Ex Hebraeo transferre (Hier. in Mal. 3,1): Gerolamo, la Settanta e i Vangeli

In Commentarius in Malachiam Jerome shows his concern about the testimonium at the beginning of Mark’s Gospel. Trying to defend the Evangelists against the charge of contradiction, Jerome justifies their disagreements calling on a translation from Hebrew made so that they could preserve the essence of the prophetic message. Jerome’s digression on the Gospels in this work is an apologetic break, which he needs in order to oppose the polemic attacks of the anti-Christian heathen élite. He is engaged also with other various polemic fronts (with Origenist controversy and against Jews and Apollinarian heresy). The emphasis placed upon the fact that the Evangelists took their citations directly from the Hebrew allows Jerome again to highlight the full validity of his undertaking for the review of the Old Testament Latin translation according to the Hebrew text.