Letter 129: In answer to a question put by Dardanus, prefect of Gaul, Jerome writes concerning the Promised Land which he identifies not with Canaan but with heaven. He then points out that the present sufferings of the Jews are due altogether to the crime of which they have been guilty in the crucifixion of Christ. The date of the letter is 414 A.D.
Jerome to the illustrious Prefect Dardanus of Gaul — greetings.
You ask what the Promised Land is and where it is to be found. My answer: not in Canaan.
The land promised to Abraham and his descendants was, from the beginning, a figure pointing beyond itself. When God said "I will give you this land," He was not promising a parcel of real estate in the eastern Mediterranean; He was promising a home, a permanence, a belonging — things that no earthly territory can ultimately provide, as the subsequent history of Israel demonstrates with painful thoroughness.
The true Promised Land is heaven. The Jews who died in the wilderness, who never entered Canaan, were not cheated; they inherited what Canaan always pointed toward. Joshua led the people across the Jordan, yes — but Joshua is a figure (his name is the Hebrew form of "Jesus"), and the Jordan is a figure, and the land is a figure. The spiritual reader understands this.
As for the present condition of the Jewish people — scattered, without a temple, without a sacrifice, living as strangers wherever they find themselves — this is the consequence of the crime they committed in rejecting and crucifying the Messiah. I say this not with satisfaction but with sorrow. The apostle Paul wept over this; he would have given his own salvation, if it were possible, to bring his people to faith. I share that grief, even while I insist on the plain truth of what happened and what it means.
I hope this brief answer is useful. Write to me again if you have further questions; men who hold the reins of government and still find time to think about Scripture are a rarer commodity than they should be.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.
Related Letters
Avitus to whom this letter is addressed is probably the same person who induced Jerome to write to Salvina (see Letter LXXIX., §I, ante). The occasion of writing is as follows. Ten years previously (that is to say in A.D.