Over the past two decades Andrew Cain has emerged as one of the foremost modern commentators on the writings of Jerome of Stridon. In a veritable torrent of books and articles, he has expounded at length on the agenda, style and sources of this cranky patriarch's many letters. One of the main themes of Cain's intellectual œuvre is Jerome's aspirational authority, that is, the ways in which he buttressed his sometimes-novel claims against the vociferous attacks of his many critics and rivals. In the book under review, Cain applies his formidable learning to an overlooked aspect of Jerome's body of work: his commentaries on the Apostle Paul's letters to Philemon, Galatians, Ephesians and Titus. Written during his first months in Jerusalem after his departure from Rome in 386, these texts are particularly important, Cain argues, because they represent Jerome's first attempt at the systematic exegesis of entire books of the Bible and his only sustained treatment of Paul's letters. Drawing attention to the prefaces of these commentaries as a site where Jerome appealed to his patrons and dismissed his rivals, Cain's book casts light on the insecurities of this fledging exegete, the Greek and Latin sources of his Pauline commentaries, and the ways in which he bolstered his bold claim that his understanding of Paul's letters was not only authoritative, but also unrivalled in the Latin tradition.

The book comprises seven chapters. It begins by arguing that Jerome chose these books by the Apostle Paul for commentary for a variety of reasons: Philemon for its instructional value; Galatians as Paul's most outspoken statement of the relationship between Jewish Law and the Gospel; Ephesians for its theological sophistication; and Titus for its moral code of conduct (ch. i). As Cain shows, Jerome used the prefaces to these commentaries as a venue for self-fashioning as a reclusive, yet authoritative, exegete to gain support from his patrons, to dismiss his contemporary Latin rivals who failed to ground their own Pauline commentaries on Christian Greek authorities like Origen, and to defend his biblical interpretations in anticipation of criticism (ch. ii). A gifted philologist, Jerome constructed his exegetical authority on the foundation of his hard-won proficiency in Greek and Hebrew (ch. iii) and marshalled the prestige of Paul to support his own vision of ascetic spirituality centred on sexual purity and life-long virginity (ch. iv). One of the objectives of biblical commentary was the refutation of heresy, so it is not surprising to find Jerome employing his prefaces to fight the claims of Marcionites, anti-Nicene Christians and Gnostics (ch. v). The final two chapters of the book examine Jerome's sources for his commentaries on Paul, especially the Greek exegetical tradition as exemplified by Origen of Alexandria (ch. vi) and the Latin tradition represented by Tertullian, Cyprian and Lactantius (ch. vii).

Jerome emerges from this analysis as a research-oriented commentator who stands out from his Latin contemporaries not only because of the sheer volume of his work, but also due to his ‘prolific incorporation of Greek exegesis’ in his treatment of Paul's letters (p. 226). Unlike the dry expositions of contemporary Latin exegetes, Jerome utilised the prefaces to his commentaries as dynamic, combative literary venues for self-promotion, apology and polemic directed at his patrons and rivals alike. Cain's study of Jerome's opus Paulinum successfully restores the prefaces of these biblical commentaries as sites for authorial self-fashioning, as ‘media to help shape how these works and how he as their author, would be received’ (p. 5). Much like his subject, the author boasts a linguistic virtuosity and attention to detail that lends his examination of Jerome's Pauline commentaries an unassailable authority. This is a model monograph that brings to light a long-neglected facet of Jerome's exegetical production at a formative moment in his career as a biblical commentator.