vra] CHRISTMN PROSE 213 of the Scriptures and to the most exact rendering in Latin of their meaning. This Jerome cares more for substance than for form ; he does not hesitate to use or even invent words at which classic writers would have gasped, if only they truly render the thought. In translating Scripture he uses words from the com- mon speech most of which were already used in older Latin versions of the Bible ; * nor does he stumble be- fore necessary Greek or Hebrew words; and in his learned Commentaries on the books of the prophets and the Gospels, or in his translation of Origen's abstruse Homilies, he forms the needed words along the free lines of development of the common spoken Latin.^ So this painstaking learned Jerome is a po- tent factor in the declassicizing — the barbarizing if you choose — of Latin. Besides letters, the Christian situation soon evoked apologetic writings. The earliest extant Apology is in Greek, that of Justin Martyr,' a Latin-descended native of Samaria. His aTroXoyCa. is addressed to the Emperor Antoninus Pius. It sets forth the Christian demand for justice from the government; the injus- tice of condemnation for a name ; refutes the charge of atheism ; shows the folly of idol worship ; lays stress on the righteous, law-abiding lives of Chris- tians, passed under God's eye in expectation of no earthly kingdom, and in obedience to the civil author- ities. Then it argues for the resurrection, refers to 1 Cf. Ronsch, Itala und Vulgata (1875), Einleitung. 3 Cf. Ooelzer, La LatiniU de St. Jerome, Introduction. Jerome Introduced about three hundred and fifty words into Latin.
- ik)m about 114, martyred at Rome, 1(36.
