Commentary on Jeremiah

Jerome (c. 347-419), one of the West's four doctors of the church, was recognized early on as one of the church's foremost translators, commentators and advocates of Christian asceticism. Skilled in Hebrew and Greek in addition to his native Latin, he was thoroughly familiar with Jewish traditions and brought them to bear on his understanding of the Old Testament. In 405 Jerome completed his Latin translation of the Old Testament, based on the Hebrew text, and not long afterward began to work on commentaries devoted to the major prophets--Daniel (407), Isaiah (408-410), Ezekiel (410-414), culminating with Jeremiah but reaching only through chapter 32 before his death in 419. Throughout the commentary Jerome displays his familiarity with both Hebrew and Greek texts of Jeremiah, often establishing the literal meaning through the Hebrew text and offering a spiritual interpretation that draws on the Septuagint. He frequently interacts with other translations known from Origen's Hexapla. Jerome's extensive education in the classics and Jewish tradition as well as in both Antiochene and Alexandrian exegesis shine through the commentary at every point. Here for the first time Michael Graves supplies readers with a highly readable translation in English, useful textual notes and a helpful introduction. Ancient Christian Texts are new English translations of full-length commentaries or sermon series from ancient Christian authors that allow you to study key writings of the early church fathers in a fresh way.

Table of Contents:

Contents
General Introduction / Page VII
Abbreviations / Page XV
Translator?s Introduction / Page XXlll
Commentary on the Prophet Jeremiah in Six Books: Eusebius Hieronymus (Jerome)

Prologue / Page 1

Book One: Jeremiah 1:-5:19 / Page 2
Book Two: Jeremiah 5:20-11:23 / Page 37
Book Three: Jeremiah 12:1-17:27 / Page 76
Book Four: Jeremiah 18:1-23:40 / Page 111
Book Five: Jeremiah 24:1-29:32 / Page 148
Book Six: Jeremiah 30:1-32:34 / Page 183

Bibliography / Page 219

Subject Index / Page 221

Scripture Index / Page 225

Gerald L. Bray (Ph.D., La Sorbonne) is a professor at Beeson Divinity School of Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama, and director of research at Latimer Trust. He has written and edited a number of books on different theological subjects. A priest of the Church of England, Bray has also edited the post-Reformation Anglican canons.

Michael Graves (Ph.D., Hebrew Union College) is associate professor of Old Testament at Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois, and the author of Jerome's Hebrew Philology.

Christopher A. Hall is chancellor of Eastern University and dean of Palmer Theological Seminary. He is also associate editor of the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture and the author of Reading Scripture with the Church Fathers, Learning Theology with the Church Fathers and Worshiping with the Church Fathers.

Thomas C. Oden (1931–2016), was the general editor of the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture and the Ancient Christian Doctrine series as well as the author of Classic Christianity, a revision of his three-volume systematic theology. He was the director of the Center for Early African Christianity at Eastern University in Pennsylvania and he served as the Henry Anson Buttz Professor of Theology at The Theological School of Drew University in Madison, New Jersey. Oden was active in the Confessing Movement in America, particularly within the United Methodist Church and was president of The Institute for Classical Christian Studies. He suggested that Christians need to rely upon the wisdom of the historical Church, particularly the early Church, rather than on modern scholarship and theology and said his mission was "to begin to prepare the postmodern Christian community for its third millennium by returning again to the careful study and respectful following of the central tradition of classical Christianity."