Friday, January 1, 2021

Jerome teaching Baptismal Regeneration in his Commentary on Isaiah 1:16, 18

 

 

21. (1:16a) Wash yourselves; be clean.

 

Instead of the sacrifices named above [cf. Isa 1:11, 13, 14] and burnt offerings and the fat of fatlings and the blood of bulls and goats [cf. Heb 10:4]; instead of incense and new moons, the Sabbath, the feast day and fasts, calends and other solemnities, the religion of the gospel pleases me: that you should be baptized in my blood through the bath of regeneration [cf. Titus 3:5], which alone is able to forgive sins. For unless someone is reborn from water and the spirit, he will not enter into the kingdom of heaven [cf. John 3:5]. The Lord himself too, when ascending to the Father, says, “Go and teach all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” [Matt 28:19] . . .  25. (1:18b–c) If your sins be as scarlet, they will be made as white as snow. And if they be red as crimson, they will be like white wool.

 

The progression is excellent; for it does not suffice to have said, “Wash yourselves” [Isa 1:16a], without adding, “Be clean” [cf. Isa 1:16a], so that after the bath in water, they have purity of heart. For “blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God” [Matt 5:8]. And when they have purity of heart, they ought to remove evil from their minds [cf. Isa 1:16a], not in the sight of men, but in the sight of God, which nothing can cover. And what he adds, Cease acting perversely [Isa 1:16b], harmonizes with the words of the Gospel: “Behold you have been healed; sin no more, lest something worse happen to you” [John 5:14]. Therefore, by withdrawing from vices, let him learn good, and let him seek judgment, let him come to the aid of the oppressed, let him sustain the orphan and the widow [cf. Isa 1:17]. And if he does this, then sins that at first had been blood-red like scarlet will be forgiven, and the works of gore and blood will be changed in the garment of the Lord, which has been made from the wool of a lamb, which in the Apocalypse those follow who are resplendent with the brightness of virginity [Rev 14:4]. (St. Jerome's Commentary on Isaiah: Including St. Jerome's Translation of Origen's Homilies 1-9 on Isaiah [trans. Thomas P. Scheck; Ancient Christian Writers 68; Mahwah, N.J.: The Newman Press, 2015], 84, 85-86)