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Our collection begins with the work of one of the most thorough students of the Bible in the early church, and with a sermon that may well have been preached in Bethlehem itself, in a church built to honor Jesus' birth (the Basilica of the Nativity). Jerome was a pioneer biblical scholar, who translated the entire Hebrew Old Testament and the Greek New Testament into Latin, and is known for his work in assessing the validity of biblical manuscripts. After living in Rome, Antioch, and Constantinople, he worked for almost thirty five years in Bethlehem.

Most of Jerome's Christmas sermon consists of phrase-by-phrase commentary on Luke 2. Jerome's pastoral intent can be seen in his advice to the poor to take comfort in Jesus' lowly birth. He takes time to ponder each textual detail, often citing other Scripture texts that provide insight on the meaning o f a given phrase-though occasionally Jerome makes more of each detail than the text warrants (did Joseph really not touch baby Jesus?). The sermon also includes a short treatise on why Jesus' birth should be celebrated on Christmas (in light of a calendar dispute with other Christians of the time) and culminates with a summons to Christmas praise. In a move emulated by preachers o f every generation, Jerome ends with an apology for preaching too long ("We have forgotten our resolution and said more than we intended"!).

In this sermon, Jerome was the first to tie Lukes comment that there was no room found for them in the inn to the idea of Jewish unfaithfulness. This association fed into the adversus Judaeos tradition, which was used to fuel Christian hatred of Jews.

"She laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn." (Luke 2:7) His mother laid him in a manger. Joseph did not dare to touch him, for he knew he had not been begotten of him. In awe, he rejoiced at a son, but he did not dare to touch the Son.

"She laid him in a manger." Why in a manger? That the prophecy of Isaiah, the prophet, might be fulfilled: "An ox knows its owner, and a donkey, its master's manger." (Isa.1:3) In another place, it is written: "You save both humans and animals, O Lord." (Ps. 36:6) If you are human, eat the Bread; if you are an animal, come to the manger.

"Because there was no room for them in the inn." Appropriately said: "There was no room for them in the inn," for Jewish unbelief had overflowed into everything. He found no room in the Holy of Holies that shone with gold, precious stones, pure silk, and silver. He is born in the midst of gold and riches, but in the midst of dung, in a stable (wherever there is a stable, there is also dung) where our sins were more filthy than the dung. He is born on a dunghill in order to lift up those who come from it; "from a dunghill he lifts up the poor." (Ps.113:7) He is born on a dunghill, where Job, too, sat and afterwards was crowned.

"There was no room for them in the inn." The poor should take great comfort from this. Joseph and Mary, the mother of the Lord, had no servant boy, no maid servant. From Nazareth in Galilee, they come all alone; they own no work animals; they are their own masters and servants. Here is a new thought. They go to the wayside inn, not into the city, for poverty is too timid to venture among the rich. Note the extent of their poverty. They go to a wayside inn. Holy Scripture did not say that the inn was on the road, but on a wayside off the road, not on it, but beyond it; not on the way of the Law, but on the byway of the Gospel, on the byroad. There was no other place unoccupied for the birth of the Savior except a manger, a manger to which were tethered cattle and donkeys. O, if only I were permitted to see that manger in which the Lord lay! Now, as an honor to Christ, we have taken away the manger of clay and have replaced it with crib of silver, but more precious to me is the one that has been removed. Silver and gold are appropriate for unbelievers; Christian faith is worthy of the manger that is made of clay. He who was born in that manger cared nothing for gold and silver. I do not find fault with those who made the change in the cause of honor (nor do I look with disfavor upon those in the Temple who made vessels of gold), but I marvel at the Lord, the Creator of the universe, who is born, not surrounded by gold and silver, but by mud and clay.

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December (Web-only) 2004, Vol. 48