13.
Jerome further shows that the immunity of Scripture from error or
deception is necessarily bound up with its Divine inspiration and supreme
authority. He says he had learnt this in the most celebrated schools, whether
of East or West, and that it was taught him as the doctrine of the Fathers, and
generally received. Thus when, at the instance of Pope Damasus, he had begun
correcting the Latin text of the New Testament, and certain
"manikins" had vehemently attacked him for "making corrections
in the Gospels in face of the authority of the Fathers and of general
opinion," Jerome briefly replied that he was not so utterly stupid nor so
grossly uneducated as to imagine that the Lord's words needed any correction or
were not divinely inspired.[29] Similarly, when explaining Ezechiel's
first vision as portraying the Four Gospels, he remarks:
That the entire body and the back were full of eyes will be plain to anybody
who realizes that there is nought in the Gospels which does not shine and
illumine the world by its splendor, so that even things that seem trifling and
unimportant shine with the majesty of the Holy Spirit.[30]
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