Against Jovinian

Contents

Translation in progress.

Reading pages: 1.1–1.10 · 1.11–1.16 · 1.17–1.26 · 1.27–1.35 · 1.36–1.40 · 1.41–2.1 · 2.2–2.6 · 2.7–2.15 · 2.16–2.23 · 2.24–2.32 · 2.33–2.38

1. 1.1Jerome explains that brothers at Rome sent him Jovinian's treatises, whose style he finds nearly unintelligible.
2. 1.2Jerome quotes a sample of Jovinian's obscure style.
3. 1.3Jerome mocks Jovinian's style and states his own position: marriage is good and honorable, but virginity, born of marriage, is better, as the hundredfold fruit surpasses the thirtyfold.
4. 1.4Jerome compares Jovinian's teaching to the serpent's in paradise, announces his plan, and states that Jovinian, by making all merits equal, wrongs both virginity and marriage.
5. 1.5Jerome summarizes Jovinian's first argument: from Genesis onward God blessed marriage, and the patriarchs, prophets, and apostles were married.
6. 1.6Jerome announces that he will answer Jovinian first with Paul's teaching in 1 Corinthians 7.
7. 1.7Jerome expounds 1 Cor 7:1–9 and 1 Pet 3:1–7 to argue that marriage is allowed as a remedy against sexual immorality and that intercourse hinders prayer.
8. 1.8Jerome argues that Paul's permission to resume marital relations is an indulgence, not a command, and that the gifts of virginity and marriage differ.
9. 1.9Jerome argues that "better to marry than to burn" makes marriage good only by comparison with something worse.
10. 1.10Jerome summarizes 1 Cor 7:10–17 on divorce and mixed marriages and argues that Christian women may not marry pagans.
11. 1.11Jerome interprets Paul's sayings about circumcision and slavery in 1 Cor 7:17–24 as figures for the married and the unmarried.
12. 1.12Jerome answers Jovinian's use of "I have no command of the Lord": virginity is counseled, not commanded, as Christ's saying on eunuchs shows, and is the greater gift.
13. 1.13Jerome expounds 1 Cor 7:28–38: marriage is not sin, but virginity is better, freeing the virgin for the things of the Lord.
14. 1.14Jerome argues from 1 Cor 7:39–40 and other texts that second marriage is permitted only as a concession and ranks below a single marriage.
15. 1.15Jerome reports a view that Paul's permission to remarry applied to those widowed before baptism, and argues that if second marriage is allowed, so are third and later ones.
16. 1.16Jerome begins his answer from the Old Testament: Adam and Eve were virgins in paradise, Christ and the Church are the true sense of Gen 2:24, and the number two is not called good.
17. 1.17Jerome explains Enoch's translation by faith and reads Noah's ark, in which husbands and wives entered separately, as a type of the Church.
18. 1.18Jerome argues that meat-eating, divorce, and circumcision were later concessions, and that Christ restores the order of the beginning, in which there was no divorce.
19. 1.19Jerome answers Jovinian's appeal to the patriarchs: Abraham's circumcision must be followed with his wives, Isaac had one wife, and Jacob's marriages belong to his time in Mesopotamia.
20. 1.20Jerome turns Jovinian's examples from Judah to Moses, and cites the laws of Sinai, the bread of the Presence, and priestly marriage as showing the precedence of chastity.
21. 1.21Jerome reads Joshua's crossing of the Jordan, the circumcision at Gilgal, and the conquest as figures of the Gospel's victory over marriage and the senses.
22. 1.22Jerome contrasts Moses, the married figure of the law, with Joshua, of whom no wife or children are recorded, comparing their deaths and burials.
23. 1.23Jerome answers Jovinian's examples of Samson, Deborah, Jephthah, Samuel, and Boaz and Ruth.
24. 1.24Jerome answers the examples of David and Solomon: their many wives belong to the time of the law, and the Gospel requires more.
25. 1.25Jerome answers the examples of Elijah and Elisha, Hezekiah, Huldah, and Daniel.
26. 1.26Jerome argues that the apostles' marriages belonged to the time before the Gospel, that 1 Cor 9:5 refers to women who served them, and that John, the virgin apostle, was specially loved by Christ.
27. 1.27Jerome answers Jovinian's use of 1 Tim 2:13–15: the mother is saved if her children remain in faith and chastity, which Jerome takes as virginity.
28. 1.28Jerome cites Solomon's Proverbs against marriage, arguing that even a good wife is a risk and the love of woman insatiable.
29. 1.29Jerome reads Ecclesiastes as teaching a time for marriage under the law and a time for virginity under the Gospel, and argues that Adam and Eve married only after leaving paradise.
30. 1.30Jerome reads the Song of Songs as celebrating virginity, the chaste turtledove, and the bride's purity.
31. 1.31Jerome applies the "garden enclosed" of the Song to the Virgin Mary and finds further praise of virginity in the Song.
32. 1.32Jerome defends the reading "virgin" in Isa 7:14 from the Hebrew almah and argues that God chose a virgin, not a married woman or widow, to bear his Son.
33. 1.33Jerome answers Jovinian's claim that baptized virgins and widows are equal, citing Jeremiah's virginity and Ezekiel's freedom after his wife's death.
34. 1.34Jerome answers the objection that Paul appointed married clergy: Paul's requirements were a concession to new converts, and married clergy are bound to continence.
35. 1.35Jerome expounds the qualifications for a bishop in 1 Tim 3, stressing chastity, and argues that rank in the clergy does not determine merit before Christ.
36. 1.36Jerome answers the objections that universal virginity would end the human race and that the genital organs show we are made for intercourse.
37. 1.37Jerome gathers Paul's sayings on the flesh and the spirit (Romans, 1–2 Corinthians, Galatians) and applies them to the superiority of chastity.
38. 1.38Jerome continues with texts from Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and the Pastoral Letters urging a life of the spirit and of continence.
39. 1.39Jerome cites Philip's virgin daughters, James the Lord's brother, and the letters of James and Peter as teaching virginity, and applies 2 Peter 2 to Jovinian.
40. 1.40Jerome applies 2 Peter to Jovinian's luxurious life, cites John's letters and Revelation 14 on the virgins who follow the Lamb, and explains Christ's presence at Cana.
41. 1.41Jerome turns to pagan history and legend for examples of honored virginity and of virgins who died to preserve their chastity.
42. 1.42Jerome cites pagan and Indian traditions of virgin births and virgin women.
43. 1.43Jerome cites Dido and Hasdrubal's wife as pagan women who chose death rather than a second marriage or captivity.
44. 1.44Jerome gives further pagan examples of faithful wives: Niceratus's wife, Artemisia, Teuta, the Indian widows, and Alcibiades's concubine.
45. 1.45Jerome continues with examples of devoted wives: Strato's wife, Panthea, the wife of Candaules, Rhodogune, Alcestis, Penelope, and Laodamia.
46. 1.46Jerome gives examples of Roman women honored for chastity and for refusing a second marriage.
47. 1.47Jerome quotes at length Theophrastus's lost book On Marriage, arguing that a wise man should not marry.
48. 1.48Jerome adds examples from pagan history and literature of the troubles of marriage, and the views of Epicurus and Chrysippus.
49. 1.49Jerome quotes Seneca's lost On Marriage on excessive love and on chastity as woman's chief virtue, and ends with pagan honor for the once-married.
50. 2.1Jerome states Jovinian's second proposition: the baptized cannot be tempted by the devil.
51. 2.2Jerome answers from 1 John itself that the baptized can sin and need Christ as their advocate.
52. 2.3Jerome gathers New Testament texts showing that the baptized can be tempted, fall, and repent, against Jovinian, Montanus, and Novatian.
53. 2.4Jerome gives Old Testament examples of holy men who sinned after God's favor, and describes the devil's power from Job, to show that the baptized must still guard against temptation.
54. 2.5Jerome sets out Jovinian's third proposition on food: everything was created for human use, and Christ and the apostles ate and drank.
55. 2.6Jerome answers the argument from the uses of animals: many creatures serve medicine or the needs of laborers, but the Christian seeking perfection may abstain from meat and wine.
56. 2.7Jerome argues that diets vary by nation and custom, not by a law of nature, and that Christians, reborn to God, should subdue the flesh.
57. 2.8Jerome describes how the five senses serve as gates for vices to enter the soul.
58. 2.9Jerome cites philosophers who withdrew from luxury to pursue wisdom, and concludes that no one can live in pleasures without being held by them.
59. 2.10Jerome argues that reason must govern the senses and especially eating, and that simple food is healthier than rich food.
60. 2.11Jerome cites physicians and philosophers (Hippocrates, Galen, Diogenes, Epicurus) for the health and freedom of a simple diet.
61. 2.12Jerome notes that some recovered their health when forced into poverty, and introduces Horace on gluttony.
62. 2.13Jerome cites Dicaearchus, Xenophon, and Chaeremon for the simple diet of the golden age, the Persians, the Spartans, and the Egyptian priests.
63. 2.14Jerome cites Jewish, Persian, Indian, Greek, and Cynic examples of abstinence, especially Antisthenes and Diogenes.
64. 2.15Jerome traces fasting through Scripture from Adam's fast in paradise to Moses, Elijah, Daniel, John the Baptist, Christ, and Paul.
65. 2.16Jerome explains that Paul's condemnation of those who forbid foods is aimed at heretics who despise creation, and that Romans 14 concerns Jewish food laws, not fasting.
66. 2.17Jerome answers the appeal to Christ's eating and drinking: Christ sanctified fasting, ate after the resurrection only to prove his body, and Scripture condemns gluttony and commands fasts.
67. 2.18Jerome sets out Jovinian's fourth proposition: there are only two orders, the righteous and sinners, with one reward and one punishment.
68. 2.19Jerome continues Jovinian's argument: the parable of the sower, Christ's indwelling, the one temple, and the one Church show that all the saved are equal.
69. 2.20Jovinian's argument continues: the stars of 1 Cor 15, the members of the body, the prodigal son, and the laborers in the vineyard show equal reward.
70. 2.21Jerome accuses Jovinian of turning Stoic in teaching equal merits, and turns the argument against Jovinian's own change from ascetic to luxurious life.
71. 2.22Jerome grants the division between good and evil but argues from Ezekiel and Paul that there are differences of merit and reward among the righteous themselves.
72. 2.23Jerome argues from Paul's teaching on gifts, the ranks of the Church, and the different glories of sun, moon, and stars that there will be degrees of reward among the saved.
73. 2.24Jerome argues that Jovinian's examples of equal fortune in this life prove nothing about the final judgment, where merit will be distinguished.
74. 2.25Jerome answers Jovinian's arguments from the equal manna, the parables, the flood, and the Passover: these concern the division between good and bad, not equality among the good.
75. 2.26Jerome refutes Jovinian's claim that the Gospels promise "sevenfold" and defends the threefold yield as degrees of reward.
76. 2.27Jerome argues from the indwelling of Christ, the least and greatest in the kingdom, and Jacob's ladder that there are degrees among the saved and that one can fall.
77. 2.28Jerome rejects Jovinian's reading of the "many dwellings" as churches and argues from the priesthood, Ezekiel, and the angelic orders that there are ranks in heaven.
78. 2.29Jerome argues that the temple and body of Christ have many parts and degrees, and that believers are one with God by grace, not by nature, through the sacrament and the Spirit.
79. 2.30Jerome argues from the members of the body, the difference between sins, and the two Adams that there are degrees among the righteous and among sinners.
80. 2.31Jerome answers the claims that all sins and all martyrdoms are equal and that the penitent equals the righteous, using the parables of Luke 15 and Ezekiel.
81. 2.32Jerome interprets the denarius paid to all the laborers as the one deliverance through baptism, after which rewards differ by works.
82. 2.33Jerome argues from the Gospels (the debtors, talents, minas) and Old Testament examples (cities of refuge, Gibeonites, Jonathan) that there are degrees of merit and reward.
83. 2.34Jerome argues from the division of the land, the temple, the Psalms of Ascents, and the orders of priesthood that there are ranks in the Church and in heaven.
84. 2.35Jerome summarizes his answers to Jovinian's four propositions.
85. 2.36Jerome turns on Jovinian's followers, contrasting their luxury with the ascetics, and charges that his teaching has led virgins to marry.
86. 2.37Jerome traces Jovinian's teaching to old heresies, laments that it took root at Rome, and satirizes its message and followers.
87. 2.38Jerome closes by appealing to the city of Rome to reject Jovinian's teaching.