Homilies on the Gospel of St. John and the Epistle to the Hebrews

NPNF (V1-14)St. ChrysostomiIn either city there were numerous heretics of the sect against which he is most careful to supplyarguments, the Anomœans, 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 withdiscussions of their tenets. But in these <strong>Homilies</strong> he is continually meeting with texts which theyperverted 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 perfectGodhead, united in One Person with true and perfect Manhood, affords a key that easily opens textswhich 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 noteven arguments so far for his view of the case, but perfectly consistent with the truth always heldby the Church. There may remain a few cases, after attentive study, in which it is difficult to besure what is the exact meaning, or even whether a given text speaks of the Godhead or of theManhood, but as to the general doctrine of the whole Scripture, or the consistency of that doctrinewith any and every text therein contained, there is no reasonable doubt. There are those whose faithseems to tremble on the balance when such a passage of Scripture is under discussion, but this mustbe either from an inveterate habit of doubting, or an imperfect apprehension of the real meaningof 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 alternativebeing between such and such an exposition and the acceptance of heresy. Enough is clear to makeus very sure what will be the doctrine of any difficult passage, though we may be in doubt of itsinterpretation. St. Chrysostom is usually right, and not only so, but most ingenious in detecting therhetorical connection of sentiments and arguments. If anywhere he fails, it is from someover-refinement in rhetorical analysis, and not from any want of apprehension of the main truthsconcerned.In the first volume of the Benedictine edition there is a series of <strong>Homilies</strong> against the Anomœans,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 theirearnest request. These <strong>Homilies</strong> were delivered some time before those on St. John, beginning inthe first year after his ordination with those “On the Incomprehensible Nature of God,” in oppositionto the pretensions of that sect to the perfect knowledge of Divine things. And the Benedictine Editorrefers to them as containing a more complete array of the positive evidence of St. John to theCatholic doctrines than even this commentary affords.The history of the woman taken in adultery is omitted in this commentary, and the Benedictineeditor was not able to trace it in any of the works of St. Chrysostom. It is suggested that his copiesmay have wanted the passage, or that he may have omitted it for fear it should be taken as anencouragement to vice. But he was not the man to shrink from so slight a difficulty, nor would hehave failed, in commenting on it, to leave an impression on the hearer by no means calculated tolessen his dread of sin. Such a reason may have prevailed with some copyists to suppress thepassage, and it is probable that it was not found in the copy which he used. It is omitted in likemanner by St. Cyril of Alexandria. 11[The pericope John vii. 53–viii. 11 is considered by the best modern critics as an interpolation by a transcriber, butis probably based on a genuine apostolic tradition, perhaps taken from the lost work of Papias of Hierapolis, who collectedfrom primitive disciples various discourses of our Lord, among others “a narrative concerning a woman maliciously accused7