§ 174. II. Златоустый – толкователь Свящ. Писания. Верность главному характеру. Любовь к слову Божию. Свойства толкований Ветхого Завета.

II. We have already seen that during almost the entire continuation of the public ministry of his St. John was engaged in explaining St. Scriptures. Here too he remains true to his main character - we love for the salvation of our neighbors. Each of his interpretive conversations usually consists of two parts: in one, he deals with the actual explanation of the texts of the word of God, in the other, with the moral state of his listeners, he offers moral instructions. The soul of the great teacher was deeply imbued with the consciousness of the high dignity and necessity for us of the word of God, he called upon all his eloquence to convince everyone to read or listen to the word of God, to study it in the church, to study it in the house, to study it at any time, in any place 1185. “I urge and will not cease to urge, so that not only here you listen to what is said, but even then, when you are in the house, you carefully read the Divine Scripture.... No one should tell me cold words worthy of condemnation: I am busy with court cases, I bear city duties, I am an artist, I have a wife, I feed children - it is not my business to read the Scriptures, but those who have renounced everything.... What are you saying? Is it not your business to read Scripture because you are distracted by countless worries? On the contrary, it is yours more than others; they do not have as much need for help as you do, who live among so many vanities... You, since you constantly stand under blows, so often receive wounds, therefore you yourself need medicine more. The great protection against sin is the reading of the Scriptures, the great trouble, the deep abyss is ignorance of the Scriptures, the great destruction is not knowing anything from the word of God; This is what gave rise to heresies; This is what introduced a depraved life; This is what turned everything upside down 1186. Like fragrant aromas, the more they rub their fingers, the more they release the incense: this is the effect of the Scriptures; the more you try to enter into it, the more treasures you find in it” 1187. Let us also remember what Chrysostom said when he began to explain the messages of St. Paul and other books 1188. Let us remember how he admired the reading of Scripture in the Gothic language 1189. From here it is easy to understand that the one who loved the word of God so much could not, while engaged in explanation, explain it fluently, without special attention; Chrysostom used all his talents, so rare, and all his information, so extensive, for the work of interpreter, although for others he offered from his treasures no more than what his listeners could accommodate. That is why there are so many excellent things in his interpretations of the Old Testament, and his interpretations of the Old Testament will forever remain the best guide for interpreters of the word of God. The very first and common dignity of all interpretations of it on the Holy Scripture. Scripture has an inimitable clarity of presentation of inspired thoughts, which is what distinguishes all his writings. 1. As for his interpretations of the Old Testament: a) their main high quality is strict attention to the literal meaning of the Holy Scriptures. Scriptures and to the connection of thoughts. He called crude sensual literalism a matter of unreason; but he also considered intensified allegorism dangerous for faith itself, as a matter of arbitrariness 1190. Regarding the connection of thoughts, he wrote: “There is no need to simply grab the words of Scripture and tear them out of the connection and affinity of content; there is no need to take bare words, depriving them of help from the previous and subsequent ones, in order to then simply mock and make evasions. For if in courts, where we argue about worldly matters, we present everything that serves for justification - place and time, reasons and persons, and very much more: isn’t it absurd, then, since the feat for eternal life is set before us, to quote the words of Scripture simply as it happened,” etc. 1191. b) When explaining St. text of the Old Testament of St. John in places turned to the Hebrew original, and even directly considered it necessary: ​​for example. in the explanation of Gen. 1:8, he says that since the Old Testament was written in Hebrew. language, then when explaining it one must turn to Hebrew. language... “thus, those who know the Hebrew language exactly say that the name of heaven is expressed among the Jews in the plural; Those who know the Syriac language agree with them. That is why blessed David said: heavens of heavens, not because there are many heavens - blessed Moses does not teach us that, but because in the Hebrew language one object is expressed in the plural" 1192. However, the title of the Hebrew word-expression St. John acquired only from Greek interpretations; and although, by his place of birth, he could know the Syriac language, akin to Hebrew 1193, but busy with Greek learning, he could not understand the spirit of the Hebrew and Syriac languages ​​as well as the St. Ephraim, and therefore held mainly Greek. translation; therefore, his interpretations of Old Testament expressions give way to the explanations of St. Ephraim. c) However, lack of familiarity with the spirit of the Jewish way of expression, St. Chrysostom supplemented with his excellent understanding what could only be said in human language and adapted to the concepts of the people of the Old Testament: he paid the strictest attention to this 1194. And he tried, as much as the conversational type of interpretation allowed, to compare the translation with other translations 1195, or, in addition to paying attention to the connection of thoughts, he explained the literal meaning in parallel passages 1196. d) St. Chrysostom taught that in the Old Testament “some things must be accepted as they are said, and others not as they are supposed to be accepted there, - as for example. words: wolves and lambs will graze together; the other must be understood in two ways: to retain the sensual and accept the imaginable, as for example. the exaltation of the son of Abraham; in the lamb of Egypt we represent the image of suffering" 1197. Despite the fact that he offered interpretation in conversations where pious fortune-telling about the Old Testament (in relation to the New) might be appropriate, he was careful not to say more than what the simple meaning of the text shows: but for example. about the prophetic Psalm 44 itself, I noticed that it does not say much about Christ, and that one must keep in mind the difference between the Prophet and the Evangelist 1198. In another case, speaking about the darkness of prophecies, he states that the reason for this darkness is that it was impossible to speak too clearly about Christ with the Jews. In this regard, i.e. in limiting the limits of the mysterious meaning, St. Chrysostom acted as prudently and prudently as his mentor Diodorus. e) However, Chrysostom wrote few interpretations of the Old Testament, in comparison with interpretations of the New Testament, which again shows his intelligent prudence. In addition to conversations and words per square. Genesis 1199, except demons. on 8 chapters of Isaiah 1200 and on 36 psalms 1201, a few demons. on the story of Samuel and Saul 1202 and two conversations about the darkness of the prophecies 1203, which determined the time, are now known with the name of Chrysostom's interpretation of the prophet. Daniel and on the book. Job. The authenticity of the first has been unfairly questioned, while both the style of the composition and the antiquity of the copies vouch for its authenticity. It was published in fragmentary form, from what was taken from the code (Catena) of interpretations: but it also has its own preface 1204 and was written in an extensive form 1205. Some conversations of Chrysostom on the book. Job's works were translated into Armenian back in the 5th century 1206. Interpretation of it on the prophet. Zechariah knew St. Ephraim 1207, but it is now unknown; quite extensive extracts from his interpretation of the prophet. Jeremiah survived 1208 . See 35 demons. on Genesis T. 4. p. 250–253 Demon. 14. r. 106. 107. Demon. 15 on John T. 8. b. 84.206.9 Demon. on the last to Kolos. T. 11. r. 390. 391. “Don’t wait for another teacher; you have the word of God; no one can teach you like that,” etc. Extracts from Conversations on the need to read St. For the scripture, see the book: “Extract from the writings of St. teachers about the benefits of reading St. Scripture pp. 75–99. St. Petersburg 1817. Demon. 3. about Lazarus. T. 1. r. 737–741 Sl. T. 3. r. 172. Demon. 13. on Gen. T. 4. r. 100. Demon. 14 rub. 106. “If those who want to get expensive stones from the sea undertake so much work... all the more effort is needed to penetrate into the depths of words to get so many precious stones. But do not be embarrassed, my dear, when you hear about the depth; here is the grace of the Spirit enlightening our thoughts; it makes what you are looking for conveniently located and makes all the work easy.” See note. 124. About the translation of St. Scriptures into languages: Syriac, Egyptian, Indian, Persian and Ethiopian with spiritual consolation he spoke in Ant., Bes. on Ev. John. Hom. 2 T. 8 r. 10. See also ant. treatise prot. Jews and Gentiles. T. 1. r. 566.575. T. 4. r. 24. Here he also offers a brief summary of the translation of St. Scriptures in Greek; - after which he says: “This was also a work of God’s providence, so that not only those who know the Hebrew language, but also all the inhabitants of the universe would benefit from it.” But neither here nor in other places does a prudent teacher take upon himself, without knowledge of Hebrews. language, pronounce any decisive judgment on the Hebrew text of the Bible. On the contrary, see his explanation of Gen. 4,16, 5, 29, 14, 13, 18, 27, 32, 29, 32, 39, 28, 38, 29, 30, 41, 44. The Hebrew text is especially often cited in the interpretation of the psalms; eg in the interpretation of Ps. 47:8. “The Hebrew says, Θαρσεις” and in the interpretation itself accepts this reading of Art. 10. Jewish same Ηχαλαχ δεμμηνου. T. 5. r. 199, 200. see also p. 208, 206, 212, 7, 7, 88, 98, 106, etc. One of the reasons why the prophecies are dark for us is that the Old Testament “was originally written in Hebrew.” language, and here it is in Greek; when one language is explained by another, many difficulties are encountered.” Sometimes, but rarely, he also cites the Syriac translation of T. 5, p. 208. T. 6. r. 86. The common people near Antioch and during Chrysostom spoke Syrian, op. Chrysost. T. 2, p. 222 (ed. 2. Paris). In the explanation of Gen. 1:1. (Hom. 2) asks: Why does Moses not directly speak of the creation of angels? And he answers that it depended on the condition of the Jews. See explanation. Life 1, 4, 8, 26, 2, 20, 4, 6, 6, 6, 15, 2; 18, 21; 22, 1; 25, 22. Hom. in. Rul. 6, explan. psalm 4, 4, 6, 7, 7, 7, 13, 114, 4, 133, 1, 2, 115, 16. Isaiah 5:1–28. This is especially found in the explanation of the psalms, where he often cites translations of Aquila, Symmachus and Theodotion. See explanation. on Ps. 11, 44 and more art. 2 Ps. 44, 7, 7, 12, 7, 147, 16. See note explain Life 6, 2, 3, 4, 11, 1, 12, 17, 30, 43, etc. Ps. 7. 9. Hom. in. Psalm. 46. ​​Proves T. 6, p. 55 by Scripture itself, that it sometimes speaks allegorically, and precisely by those places where the Old Scripture itself explains its allegories. See explanation. 108 Ps. and 118 Ps. Interpretation ed. Monfaucon T. 6, r. 200, very casually. The preface, published by Montfaucon, was published by Bandini. See May Collect, vet. avct. T. t Prof. r. 33. Bandini Catalog. cod. 13. Lavrent. 1, 408. Anecdota graeca T. 2, p. 182–184. Gallandi Bibl. T. 8. Photii Bibl. cod. 229, p. 430. Catena in Ieremiam, ed. Ghislerio, Lugd. 1623. You might be interested in: