GREEK ORTHODOX THEOLOGICAL REVIEW 46:3-4 2001

St. John Chrysostom:

Preacher on the Old Testament1
ROBERT C. HILL

We are in the fortunate position, thanks to the remarkable

resources provided by stenographers in the early Church,2 of
being able to read the homilies delivered by John, preach-
er in Antioch and later bishop in Constantinople, given the
name Chrysostom for his golden-mouthed eloquence in the
century after his death in 407. His extant homilies (we do not
have them all) number over eight hundred, the bulk of them
devoted to commentary on the Bible, of which over a hun-
dred and fifty deal with books of the Old Testament. Had he
enjoyed the luxury, like Augustine in the West,3 of devoting
the last years of his life to consolidating his literary remains,
we would have had many more (especially as he would have
avoided trouble and lived longer than his brief thirty-year
ministry); but his hectic involvement in metropolitan affairs
in Constantinople made that kind of withdrawal impossible.
As it is, however, this imposing legacy not only ele-
vated him to eminent status as one of the great doctors of
the Church, but left us in the West with an invaluable in-
sight into the way the Bible was read in the fourth century
school of Antioch. Recent testimonies to this achievement
come to us from two women scholars - a significant fact
in itself, considering Chrysostom's general neglect of any
women attending his homilies in the churches in those cit-
ies.4 Mlle. Malingrey, a lifelong student of John, refers to
him as "the most illustrious representative of the school of
Antioch, whose exegesis is based on minute explanation of

267
268 GOTR 46:3-4 2001

the texts,"5 while Beryl Smalley concedes "he was by far the
best-known representative of Antiochene principles in the
West and, at the same time, the author who could teach his
readers least about Antiochene exegesis."6 While there is no
question that as a preacher Chrysostom ranks above his peers
Diodore of Tarsus, Theodore of Mopsuestia and Theodoret
of Cyrus in popular estimation,7 we shall have to see whether
those conflicting nuances about his exegetical skills are war-
ranted, and how they affected his preaching to his congrega-
tions and won him his sobriquet Golden Mouth.
Since the occasion calls for attention to Chrysostom's
preaching, perhaps we might consider his exercise of this
ministry under four headings: as biblical commentator (in
this case on the Old Testament), as homilist, as orator, and as
pastor. Hopefully, all our preachers, at least in the course of
the liturgy of the Word, where (as in Chrysostom's churches)
the Word has already been proclaimed to the congregation
before the preacher rises to speak, bring to their task skills
in each of these roles. You may differ as to whether oratory
is a prerequisite for a good homily, but you would probably
expect a preacher to break the bread of the Word to you in
a competent manner that revealed a sound biblical back-
ground, in a substantial homily that left you uplifted and not
bored, bewildered or exhausted, and that touched your life
and gave you some spiritual guidance. Chrysostom, we shall
see, won his reputation for meeting all these criteria, with
some oratorical skills to boot.

CHRYSOSTOM AS SCRIPTURAL COMMENTATOR

His solid grounding in the Old Testament, evidenced in

extant homilies commenting on the Psalms, on the book of
Genesis (several times, as it was Lenten reading during an
eight-week Lent), on some of the Prophets and parts of the
historical books, was gained in the asketêrion (or seminary)
 Hill: Chrysostom - Preacher on the Old Testament 269

presided over by Diodore, who could claim to be founder of

the exegetical method practiced in Antioch.8 To judge also
from the wide-ranging reference to the Scriptures that is a
feature of Chrysostom's homilies, it was a comprehensive
grounding, though not providing him with skills consid-
ered necessary for exegetes today, such as a knowledge of
Hebrew, the language of the Old Testament, or a critical in-
terest in the history of its text.9 Still, his congregations stood
to receive rich scriptural fare at his hands - sometimes, espe-
cially in his relative youth in preaching on the Psalms, at risk
of surfeit from immature excess, as in his treating of Psalm
4, where his commentary is replete with allusions to other
parts of the Bible.
Be angry, and do not sin: what you say in your heart, repent
of at bedtime (v.4). What I said before I repeat now. That
is to say, since his intention is to lead them to knowledge
of God, he rids their spirit of ailments. He knows, you see,
that a corrupt life proves an obstacle to elevated thinking.
So that is what Paul too was suggesting in saying, "I could
not speak to you as spiritual persons but as camal persons;"
and again, "As though to infants in Christ I fed you milk,
not solid food" (1 Cor 3:1-2), and again, "On this matter
we have much to say that is hard to explain, since you are
slow to understand" (Heb 5:11). Isaiah as well: "This peo-
ple seek me, and desire to know my ways, like a people
that have practised righteousness and not forsaken my ordi-
nance" (Isa 58:2). And Hosea: "Sow seeds of righteousness
for yourselves, light the light of knowledge" (Hos 10:12
[Greek]). Christ in his teaching said, "Whoever does shod-
dy things hates the light and does not move to the light"
(John 3:20); and again, "How can you have faith when you
accept praise from one another and do not seek praise from
the One who alone is God?" (John 5:44), and again, "His
parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews, fear-
ing they would be put out of the synagogue" (John 9:22),
and again, "Many came to believe in him, and on account
of the Pharisees did not confess their faith" (John 12:42).
270 GOTR 46:3-4 2001

In all these cases you could see a corrupt life proving an

impediment to committed belief.10
Scriptural familiarity is one thing; moderation comes with
experience, a preacher finds.
While Diodore may have faulted the immature overkill
here, he would have been gratified with the profundity of
the theology of the Word that his ex-pupil developed in the
course of his ministry as biblical commentator, without -
it would seem - much help from his mentor. Listeners to
readings from the Old Testament in the course of the liturgy
can sometimes feel mystified by the obscurity of the mate­
rial - hence the need for a good commentator. A resourceful
preacher, however, will do more than simply explain obscure
references to places, times and individuals if the homily is
to be more than a mere history lesson. "It is the Lord who
speaks," as the prophets often repeat; and the congrega­
tion must appreciate this gift of divine communication. No
preacher has ever imparted such a profound sense of this
divine considerateness (συγκατάβαση in Chrysostom's
term) manifested in the human language of these God-given
Scriptures - as also in sacred history and, pre-eminently, in
the Incarnation of the Word in the person of Jesus - as has
Chrysostom, so that the term becomes his personal signa­
11
ture. We accept as a considerate gift from God, taking ac­
count of our limitations, the fact that he engages in converse
with us, ομιλία, both in our language and through the sto­
ries of Old Testament characters, who are sometimes saints,
sometimes scoundrels. In view of this converse, we should
treat the text with respect.
Chrysostom employs this term συγκατάβαση count­
less times, but in two places his profound theology comes
through most forcefully. Some time before Lent in 388 in
Antioch he delivered six homilies on the vocation of the
prophet Isaiah, beginning in the opening verses of Isaiah 6
with the vocation of the prophet when Uzziah was king. But
 Hill: Chrysostom - Preacher on the Old Testament 271

mention of Uzziah prompts Chrysostom to move soon to

contrast the reverence of the seraphim in those verses, crying
out "Holy, Holy, Holy," with what was to him a flagrant act
of irreverence and temerity, the behavior of the king recount­
ed in 2 Chronicles 26. Uzziah had presumed to usurp the
right of the high priest to enter the Holy of Holies, for which
he was struck with leprosy, and should have been expelled
by the people, since he was leprous and therefore unclean.
Confusing this incident with the punishment given at an ear­
lier time for priestly abuse under Eli in 1 Samuel 3 (even
good preachers can have a lapse of memory), Chrysostom
sees justice in the punishment of the people's failure to expel
Uzziah by an interruption in divine communication, ομιλία,
through cessation of inspiration of prophets.
Since they allowed him that liberty, therefore, God turned
away from them and put a stop to the charism of inspira­
tion (προφητεία) - and rightly so: in return for their break­
ing his law and being reluctant to expel the unclean one,
he brought the charism of inspiration to a halt. "The word
was precious at that time, and there was no inspired utter­
ance" (1 Sam 3:1), that is, God was not speaking through
the prophets: the Spirit through whom they made utterance
was not inspiring them since they kept the unclean one, the
Spirit's grace not being active in the case of unclean people.
Hence he kept his distance, he did not reveal himself to the
inspired authors; he was silent and remained hidden ... You
refuse? I shall have no dealings with you, either.12

The Scriptures are a divine gift of communication with us

human beings (Chrysostom is saying), God inspiring the bib­
lical authors; it is in his power to deprive us of this gift. Not
only does he communicate with us in ομιλία, but in doing so
he takes account of our limitations by using our language and
ways of speaking and writing - in poetry and prose, in songs
and stories, in history and proverb, in laws and prophetic
oracles. He has also engaged in personal dealings with the
272 GOTR 46:3-4 2001

patriarchs in the course of history. Furthermore, this consid-

erateness ( σ υ γ κ α τ ά β α σ η ) has gone to the extremes in his
actually taking human form in the Incarnation of the Word
in Jesus: what could be more considerate than that? It is in a
homily on Genesis 32 dealing with Jacob's struggling with
the angel that he moves from one form of considerateness
to this pre-eminent form (in his lack of Hebrew he wrongly
interprets the name given Jacob then, Israel, to mean "vision
of God").
Do you see how the Lord shows considerateness for our hu­
man limitations in all he does and in arranging everything in
a way that gives evidence of his characteristic love? Don't
be surprised, dearly beloved, at the extent of his consider­
ateness; rather, remember that with the patriarchs as well,
when he was sitting by the oak tree, he came in human form
as the good man's guest in the company of the angels (Gen
18), giving us a premonition from on high at the beginning
that he would one day take human form to liberate all hu­
man nature by this means from the tyranny of the devil and
lead us to salvation. At that time, however, since it was the
very early stages, he appeared to each of them in the guise
of an apparition, as he says himself through the inspired
authors, "I multiplied visions and took various likenesses in
the works of the inspired authors" (Hos 12:10).

But when he deigned to take on the form of a slave (Phil

2:7) and receive our first fruits, he donned our flesh, not in
appearance or in seeming, but in reality. He brought himself
to undergo all our experiences, to be born of a woman, to
become an infant, to be wrapped in swaddling clothes, to be
fed at the breast, and to undergo everything for this purpose,
that the truth of the divine plan might be given credence
and the mouths of heretics be stopped ... After all, if he had
not taken on our flesh in reality, neither would he have been
crucified, nor would he have died, been buried, and risen
again. But if he had not risen, the whole purpose of the di­
vine plan would have been thwarted. Do you see into what
extreme absurdity those people fall who are unwilling to
 Hill: Chrysostom - Preacher on the Old Testament 273

take their cue from the norm of Sacred Scripture but rather
13
have complete confidence in their own reasoning?
It is a wonderfully dignified understanding of Scripture as
an incarnation of the Word akin to the person of Jesus, help­
ing Chrysostom's listeners to appreciate its human charac­
ter, warts and all, ar well as its divine origin. Though he
will proceed to go through Genesis and the Psalms verse by
verse, clarifying obscure expressions, he has thus laid the
groundwork of a theological understanding of what the Old
Testament really represents. Many a preacher in my experi­
ence never gets round to doing that.

CHRYSOSTOM AS HOMILIST

A good homilist, of course, cannot be content with laying a

theological groundwork for commentary on Old Testament
texts. There is need also to break the bread of the Word
into digestible pieces. Communication, ομιλία - our word
"homily," after all - involves two parties; many a preacher
has succeeded only in conversing with himself, not draw­
ing the congregation into a vital relationship. Even if vo­
cal intervention by them is not in order, neither is a style of
homily in which the church might as well be empty for all
the engagement that occurs - or fails to occur - between
preacher and congregation. Chrysostom was never one to
treat the congregation like inert, passive objects; not only
were they expected to attend regularly - and they were - but
their response was welcomed. They were expected to attend,
and he took note if they were absent, treating it as a personal
affront, especially if they had opted for something less wor­
thy. When he began a series of Lenten homilies on the whole
of Genesis, perhaps in the late 380s in Antioch, he was ex­
tremely mortified to discover that some of his congregation
went missing to attend horse racing, one of the amusements
274 GOTR 46:3-4 2001

for which Antiochenes had a reputation. He begins the sixth

homily in the series in a real fit of depression, which he al­
lows to settle on them: "I want to take up the usual line of
teaching, yet I hesitate and hang back; a cloud of despair
has settled upon me, and has confused and upset my train
of thought - not simply despair but anger as well," and so
he goes on, really playing on their sense of guilt. He next
quotes Proverbs 26:11: "The person who turns away from
his sin and then goes back to it is like a dog returning to its
vomit," and from there on it's all guns blazing: "What could
be worse than this madness? What's the good of fasting, tell
me? What's the use of coming along here? Who could fail
to upbraid you and commiserate with me - upbraid you, be­
cause everything you have amassed you've squandered in
one fell swoop?"14 And so he continues for half an hour be­
fore resuming the Genesis text. That's what good preachers
do, let the congregation know how they feel, speak from the
heart, not beating about the bush. I warrant they did not go
missing again, especially as he let them know he was aware
that there was more going on at racetracks in Antioch than
betting on horses.
Not only were the members of his congregation expected
to attend, however, but they were commended for respond­
ing: ομιλία required it. In an earlier Lent, in 386, he had
given a shorter series on Genesis we call sermons to differ­
entiate them from the sixty-seven homilies; and at the end
of the sixth sermon he had recommended them to go back to
their homes, which he calls the domestic church, and ponder
his words about the close relationship of the sexes outlined
in Genesis 2:23: "Let us take all this to heart, then, dearly be­
loved, and on returning home let us serve a double meal, one
of food and the other of sacred reading; while the husband
reads what has been said, let the wife learn and the children
listen, and let not even servants be deprived of the chance to
listen. Turn your house into a church; you are, in fact, even
 Hill: Chrysostom - Preacher on the Old Testament 275

responsible for the salvation both of the children and of the

servants."15 Apparently, if we can believe his words at the
opening of the next evening's homily, they all burst into ap-
plause at that point, because he begins next time with that
metaphor of the two meals, material and spiritual.
Yesterday I urged your good selves to remember what was
said, and in the evening serve a double meal, adding to the
food a feast from the words. Well, then, did you do it - serve
a double meal? I know you did, partaking not only of the
former but also of the latter. In fact, in your concern for the
lesser one, you would not have been likely to neglect the
better one, the latter being better than the former: while the
hands of cooks assembled the former, tongues of inspired
authors prepared the latter ... Your serving the one with
the other, then, I am aware of, not from asking your atten-
dant, not your servant, but the messenger clearer than they.
Which one was that? The applause for my words, the com-
mendation for my teaching: when I said yesterday, Let each
of you turn your home into a church, you burst into loud
applause, indicating satisfaction with what was said.16
Like all preachers, he appreciated their sense of satisfac-
tion with the way he had brought the Genesis text into touch
with their daily lives beyond the church, and told them so.
And like all good preachers, he conveyed his thinking with
apposite imagery - in this case the two meals or courses (a
figure he will frequently employ), at other times the image
of physician and patient, miner digging for gems, and in the
eighth sermon in that short series Scripture as an edict from
the emperor, as in other places it is a letter from God deliv-
ered by Moses or David. Perhaps not original imagery, but a
means of engaging with the listeners' experience.
A further asset Chrysostom brings as a homilist is his being
a shrewd observer of society; he is no recluse, unaware of
the way people behave, and so can appeal to his congrega-
tion's daily experience, as he was aware of goings on at the
276 GOTR 46:3-4 2001

racetrack. He tells them that, unlike their venturing into the

αγορά and finding not a friend in sight, in church they are
all friends. Not only that, but unlike the scurrilous gossip of
the αγορά, in church "all useless talk is expelled, only spiri­
tual instruction is allowed in."
It is not only on the score of number that this congregation
is better than the crowds in the marketplace, but also for
the actual nature of the communication: crowds meeting in
the marketplace and sitting together with one another in a
circle often talk about nonsensical matters, get involved in
idle chatter and give voice to sentiments unbefitting them.
It is our custom most of the time, you see, to show greater
interest in prying into other people's affairs and busying
ourselves with them. The fact that it is a dangerous and
risky business, to give vent and give ear to such sentiments
and be taken in by them, and that many storms are often
generated in homes through such gatherings, I pass over
for the time being; but no one would deny that all that talk
is nonsensical, silly and worldly, and that no spiritual topic
would ever be readily raised in such an assembly.17

No one could argue with that; the preacher obviously knew

the score, speaking from experience - their experience.
No matter how good a homilist is at catching the attention
of his congregation at the outset of his homily, the challenge
is to hold it throughout. Keeping to the biblical text read out
beforehand is the best way to do this; an open Bible can be
a useful discipline, especially if the homilist has a tendency
to stray from the text. Chrysostom did have this weakness;
in a homily on Psalm 42 (outside the longer series of fifty-
eight homilies on the Psalms),18 which begins, "As the deer
longs for springs of water," which the congregation would
sing as a responsorium (υπακοή), he takes some time to fo­
cus on his theme, and never succeeds in getting beyond the
opening two verses. On the other hand, we are grateful to
his going off the track in his fourth Lenten sermon, because
 Hill: Chrysostom - Preacher on the Old Testament 277

his audience that evening likewise got bored and were dis-
tracted by the church lamplighter, resulting in an outburst by
the preacher (himself the cause of the problem), who thus
went on to deliver one of his most beautiful analogies of the
illuminating Word.
Wake up there, and dispel indifference. Why do I say this?
Because while we are discoursing to you on the Scriptures,
you instead are averting your eyes from us andfixingthem
on the lamps and the man lighting the lamps. What extreme
indifference is this, to ignore us and attend to him! Here
am I, lighting the fire that comes from the Scriptures, and
the light of its teaching is burning on our tongue. This light
is brighter and better than that light: we are not kindling a
wick saturated in oil, like him: souls bedewed with piety we
set alight with the desire for listening.19
It would be unwise of preachers generally to count on such
a flash of brilliance in the event of a distracted congregation;
better to keep to the text of the day. Wordiness can also be a
problem to a preacher; Chrysostom became notorious for his
makrologia, some of his homilies on the Psalms lasting for
an hour or more - perhaps not a model for today's preach-
ers.20

CHRYSOSTOM AS ORATOR

It helped, of course, if the preacher was also an orator - at

least in those times; and in Chrysostom his congregation
knew they had found one. Hence the applause, and hence
his eventual sobriquet Golden Mouth. His credentials were
good: he had studied rhetoric at the feet of Antioch's official
rhetorician Libanius, we are told by the historian Socrates,21
and had been earmarked by him as his successor when he
retired, but we are grateful that the young John took an-
other path. It has been debated which of the classical ora-
tors Chrysostom most resembles, Demosthenes or Gorgias,
278 GOTR 46:3-4 2001

the latter seeming more to be his model. But one analyst

rightly observes, "Like Demosthenes he was not afraid to
speak out, challenging the wealthy and even the (imperial)
court itself when necessary ... Chrysostom most resembles
Demosthenes in his forcefiilness and courage, and in the vi-
sion of his moral leadership, a quality all too rare among the
rhetors ofthat age."22 There is no questioning the righteous
indignation that moves him to berate the idle rich in com-
mentary on Psalm 49, a text he spoke on more than once,
in Antioch as part of his long series on the Psalter and in
Constantinople as the subject of two homilies. In one of the
latter he would have made the congregation cringe when he
challenged those present, probably like many a preacher, for
the vulgar opulence of the absent:
What reason is there for you to have a gilded savage as
your servant? What value is there in it? What good for your
soul? What help to your body? What sort of introduction
to your house? Quite the contrary: absurd expense, an
outlay reeking of foppishness, a basis for licentiousness, a
schooling in vice, an occasion for crude and promiscuous
living, ruination of the soul, a way leading to countless
evils. Couches inlaid with silver, gold-spangled, footstools
and basins made of the same material, loud laughter - how
does that help you get your life in order? What improvement
did that do to you, or your partner, or anyone else in the
house?23
He returns to the charge as bishop in the imperial city with
similar rhetorical skills - though one would like to remind
him, as we would many a preacher, that, after all, these peo-
ple live in the world, not in an asketêrion; it is for lay people
"John traces the way," Mile. Malingrey claims,24 though at
times his criticism of their worldliness seems unrealistic, as
in this assault on them.
Where do you now spend your time, mortal that you are?
In the marketplace. Amassing what kind of things? Slime
 Hill: Chrysostom - Preacher on the Old Testament 279

and mire. Why go to the trouble of amassing money that

perishes, covetousness that proves tyrannical, influence
that perishes, a surfeit of earthly cares, here today and gone
tomorrow? Why pick the blooms and ignore the fruit? Why
run after the shadow and not lay hold of the reality? Why
chase what perishes and not seek what abides?25
It is as well that later in that homily he does abandon rheto-
ric to draw the necessary distinction for his lay listeners, if
unconvincingly: "I say this to find fault, not with riches, as I
have stated countless times, but with those who use a good
thing badly; money is fine for good deeds." One wonders if
John's tirade against rich women in particular, perhaps with
the empress in mind, contributed to her vendetta against him
and his exile and early death.
Oratory, then, can be a mixed blessing in a preacher. It
does, however, make those long Psalm homilies more bear-
able for a weary congregation, and more interesting even for
today's reader. When Chrysostom came to Psalm 47 and the
verse, "The Lord, the Most High, is fearsome" (v.2), he did
not pass quickly by, like his mentor Diodore and his fellow
student Theodore; instead, he launched into one of his finest
oratorical crescendos that must have vastly impressed the
congregation.
Hence the psalmist says, Most High, fearsome. Rather,
on the contrary, what could anyone adequately say in
describing that day,
when he sends his angels everywhere throughout the world,
when all things tremble,
when the earth is confused to be surrendering the dead in
its keeping,
when the myriad bodies rise,
when the sky shrinks like a shrunken veil,
when that fearful tribunal is established,
when the rivers offireare made to flow,
when the books are opened,
when he makes public each one's deeds done in darkness,
280 GOTR 46:3-4 2001

when retribution and punishment are unbearable,

when powers are menacing,
when swords are drawn,
when the way leads down to hell,
when all rank counts for naught - kings, generals, supre-
mos, viceroys,
when a host of angels appears,
when ranks of martyrs, prophets, apostles, priests, monks,
when rewards are past telling, trophies and wreaths,
when the good things surpass all understanding?26
The pulses would have been racing that day in Antioch,
and perhaps applause rang out again - and rightly so, if ap-
plause is what a homilist is after.

CHRYSOSTOM AS PASTOR

Homilists, however, are generally also pastors, as Chryso-

stom was, and pastors have responsibilities to meet. It was
because of those pastoral responsibilities that he engaged
in a lifelong program of preaching, introduction to the Old
Testament ranking high on his list of priorities, to judge from
the bulk of his extant works. It was because of his pastoral
priorities that he spoke daily on books like Genesis and the
Psalms year after year, especially when he was preacher in
Antioch; we have at least three series of Lenten homilies
on the former and scores of homilies on the Psalms. When
becoming bishop in Constantinople, and thus being required
to speak second in the liturgy, he may not always have been
well-prepared, the impression we get from a homily there on
Isaiah 45:6-7;27 but through his inability to withdraw from
ecclesiastical and civic affairs, he was clearly a very busy
man. Even as a newly-ordained priest in Antioch in 387,
when he had just started a third Lenten series only to inter-
rupt it when the emperor's portrait was vandalized by a local
mob, he interspersed his daily homilies (thus known now as
the Homilies on the Statues)28 with news of Bishop Flavian's
 Hill: Chrysostom - Preacher on the Old Testament 281

hurried trip to the capital to seek clemency for the citizens.

And during the crisis Chrysostom delivered a further short
series of three homilies, purportedly to do with David and
Saul and known as that today, but in effect devoted to the
political fallout from the incident; the forgiving David is pre-
sented along with the malicious Saul as a paradigm for impe-
rial forgiveness of an admittedly guilty Antioch.
I mean, there is nothing remarkable in not taking vengeance
on an enemy who had simply done you wrong; but to be in a
position to do away with this person when he had fallen into
his hands, on whom many great kindnesses were conferred
and who had endeavored to do away with his benefactor on
many an occasion in response to those great benefactions,
and to forgive him and snatch him from the schemes of
others, though he was likely to set his mind to the same
things again - what great degree of sound values did he fail
to achieve?29
In capitalizing on this current situation, however, the
preacher does not forsake his responsibilities to his congre-
gation, even if hoping the emperor elsewhere might take
note. The three homilies are also directed at a more gener-
ally applicable range of moral topics, as often happened with
Chrysostom's biblical homilies, and as one would expect of
a pastor. In closing the first of them, he tells the men - and,
as observed before, one gets the impression that women are
usually not present, or not acknowledged - to go home and
study the scriptural text further, because Scripture is basi-
cally moral and hagiographical in character (perhaps not a
view we would endorse).
Let us not only write this on our minds but also repeatedly
discuss it with one another in our get-togethers; let us
constantly revive the memory of this story both with our
wives and with the children. In fact, if you want to talk
about a king, see, there is a king here; if about soldiers,
about a household, about political affairs, you will find a
282 GOTR 46:3-4 2001

great abundance of these things in the Scriptures. These

narratives bring the greatest benefit: it is impossible -
impossible, I say - for a soul nourished on these stories
ever to manage to fall victim to passion.30
Another series of five homilies delivered soon after the res-
olution of the Antioch crisis, nominally dealing with the birth
of Samuel and known today by the name of his prayerful
mother Hannah, also moves from its historical reference to
treat of moral topics, such as education of the young, prayer
and divine providence.31 Series of other homilies by this pas-
tor also depart from the biblical text to develop similar topics
- almsgiving, riches and extravagance, the dangers of the
theatre and other secular amusements, disorder in church,
hospitality, sloth and indifference.
What some readers look for today in biblical commentary
of that period is attention to spirituality in the sense of per-
sonal direction with a view to developing one's relationship
with Christ. And in the Antioch Fathers, even though to a
lesser extent in Chrysostom, they can be disappointed. He
does lecture on what he calls "the art of prayer" in commen-
tary on Psalms 4 and 7, but it comes out like a shopping list
or medical prescription.
Being heard happens in this fashion: first, of course,
worthiness to receive something; then, praying in accordance
with God's laws; third, persistence; fourth, asking nothing
earthly; fifth, seeking things to our real benefit; sixth,
contributing everything of our own.32
What particularly rankles with modern readers is the men-
tion of those first and last requirements, "worthiness to
receive something," and "contributing everything of our
own." The impression comes through that we can influence
God and win divine grace; and Antioch can often be quoted
for that imbalance. As a pastor, Chrysostom (with his fel-
lows) is insistent that the human element in moral and spiri-
 Hill: Chrysostom - Preacher on the Old Testament 283

tual development should not be downplayed, as also in the

Scriptures and in the person of Jesus; other schools of theol-
ogy had tended to do that, and Antioch is suspicious of such
spiritualizing, as all pastors are.33 But he is also insistent on
the need for divine grace, even if we rarely see him in the
role of spiritual guru.34
After all, how many roles can be expected of a preacher
on the Old Testament? If he provides us with an adequate
- not to say profound - theology of scriptural revelation in
his commentary on readings in the liturgy and avoids the
fault of "mangling the limbs of Scripture" (as Chrysostom
puts it),35 if his homilies engage with the congregation's
lives and experience and invoke a response, and if he sets
preaching on the Old Testament high on his pastoral priori-
ties and directs the text to the lives of his listeners, can we
fault him if he declines to play guru and if his oratorical
skills do not measure up to those of a Golden Mouth, not
to mention Demosthenes? Chrysostom's gifts are perhaps a
deterrent here; he clearly excelled as a preacher on the Old
Testament, as his congregations' applause suggests. Perhaps
today's preachers could reflect also that at times his listeners'
attention strayed because of his meandering or exceeding a
reasonable length. If we cannot emulate all the gifts of the
preacher of Antioch and Constantinople, we may recall that,
as Chrysostom himself reminds us, it was with our human
limitations in mind that God gave us the Scriptures in the
first place.

NOTES

1
The paper was delivered on March 23, 2004 as the annual St. John
Chrysostom Lecture at the Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theol-
ogy, Brookline, MA, to whom the writer expresses his appreciation for
the honor of being invited.
2
Eusebius tells us of the various ranks of stenographers provided for
Origen in his dictation and the recording of his homilies (H.E. 6, 23;
284 GOTR 46:3-4 2001

SC 41.123): "As he dictated, he had available more than seven short­

hand writers (ταχύγραφοι), who interchanged with one another at set
intervals, and copyists (βιβλιόγραφοι) no fewer in number, as well as
girls trained in penmanship (καλλιγραφείv)." Cf. J. De Ghellinck, Pa-
tristique et moyen âge: études d'histoire littéraire et doctrinale, 2 In-
troductions et complément à Vétude de la patristique (Paris: Desclée de
Brouwer, 1947), 217; A. Hamman, "Stenografìa," in A. Di Berardino,
ed., Dizionario Patristico dell'Antichità Cristiana 2, (Casale Monfer-
rato: Marietti, 1984), 3311; R. C. Hill, "Chrysostom's Commentary on
the Psalms: Homilies or Tracts?" in Prayer and Spirituality in the Early
Church 1, ed. P. Allen (Brisbane: Australian Catholic University, 1998),
301-17.
3
Cf. S. Lancel, St. Augustine, (London: SCM, 2002), 458.
4
The case has been mounted that Antioch churches made particular pro-
vision for women worshipers, and that women are sometimes directly
(if rhetorically?) addressed by Chrysostom, for example, see W. Mayer,
"John Chrysostom: Extraordinary Preacher, Ordinary Audience," in
Preacher and Audience: Studies in Early Christian and Byzantine Homi-
lies, M. Cunningham, P. Allen, ed., (Leiden: Brill, 1998), 123; "Who
Came to Hear John Chrysostom Preach? Recovering a Late Fourth-cen-
tury Preacher's Audience," ETL 76 (2000), 80.
5
A.-M. Malingrey, "John Chrysostom," in A. Di Berardino, ed., Ency-
clopedia of the Early Church 1, (Edinburgh: James Clark & Co, 1992),
441.
6
The Study of the Bible in the Middle Ages, 3rd ed., (Oxford: Blackwell,
1983), 18.
7
These other members of the school of Antioch (if we may use the term
"school" in the sense of a fellowship of like-minded scholars joined by
birth, geography and scholarly principles - not in the local sense in "the
school of Caesarea" employed of Origen's refuge by J. Quasten, Patrol-
ogy 2, Westminster MD: Newman, 1960, 121-23) have not left us such
an extensive corpus of homiletic material for comparison on this score.
8
This, at least, is the verdict of his editor J.-M. Olivier, Diodori Tarsensis
Commentarli in Psalmos 1, Commentarli in Psalmos I-L (CCG 6), ciii,
who while according Lucían (martyred in 312) the title 'initiateur' ofthat
method, nominates Diodore as 'le véritable fondateur.' Certainly it was
Diodore under whose influence Chrysostom fell as a student, though not
so markedly and slavishly as his fellow pupil Theodore.
9
For the limited exegetical skills transmitted by Diodore to his pupils,
see my article, "His Master's Voice: Theodore of Mopsuestia on the
Psalms," HeyJ 44 (2004), 40-53.
10
PG 55.50 (English translations in the text are those of R. C. Hill).
 Hill: Chrysostom - Preacher on the Old Testament 285

Cf. Young, Biblical Exegesis and the Formation of Christian Culture,

(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), 115, on Chrysostom's
manner of allusion to Scripture.
11
The word is sometimes by a lazy caique rendered "condescension,"
though there is nothing patronizing about it. Such is the version suggest­
ed by M. H. Flanagan, St John Chrysostom s Doctrine of Condescension
and Accuracy in the Scriptures, (Napier, New Zealand [private printing],
1948) (where "accuracy" also inadequately - and commonly - renders a
key Antiochene term ακρίβεια, "precision"); F. Fabbi, "La 'condiscen­
denza divina nell' ispirazione biblica secondo S. Giovanni Crisostomo,"
Bib 14 (1933), 330-47; Β. Vawter, Biblical Inspiration, Theological Re­
sources, (London: Hutchinson & Co, 1972), 40, in comparing the term to
Origen's συμπεριφορά; J.-M. Leroux, "Johannes Chrysostomus," 121,
TRE 17, 118-27, where the term is rendered 'Herablassung.' F. Asensio
does better in his article, Έ1 Crisostomo y su vision de la escritura en la
exposición homilética del Génesis,' EstBib 32 (1973), 223-55, 329-56.
A monograph is being prepared on the term by David Rylaarsdam. Cf.
my article, "On Looking Again at synkatabasis" Prudentia 13, (1981)
3-11.
12
Homily 4 In Oziam (SC 277.174). Cf. Hill, "St John Chrysostom's
Teaching on Inspiration in 'Six Homilies on Isaiah,'" VC 22 (1968), 19-
37.
13
Homily 58 on Genesis (PG 54.509-510).
14
PG 53.54-61. Cf. Hill, "On Giving up the Horses for Lent," Clergy
Review 6S (1983), 105-106.
15
SC 433.294-96.
16
SC 433.300-302.
17
Sermon 6 on Genesis (SC 433.282-84).
18
PG 55.155-67.
19
SC 433.238-240.
20
Cf. G. Bardy, "Jean Chrysostome," Dictionnaire de théologie
catholique, vol. 8, (Paris: Librairie Letouzey et Ané, 1924), 684, who
contrasts Chrysostom's makrologia with Augustine's breviloquium, the
latter needing a quarter hour for what took the former two hours.
21
Historia Ecclesiastica 6, 3 (PG 67.665-668).
22
P. J. Ryan, "Chrysostom - a derived stylist?" VC 36 (1982) 11,13.
23
Second Homily on Psalm 49:16, delivered in the Great Church in Con-
stantinople (PG 55.515). Cf. Hill, St John Chrysostom: Old Testament
Homilies, vol. 3, (Brookline, MA: Holy Cross Orthodox Press, 2003),
109.
24
"John Chrysostom," 441.
25
First Homily on Psalm 49:16 (PG 55.499). Cf. Old Testament Homilies
286 GOTR 46:3-4 2001

3,86.
26
PG 55.211.
27
PG 56.141-52. Cf. Old Testament Homilies 2, 20-40.
28
Cf. F. van de Paverd, The Homilies on the Statues: An Introduction,
Orientalia Christiana Analecta 239, (Rome: Pont. Inst. Orient. Stud.),
1991.
29
PG 54.678. Cf. Old Testament Homilies 1, 11.
30
PG 54.686. There are features of this concluding parénesis that are
atypical of the series and suggest a different hand at work; cf. my article,
"Chrysostom's Homilies on David and Saul," SVTQ 44 (2000), 123-41.
31
PG 54.631-76; cf. my article, "St John Chrysostom's Homilies on
Hannah," SVTQ 45 (2001), 319-38.
32
PG 55.85. Cf. Hill, "The Spirituality of Chrysostom's Commentary on
the Psalms," JECS 5 (1997), 569-79.
33
In the view of L. Bouyer, The Spirituality of the New Testament and the
Fathers, (London: Burns & Oates, 1963), 438, 444, Antioch developed
an "asceticism without mysticism" as a "healthy reaction" against a ten-
dency in Alexandria to "find Christian spirituality under its most mysti-
cal aspects." One result of Antioch's attempt at balance is that Chrysos-
tom is never nominated in modern manuals of Christian spirituality (for
details, see my article, "The Spirituality of Chrysostom's Commentary
on the Psalms").
34
Cf. Hill, "Psalm (41)42: a Classic Text for Antiochene Spirituality,"
ITQ 68 (2003), 25-33.
35
In his homily on Jeremiah 10:23 (PG 56.153-62) in reference to the
common habit of misquoting verses from Scripture to justify moral ir-
responsibility. Cf. my article, "Norms, Definitions, and Unalterable Doc-
trines: Chrysostom on Jeremiah," ITQ 65 (2000), 335-46.
 ^ s
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