Reading the Old Testament in Antioch

234 Pages·2005·0.96 MB·English

by  Robert C. Hill

Reading the Old Testament in Antioch
Bible in Ancient
Christianity
General Editor
ff
D. Je rey Bingham
Editorial Board
Brian E. Daley
Robin M. Jensen
Christoph Markschies
Maureen A. Tilley
Robert L. Wilken
Frances M. Young
VOLUME 5
Reading the
Old Testament in
Antioch
by
Robert C. Hill
BRILL
LEIDEN•BOSTON
2005
Cover design: Jeannet Leendertse
Coverart:AdaptedfromGreekNewTestament,withErasmus’stranslationintoLatin.
Special Collections Division, Georgetown University Library.
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hill, Robert C. (Robert Charles), 1931–
Reading the Old Testament in Antioch / by Robert C. Hill.
p. cm. — (Bible in ancient Christianity, ISSN 1542-1295 ; v. 5)
Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
ISBN 90-04-14538-9 (hard : alk. paper)
1. Bible. O.T.—Criticism, interpretation, etc. 2. Antioch (Turkey)—Church history.
3. Christianity—Origin. 4. Church history—Primitive and early church, ca. 30–600.
I. Title. II. Series.
BS1171.3.H55 2005
221.6'0939'43—dc22
2005047111
ISSN 1542-1295
ISBN 90 04 14538 9
© Copyright 2005 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill Academic
Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior
written permission from the publisher.
Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is
granted by Brill provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to
The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive,
Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA.
Fees are subject to change.
printed in the netherlands
For Louis J. Swift,
in friendship and esteem

CONTENTS
Preface ........................................................................................ ix
Abbreviations .............................................................................. xi
1. Tradition of the faith in Antioch ........................................ 1
A. Antioch a privileged community .................................... 2
B. Antioch in fourth and fifth centuries ............................ 3
C. Pastors of the Antioch churches .................................... 5
D. Literary and philosophical education in Antioch ........ 7
E. Faith formation in Antioch ............................................ 10
2. The canon of the Old Testament in Antioch .................. 19
A. A Christian collection of Jewish books ........................ 20
B. An Antioch canon .......................................................... 23
C. A canon within the canon ............................................ 24
3. Antioch’s concept of scriptural revelation .......................... 27
A. Revelation in word and writing .................................... 28
B. Authors and works divinely-inspired .............................. 31
C. Mantic possession or the Spirit’s guidance? ................ 32
D. A theology of the revealing Word ................................ 35
E. An obscure revelation .................................................... 39
F. Revelation Old and New ................................................ 43
4. The text of the Old Testament read in Antioch .............. 47
A. Availability of a biblical text .......................................... 48
B. The Hebrew text a closed book .................................... 50
C. Antioch commentators’ biblical text .............................. 54
D. Origin and character of the Antioch text .................... 57
5. Exegetical skills and resources in Antioch .......................... 63
A. Establishing and critiquing a text .................................. 64
B. Authorship and text history ............................................ 74
6. Old Testament commentary in Antioch ............................ 85
A. Psalms .............................................................................. 86
viii contents
B. Prophets .......................................................................... 92
C. Octateuch, historical books, Song of Songs .............. 100
7. Antiochene approach to the task of commentary .......... 107
A. Diodore .......................................................................... 108
B. Theodore ........................................................................ 112
C. John Chrysostom .......................................................... 117
D. Theodoret ...................................................................... 123
8. Interpreting the Old Testament in Antioch .................... 135
A. A distinctively Antiochene approach .......................... 136
B. The primacy of the historical sense ............................ 139
C. “The letter killeth” ........................................................ 150
D. A legitimate search for other meanings ...................... 154
E. Where lies the truth? .................................................... 159
9. Theological accents in Old Testament commentary ...... 167
A. Trinitarian accents ........................................................ 169
B. Christological accents .................................................... 172
C. Moral accents ................................................................ 177
10. Pastoral and spiritual guidance .......................................... 183
A. The preacher and his congregation ............................ 184
B. The commentator and his readers .............................. 186
C. An asceticism without mysticism ................................ 189
11. Assessing Antioch’s achievement ........................................ 195
A. A commitment to pastoral care .................................. 195
B. A belief in the Old Testament .................................... 197
C. Accounting for Antioch’s approach ............................ 198
Select Bibliography .................................................................... 203
General Index ............................................................................ 211
Index of biblical citations .......................................................... 215
Index of modern authors .......................................................... 219
PREFACE
In his second sermon on Genesis given in Antioch in 386, midway
through the period studied in this volume that begins with the coun-
cil of Nicea in 325 and extends to the council of Chalcedon in 451,
John Chrysostom makes an admission to his congregation about the
Jewish origins of the Old Testament, that “though the books are
from them, the books and their meaning belong to us.” He is per-
haps assuring himself, at the outset of a long career of commentary
on these works, that it is a Christian endeavor he is commencing,
as he is also assuring his listeners that when they take the books in
hand at home (as he urges them to do), that practice also befits a
Christian family.
Both activities, reading and commentary, are the object of study
here, particularly as practiced at Antioch, though evidence bears
especially on the latter, thanks to the degree of survival both of writ-
ten works and of homilies delivered orally in its churches. The Old
Testament commentaries composed by Theodoret towards the end
of our period, in fact, have survived entirely, their relative bulk sug-
gesting that this ancient and obscure material represented a more
urgent and more challenging demand on a pastor’s ministry than
the New. Initiation of the faithful into Antioch’s theological mind-
set rested also on an appreciation of the Old, less familiar though
it may be; its very obscurity and diversity made it more incarna-
tional and for that reason, one might say, susceptible of an Antiochene
approach.
Mention of Theodoret, appointed bishop of Cyrus (Cyrrhus) in
423, is a reminder that Antioch is not used here as a univocal term
in the sense of the city founded by Seleucus on the river Orontes.
By the period under consideration here, the name stood also for a
vast dioikêsis comprising fifteen provinces of the empire and an eccle-
siastical district with jurisdiction over many sees such as Tarsus,
Mopsuestia and Cyrus. In the interests of precision it should be noted
as well that this is not a comparative study, evaluating the approach
of the Antiochenes by contrasting it with that of commentators else-
where in that period or with modern western approaches to the
Bible. Such an exercise attempted in the past has generally proven
x preface
to be unhelpful. We intend to take the commentators and their works
as we find them; they have suffered enough from prejudice, as the
paucity of extant works of some of them demonstrates.
What, in fact, is aimed at here is an examination of the text of
the commentaries of the leading Antiochene figures, who flourished
in the period roughly from the council of Nicea in 325 to Chalcedon
in 451 (Theodoret dying a decade later), for the benefit of those
scholars less familiar with them. Such textual examination will hope-
fully throw light on aspects of Antioch’s approach to the Old
Testament, and lead to recognition of the distinctive worldview that
accounts for it. The writer, coming from a biblical background, has
been interested in reading and translating their Old Testament works,
less well known than the New but (with the exception of Chrysostom’s)
better represented in extant remains in Greek. In the course of analy-
sis of these many commentaries and the reading strategies they illus-
trate, abundant reference is made to the text to help conclusions be
more cogent. If this is achieved, light will be thrown on a significant
if sometimes misrepresented chapter in the history of Christian read-
ing and biblical commentary, of which modern commentators and
general readers might well take account.
In expressing appreciation to the general editor of Bible in Ancient
Christianity, D. Jeffrey Bingham, for inclusion of this work in the series
and for his patience, the author also regrets having had to complete
it before the appearance of Charles Kannengiesser’s opening volumes.