Commentary
on the Epistle to the Galatians
and
Homilies on the Epistle to the
Ephesians
of
S. John Chrysostom,
Archbishop of Constantinople
Translated,
with notes and indices
[Parker and Rivington, 1840]
Preface
{vii} ST.
CHRYSOSTOM'S Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians is continuous, according to
chapter and verse; instead of being arranged in Homilies with a Moral
or Practical application at their close, as in his exposition of other
Epistles. It was written at Antioch, as Montfaucon infers from a
reference which the Author makes, upon ch. i. v. 16. (p. 20,) to other
of his writings, which certainly were written about the same time in
that city. vid. Hom. de Mutat. Nom. tom. iii. p. 98. ed. Ben. The year
is uncertain, but seems not to have been earlier than A.D. 395.
The
Homilies on the Epistle to the Ephesians have been by some critics
assigned to his Episcopate at Constantinople, in consequence of
certain imperfections in their composition, which seemed to argue
absence of the comparative leisure which he enjoyed at Antioch. There
is a passage too in Homily xi. p. 231, 2, which certainly is very
apposite to the Author's circumstances in the court of Eudoxia. Yet
there are strong reasons for deciding that they too were delivered at
Antioch. S. Babylas and S. Julian, both Saints of Antioch, are
mentioned familiarly, the former in Homily ix. p. 205, the latter in
Homily xxi. pp. 342, 3. Monastic establishments in mountains in the
neighbourhood are spoken of in Homily vi. p. 165, and xiii. p. 248 [Note
1]; and those near Antioch are famous in St. Chrysostom's history.
A schism too is alluded to in Homily xi. p. 230, as existing in the
{viii} community he was addressing, and that not about a question of
doctrine; circumstances which are accurately fulfilled in the
contemporary history of Antioch, and which are more or less noticed in
the Homilies on 1 Cor. which were certainly delivered at Antioch [Note
2]. Moreover, he makes mention of the prevalence of superstitions,
Gentile and Jewish, among the people whom he was addressing, in Homily
vi. fin., p. 166. Hom. xii. fin. p. 240. which is a frequent ground of
complaint in his other writings against the Christians of Antioch; vid.
in Gal. p. 15; in 1 Cor. Hom. xii. §. 13, 14; in Col. Hom. viii.
fin.; contr. Jud. i. p. 386-8. Since Evagrius, the last Bishop of the
Latin succession in the schism, died in A.D.
392, those Homilies must have been composed before that date.
As to the
Translations, the Editors have been favoured with the former by a
friend who conceals his name; and with the latter, by the Rev. WILLIAM
JOHN COPELAND,
M.A. Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford.
J. H. N.
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Notes
1. Vid.
also xxi. p. 338.
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2.
Vid. also Preface to Transl. of Homilies on 1 Cor. p. xiii.
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