Preface.
————————————
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 in Antioch, as
Montfaucon infers from a reference which the Author, makes upon Chap.
i., ver. 16 (p. 20) to other of his writings, which certainly were
written about the same time in that city. Vid.
Hom. de Mutal.
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 the 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., pp.
231, 232, which certainly is very apposite to the Author’s
circumstance in the court of Eudoxia. Yet there are strong reasons for
deciding that they too were delivered at Antioch. St. Babylas and St.
Julian, both saints at Antioch, are mentioned familiarly, the former in
Homily IX., p. 205, the latter in Homily XXI., pp. 342, 343. Monastic
establishments in mountains in the neighborhood are spoken of in Homily
VI., p. 165, and XIII., p. 248;
3
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 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 Corinthians,
which were certainly delivered at Antioch.
4
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, Homily 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., Homily XII., §§ 13, 14; in Col., Homily VIII., fin.;
Contr. Jud.
I., pp. 386–388.
Since Evagrius, the last Bishop
of the Latin succession in the schism, died in
a.d.
392, these Homilies must have been composed before
that date.
As to the Translations, the
Editors have been favored 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.
Newman
3
Vid. also
XXI., p. 338.
4
Vid. also
Preface to Translation of Homilies on 1 Cor., p. xiii.