In order to elucidate the prophecies of Ezekiel, especially those against Egypt in Book 29, Jerome reconstructed the siege of Tyre by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar. He seems to have done this not so much on the basis of the predictions recorded in the Bible (to say nothing of accurate records), as by comparison with accounts of Alexander the Great’s siege of the same city more than two hundred years later. Jerome seems particularly dependent on the account of Alexander’s siege of Tyre given by Quintus Curtius Rufus. The following investigation broadens our understanding of the authors known and used by Jerome, the uses to which he put his historical reading, and the methods of his Biblical exegesis, especially historical reconstruction.
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Ezek. 29.18. F. Hitzig, Der Prophet Ezechiel (Leipzig: Weidmann, 1847) 227-32 also takes this verse to refer to the labour of constructing a causeway for siege engines, but does not indicate that he is indebted to Jerome on this point. C. Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Ezekiel, trans. J. Martin (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1876) i 377, ii 12, likewise takes it that Ezekiel’s description of the siegeworks at Tyre and the taking of the city, as well as his reference to the hard work of the besiegers, presupposes the construction of an embankment to fill up the strait.
D. Wiseman, Nebuchadrezzar and Babylon: The Schweich Lectures 1983 (Oxford: Oxford University Press for the British Academy, 1985) 26-9.
E. Unger, Babylon, die heilige Stadt nach der Beschreibung der Babylonier (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1931) 282-94; J. Pritchard, Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament, 3rd ed. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1969) 307-8; H. Katzenstein, The History of Tyre: From the Beginning of the Second Millenium [sic] bce until the Fall of the Neo-Babylonian Empire in 538 bce ( Jerusalem: Schocken Institute, 1973) 334; Wiseman (1985) 29, 73-5.
Unger (1926); R. Dougherty, Archives from Erech, Neo-Babylonian and Persian Periods (Goucher College Cuneiform Inscriptions, Vol. ii) (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1933) 22-4 (no. 135), pl. xxvi; Wiseman (1985) 28. Katzenstein (1973) 332 assumes that this text refers to Nebuchadnezzar going ‘against’ Tyre, not ‘to’ Tyre, and taking personal command of the lengthy siege.
Ezek. 26.7-14. See G. Cooke, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Book of Ezekiel (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1936) 287-90; M. Vogelstein, “Nebuchadnezzar’s Reconquest of Phoenicia and Palestine and the Oracles of Ezekiel,” Hebrew Union College Annual 23 (1950-51) 199-207; N. Gottwald, All the Kingdoms of the Earth: Israelite Prophecy and International Relations in the Ancient Near East (New York: Harper & Row, 1964) 311-6; H. van Dijk, Ezekiel’s Prophecy on Tyre (Ez. 26,1-28,19): A New Approach (Rome: Pontifical Biblical Institute, 1968) 14-28; W. Zimmerli, Ezekiel 2: A Commentary on the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel, Chapters 25-48, trans. J. Martin (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1983) 21-9, 35-7.
Cooke (1936) 287, 329; Vogelstein (1950-51) 198; Zimmerli (1983) 118-9; D. Block, The Book of Ezekiel, Chapters 25-48 (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1997) 42, 147-50.
Cooke (1936) 290; Vogelstein (1950-51) 215-7; Zimmerli (1983) 36-7; Block (1997) 42.
Pritchard (1969) 292, 295; see Katzenstein (1973) 278, 288-91; Zimmerli (1983) 22-3.
Joseph., Ap. i.21 (156), cf. i.18 (116-27); FGrH 783 F 7; Katzenstein (1973) 325; Wiseman (1985) 27.
Joseph., Ap. i.21 (159); Keil (1876) 11; Pinches (1903) 401; W. Fleming, The History of Tyre (New York: Columbia University Press, 1915) 44; Vogelstein (1950-51) 198, 219-20; Gottwald (1964) 312-3; K. Freedy & D. Redford, “The Dates in Ezekiel in Relation to Biblical, Babylonian and Egyptian Sources,” Journal of the American Oriental Society 90 (1970) 469, 481-4; Katzenstein (1973) 326, 328; Zimmerli (1983) 118; Wiseman (1985) 27.
Gottwald (1964) 317-9; W. Lambert, “Nebuchadnezzar, King of Justice,” Iraq 27 (1965) 2, 7, 10; Freedy & Redford (1970) 473, 483; R. Thompson, “Babylonian Supremacy under Nebuchadnezzar,” in Cambridge Ancient History, 1st ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970) iii 215; A. Spalinger, “Egypt and Babylonia: A Survey (c. 620 bc-550 bc),” Studien zur altägyptischen Kultur 5 (1977) 236-41; Wiseman (1985) 39-41; D. Wiseman, “Babylonia 605-539,” in Cambridge Ancient History, 2nd ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991) iii.2 229-31, 235-6; Block (1997) 151; D. Vanderhooft, The Neo-Babylonian Empire and Babylon in the Latter Prophets (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1999) 87-9.
J. Fuller, The Generalship of Alexander the Great (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1960) 206-16; A. Bosworth, Conquest and Empire: The Reign of Alexander the Great (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988) 65-7; S. English, The Sieges of Alexander the Great (Barnsley: Pen & Sword Books, 2009) 56-84.
C. Torrey, “Alexander the Great in the Old Testament Prophecies,” in Vom Alten Testament: Karl Marti zum siegzigsten Geburstage, ed. K. Budde (Giessen: Alfred Töpelmann, 1925) 281-6; N. Messel, Ezechielfragen (Oslo: Jacob Dybwad, 1945) 48-51, 101-2; L. Browne, Ezekiel and Alexander (London: S.P.C.K., 1952) 4-5, 21-3; cf. Cooke (1936) 290; Vogelstein (1950-51) 215-9; Zimmerli (1983) 24, 37.
Rufin., Apol. ii.9 and Jer., Adv. Rufin. i.30 suggest that Jerome came late to the study of Greek, perhaps not until his arrival in Antioch in 373; see A. Pease, “The Attitude of Jerome towards Pagan Literature,” Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association 50 (1919) 152; Kelly (1975) 8, 13-4, 17, 39, 49, 59, 72; Williams (2006) 28-9; A. Cain, The Letters of Jerome: Ascetiscism, Biblical Exegesis, and the Construction of Christian Authority in Late Antiquity (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009) 8 n. 34. He might, therefore, have been most comfortable with Latin sources where they were to be had.
Curt., iv.3.13, ed. Lucarini (2009) 49.
Diod. Sic., xvii.40.5, 42.5-6; Plut., Alex. 25.1; Arr., Anab. ii.18.2-5.
Curt., iv.2.16-18; cf. Arr., Anab. ii.16.8-18.1, where Alexander’s speech outlining the justification for the siege of Tyre is addressed only to his commanders and as soon as the Tyrians have refused him entry into their city.
Atkinson (1980) 317-8 suggests that this is due to a source Curtius shared with Diodorus. Cf. Ruth (1965) 379-80.
Curt., iv.2.10-12, 3.19-20; see Atkinson (1980) 296, 305.
Curt., iv.3.20, ed. Lucarini (2009) 50-51.
Fleming (1915) 45.
N. Marriner, et al., “Holocene Morphogenesis of Alexander the Great’s Isthmus at Tyre in Lebanon,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 104 (2007) 9218-23.
Curt., iv.3.6-7, 4.5; see Atkinson (1980) 302, 308-9.
P. Booth, “Shades of Blues and Greens in the Chronicle of John of Nikiu,” Byzantinische Zeitschrift 104 (2012) 555-61.
M. Luther, Luthers Werke. Kritische Gesammtausgabe, Schriften Teil 2, 13. Band (Weimar: Hermann Böhlau, 1889) 428, 622-3; Luther’s Works, Vol. 19: Lectures on the Minor Prophets ii , Jonah & Habakkuk, ed. H. Oswald (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1974) 114; Luther’s Works, Vol. 20: Lectures on the Minor Prophets iii , Zechariah, ed. H. Oswald (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1973) 90. Luther’s approach to Jerome is discussed in detail by J. Lössl, “Martin Luther’s Jerome: New Evidence for a Changing Attitude,” in Jerome of Stridon: His Life, Writings and Legacy, ed. A. Cain & J. Lössl (Farnham: Ashgate, 2009) 237-51. For Jerome’s place in the late medieval and early modern period as whole, see E. Rice, Saint Jerome in the Renaissance (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1985).
See Hitzig (1847) 227-32; Keil (1876) i 377, ii 12; von Ewald (1880) 153-4; Gottwald (1964) 320.
E. Lübeck, Hieronymus quos nouerit scriptores ex quibus hauserit (Leipzig: B.G. Teubner, 1872); H. Hagendahl, Latin Fathers and the Classics: A Study on the Apologists, Jerome and Other Christian Writers (Göteborg: Elanders, 1958); idem, “Jerome and the Latin Classics,” Vigiliae Christianae 28 (1974) 216-27; cf. F. Glorié, “Nouvelles sources de Saint Jérôme,” Sacris Erudiri 18 (1967-8) 472-7.
Jer., Ep. xxii.30; see Kelly (1975) 41-4, 84, 250, 252; Williams (2006) 25-7, 54-5, 134, 161; N. Adkin, Jerome on Virginity: A Commentary on the Libellus de virginitate servanda (Letter 22) (Cambridge: Francis Cairns, 2003) 283-97.
Pease (1919) 158, 165. See also S. Rebenich, “Der heilige Hieronymus und die Geschichte—Zur Funktion der Exempla in seinen Briefen,” Römische Quartalschrift für christliche Altertumskunde und Kirchengeschichte 87 (1992) 29-46. Access to historical works were also necessary for the additions Jerome made to his translation of Eusebius’ Chronicle; Kelly (1975) 73-5; Williams (2006) 161-2.
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In order to elucidate the prophecies of Ezekiel, especially those against Egypt in Book 29, Jerome reconstructed the siege of Tyre by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar. He seems to have done this not so much on the basis of the predictions recorded in the Bible (to say nothing of accurate records), as by comparison with accounts of Alexander the Great’s siege of the same city more than two hundred years later. Jerome seems particularly dependent on the account of Alexander’s siege of Tyre given by Quintus Curtius Rufus. The following investigation broadens our understanding of the authors known and used by Jerome, the uses to which he put his historical reading, and the methods of his Biblical exegesis, especially historical reconstruction.
All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
---|---|---|---|
Abstract Views | 1750 | 223 | 22 |
Full Text Views | 281 | 4 | 0 |
PDF Views & Downloads | 125 | 14 | 0 |