A SELECT LIBRARY

OF THE

NICENE AND

POST-NICENE FATHERS

THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH.

EDITED BY

IN CONNECTION WITH A NUMBER OF PATRISTIC SCHOLARS OF EUROPE AND AMERICA.

VOLUME XIV

SAINT CHRYSOSTOM:

HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN

AND

THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS.

T&T CLARK

EDINBURGH

WM. B. EERDMANS PUBLISHING COMPANY

GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN

Preface.

This volume closes the American edition of the Works of St. Chrysostom, and at the same time the First Series of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Library of the Christian Fathers.

The best works of St. Augustin and St. Chrysostom are thus brought within the reach of the English reader in a more complete form and at a lower price than ever before.

The Epistle to the Hebrews was the last volume of the Oxford "Library of the Fathers," published under the direction and with a Preface of the late Dr. Pusey, the chief originator of that valuable Library. His Preface is dated, Oxford, May, 1877. He died Sept. 16, 1882.

The American editor of the Homilies on the Hebrews has thoroughly revised the Oxford translation and enlarged it with a valuable introduction on the authorship of the Epistle (about which St. Chrysostom was mistaken), and a considerable number of explanatory footnotes. Unfortunately he died shortly before his ms. was sent to the printer, but his son read the proofs.

The Rev. Dr. Frederic Gardiner (born Sept. 11, 1822, died July 17, 1889) was for many years Professor in the Berkeley Episcopal Divinity School at Middletown, Conn., and President of the Society of Biblical Literature and Exegesis. He edited a Greek Harmony of the Four Gospels, and several exegetical works, and was a contributor to Lange's Commentary, Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers, and various periodicals. The revision of the Homilies on the Epistle to the Hebrews was his last work.

The Homilies on the Fourth Gospel appears in the Oxford "Library of the Fathers," with a few additional notes. The Rev. Charles Marriott (1811-1858) edited them, and wrote the preface to the first volume. For fourteen years, from 1841 to 1855, he was associated with Dr. Pusey as working editor, and superintended the publication of at least twenty-four volumes (twelve of St. Chrysostom, eight of St. Augustin, four of St. Gregory I.), i.e. more than one-half of that Library. It was with both a labor of love and sacrifice, without fee or reward except the approval of the conscience and of good men. To their unselfish labors the American edition owes a great debt of gratitude. Mr. Marriott did most of the literary drudgery, as translator, corrector, and proof-reader, with untiring fidelity and painstaking zeal till he was struck down by paralysis in 1855, "to wait in stillness for his Lord's last call." Dean Burgon states these facts in a interesting account of his intimate friend (in Lives of Twelve Good Men, London and New York, 1888, vol. I. 296-376). He calls Marriott "a character unique, beautiful, and saint-like," and adds that he "lived quite above the world, and, like Enoch, walked habitually with God."

I feel very thankful that this Patristic Library has so far been finished, and I am happy to announce that the "Christian Literature Company" is sufficiently encouraged to publish the second series, which will contain the Greek Fathers from Eusebius to John of Damascus, and the Latin Fathers from Hilary to Gregory the Great. I secured the coöperation of eminent patristic scholars of England and America several years ago for the completion of this enterprise.

PHILIP SCHAFF

Union Theological Seminary,

New York, Dec. 24, 1889.

Comparative Table

of the

Works of St. Chrysostom in the American and in Migne's Editions.

Anglo-american edition of St. Chrysostom.

Graeco-latin edition.

In Migne's Patrologia Graeca, Tom. XLVII.-LXIV.

Volume IX.

Page

Opera S. Chrysostomi, reprinted from Montfaucon's Benedictine edition, 1862, Tom. I.-XIII.

Prolegomena by the General Editor..................... 3-23

Six Books on the Priesthood.............................. 25-83

De Sacerdotio Libri VI......................... Tom. I. 623-693

Two Letters to Theodore after his Fall........... 85-116

Paraenesis ad Theodorum Lapsum Libri II..................

Ad Viduam juniorem.......................... Tom. I. 599-623

Hom. in Sanctum Martyrem Ignatium Deiferum,........

Hom. in Sanctum Martyrem Babylam,.........................

Two Instructions to Candidates for Baptism.............

Catecheses ad Illuminandos............ Tom. II. 223-243

Three Homilies. (1) That demons do not govern the world. (2 and 3) Concerning the power of the Tempter............................................................. 173-197

(1) Adversus eos, qui dicunt Daemones gubernare res humanas, etc.............................. Tom. III. 241 sqq.

(2 and 3) Ad eos, qui objiciunt, cur e medio sublatus non est Deus, etc.................................................................... ....................................................................... .............

Three Homilies. (1) Against the Marcionists and the Manichaeans on the passage "Father, if it be possible," etc. (2) On the Paralytic let down through the roof. (3) To those who had not attended the Assembly; on the passage, "If thine enemy hunger, feed him,".......................................................... 199-232

Homily against publishing the errors of the brethren............................................................... ............. 233-242

Two Homilies on Eutropius............................ 245-265

Treatise to prove that no one can harm the man who does not injure himself.................................... 267-284

Four Letters to Olympias and one to presbyters at Antioch............................................................. 285-304

Correspondence of Innocent, bishop of Rome, with St. Chrysostom and the church at Constantinople...

Twenty-one Homilies on the Statues........... 315-514

Homiliae XXI de Statues ad Populum Antiochenum habitae............................................................. II. 15-223

Vol. X.

Introductory Essay on St. Chrysostom as an Exegete................................................................ ............. xvii-xxii

St. Chrysostom's Homilies on the Gospel of St. Matthew................................................................ 1-551

Homiliae XC in Matthaeum............................ Tom. VII.

Vol. XI.

Homiliae LV in Acta Apostolorum................ Tom. IX.

Homiliae XXXII in Epistolam ad Romanos..................

Vol. XII.

Prefaces and Contents to 1 and 2 Corinthians...........

Homilies on First Epistle to the Corinthians...............

Homiliae XLIV in Epistolam primam ad Corinthios.....

Homilies on Second Epistle to Corinthians................

Homiliae XXX in Epistolam secundam ad...................

Vol. XIII.

St. Chrysostom as a Homilist.............................. v-vii

Commentarius in Ep. ad Galatas...................................

Commentary on Galatians, and Homilies on Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians, First and Second Timothy, Titus, and Philemon.......

Hom. XXIV in Ep. ad Ephesios; X in Ep. ad Philippenses; XII in Ep. ad Colossenses; XVI in Ep. I. et II. ad Thessalonioenses; XXVIII in Ep. I. et II. ad Timotheum; VI in Ep. ad Titum; III in Ep. ad Philemonem...................................................... Tom. XI.

Vol. XIV.

Homilies on the Gospel of St. John................... 1-334

Homiliae LXXXVIII in Ioannem................... Tom. VIII.

Homilies on the Epistle to the Hebrews....... 335-522

Homiliae XXXIV in Epistolam ad Hebraeos,................

the homilies of St. john Chrysostom

archbishop of constantinople,

on the

gospel of st. john

The Oxford Translation Edited, with Additional Notes, by

rev. philip schaff, d.d., ll.d.

Preface to the Homilies on the Gospel of St. John.

The Benedictine editor has already noticed the principal points in which these Homilies differ from others in which St. Chrysostom comments upon Holy Scripture. They are far more controversial than is usual with him, and the part devoted to moral exhortation is shorter. This may be partly owing to the number of passages in St. John which bear on the doctrine of our Lord's Person and His Divine and Human Natures. But it seems further that they were delivered to a select audience at an early hour of the day. For toward the latter part of Hom. XXXI. he contrasts the coolness of the morning, in which they were assembled, with the mid-day heat, in which the woman of Samaria listened to our Lord. And the character of the instruction given almost unquestionably marks the hearers as having been less miscellaneous, and less liable to be supposed wanting in points of common duty, than those whom he generally addressed.

They do not give their own date, but are referred to by the Author, while still at Antioch, as already published, in Hom. VII. on 1 Cor. ii. 8. "However, the manner of this way of knowledge and of that hath already been declared in the Gospel; and, not to be continually handling the same topic, thither do we refer our readers." The place is St. John viii. 19 treated in Hom. XLIX.

And since the three first years after St. Chrysostom was ordained Priest, A.D. 386-8, seem completely filled up, and the Homilies in St. Matthew were probably prior to these, it is most likely that they were not begun before A.D. 390, while those on some of the Epistles of St. Paul seem to have come after them, and still before the year 398, in which he was removed to Constantinople.

In either city there were numerous heretics of the sect against which he is most careful to supply arguments, the Anomoeans, who held that the Son is not even of like [much less of the same] substance with the Father. And even in his less generally controversial works, we often meet with discussions of their tenets. But in these Homilies he is continually meeting with texts which they perverted to the maintenance of their heresy, and turning them into weapons for its confutation. And this he usually does with great success, since the Catholic doctrine of the true and perfect Godhead, united in One Person with true and perfect Manhood, affords a key that easily opens texts which most stubbornly resist any confused notion of an inferior Divinity, or an unreal Humanity. The texts urged by the heretic, put to this test, are found not really to belong to him. They are not even arguments so far for his view of the case, but perfectly consistent with the truth always held by the Church. There may remain a few cases, after attentive study, in which it is difficult to be sure what is the exact meaning, or even whether a given text speaks of the Godhead or of the Manhood, but as to the general doctrine of the whole Scripture, or the consistency of that doctrine with any and every text therein contained, there is no reasonable doubt. There are those whose faith seems to tremble on the balance when such a passage of Scripture is under discussion, but this must be either from an inveterate habit of doubting, or an imperfect apprehension of the real meaning of the Catholic doctrine. The most skillful commentator may occasionally fall into a critical error, but no one who has ever fully entered into the sense of Holy Scripture will dream of the alternative being between such and such an exposition and the acceptance of heresy. Enough is clear to make us very sure what will be the doctrine of any difficult passage, though we may be in doubt of its interpretation. St. Chrysostom is usually right, and not only so, but most ingenious in detecting the rhetorical connection of sentiments and arguments. If anywhere he fails, it is from some over-refinement in rhetorical analysis, and not from any want of apprehension of the main truths concerned.

In the first volume of the Benedictine edition there is a series of Homilies against the Anomoeans, in the first of which he states that he had been unwilling for some time to enter on the controversy, for fear of driving away hearers who held those opinions, but that he had now taken it up at their earnest request. These Homilies were delivered some time before those on St. John, beginning in the first year after his ordination with those "On the Incomprehensible Nature of God," in opposition to the pretensions of that sect to the perfect knowledge of Divine things. And the Benedictine Editor refers to them as containing a more complete array of the positive evidence of St. John to the Catholic doctrines than even this commentary affords.

The history of the woman taken in adultery is omitted in this commentary, and the Benedictine editor was not able to trace it in any of the works of St. Chrysostom. It is suggested that his copies may have wanted the passage, or that he may have omitted it for fear it should be taken as an encouragement to vice. But he was not the man to shrink from so slight a difficulty, nor would he have failed, in commenting on it, to leave an impression on the hearer by no means calculated to lessen his dread of sin. Such a reason may have prevailed with some copyists to suppress the passage, and it is probable that it was not found in the copy which he used. It is omitted in like manner by St. Cyril of Alexandria. [1]

The text of Savile has been followed, except where the Benedictine edition has supplied improvements. The Benedictine sections are numbered throughout: where the division seemed to be inconvenient, the number is given in the margin. In the earlier Homilies a second series of numbers is employed to mark the sections in the translation; this was discontinued as unnecessary, and the Benedictine only retained. In some of the references to the Psalms, where the Septuagint differs much from the Hebrew, the numbers given are those of the Greek. Care will be taken in the Index of Texts to give always the reference to the Psalm and Verse according to the Hebrew reckoning followed in our own Version.

The editors are indebted for the present translation to the Rev. G. T. Stupart, M.A., late Fellow of Exeter College. It has been kindly carried through the Press by the Rev. J. G. Hickley, B.D., Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford. The translation of the remaining Homilies is completed, and will shortly be in the Press. [2]

C. M[arriott].

Oriel College,

Feast of St. Andrew, 1848.

[The pericope John vii. 53-viii. 11 is considered by the best modern critics as an interpolation by a transcriber, but is probably based on a genuine apostolic tradition, perhaps taken from the lost work of Papias of Hierapolis, who collected from primitive disciples various discourses of our Lord, among others "a narrative concerning a woman maliciously accused before the Lord touching many sins." (Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. III. 39.) The section is omitted in the oldest uncial and other Greek mss. (', B, etc.); it was unknown to Chrysostom and other Greek and early Latin fathers; it interrupts the context; it departs from the style of John, and presents an unusual number of various readings. We find it first in Latin Gospel mss. of the fourth century, but in different places, sometimes at the end of the Gospel of John as an appendix, sometimes at the end of Luke xxi. It was also in the Gospel according to the Hebrews. The R.V. properly retains it, but in brackets and with a marginal note. The story, though no part of the Gospel of John, is eminently Christlike. For details see Tischendorf (ed. viii.), Tregelles, Westcott and Hort, and the critical commentaries.--P.S.]

[The second volume of the Oxford edition, containing Homilies 42-88 (John vi.-xxi.), was published in 1852 without a Preface.--P.S.]

homilies of St. John Chrysostom,

archbishop of constantinople,

on the

gospel according to

st. john.

Homily I.

Preface.

They that are spectators of the heathen games, when they have learned that a distinguished athlete and winner of crowns is come from any quarter, run all together to view his wrestling, and all his skill and strength; and you may see the whole theater of many ten thousands, all there straining their eyes both of body and mind, that nothing of what is done may escape them. So again these same persons, if any admirable musician come amongst them, leave all that they had in hand, which often is necessary and pressing business, and mount the steps, and sit listening very attentively to the words and the accompaniments, and criticising the agreement of the two. This is what the many do.

Again; those who are skilled in rhetoric do just the same with respect to the sophists, for they too have their theaters, and their audience, and clappings of hands, and noise, and closest criticism of what is said.

And if in the case of rhetoricians, musicians, and athletes, people sit in the one case to look on, in the other to see at once and to listen with such earnest attention; what zeal, what earnestness ought ye in reason to display, when it is no musician or debater who now comes forward to a trial of skill, but when a man is speaking from heaven, and utters a voice plainer than thunder? for he has pervaded the whole earth with the sound; and occupied and filled it, not by the loudness of the cry, but by moving his tongue with the grace of God.

And what is wonderful, this sound, great as it is, is neither a harsh nor an unpleasant one, but sweeter and more delightful than all harmony of music, and with more skill to soothe; and besides all this, most holy, and most awful, and full of mysteries so great, and bringing with it goods so great, that if men were exactly and with ready mind to receive and keep them, they could no longer be mere men nor remain upon the earth, but would take their stand above all the things of this life, and having adapted themselves to the condition of angels, would dwell on earth just as if it were heaven.

For the son of thunder, the beloved of Christ, the pillar of the Churches throughout the world, who holds the keys of heaven, who drank the cup of Christ, and was baptized with His baptism, who lay upon his Master's bosom with much confidence, this man comes forward to us now; not as an actor of a play, not hiding his head with a mask, (for he hath another sort of words to speak,) nor mounting a platform, nor striking the stage with his foot, nor dressed out with apparel of gold, but he enters wearing a robe of inconceivable beauty. For he will appear before us having "put on Christ" ( Rom. xiii. 14; Gal. iii. 27 ), having his beautiful "feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace" ( Eph. vi. 15 ); wearing a girdle not about his waist, but about his loins, not made of scarlet leather nor daubed outside with gold, but woven and composed of truth itself. Now will he appear before us, not acting a part, (for with him there is nothing counterfeit, nor fiction, nor fable,) but with unmasked head he proclaims to us the truth unmasked; not making the audience believe him other than he is by carriage, by look, by voice, needing for the delivery of his message no instruments of music, as harp, lyre, or any other the like, for he effects all with his tongue, uttering a voice which is sweeter and more profitable than that of any harper or any music. All heaven is his stage; his theater, the habitable world; his audience, all angels; and of men as many as are angels already, or desire to become so, for none but these can hear that harmony aright, and show it forth by their works; all the rest, like little children who hear, but what they hear understand not, from their anxiety about sweetmeats and childish playthings; so they too, being in mirth and luxury, and living only for wealth and power and sensuality, hear sometimes what is said, it is true, but show forth nothing great or noble in their actions through fastening themselves for good to the clay of the brickmaking. By this Apostle stand the powers from above, marveling at the beauty of his soul, and his understanding, and the bloom of that virtue by which he drew unto him Christ Himself, and obtained the grace of the Spirit. For he hath made ready his soul, as some well-fashioned and jeweled lyre with strings of gold, and yielded it for the utterance of something great and sublime to the Spirit.

Seeing then it is no longer the fisherman the son of Zebedee, but He who knoweth "the deep things of God" ( 1 Cor. ii. 10 ), the Holy Spirit I mean, that striketh this lyre, let us hearken accordingly. For he will say nothing to us as a man, but what he saith, he will say from the depths of the Spirit, from those secret things which before they came to pass the very Angels knew not; since they too have learned by the voice of John with us, and by us, the things which we know. And this hath another Apostle declared, saying, "To the intent that unto the principalities and powers might be known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God." ( Eph. iii. 10.) If then principalities, and powers, and Cherubim, and Seraphim, learned these things by the Church, it is very clear that they were exceedingly earnest in listening to this teaching; and even in this we have been not a little honored, that the Angels learned things which before they knew not with us; I do not at present speak of their learning by us also. Let us then show much silence and orderly behavior; not to-day only, nor during the day on which we are hearers, but during all our life, since it is at all times good to hear Him. For if we long to know what is going on in the palace, what, for instance, the king has said, what he has done, what counsel he is taking concerning his subjects, though in truth these things are for the most part nothing to us; much more is it desirable to hear what God hath said, especially when all concerns us. And all this will this man tell us exactly, as being a friend of the King Himself, or rather, as having Him speaking within himself, and from Him hearing all things which He heareth from the Father. "I have called you friends," He saith, "for all things that I have heard of My Father, I have made known unto you." ( John xv. 15.)

As then we should all run together if we saw one from above bend down "on a sudden" from the height of heaven, promising to describe exactly all things there, even so let us be disposed now. It is from thence that this Man speaketh to us; He is not of this world, as Christ Himself declareth, "Ye are not of the world" ( John xv. 19 ), and He hath speaking within him the Comforter, the Omnipresent, who knoweth the things of God as exactly as the soul of man knoweth what belongs to herself, the Spirit of holiness, the righteous Spirit, the guiding Spirit, which leads men by the hand to heaven, which gives them other eyes, fitting them to see things to come as though present, and giving them even in the flesh to look into things heavenly. To Him then let us yield ourselves during all our life in much tranquillity. Let none dull, none sleepy, none sordid, enter here and tarry; but let us remove ourselves to heaven, for there He speaketh these things to those who are citizens there. And if we tarry on earth, we shall gain nothing great from thence. For the words of John are nothing to those who do not desire to be freed from this swinish life, just as the things of this world to him are nothing. The thunder amazes our souls, having sound without significance; but this man's voice troubles none of the faithful, yea, rather releases them from trouble and confusion; it amazes the devils only, and those who are their slaves. Therefore that we may know how it amazes them, let us preserve deep silence, both external and mental, but especially the latter; for what advantage is it that the mouth be hushed, if the soul is disturbed and full of tossing? I look for that calm which is of the mind, of the soul, since it is the hearing of the soul which I require. Let then no desire of riches trouble us, no lust of glory, no tyranny of anger, nor the crowd of other passions besides these; for it is not possible for the ear, except it be cleansed, to perceive as it ought the sublimity of the things spoken; nor rightly to understand the awful and unutterable nature of these mysteries, and all other virtue which is in these divine oracles. If a man cannot learn well a melody on pipe or harp, unless he in every way strain his attention; how shall one, who sits as a listener to sounds mystical, be able to hear with a careless soul?

Wherefore Christ Himself exhorted, saying, "Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine." ( Matt. vii. 6.) He called these words "pearls," though in truth they be much more precious than they, because we have no substance more precious than that. For this reason too He is wont often to compare their sweetness to honey, not that so much only is the measure of their sweetness, but because amongst us there is nothing sweeter. Now, to show that they very exceedingly surpass the nature of precious stones, and the sweetness of any honey, hear the prophet speaking concerning them, and declaring this superiority; "More to be desired are they," he saith "than gold and much precious stone; sweeter are they also than honey and the honeycomb." ( Ps. xix. 10.) But to those (only) who are in health; wherefore he has added, "For thy servant keepeth them." And again in another place calling them sweet he has added, "to my throat." For he saith, "How sweet are thy words unto my throat." ( Ps. cxix. 103.) And again he insisteth on the superiority, saying, "Above honey and the honeycomb to my mouth." For he was in very sound health. And let not us either come nigh to these while we are sick, but when we have healed our soul, so receive the food that is offered us.