The Witness of Jerome

Jerome, the teacher of the catholics, whose writings shine like divine lamps throughout the whole world, says in his book to Eustochium: “For our salvation the Son of God was made the Son of Man. He waits ten months in the womb to be born, and he in whose hand the world is held is contained in a narrow manger.” Again, in his commentary on Isaiah: “For the Lord of hosts, who is the King of glory, himself came down into the Virgin’s womb, and went in and went out by the East Gate, which is always shut.” Of him Gabriel says to the Virgin, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the holy thing that will be born of you will be called the Son of God.” And in Proverbs, “Wisdom has built herself a house.” [a]

Compare this, if you please, with your teaching, or rather your blasphemy, in which you assert that God is the Creator of the months and was not a child of months. For see: Jerome, a man of the greatest learning and of the purest and most approved teaching, testifies that he was a child of months, almost in the very words in which you deny that the Son of God was a child of months. For he says that he waits ten months in the womb to be born. But perhaps the authority of this man seems a mere nothing to you. Then take it that everyone says the same thing, and in the same words. For whoever does not deny that the Son of God is the child of the Virgin admits that he is the child of months.