Tuesday, April 23, 2024

Jerome on Jeremiah 17:9-10

  

17:9–10: The heart of all is perverse and inscrutable; who can understand it? “I the Lord search the mind and try the heart, to give to everyone according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.” lxx: “Deep is the heart beyond all things, and it is man; who can understand him?” And the rest similarly.

 

The Hebrew word enos is written with four letters, aleph, nun, vav and sin. If it is read enos, it means “man,” but if it is read anus, it means “inscrutable” or “incurable,” with the sense that no one is able to comprehend the human heart—although Symmachus interpreted the passage thus: “Inscrutable is the heart of all; what man is there who could comprehend it?” We [Christians] are accustomed—with good intention, to be sure, but not according to knowledge—to use this passage against the Jews, to the effect that the Lord and Savior is a man according to his assumed flesh, and that none can understand the mystery of his nativity (as it is written: “Who will describe his generation?”) except God alone, who searches out hidden things and renders to each one according to his works.

 

It is better, however, that we simply understand that no one knows a person’s secret thoughts except God alone; for earlier he said, “Cursed is the man who has hope in man,” and its opposite, “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord.” And so, lest we think that human judgment is trustworthy, he adds that the hearts of almost all people are corrupt, as the psalmist says: “Cleanse me from my hidden (things), and spare your servant from the (things) of others”—no doubt he means “thoughts.” And in Genesis it says, “The Lord saw that the wickedness of humanity was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” And again, “for the mind and thought of the human heart is evil from his youth.” From this we learn that only God knows their thoughts.

 

But if it is said concerning the Savior, “But Jesus, seeing their thoughts …” and if no one can see someone’s thoughts except God alone, then Christ is God, who searches the mind and tries the heart, and renders to every person according to his works. (Jerome, Commentary on Jeremiah [trans. Michael Graves; Ancient Christian Texts; Downers Grove, Ill.: IVP Academic, 2011], 107)