Jerome's Judaizers

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the nature and identity of all those whom Jerome describes, both explicitly and implicitly, as Judaizers. Most of the alleged oblique references to Judaizers, collected primarily by Samuel Krauss, are dismissed as irrelevant. Several are shown to be veiled attacks on Augustine, which are to be understood in light of the controversy over Galatians 2.14. Explicit evidence of Judaizing found in non-exegetical contexts is limited at best. The largest mass of material attributes millenarian interpretations of the Prophets to an anonymous body of iudaizantes (the passages are listed in an appendix). It is shown that Jerome uses the term loosely to defame all millenarians (with particular attention to Apollinaris of Laodicea) and that nothing can be learned from these passages regarding genuine Judaizing tendencies among Jerome's contemporaries. Jerome's attacks on supposed Judaizers are examined in the context of his own vulnerability to the charge of Judaizing due to his revolutionary translation of the Hebrew Bible and his intimate contact with Jews in Palestine.