Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume VI/The Letters of St. Jerome/Letter 119

Letter CXIX. To Minervius and Alexander.

Minervius and Alexander two monks of Toulouse had written to Jerome asking him to explain for them a large number of passages in scripture. Jerome in his reply postpones most of these to a future time but deals with two in detail viz. (1) &#8220;we shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed,&#8221; 1 Cor. xv. 51; and (2) &#8220;we shall be caught up in the clouds,&#8221; 1 Thes. iv. 17. With regard to (1) Jerome prefers the reading &#8220;we shall all sleep but we shall not all be changed,&#8221; and with regard to (2) he looks upon the language as metaphorical and interprets it to mean that believers will be &#8216;assumed&#8217; into the company of the apostles and prophets. The date of the letter is 406