Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IX.djvu/627

 JERICHO JEROME GOT JERICHO, a flourishing commercial city of ancient Palestine, in the valley of the Jordan, on the W. side of that river, near its entrance into the Dead sea. It was one of the oldest and richest cities of Canaan, surrounded hy groves of palms and balsam trees. It was con- quered and destroyed by Joshua on his entrance into the promised land, and a curse was pro- nounced upon whosoever should rebuild it, its territory being allotted to the tribe of Ben- jamin. It was, however, rebuilt upon a site near by, became the centre of the trade be- tween Arabia and Palestine, was fortified by King Ahab, and was the seat of a school of prophets. Mark Antony presented its plain of palm trees to Cleopatra. It was embellished by Herod the Great, who built there one of his residences ; under Vespasian it was destroyed, and under Hadrian again rebuilt ; it was over- thrown during the Mohammedan conquest, re- vived under the caliphs, and completely de- stroyed during the crusades. The village of Eiha, supposed to occupy the site of the sec- ond city, was destroyed by Ibrahim Pasha in 1840, and there only remain a few huts and a Saracenic tower. JERICHO, Rose of. See ROSE OF JERICHO. JEROBOAM. I. Founder of the kingdom of Is- rael, son of Nebat, of the tribe of Ephraim, died about 953 B. 0. He was selected by Solomon to be a superintendent of the public works at Jerusalem. Informed by the prophet Ahijah that he was to rule the ten tribes which should revolt from the house of David, he immediately engaged in plots against Solomon, and fled to the court of Shishak, king of Egypt, to escape punishment. On the death of Solomon he re- turned, headed the deputation of the chiefs of tribes which met Rehoboam at Shechem and whose demands were rejected, and was then elected by ten of the tribes to reign over them, with the title of king of Israel, Judah and Benjamin alone remaining to Rehoboam (975 B. C.). He resided at Shechem, which he for- tified, built temples at Dan and Bethel, where golden calves were made the symbols of the Divinity, to which his subjects might re- sort rather than to Jerusalem, and was gen- erally successful in his wars against Judah, though he was defeated in a great battle by Abijah. The leading aim of his government was to raise a barrier against any reunion of the tribes. II. Thirteenth king of Israel, son of Joash, jeigned 823-782 B. 0. His reign of 41 years was prosperous, although licentious and oppressive. He captured Damascus from the Syrians, and reconquered Ammon and Moab. In Scripture he is mentioned only in 2 Kings xiii.-xv., 1 Chron. v., and in the proph- ecies of Hosea and Amos. Wherever the name occurs elsewhere, it refers to Jeroboam I. JEROME, king of Westphalia. See BONA- PAETE, JER6ME, Vol. iii., p. 26. JEROME, Saint (SopiiKONios EUSEBIUS HIE- RONYMUS), one of the four great doctors of the Latin church, born at Stridon, on the confines 452 VOL. ix. 39 of Pannonia and Dalmatia, about 340, died in Bethlehem Sept. 30, 420. His own writings furnish an almost complete autobiography. His father Eusebius was a wealthy Christian. In 363 he was sent to Rome with his country- man Bonosus, and studied Greek and Latin literature and eloquence. In 368 he was bap- tized and took the name of Ilieronymus. He afterward visited with Bonosus the southern and northern provinces of Gaul and the coast of Britain, and studied for some time at Treves. Returning to Italy, Jerome became the inmate of a monastery at Aquileia, and under the di- rection of Valerianus, bishop of that city, de- voted himself to the study of Scripture and theology. While there he transcribed a com- mentary on the Psalms and a treatise on synods by St. Hilary of Poitiers, and published his first known treatise, addressed to Innocentius, De Muliere septies Percussa. There he formed the acquaintance of Rufimis, afterward his most determined theological opponent. In 372 he was called to Stridon to reclaim one of his sisters, and this incident seems to have deter- mined him to leave Italy for ever. After a brief stay in Rome, he set out for Syria with several friends, travelled on foot through Thrace and Asia Minor, and stopped at Antioch to follow a course of lectures on Biblical exegesis by the future heresiarch Apollinaris, bishop of Laodicea. He afterward withdrew into the desert of Chalcis near Antioch, where he spent four years in a hermit's cell, assiduous- ly studied the Hebrew language, and wrote a letter on Manichreism and two letters to Pope Damasus, one of which was in relation to the schism reigning in the church of Antioch, where there were at that time three rival bishops. The pope having advised him to acknowledge Paulinus as bishop, Jerome returned to An- tioch, and in 376 consented to receive priestly orders, on the condition that he should not be forced to accept any pastoral charge. He im- mediately applied himself to acquire an accu- rate knowledge of Biblical topography and a thorough familiarity with the Hebrew and Chaldee, visiting the most celebrated scenes of Bible history, and consulting everywhere the most learned Jews. To perfect himself in Greek and to have the Bible interpreted to him by the best living masters, he went to Constan- tinople about 380, and became the disciple of St. Gregory Nazianzen, whom he calls his father and master. In that city he wrote a commen- tary on the 6th chapter of Isaiah, and transla- ted 14 homilies of Origen and the chronicle of Eusebius. His version only follows the origi- nal to the siege of Troy ; in the second part Jerome confesses to his having arranged the matters in his own way as far as the 20th year of Constantine, the remainder being entirely his work down to the death of Valens (378). Being called to Rome by Pope Damasus in 382, he acted as notary to the council held there in that year, and afterward remained as secretary or referendarius to the pope until the death of