Not only ianua diaboli. Jerome, the Bible and the Construction of a Female Gender Model

This article presents an overview of Jerome’s multifarious use of biblical texts in constructing female gender model. The Bible is referred to by him on different occasions and with various aims. I firstly deal with works pertaining to the Origenist controversy, among which the earliest one is an exegesis of a whole biblical text, Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians. Then, I consider quotations of single verses or passages, in order to sketch the use of the Bible in polemical works (esp. Adversus Iovinianum) and in epistolary portraits of cultured ascetic women. As we shall see, sometimes it is life that exerts its influence over the interpretation of the Bible, and sometimes it is the Bible that seemingly shapes life and its description.