According to the Patrologia Latina database, Jerome’s surviving writings include twelve instances of the evil-communication phrase. In his letter To Eustochium (Letter 22), sc. 29, Jerome wrote it thus: “Corrumpunt mores bonos confabulationes pessimae.” He wrote the phrase in the same way in his letter To Nepotian (Letter 52), sc. 5. In its Greek form, the evil-communication phrase’s fourth word is όμιλίαι. In using the evil-communication phrase in Latin, Jerome translated όμιλίαι as follows: confabulations, 9 instances; colloquia, 3 instances. Among Latin authors before Jerome, the translations are: congressus, 1 instance; confabulations, 5 instances; colloquia, 10 instances.

Jerome studied and translated Hebrew and Greek texts to produce a Latin translation of the Bible in 405 CE. That translation is known as the Vulgate. It has been tremendously influential historically. Translating όμιλίαι for the Vulgate’s evil-communication phrase in 1 Cor. 15:33, Jerome used the word colloquia. That word is formed from elements for speaking together.

Jerome was a highly learned scholar familiar with Menander. In his letter To Paulinus (Letter 58), Jerome declared:

Let poets strive to rival Homer, Virgil, Menander, and Terence.

Jerome regarded Menander as being among these, the greatest of poets in the ancient world. Jerome probably saw performed or read many of Menander’s works, including many that are now lost. In his letter To Magnus an Orator of Rome (Letter 70, dated 397 CE), Jerome explicitly attributed the evil-communication phrase to Menander. Euthalian material more specifically attributes the phrase to Menander’s Thais.

Like Jerome, Tertullian was a highly learned Christian scholar. Tertullian also translated in different ways the evil-communications phrase from Greek into Latin.