Aquinas on Scripture: An Introduction to his Biblical Commentaries

267 Pages·2016·17.29 MB·English

by  Thomas Weinandy

AQUINAS ON SCRIPTURE
An Introduction to his Biblical Commentaries
Edited by
Thomas G. Weinandy, OFM, Cap
Daniel A. Keating
and
John P. Yocum
~ T &. T CLARK lNTERNATlONAL
,. A Continuum imprint
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T&T Clark International
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© Thomas Weinandy, Daniel Keating, John Yocum and Contributors 2005
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in
any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission
in writing from the publishers.
First published 2005
Reprinted 2006
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: HB: 0-567-08474-4
PB: 0-567-08484-1
Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
Aquinas on scripture: an introduction to his biblical commentaries / edited by
Thomas G. Weinandy, Daniel A. Keating, John P. Yocum.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
ISBN 0-567-08474-4 (hard) - ISBN 0-567-08484-1 (pbk.)
I. Thomas, Aquinas, Saint, 1225?-1274. 2. Bible-Commentaries-History and
criticism 3. Theology, Doctrinal-History-Middle Ages, 600-1500. I Weinandy,
Thomas G. (Thomas Gerard) II. Keating, Daniel A. III. Yocum, John.
B765.T54A685 2005
220.6'092-dc22 2005041881
Typeset by Data Standards Ltd, Frome, Somerset, UK
Printed and bound in Great Britain by MPG Books Ltd, Cornwall
To the Mediaeval Commentators on Sacred Scripture
Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ.
St Jerome

CONTENTS
The Contributors Vlll
Preface IX
Introduction by Nicholas M. Healy
1. Aquinas' Literal Exposition on Job
John Yocum 21
2. Aquinas on Isaiah
Joseph Wawrykow 43
3. Aquinas' Lectura in Matthaeum
Jeremy Holmes 73
4. Reading John with St Thomas Aquinas
Matthew Levering 99
5. Aquinas on I and 2 Corinthians: The Sacraments and
Their Ministers
Daniel A. Keating 127
6. Aquinas on Ephesians and Colossians
Mark Edwards 149
7. Thomas' Commentaries on Philemon, I and 2
Thessalonians and Philippians
Francesca Aran Murphy 167
8. The Grace of Christ in his Principal Members:
St Thomas Aquinas on the Pastoral Epistles
John Saward 197
9. The Supremacy of Christ: Aquinas' Commentary on
Hebrews
Thomas G. Weinandy, OFM, Cap 223
Select Bibliography 245
Index of Subjects 253
Index of Names 255
THE CONTRIBUTORS
Mark Edwards Christ Church College, Oxford
Nicholas M. Healy St John's University, New York
Jeremy Holmes Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Daniel A. Keating Sacred Heart Major Seminary, Detroit
Matthew Levering Ave Marie University, Naples, Florida
Francesca Aran Murphy University of Aberdeen, Scotland
John Saward Greyfriars, Oxford and International Theological
Institute, Gaming, Austria
Joseph P. Wawrykow University of Notre Dame, Indiana
Thomas G. Weinandy Greyfriars, Oxford and the United States
Conference of Catholic Bishops, Washington, DC
John P. Yocum Greyfriars, Oxford and Loyola School of
Theology, Ateneo University, Manila
PREFACE
This volume is the direct offspring of Aquinas on Doctrine: A
Critical Introduction. As the editors of that volume, we noted how
frequently the contributors relied upon Aquinas' biblical commen
taries as a foundation for the explication of doctrine in his
systematic works. The significance of his biblical commentaries for
any inquiry into his theology became more and more plain to us.
Consequently, almost immediately after sending the manuscript for
Aquinas on Doctrine off to our publisher, we conceived the idea of
organizing and editing a second volume, to be devoted specifically to
the biblical commentaries of Thomas Aquinas.
The biblical commentaries are in many respects the forgotten
corpus of the Angelic Doctor. For some time now commentators
have studied Aquinas primarily for his philosophical contributions,
and when his theology comes up for examination, it is the Summa
Contra Gentiles and especially the Summa Theologiae that are
consulted. Thomas' vast output of biblical commentary is little
known and even more rarely studied. The great irony in all this is
that, though Aquinas never publicly taught either of the Summae, he
never ceased commenting on the Sacred Scriptures. During his
entire career he fulfilled the office of 'master of the sacred page'
(magister in sacra pagina) through continuous commentary on many
books of the Bible. Both his systematic works and his biblical
commentaries reveal his prodigious knowledge of the whole of the
Bible, and his mastery of the Patristic commentary available to him
(displayed most fully in the Catena Aurea) demonstrates his
commitment to interpret the Bible within the broad tradition of
the Church. All this underlines the conclusion that Thomas Aquinas
was deeply and profoundly a biblical theologian. Whether directly
or indirectly, his theology is grounded in, and nourished by, Sacred
Scripture.
There is, of course, nothing to be gained by pitting his various
works against one another. The Summae are magisterial produc
tions that represent Aquinas' own synthesis of the vast terrain of
Christian doctrine, and they are rightly studied with great interest
and intensity. But if we are to gain a rounded and thorough
understanding of his theology, the biblical commentaries need to be
brought into the discussion and studied once again.
x PREFACE
There are at least two major obstacles that stand in the way of the
reintroduction of Aquinas' biblical commentaries. First, critical
editions for almost all of the individual commentaries are lacking,
and only half of the commentaries have ever been translated into
English (no doubt due in part to the lack of critical editions). Most
of these translations are out of print and very difficult to obtain.
Second, the commentaries admittedly make for difficult reading.
Thomas follows a rather tedious method of scholastic commentary
on the Bible that takes some wading through for the modern reader.
These are not highly rhetorical expository homilies, meant to
inspire, like the Tractates on John by St Augustine or the Homilies
on Paul's Letters by John Chrysostom. Aquinas gives us straight
forward explanations of the biblical text designed for the mediaeval
classroom. It takes a significant commitment to work through one
of his commentaries - but the effort is repaid by the rich exegetical
and theological material that Thomas mines from the text of
Scripture.
The contributors to this volume were each given the challenging
task of introducing readers to the individual commentaries, opening
up for us Aquinas' approach to the scriptural text, highlighting key
theological themes he draws from the biblical book, and relating the
commentary in some fashion to his systematic works, especially the
Summa Theologiae. Given the lack of critical editions to work from,
and the sheer difficulty of summing up entire commentaries on books
of the Bible, we are especially grateful for the significant labour
undertaken by all the contributors. They have with clarity, insight
and profound scholarship opened a path for a re-appropriation of
Aquinas' biblical commentaries. We are also delighted by the wide
variety of approaches taken by our contributors, which display and
bring to bear their unique strengths, creative insights, and analytical,
philosophical, and historical skiIIs.
In the opening essay, Nicholas Healy introduces us to Aquinas as
a biblical theologian in historical context, and argues that his
theological approach to the Bible, grounded in the conviction that
teachers and preachers must return ever anew to the Scriptures,
provides a model of exegetical practice today. John Yocum then
begins our trek through the individual commentaries with a study of
Thomas' Literal Exposition on Job. He estimates that Aquinas'
interpretation of Job compares favourably with much modern
commentary, and that within the presuppositions of Christian faith,
Aquinas presents a theologically compelling and unitive reading of
Job. Joseph Wawrykow, in a study of Aquinas' commentary on the
PREFACE xi
prophet Isaiah, opens up for us the varying features of this largely
literal commentary, and through a comparison of how Aquinas
treats Isaiah 6 and II in the Expositio on Isaiah and the Summa
Theologiae respectively, displays the benefit of reading Aquinas'
exegetical and systematic works together.
Turning to the New Testament, Jeremy Holmes convincingly
locates and contextualizes Aquinas' Lectures on Matthew in the
final period of his university career, and displays how Aquinas
masterfully handles this Gospel as a revelation of both the humanity
of Christ and a compendium of his teaching. Matthew Levering
then ranges across the entire Commentary on John in order to
display the variety of Aquinas' exegetical techniques and sources.
He concludes that, for Thomas, Scripture is God's teaching through
human words that enhances our insight into God's inexhaustibly
rich teaching and contributes to the Church's ongoing proclamation
of the divine mysteries. In an examination of the commentaries on I
and 2 Corinthians, Daniel Keating shows how Thomas reads these
paired epistles as a study of the sacraments and their ministers, and
at the same time supplies an impressive pastoral theology for leaders
in the Church.
In an essay that places Thomas firmly within his patristic heritage,
Mark Edwards explores a range of topics that arise from the
commentaries on Ephesians and Colossians. He concludes that,
despite shortcomings in Aquinas' method and use of history, these
commentaries show an impressive philosophical rigour, and display
a humility and circumspection in exegesis worthy of emulation by
the modern theologian. Francesca Murphy next considers the
commentaries on Philippians, I and 2 Thessalonians, and Philemon
together, illustrating how Thomas moves from a three-dimensional
presentation of the Church, to a treatment of grace, and finally to a
consideration of the theological virtues as the efflorescence of the
Church. John Saward then takes up in the commentaries on the
Pastoral Epistles the theme of the grace of Christ in his principal
members. He suggests that Aquinas not only offers an extensive
treatment of the pastoral ministry of the bishop in these commen
taries, but that he also anticipates some of the chief themes that
appear in the Summa Theologiae. In a final essay, Thomas
Weinandy shows how Aquinas interprets the Letter to the
Hebrews as a study of the supremacy of Christ in the Incarnation
and in his priestly sacrifice, but at the same time as an account of
how the Church subjectively appropriates the salvific work of Christ
through faith.
Xli PREFACE
The editors would like to express special thanks to Geoffrey
Green of T & T Clark for his initial and immediate support for this
volume coming to be, to Fiona Murphy of Continuum Press for her
support and encouragement from the beginning, and finally to
Rebecca Vaughan-Williams and Sarah Douglas, also of Continuum
Press, for their amiable assistance in seeing the project to comple
tion.
This volume, like the previous one, Aquinas on Doctrine, is
something of a Greyfriars, Oxford project. The editors first began to
work together while all three were at Greyfriars, and John Saward is
at present a fellow of Greyfriars Hall. We offer this volume in the
conviction that, in the words of the Second Vatican Council's
Constitution on Divine Revelation, Dei Verbum, 'the study of the
sacred page ... is the soul of sacred theology'. Together with Jerome
we acknowledge that 'ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of
Christ'. In keeping with the entire patristic heritage, and with the
witness of the mediaeval commentators - among whom Thomas
Aquinas was pre-eminent - we recognize that the Christian faithful
must ever be about the business of 'searching the Scriptures' (In
5.39), for it is they that bear witness to Christ.
THOMAS G. WEINANDY, DANIEL A. KEATING, JOHN P. YOCUM
Feast of Venerable Bede, 2004