The First Thousand Years: A Global History of Christianity

by Robert L. Wilken

All this scholarly work in Caesarea over the course of a hundred years led to the formation of the first Christian library. Begun during Origen’s day, it was expanded after his death by a wealthy patron who wished to preserve Origen’s writings. Over time it became a large collection of pagan, Jewish, and Christian writings, and a scholarly center for the copying of books was established. One of the beneficiaries of the library in Caesarea was Jerome, who lived in Palestine at the end of the fourth century. Jerome was unusual in that he knew Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and by drawing on the books collected in Caesarea he bequeathed to later generations an ideal of “trilingual scholarship” (Hebrew, Greek, Latin) that lives on to this day among learned Christians.