Alimentary metaphors such as this abound in the works of medieval authors who discussed their experience of reading Scripture. Many of them drew on the Apostle Paul's comparison between levels of scriptural exegesis and types of physical sustenance: “I gave you milk to drink, not meat; for you were not able as yet” (1 Cor. 3:2). The words were to be savoured, chewed, and swallowed so that their goodness could be digested by the reader or listener. In his preface to the Gospels, Jerome anticipated that criticisms of his translation would ensue when a reader, “who when he will have picked up the scroll in his hand, and taken a single taste of it, and seen what he will have read to differ, might not instantly raise his voice, calling me a forger, proclaiming me to be a sacrilegious man, that I might dare to add, to change, or to correct anything in the old books?”