Having received an extraordinary education in the Latin classics, J. nevertheless enlisted himself in the service of the Christian church. He came into touch with monastic ideals along with his boyhood friend, Rufinus, and they eventually established a monastic community at Aquileai. Around 370, this community disbanded and J. moved on ot Antioch, acquiring skills in Greek and Hebrew while he was there. At this stage, he also read the Scriptures fervently all in response to a dream in which he heard that God wanted him to put him before Cicero. He became embroiled in ecclesiastical politics, siding with Paulinus for the bishop of schismatic Antioch over against Meletius, who was eventually granted the see. While he did secure the West's support of Paulinus, it never availed anything. In 382 J. went to Rome to plead for him an dstayed there, and J. became secretary to the Bishop Damasus. Failing to get elected Pope following Damasus' death and having collected a number of enemies in the Eternal City, J. journeyed to Jerusalem and finally Bethlehem along with and under the patronage of Paula and Marcella. Again, he became a player in a dispute over the theology of Origen, and it took several years before he became reconciles with his opponent, John of Jerusalem. Rufinus was at the other end of this controversy, and their already strained friendship came to an end for good at this juncture. Most of the rest of J.'s life was spent writing commentaries, a task in which he was already heavily engaged.

a) Exegetical works dominate the Hieronymian corpus. Beginning in 391, he exclusively went back to original languages for his translations. He commented on or composed sermons about Paul, on Matthew, Mark, on Obad, Isaiah, Genesis, Psalms, the minor prophets, Daniel, Ezekial, and Jeremiah. He also discussed exegetical problems in several of his letters. b) J.'s letters run to the number of 154 and are a valuable source of contemporary historical information especially ecclesiastical politics. C) His De viris illustribus stands in the tradition begun by Suetonius of praising the literary achievements of the Romans-but with a twist. J. documents the achievements of Christians in the literary arts.

Not one for dogmatic theology, J.'s life focus was on scholarship and asceticism. However, he did enter dogmatic controversies occasionally and carried enough influence that Augustine sought out his support in the conflict with Pelagius. Though J.'s ascetic practices came close to Pelagius' he nevertheless supported the Augustinian position. J.'s interest in Eastern spirituality transferred into the West through his translations of Pachomius and others. Not only in ascetic theology, but also in biblical exegesis, J. was an important source for the West of the fruits of the East. He distinguished himself as a textual critic and remains most important for his translations of the Bible into Latin, which became the basis of the Scriptural text from the^7th century onwards. His translations of Origen, Didymus the Blind, and other church fathers preserve some of their writings and exposed the Latin world to their work. In the Origenist controversy, he strove for orthodoxy, yet was unwilling to give up Origen's pioneering work in theological scholarship-a task and mission J. willingly inherited. Through his study of Hebrew J. created a link to the Hebrew tradition that Hellenized Christians of his time period were overlooking. His hagiographical works became the basis of later Latin hagiography.