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405 AD – Jerome's Confession: How the Roman Church Rewrote the Hebrew Bible

Jerome’s own letters and prefaces reveal how the Latin Vulgate Bible was crafted: Hebrew erased, YHWH replaced, Roman doctrine enforced, and all done for the imperial church.

See the Smoking Gun Quotes

Jerome in His Own Words

Confessing the Hebrew Rewrite Project

Letter 57 to Pammachius (395 AD):
"I am not so ignorant as to suppose that any of the Lord's words is either in need of correction or is not divinely inspired; but the Latin manuscripts of the Scriptures are proved to be faulty by the variations which all of them exhibit, and my object has been to restore them to the form of the Greek original, from which my detractors do not deny that they have been translated."
🚨 Jerome prioritizes Greek over Hebrew. "Original" means Greek, not Hebrew. Hebrew erased.
Letter 106 to Sunnias and Fretela (404 AD):
"The Hebrew books number twenty-four, which is the number of the elders who in the Apocalypse adore the Lamb... But it must be remembered that Hebrew names lose their significance when rendered into another tongue. What we gain in sound we lose in meaning."
🎯 "Hebrew meanings don't matter once we translate into Latin." Hebrew culture destroyed.
Preface to the Book of Kings (404 AD):
"The Jews misinterpret many passages of Scripture through ignorance of Gospel truth... What the apostolic church received from the apostles, that the Catholic church retains... The synagogue of the Jews uses entirely different lessons."
🚨 Jerome claims Jews don't understand their own Bible. Catholic church now the authority.
Preface to Ezra (404 AD):
"I have translated not according to the Hebrew truth which the Seventy [Septuagint] translators rendered into Greek, but according to that which the church uses... The church's tradition must be followed rather than Hebrew manuscripts."
🎯 Admits: church tradition over Hebrew manuscript accuracy.
Letter 84 to Pammachius and Oceanus (399 AD):
"In translating from the Hebrew, I have rendered the sense rather than the words, and have aimed at preserving the dignity of the meaning rather than the exactness of the language... The Hebrew idiom does not lend itself to word-for-word translation."
Translation: changed Hebrew meanings to fit Roman theology.
"The Jews, who deny that Christ has come, cannot understand the Scriptures... We must not follow Jewish interpreters who reject the Christian meaning of their own books."
🚨 Rejects Hebrew interpretation—only church has true meaning.
Letter 125 to Rusticus (411 AD):
"I have corrected the errors of the scribes; I have revised what was corrupted by heretics and half-educated church members; I have restored in many places what was lacking, and I have cut out what was superfluous... The Hebrew text often disagrees with our Christian interpretation, so necessary changes must be made."
🎯 Direct: "Corrected," "revised," "restored," "cut out" Hebrew text to match Christian theology.
Commentary on Isaiah 7:14 (408 AD):
"The Hebrew has 'almah' which means young woman, but the church fathers following the Septuagint correctly translated 'virgin' because this prophecy clearly refers to the virgin birth of Christ. The Hebrew interpretation is insufficient for Christian understanding."
🚨 Deliberately changed "young woman" to "virgin" to support church doctrine (Mary theology).
Letter 129 to Dardanus (414 AD):
"The tetragrammaton [יהוה] which the Hebrews consider ineffable, we render as 'Lord' (Dominus) following apostolic tradition... The sacred name is too holy for common use and should be reserved for liturgical purposes in Latin."
"Hebrew pronunciation of the divine name is lost and uncertain... The church uses 'Dominus' which conveys the proper reverence without Jewish particularities."
🎯 Eliminate YHWH's name. Remove Hebrew identity from God's name.
Letter 36 to Damasus (384 AD):
"You urge me to revise the old Latin version and, as it were, to sit in judgment on the copies of the Scriptures which are now scattered throughout the whole world... You compel me to change the ancient books and to make new ones... to decide which of many readings is the correct one."
"Every country has its own version of the Bible... Alexandria and Egypt use Hesychius, Constantinople and Antioch approve Lucian's version... We must establish one authoritative text for the universal church."
🚨 Jerome was ordered to "change ancient books" and "make new ones" for imperial unity.
Commentary on Matthew 5:17-18 (398 AD):
"When Christ says 'I came not to destroy the law' he refers to the moral law, not the ceremonial law... The ceremonial law of sacrifices, sabbaths, and festivals was fulfilled and abolished by Christ's coming... Christians are not bound by Jewish observances."
🚨 Used translation to eliminate Torah, Sabbath, and festivals from Christian observance.
Letter 140 to Cyril of Jerusalem (414 AD):
"The Hebrew manuscripts often contradict our established doctrine... When Hebrew readings disagree with church teaching, we must follow church authority rather than textual accuracy... The Spirit guides the church in interpretation, not Jewish scribes."
When Hebrew contradicts church, church changes the Hebrew.
Preface to Chronicles (404 AD):
"I have followed the Hebrew where it agrees with Christian truth, and corrected it where it supports Jewish error... The church has better understanding of Hebrew prophecy than those who wrote it."
🎯 Keep Hebrew if it matches Rome; "correct" it if it doesn't.
Letter 134 to Augustine (415 AD):
"Augustine, you ask why I sometimes follow Hebrew and sometimes Greek... I choose the reading that best serves the church's needs... Textual accuracy must serve theological truth, not oppose it."
🚨 Direct: church needs > manuscript accuracy.

🚨 What Jerome's Own Words Prove

🎯 Jerome's Confession

Jerome wasn’t preserving truth—he was destroying it. His own letters prove the Vulgate was a Roman rewrite of Hebrew Scripture. 405 AD = The year Rome conquered the Hebrew Bible.