protects the wounded, the doubting, the barely-surviving. It is a verse worth memorizing.
On the parable of the unjust steward (question 6): This is one of the most consistently misread passages in Scripture. The steward is not praised for dishonesty. He is praised for prudence — for using the time available to him wisely. Christ's point is not "be dishonest like him" but "be as clever about eternal things as this man was about earthly ones."
On "I could wish that I myself were accursed" (Romans 9:3, question 9): Paul does not mean he would actually desire damnation. He is expressing, in the rhetorical mode of hyperbole, a love for his people so intense that he would, if it were possible and if it accomplished their salvation, willingly suffer anything. It is the language of a man at the end of what language can do.
I will send fuller answers to the remaining questions as time permits.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.
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