Jeromes Conspiracy by author Michael Wood.

[Universalist Catholic]

I got the book for Easter.  But I had noticed some things about the book that struck me as odd.  For the most part, the book was right about the mistranslation of the word Aion, the verses that people seem to overlook when reading the bible, the Schools of Alexandria, Antioch, Ceasaria, and Edessa, along with Origen, Clement, Gregory of Nyssa, St. Macrina, Theodore of Montepusa and Diodore of Tarsus. 

What Im a bit leary on are some of the biblical claims made.  First off, they seemed to make indication that 2 Peter and Jude were both pseudonymous, and influenced by a later writer of no inspiration under the teachings of Loch and Enoch. 

The book also stated that there were two versions of the New Testament, one from Egypt and the other from Babylon.  The Egyptian one being the version the Sepugiant that Jesus spoke from. 

The book also seemed to give much of the blame to St. Jerome, when in fact many scholars believe that Jerome was a Universalist.  Personally, I would say Augustine and Justinian did more damage than Jerome.


They seemed to portray Evangelical Churches in a way that made them all look like close minded cultists who did not want people to learn, but only wanted people to understand the scriptures the way that their church does. 

They also portrayed a Catholic priests who was willing to do biblical studies even if they did not agree with church doctrine. 


They also indicated that many people who have done some critical bible studies with a bias against universal salvation and for eternal torment came back believing in Universal Salvation.

[WhiteWings]

Jerome--A.D. 331-420--was one of the ablest of the fathers of the century in which he lived--"the
most learned except Origen," up to his time. He wrote in Latin, and was contemporary with
Augustine, but did not accept all the Paganism of the great corruptor of Christianity. He stood in line
with his Oriental predecessors. At first he was an enthusiastic partisan of Origen, but later, when
opposition to the great Alexandrian set in, he became an equally violent component. Schaff says he
was a great trimmer and time server, and at length seemed to acquiesce in the growing influence of
Augustinianism. Jerome had "originally belonged, like the friend of his youth, Rufinus, and John,
Bishop of Jerusalem, to the warmest admirers of the great Alexandrian father. 2 But attacked as he
now was, with remonstrances from different sides, he began out of anxiety for his own reputation for
orthodoxy, to separate himself with the utmost care from the heresies with which he was charged."

Jerome translated fourteen homilies of Origen on Jerimiah, and fourteen on Ezekiel, and quotes
Didymus as saying that Origen was the greatest teacher of the church since St. Paul. During his
residence in Rome Jerome highly praised Origen, but soon after, when he found himself accused of
heresy for so doing, he declared that he had only read him as he had read other heretics. In a letter to
Vigilantius he says: "I praise him as an interpreter, not as a dogmatic teacher; for his genius, not for
his faith; as a philosopher, not as an apostle. If you believe me, I was never an Origenist; if you do not
believe me, I have now ceased to be one.

So to me Jerome was a UR but got scared into ET

[Pierac]

Before you judge Jerome you should be fully aware of his writings.

Jerome in 391 C.E. said:

"As, then, there are twenty-two elementary characters by means of which We write in Hebrew all We say, and the compass of the human voice is contained within their limits, so WE reckon twenty-two books, by which, as by the alphabet of the doctrine of God, a righteous man is instructed in tender infancy, and, as it were, while still at the breast."

Jerome comments on the Old Testament, Preface to Samuel and Kings

This was the arrangement advocated by Christ himself as representing "the Scriptures" (Luke 24:44–45).

Yet Jerome's final cannon of the O.T.  contained more than 22... Why???  Follow the money and power! The scriptures are not as even Jerome thought they should be, yet he lost out on his own private interpertation!  Yes, you might know that which is attested to Jerome, but you know not the truth of his convictions! You must read his writings, not the history his bosses wanted recorded ... 


Paul