St Jerome is the scholar known for his translation of the Bible into Latin called The Latin Vulgate, the Bible that uses the Hebrew Old Testament and Greek New Testament (The Hebrew OT and Greek NT is basis for most Bible translations today). Jerome was a contemporary of St Augustine of Hippo and was secretary to Pope Damasus. Jerome is giant of the church who was a sinner in his youth, converted to Christianity and studied in Rome (Gaul), then studied in New Rome (Constantinople, Byzantium) under the Eastern Orthodox Gregory Nazianius, tutored under a Messianic Jew in Hebrew, and finally spent the better part of his life in Bethlehem and the Holy Land. Jerome was a Roman Catholic who believed in canons of the Papacy, he learned Hebrew from Messianic Jew and spent time with Jewish Christians, he fought the heresies of Arianism, Pelagiusim, Origenism, and Rufinism using Eastern Orthodox Christian apologetics; and he possessed a rather Protestant desire to make the Holy Scriptures available to his contemporaries in language of the day, Latin. Jerome was Renaissance man of the Church, and yet in his story which contains serving Popes, studying under Eastern and Syrian scholars and ascetics, combating the heresies of Origin, Arius, and Pelagius, and his fervent devotion to monasticism, Jerome was unique figure due to his involvement in the Church in all its forms. He was devout Roman (Latin) Catholic and believed in Pope's primacy and authority as supreme, he had Eastern Orthodox approach to apologetics and lived in times of The Nicene Council, he wrote to Heretics and Apostates, and He translated the Holy Bible with help of a Messianic Jew into what would become the staple languages for most translations today, Hebrew Old Testament and Greek New Testament.
Truly, Jerome did roam to the many parts of the Church and interacted with believers in all their forms. But what is fascinating, is that he was a devout Catholic and lover of classical literature. This scholar saint battled between the two worlds of Christian thought and Pagan thought, his heart was resolved to serve Christ, but his mind and literary appetite craved the classics. Eventually, Jerome had vision of Christ sitting in judgment over him over his love of the classics, this might have spured the scholar to take on the clothes of Lady Poverty and seek the life of an ascetic as on modern scholar attests,"Jerome had a terrifying dream of standing before Jesus Christ on judgment day and being rejected from salvation because of his love for the classics, and especially Cicero. Jerome's intermittent and not entirely successful pursuit of the ascetic lifestyle was an attempt to purge the influence of paganism from his life." (James R. Edwards,Why Jerome Is An Icon of Our Times, Christianity Today, Christian History). While it is evident Jerome was ahead of his time, crossing denominational lines before they even were defined, he was deeply traumatized by his vision of Christ judging his love of classics. The question is does Christ Jesus want us to forgo and forget the classics and hold fast to His Word alone? The answer as it was for Jerome was not one easily found. Jerome sought to avoid this indulgence of the pagan intellect, his desire for the classics, but was it necessary?
Many of classics such as Sophocles' Oedipus The King, Homer's The Iliad and Odyssey, Virgil's Aeneid, Cicero's Works, and many other classics are steeped in the pagan mythos. St. Augustine argues in His mammoth volume, "City of God" that Rome fell because it kept bowing to the idols and false gods, instead of turning wholeheartly to Christ Jesus. In Augustine's estimation it would seem the classics serve as cultic writings to keep people in bondage to devils, and thus it then seems feasible that the classics do more harm than good, because they enlighten only to darken men's minds by leading them into paganisms and away from Light of Christ. Jerome may have indeed seen Jesus Christ, warning Him that if he kept reading the classics and staying devoted to them, it would imperil his soul, "What good is it for man to gain the whole world and lose his soul?" (Matthew 16:26). It is quite possible Jerome was challenged by the passage written by St. Paul, "I count all things lost but knowing Christ," (Philippians 3:8) and "Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." (Colossians 2:2-3).
Jerome's struggle is one we all embark on as we press into Jesus our Savior. For Christ said, "Whoever wants to be my disciple, he must deny himself, pick up his cross, and follow me." (Matthew 16:24, JGT). Jerome undoubtly saw his cross to be the classics, and that he had to deny them that his soul might be saved. This is test of any true believer, will you caste aside the wisdom of the world for the Wisdom of Immortal God? There are many that will argue you do not have to decide, that claim you can be a Christ follower and Classical philosopher, but even an opponent of Jerome named Origen discovered this cannot be so, for Origen a doctor of literature discarded his literature books and professorship in Greece, and had nothing to do with them, devoting his life to theology and pursuit of the Narrow Path. Origen got deceived in his theology, espousing an heretical view about Trinity that was corrected at The Council of Nicene. But it is remarkable that a contemporary on the opposite side, who was Heterdox, while Jerome was Orthodox came to the same conclusion, you cannot "serve two masters, you will love one and hate the other.." (Matthew 6:24).
The singular devotion to the Savior was definitely fueled by Jerome's monastic exposure in Syria. But the vision of Christ condemning him over his love of classics is quite Biblical. For the Apostle Paul discarded all the wisdom of the world, He says, "And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified." (1 Corinthians 2:1-2). The Apostle Paul in these verses was addressing very intellectual Greeks, and yet he chose not to know their classical learning or to tempt them to the Truth with their paganisms. Jerome decision to deny his love of literature is in fact minor compared to the words of St. Paul, "Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ." (Phillippians 3:8, NLT). The Apostle Paul discovered what Jerome did, that everything else is rubbish compared to knowing the Redeemer and in whom is all wisdom (Colossians 2:2-3). In fact Paul makes this case in other places in Scripture, undoubtly Jerome read them while translating the Bible, "For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength," (1 Corinthians 1:25), and "For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God's sight. As it is written: "He catches the wise in their craftiness" (1 Corinthians 3:19). The classics were craftiness of the Greeks, the very people the Apostle Paul was seeking to share the Gospel with. I imagine another couplets of verses that urged Jerome to take radical view against the myths of his favorite classics was this word, "For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will reject the truth and chase after myths." (2 Timothy 4:3-4). From Apostles to the late Middle Ages many people assumed End of Days was neigh, and so Jerome likely held this view.
After the days of Jerome, and at turn of the fifth century, Monks developed a different view. They believed they could redeem the classics, and make them Christianized. One great example is Beowulf which only survives in its Christianized variation as an parable and moral tale. Clergy came to believe the classics could be converted to convert pagans, an idea that probably crept in with the many paganisms during the conversion of the Saxons. All other European tribes, The Franks, the Norsemen, The Goths, the Picts, The Scots, and more gave up their pagan beliefs to follow Christ and convert. The Saxons were the exception, they wanted concessions and they got them. St. Jerome would find within two hundreds years after his death a different world, one that believed Christianity and Paganism could be in harmony, and were the classics were infused with Christian rites and beliefs, and the rites, practices, and traditions of church infused with paganism.
The result of this surrender to Saxony lead to a seriously corruption of church, like that of Emperor Constantine adding tributes to the sun god in churches and allowing Christian Paganism (later after triumph of Orthodoxy at Nicene, and subsequent councils Constantine adopted the faith, and was baptized before his death). Jerome knew as Paul did that one cannot mingle the matters of this world with the manifest Word; the wisdom of the world is at odds and opposes the Wisdom of God and vice versa. You will find yourself on one side or the other, no one can blend the two. Either the Gospel gets watered down giving the pagan and classical knowledge the limelight or the Gospel shines its light making clear that paganism is the path to hell and classical knowledge the foolishness of men. Jerome chose to follow Jesus and put aside his volumes on Julius Cesar. You have to eventually decide, are you going to follow Emmanuel or Epictetus? You cannot serve both. Jerome's heart roamed between the two until he was given the gracious vision to understand that the good intentions of the Greeks and other classics pave the way to hell.
I think a distinction should be drawn between knowing the classics and information, and loving them. We all need a rudimentry understanding of pagan history, literature, culture, miltary, and more. The difference lies in knowing Cicereo and loving Christ, versus loving Cicero as much as Christ. If one becomes bonded to a pagan like Virgil, one is apted to pity that he is doomed in the Eternal Pit and thus develop enmity towards God for not vindicating him (see Dante's Inferno). This is why James says, "You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God." (James 4:4). Jerome was struggling with friendship and love for the world in form of the classics and their authors. He was not being chastised (Revelation 3:19) for knowing those works and authors. Jesus was trying to teach Jerome what the Apostle John already knew, "Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them." (1 John 2:15). There is nothing wrong with knowledge, knowing what the classical authors say, there is a problem loving them, because their ways and knowledge is crooked. One many know how the devil fell, his goals, and his history divulged in the Bible, but such knowledge does not mean friendship, but rather facts for fighting him on the supernatural battlefield! The problem was Jerome fell in love with devils (paganisms), and Jesus Christ revealed in His mercy the damnation that comes with them. Like Jerome I believe we need to, "attempt to purge the influence of paganism ," from our lives. '
Addedum:
Some more thoughts on why not to be involved in mythologies and idols (even Yoga)
"Don’t you realize that those who do wrong will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don’t fool yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin, or who worship idols, or commit adultery, or are male prostitutes, or practice homosexuality, 10 or are thieves, or greedy people, or drunkards, or are abusive, or cheat people—none of these will inherit the Kingdom of God. 11 Some of you were once like that. But you were cleansed; you were made holy; you were made right with God by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God." (1 Corinthians 6:9-11).
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