Need help undertanding the beliefs of Jerome

Ronald Quick

I’ve been studying Isaiah and one of the commentaries I am using is by Jerome.  It’s my understanding that Jerome did not agree with Pelagius or believe in free will, but this quote from his commentary on Isaiah 1:19-20 below seems to indicate otherwise.  Am I misunderstanding something here?

26. (1:19–20a–b) If you be willing and will listen, you will eat the good things of the land. (20) But if you will not be willing and listen, or as the Hebrew has, And will provoke me to wrath, the sword will devour you.

“He preserves free choice, so that in both directions there is either punishment or reward, not by the predetermined judgment of God, but by the merits of individuals.”

I’m not trying to get into a theological discussion on free will.  If there are any logos resources that help here, please let me know.  (This is my obvious attempt to adhere to forum guidelines).  I was just wondering if someone could provide some clarification here.  I hope I am not venturing too far outside the forum guidelines by asking this, but I have come to respect many of the individuals here and value their insight.

Thanks.

https://www.logos.com/product/55222/st-jerome-origen-commentary-on-isaiah-origen-homilies-1-9-on-isaiah

https://ref.ly/logosres/jeromecommis?ref=BibleRSVCE.Is1.18b-20b&off=1271&ctx=rginity+%5bRev+14%3a4%5d.%0a~26.+(1%3a19%E2%80%9320a%E2%80%93b)+If+

Olli-Pekka Ylisuutari

It’s my understanding that Jerome did not agree with Pelagius or believe in free will...

Hi, Ronald!

As long as we are arguing about Jerome’s views on free will or Pelagius, we are sailing on safe waters – and not try to make this a question of truth, but rather a question of Jerome’s own subjective views. So no harm done! [;)]

(In my studies in Helsinki University it was customary to call these kinds of inquiries “graybeard-studies” or “chap-scholarship”, meaning studying the views of “old men”).

I am not a Jerome scholar. That being said, the commentary you point us to clearly indicates in the introduction (written by T. P. Scheck) that Jerome had a “strong defense of the freedom of the human will in the process of salvation and damnation.”

I would refer you to Scheck’s Introduction on Jerome’s views on free coice, divine foreknowledge, and predestination.

It is the interpretation of Christopher Wordsworth that Jerome’s seemingly “pro-pelagian” passages should not technically be seen so much as “pro-pelagian” as rather “anti-manichean.”

Says Wordsworth quoting Jerome: “Let us walk in the royal road, and neither swerve to the right hand nor to the left, and let us say that the desires of our free will are governed always by the help of God.”

Henry Bettenson thinks that “one can discern no consistent position” (in the dispute between Pelagius and Jerome).

Wow, you (and Logos) made me learn something new! [:D]