Footnote

a In Hebrews 5:10; 6:20 occurs the Greek word arkhiereús (ἀρχιερεύς) meaning “high priest.” In the Latin Vulgate the translator Jerome rendered this Greek word by “pontifex.” In Hebrews 5:6 occurs the Greek word hiereús (ἱερεύς), meaning “priest”; but there Jerome renders this word as “sacerdos.” Properly, he should have translated the Greek word arkhiereús as “princeps sacerdotum” as in Matthew 2:4; 16:21; 20:18; 21:15, 23, 45; Acts 4:6; 26:10, 12. Also, in Psalm 110:4 (Vulgate, 109:4) Jerome uses the word “sacerdos” for “priest” the same as in Genesis 14:18 regarding Melchizedek. In Leviticus 21:10, for “high priest” he uses “sacerdos maximus,” but he inserts “Pontifex” into the text, saying “Pontifex, id est sacerdos maximus inter fratres suos” (“The Pontifex, that is, the Greatest Priest among his brothers”). In this way Jerome wrongfully introduces the word “pontifex” into the Latin Version of the Holy scriptures, evidently in order to justify the Roman Catholic pope who had made him his secretary, namely, Pope Damasus, who was the first pope to take over the title Pontifex Maximus after Emperor Gratian had rejected it.—See Latin New Testament, by Wordsworth and White, edition of 1911.