Letter CXIX. To Minervius and Alexander.
Minervius and Alexander two monks of Toulouse had
written to Jerome asking him to explain for them a large number of
passages in scripture. Jerome in his reply postpones most of these to a
future time but deals with two in detail viz. (1) “we shall not
all sleep but we shall all be changed,”
1 Cor. xv. 51
; and (2) “we shall be caught up in
the clouds,”
1 Thes. iv.
17
. With regard to (1) Jerome
prefers the reading “we shall all sleep but we shall not all be
changed,” and with regard to (2) he looks upon the language as
metaphorical and interprets it to mean that believers will be
‘assumed’ into the company of the apostles and prophets.
The date of the letter is 406
a.d.