In Origen’s Footsteps

In his first Galatians preface Jerome casts himself in an Origenian mold in order to establish himself as the pre-eminent expert on Paul in the Latin-speaking world. Both in this preface and in the first Ephesians one he says that he “followed” Origen’s commentaries. But, beyond simply aligning himself rhetorically with Origen in these prefaces, to what extent does he in fact “follow” Origen in his commentaries? This chapter attempts to answer this crucial question by presenting a source-critical comparison of the fragments of Origen’s Pauline commentaries and their counterparts in Jerome’s. From there it explores some important implications, for his own self-constructed authority as an interpreter of Paul, of Jerome’s nuanced handling of his Greek exegetical sources.