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Letter XXI. To Damasus In this letter Jerome, at the request of Damasus, gives a minutely detailed explanation of the parable of the prodigal son

Letter LXXIII. To Evangelus

Page 81 of 224

Evangelus had sent Jerome an anonymous treatise in which Melchisedek was identified with the Holy Ghost, and had asked him what he thought of the theory. Jerome in his reply repudiates the idea as absurd and insists that Melchisedek was a real man, possibly, as the Jews said, Shem the eldest son of Noah. The date of the letter is 398 a.d.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series II, Volume 6, ed. Philip Schaff and Henry Wace (1890–1900). Public domain. Text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library.