#56, Jerome and the Latin Bible

One of the most influential scholars of the Western Church was Jerome of Dalmatia (342-420 CE). He studied literature and rhetoric in Rome. He fled the Germanic and Eastern European tribes invading Rome from the North. He traveled in
Antioch and Egypt, finally settling in Bethlehem where he founded a monastery.

In his early studies of scripture, he was very attracted to the Alexandrian allegorical method of interpretation, which always examined a scripture until it could be made to stand for something else that pointed to the story of Christ. For example
the book of Ruth, Ruth became the Bride of Christ, the church, and her kinsman redeemer husband, Boaz, stood for the Lord Jesus Christ.