Monday, June 1, 2020

Jerome on Jeremiah 1:5 teaching Ideal, not Personal, Pre-Existence

Jer 1:5 is a common “proof-text” used by Latter-day Saints to support universal personal pre-existence (we do not believe in the personal pre-existence of Jesus merely). While I am not a fan of the “proof-text” method for this doctrine (instead, I think it should be argued from Christology; on this see The Christological Necessity of Universal Pre-Existence). Notwithstanding, a fair, balanced treatment of this text by a Latter-day Saint can be found at pp. 16-17 of Kevin L. Barney's article, On Preexistence in the Bible.

 

Jerome (345-420), the great biblical scholar and translator of the Vulgate, offered the common “ideal, not personal, pre-existence” understanding of the text. As it is a common response to the LDS interpretation, I am sure some readers will appreciate it being reproduced here:

 

1:4–5: Now the word of the Lord came to me saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

 

This is not (as heresy supposes) because Jeremiah existed before his conception, but because the Lord, to whom things not yet made are already made, foreknew that he was going to exist, as the apostle says: “he who calls things that are not as though they were.” (Rom 4:17) That he was sanctified in the womb we can also understand according to this statement of the apostle: “He who set me apart from the womb of my mother and called me through his grace was pleased to reveal his son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles.” (Gal 1:15-16) John the Baptist was also sanctified in the womb. He received the Holy Spirit, stirred in the womb and spoke through the mouth of his mother. (Lk 1:41-42)

 

Furthermore, when he says, “I appointed you a prophet to the nations,” he wishes this to be understood: later on in this very prophet, we are going to read that he prophesied not only to Jerusalem but also to many of the surrounding nations. Certain people understand this passage to be about the Savior, who was in the strictest sense a prophet to the nations and who called all nations through the apostles. For that one, before being formed in the virgin’s womb and coming forth from his mother’s body, was truly sanctified in the womb and known to the Father—indeed, he was always in the Father, and the Father was always in him. (Jerome, Commentary on Jeremiah [ed. Christopher A. Hall, Thomas C. Oden, and Gerald L. Bray; trans. Michael Graves; Ancient Christian Texts; Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic: An Imprint of InterVarsity Press, 2011], 3)