The research concentrates on the exegesis of the Blessed Jerome of Stridon, on its
studying within the hermeneutical and philological methodology. In other words it
investigates the works of Jerome of Stridon that interpret the pericopes from the Saint
Scripture. Moreover, the mentioned analysis of the exegetical works of the Blessed
Jerome allows revealing His hermeneutical method.
It’s worth noting that Jerome of Stridon argued that Biblical text appeared not
only according to God’s will. Instead, He contradicted to pagan meaning that the author
of the sacral text was simply a medium of divine information. Blessed Jerome insisted
on the fullness of natural peculiarities and the harmless of the Old Testament’s scripters
according to the early Christian patristic tradition. It can be reasonably contended that
His knowledge of Hebrew allowed Him to compare comprehensively different
translations of the Saint Scripture. As a result of His textual research, Jerome of Stridon
pointed to Hebraic text as the most authentic. In other words this method is more known
as the theory of “Hebraic truth”.
Research suggests that early Christian exegesis affected Jerome of Stridon’s
treatises, without any doubt depending on different stages of his exegetical activity. For
instance, the influences of Origen are firmly observed in the early exegetical works of
the Blessed Jerome, that is why He preferred allegorical explanations of the text. But
later He favored mostly literally (historical grammar) method to study Saint Scripture.
This is because, according to Blessed Jerome commenting Bible means to historically
contextualize, as well as to analyze etymology of names and geographical terms,
explaining peculiarities of the Hebraic characters. It should be stressed that the Author
of Vulgate considered that Saint Scripture is the principal norm of itself commenting.
Moreover, spiritual conditions of the exegete, it means of the clergy, are crucial to
interpret convenient the Saint Scripture.
This research has noticed how Blessed Jerome used the philological method in his
exegetic treatises. For example, commenting on a particular book from the Bible He
figures out the authorship and time of its writing, as well as describe the historical
context, etc. Also, Jerome of Stridon used the Hebraic system of Biblical canon, it
means the structure of the books in the Saint Scripture. This pattern of findings is
consistent with the idea that Blessed Jerome’s interpretation of the Saint Scripture
allows to reinterpret some biblical terms, names, or geographical words, and in
conclusion it does not contradict to Christian doctrine. It’s worth noting that He did not
use all the terms identical, the same pericope or phrase in different biblical books could
mean diversely. According to the Blessed Jerome knowing of languages as well as
historical and geographical or grammatical contextualization are important additional
instruments to interpret the Saint Scripture. It can be reasonably contended that His
comprehensive analyzing of the biblical verses and His studying of the etymology, as
well as their comparing with different translations, should be examined as the
fundamental heritage of the Early Christian exegesis. Especially His exegetical treaties
strongly affected the Latin exegetical tradition.
Another task of the research was to analyze typological peculiarities of the
Blessed Jerome exegetical works. It belonged to its very essence to compare Old and
New Testaments in every treatise of Jerome of Stridon because according to him
mentioned books of the Saint Scripture are all-in-one Revelation. All these aspects have
to be taken into account by Him in a study on the Prophet Books for the reason that
especially these Books strictly connect Old and New Testaments. Consequently, the
Blessed Jerome’s interpretation of the Prophet Books is the quintessence of His
exegesis stressed His credo and Christian faith.
