Commentary on Saint John the Apostle and Evangelist: Homilies 48–88
Overview
The homilies on St. John’s Gospel come from the period in which Chrysostom attained his greatest fame as pulpit orator, the years of his simple priesthood at Antioch (386–397). This was the peaceful period in Chrysostom’s life that preceded his elevation to the episcopacy as patriarch of Constantinople (398), wherein adverse imperial and ecclesiastical reaction to his program of moral reform led to his deposition, banishment, and all but martyr’s death (407).
The 88 homilies, which date from about 390, work systematically through the text of St. John’s Gospel and thus form a commentary upon it. In his exposition Chrysostom reflects his youthful Antiochene training in the interpretation of Holy Scripture through his emphasis upon the literal or historical meaning of the sacred text. The exposition focuses sharply on practical morality and thus often supplies telling information about fourth-century life and times. The homilies show the flowering of Chrysostom’s intensive study of rhetoric and are especially commendable for their command of imagery. The first 47 homilies carry Chrysostom’s commentary through chap. 6.54–72; the remaining 41, extending the commentary through to the end of the Gospel, are contained in vol. 41 of this series.
Key Features
- Contains the last half of John Chrysostom’s homilies on the Gospel of John
- Provides practical exposition of John
- Includes an introduction with background on the author and era
Top Highlights
“Patience is a wonderful virtue. It places the soul in a calm harbor, as it were, sheltering” (Page 417)
“He repairs and restores our body, as if it were an unsound house, when He heals the withered hand, gives strength to paralyzed limbs, straightens crooked ones, cleanses lepers, restores the sick to health, makes sound those with crippled legs, calls back corpses from death, opens diseased eyes, or supplies eyes where they do not exist. Since all these afflictions are infirmities proceeding from the weakness of nature, when He remedies them He displays His power.” (Page 89)
“And he came to the place called the Skull.’ Some say that there Adam had died and lay buried, and that Jesus set up His trophy over death in the place where death had begun its rule. For He went forth bearing His cross as a trophy in opposition to the tyranny of death, and, as is customary with conquerors, He also carried on His shoulders the symbol of His victory. What matter that the Jews were here acting with an altogether different end in view!” (Page 428)
“Christ also showed it, for He wept because of Lazarus. Follow His example yourself: weep, but gently, with decorum, with the fear of God. If you weep in this way, you do so, not as if you were without faith in the resurrection, but as one finding the separation hard to bear.” (Page 176)
“‘Whoever carries out the commandments and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven,’2 Scripture says, and very rightly so. For it is easy to teach true wisdom in word, but to exemplify the words by one’s deeds is the part of a great and noble soul.” (Page 367)
- Title: Commentary on Saint John the Apostle and Evangelist: Homilies 48–88
- Author: John Chrysostom
- Series: The Fathers of the Church
- Volume: 41
- Publisher: Catholic University of America
- Print Publication Date: 1959
- Logos Release Date: 2014
- Pages: 507
- Era: era:nicene
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subjects: Bible. N.T. John › Sermons; Sermons, English › Translations from Greek; Sermons, Greek › Translations into English
- ISBNs: 0813210259, 9780813210254
- Resource ID: LLS:CMMSNTJHNPSTLVN48
- Resource Type: Bible Commentary
- Metadata Last Updated: 2024-03-25T19:25:18Z