Summary of the Argument

1. Jerome says that the defenders of Origen are bound together in a sworn society of perjury. 2. Jerome’s commentaries on Ephesians follow Origen’s interpretation of the passages about a secret society to whom the higher truths are to be told. 3. But I follow Christ in condemning all falsehood. 4. Jerome has not only allowed perjury but has practiced it. 5. His treatise on virginity, Letter 22, to Eustochium, slanders every order of Christians. 6. In the dream in which he was condemned as a follower of Cicero, he promised never to read or own pagan books. 7. Yet his works are full of quotations from them. 8. In his work On the Best Way of Translating he relies on the opinions of Cicero and Horace. 9. He confesses what he owes to Porphyry. 8, second series. Jerome at Bethlehem had pagan books copied and taught them to boys. 9, second series. He condemns as pagan certain harmless views that he holds himself. 10, second series. He spoke of Paula, impiously, as the mother-in-law of God. [a]

11. Such impiety cannot be pardoned. 12. Jerome’s boast of his teachers, Didymus and the Jew Baranina. 13. His extravagant praise of Origen. 14. The preface to Origen on the Song of Songs. 15. The preface to the commentary on Micah. 16. The Book of Hebrew Names. 17. A story about Origen. 18. Pamphilus the martyr and his library. 19. Jerome praises Origen but condemns others for doing the same. 20. Jerome praises Origen’s works of doctrine as well as his works of interpretation. 21. Jerome’s earlier and later attitudes toward Origen compared. 22. The Book of Hebrew Questions. 23. Jerome’s attack on Ambrose. 24. The preface to Didymus on the Holy Spirit. 25. Jerome attacks one Christian writer after another. 26. His treatment of Melania.

27. I never followed Jerome’s errors, for which he ought to do penance. 27a. But I did follow his method of translation. 28. In condemning me, Jerome condemns himself. 29. He says that I show Origen to be a heretic, and yet he condemns me. 30. His pretense that the Apology for Origen is not by Pamphilus needs no answer. 31. Others did not translate On First Principles because they did not know Greek. 32. Jerome’s translation of the Scriptures called into question. 33. The authority of the Septuagint. [c] 34. Has the church been using false Scriptures? 35. The danger of altering the versions of Scripture. 36. Origen’s Hexapla and its purpose. [d] 37. Saint Paul’s way of dealing with brothers who go astray. 38. How Jerome ought to have answered Pammachius. 39. The books against Jovinian. 40. My translation of On First Principles was meant to help a good cause. 41, 42 and 43. A summing up of the Apology. 44. An appeal to Pammachius. 45 and 46. Why my translations of Origen caused offense, but Jerome’s did not. 47. A synod, if it is called on to condemn Origen, must condemn Jerome as well.