Hebraica Veritas

I received a query from a faculty member at another university about Jerome's use of the phrase hebraica veritas. I thought some of the information I shared would be worth posting.

I ran a search on the Library of Latin Texts database (Brepols; subscription required), which showed that Jerome was the first author in Latin to put the two terms hebr* and verita* side-by-side.

Jerome himself uses the phrase veritas hebraica twice (Epist. 78.17; Comm. in. Jer. 22:7), and hebraica veritas 85 times.

Augustine uses hebraica veritas three times (City of God 18.44; Questions on Genesis 152, twice). Bede uses it 42 times. And that's mostly it for the patristic period. There are 137 total hits for hebraica veritas in the patristic period. It comes back in the Medieval and Renaissance periods: 172x for hebraica veritas, 35x for veritas hebraica.

Here's the breakdown for Jerome's usage, according to work.

Adv. Iov., 3x
Apol. adv. Ruf., 3x
Comm. in Dan., 3x
Comm. in Matt., 2x
Comm. in Ezech., 11x
Comm. in Isa., 11x
Comm. in Hos., 3x
Comm. in Joel, 2x
Comm. in Amos, 1x
Comm. in Obad., 2x
Comm. in Micah, 3x
Comm. in Zeph., 1x
Comm. in Hag., 1x
Comm. in Mal., 2x
Comm. in Eccl., 1x
Epistles, 19x (including nos. 49,  53, 57, 65, 71, 72, 78, 106, 109, 112, 121, 122)
Comm. in Jer., 7x
Quaest. hebr. in Gen., 4x
Praef. in lib. Psal. iuxta Hebr., 1x
Praef. in lib. Sam. et Reg. (Prologus galeatus), 1x
Tract. in Marc. ev., 1x
Tract. Psal., 3x