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Winter 2009
Genesis 1-11
Philippians
Projected Volumes 2009-2010
Genesis 12-36
Genesis 38-50
Joshua
Isaiah
Romans
The Chrysostom Bible will be available for
download electronically and also available in hard copy.
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The present Bible
Commentary Series is not so much in honor of
John Chrysostom as it is to continue and promote his
legacy as an interpreter of the biblical texts for
preaching and teaching God’s congregation, in order to
prod its members to proceed on the way they started when
they accepted God’s calling. Chrysostom’s virtual
uniqueness is that he did not subscribe to any
hermeneutic or methodology, since this would amount to
introducing an extra-textual authority over the biblical
texts. For him, scripture is its own interpreter.
Listening to the texts time and again allowed him to
realize that “call” and “read (aloud)” are not
interconnected realities; rather, they are one reality
since they both are renditions of the same Hebrew verb
qara’. Given that words read aloud are words of
instruction for one “to do them,” the only valid
reaction would be to hear, listen, obey, and abide by
these words. All these connotations are subsumed in the
same Hebrew verb šama‘. On the other hand, these
scriptural “words of life” are presented as readily
understandable utterances of a father to his children
(Isaiah 1:2-3). The recipients are never asked to engage
in an intellectual debate with their divine instructor,
or even among themselves, to fathom what he is saying.
The Apostle to the Gentiles followed in the footsteps of
the Prophets to Israel by handing down to them the
Gospel, that is, the Law of God’s Spirit through his
Christ (Romans 8:2; Galatians 6:2) as fatherly
instruction (1 Corinthians 4:15). He in turn wrote
readily understandable letters to be read aloud. It is
in these same footsteps that Chrysostom followed, having
learned from both the Prophets and Paul that the same
“words of life” carry also the sentence of death at the
hand of the scriptural God, Judge of all (Deuteronomy
28; Joshua 8:32-35; Psalm 82; Matthew 3:4-12; Romans
2:12-16; 1 Corinthians 10:1-11; Revelation 20:11-15).
While theological debates and hermeneutical theories
come and go after having fed their proponents and their
fans with passing human glory, the Golden Mouth’s
expository homilies, through the centuries, fed and
still feed myriads of believers in so many traditions
and countries. Virtually banned from dogmatic treatises,
he survives in the hearts of “those who have ears to
hear.” His success is due to his commitment to exegesis
rather than to futile hermeneutics. The latter behaves
as someone who dictates on a living organism what it is
supposed to be, whereas exegesis submits to that
organism and endeavors to decipher it through trial and
error. There is as much a far cry between the text and
the theories about it as there is between a living
organism and the theories about it. The biblical texts
are the reality of God imparted through its being read
aloud in the midst of the congregation, disregarding the
value of the sermon that follows. The sermon, much less
a theological treatise, is at best an invitation to hear
and obey the text. Assessing the shape of an invitation
card has no value whatsoever when it comes to the dinner
itself; the guests are fed by the dinner, not by the
invitation or its phrasing (Luke 14:16-24; Matthew
22:1-14).
This commentary series does not intend to promote
Chrysostom’s ideas as a public relation manager would
do, but rather to follow in the footsteps of his
approach as true children and heirs are expected to do.
He used all the contemporary tools at his disposal to
communicate God’s written instruction to his hearers, as
a doctor would with his patients, without spending
unnecessary energy on peripheral debates requiring the
use of professional jargon incomprehensible to the
commoner. The writers of this series will try to do the
same: muster to the best of their ability all necessary
contemporary knowledge to communicate to the general
readers the biblical message without burdening them with
data unnecessary for that purpose. Whenever it will be
deemed necessary or even helpful to do so, and in order
to curtail burdensome and lengthy technical asides
within the commentaries, specialized monographs related
to the scriptural background—literary, socio-political,
or archeological—will be issued as companions to the
series.
Paul Nadim
Tarazi
Editor |
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