The Patrologia Latina · Volume XXIV
The Commentary on Isaiah
Volume 24 is Jerome the exegete at full stretch. The Commentary on Isaiah, eighteen books written at Bethlehem between 408 and 410 AD, is the largest commentary on the prophet to come out of the early church: every verse of Isaiah read first for its history and then for what it says of Christ and the church. With it stands the Commentary on Jeremiah, the work Jerome was still writing when he died and which breaks off at chapter 32, and the nine homilies of Origen on the visions of Isaiah that survive only in this Latin. We are translating every one into English.
About this volume
Isaiah verse by verse, and the unfinished Jeremiah
The Commentary on Isaiah is dedicated to Eustochium and opens with a prologue that calls Isaiah an evangelist as much as a prophet. Jerome takes the book in order, printing the Vulgate lemma, setting beside it the Septuagint and the other Greek versions, and then expounding. The ten burdens against the nations in Isaiah 13 to 23 he treats three times over: Book 5 gives the historical reading, Books 6 and 7 the spiritual. Books 8 to 18 carry the rest of the prophet, the servant songs and the new heavens and new earth included, each book with its own short preface to Eustochium.
The Commentary on Jeremiah, dedicated to Eusebius of Cremona, was begun in 414 AD and left unfinished at Jerome’s death: six books reaching Jeremiah 32. It is the plainest of his commentaries, mostly literal, and its prefaces carry his last words against Pelagius and his followers. Origen’s nine homilies on the visions of Isaiah, chiefly the vision of the Lord enthroned and the seraphim in Isaiah 6, are printed here in the Latin translation traditionally ascribed to Jerome, the only form in which they survive.
A short anonymous abridgment on Isaiah closes the volume; Migne prints it among Jerome’s works and we keep it, with its authorship left open. As across the whole project, we translate the original works only, in fresh English, and give them away free to read.
Where to start
Three to begin with
The great commentary
Commentary on Isaiah
Commentarii in Isaiam
Eighteen books (408 to 410 AD) on every chapter of Isaiah, the ten burdens read historically and then spiritually.
Read →The last work
Commentary on Jeremiah
Commentarii in Jeremiam
Six books begun in 414 AD and unfinished at Jerome’s death, reaching Jeremiah 32.
Read →Origen in Latin
Nine Homilies on the Visions of Isaiah
Homiliae novem in visiones Isaiae
Origen on the vision of Isaiah 6, surviving only in the Latin printed among Jerome’s works.
Read →The contents
4 works
Each is a fresh English translation from the Latin, free to read online, in the order Migne printed them.
- 01
Commentary on Isaiah Commentarii in Isaiam Prophetam Libri Duodeviginti
Jerome's eighteen-book commentary on Isaiah, written at Bethlehem and dedicated to Eustochium, is the fullest patristic exposition of the prophet.
100 ch. Read free → - 02
Commentary on Jeremiah Commentarii in Jeremiam Prophetam Libri Sex
Jerome's unfinished six-book commentary on Jeremiah 1 through 32, his last work, dictated between 414 AD and his death in 419 or 420 AD.
39 ch. Read free → - 03
Nine Homilies on the Visions of Isaiah Homiliae Novem in Visiones Isaiae, Translatio Latina
Nine homilies by Origen on Isaiah's visions, chiefly the vision of the Lord enthroned among the seraphim, surviving only in this Latin translation traditionally ascribed to Jerome.
33 ch. Read free → - 04
A Short Abridgment on Isaiah In Isaiam Parvula Abbreviatio
A brief anonymous commentary on the opening verses of Isaiah, printed among Jerome's works though not written by him, glossing the text word by word in both historical and allegorical senses.
11 min Read free →
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