06 — The Fathers on Paul
The Church reads Paul through the Fathers, and no Father loved or expounded him more than St. John Chrysostom, whose homilies on the epistles are the supreme patristic commentary on the apostle and whose seven panegyrics On the Praises of St. Paul are the most ardent tribute one saint ever paid another. This section treats Chrysostom and the Apostle, and the broader Eastern reading of Paul from Origen and the Cappadocians through Theodoret and John of Damascus.
Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (Apostle)
For the Orthodox Church, Paul is never read in a vacuum but always within the living interpretation of the Fathers, who heard in him the gospel of grace, the cross and resurrection, and the deifying union with Christ. Chief among the interpreters stands St. John Chrysostom (c. 349–407), archbishop of Constantinople, whose continuous homilies on every Pauline letter — Romans, the Corinthian correspondence, Galatians, and the rest — set the pattern of Eastern Pauline exegesis: close, pastoral, ethical, and aflame with love for “the apostle.” Beyond Chrysostom, the Eastern tradition reads Paul through Origen’s pioneering commentary, the Cappadocians’ theology of grace and the Spirit, Theodoret of Cyrus’s lucid commentaries, the catenae that gathered the Fathers’ comments verse by verse, and John of Damascus’s systematic summation. This section presents both the towering individual interpreter and the broader stream.
Files in This Section
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| Chrysostom and the Apostle | St. John Chrysostom as the supreme interpreter of Paul: his continuous Homilies on Romans, 1–2 Corinthians, Galatians, and the rest; his seven panegyrics On the Praises of St. Paul; his pastoral and ethical method; and his reading of grace, virtue, and the apostle’s person. |
| The Eastern Reading of Paul | The broader patristic interpretation of Paul in the East: Origen’s commentary, the Cappadocians, Theodoret of Cyrus, the exegetical catenae, and John of Damascus — the participatory, deifying reading of the apostle that shaped Orthodox theology. |
See Also
- Grace and Righteousness — the doctrine the Fathers expounded
- The Body of Christ and New Creation — the participatory reading the Fathers developed
- The Church Fathers — the patristic tradition as a source of theology
- St. John Chrysostom — the supreme interpreter of Paul
References
- John Chrysostom. Homilies on Romans, Homilies on First and Second Corinthians, Homilies on Galatians. Trans. in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series I, Vols. 11–13.
- Mitchell, Margaret M. The Heavenly Trumpet: John Chrysostom and the Art of Pauline Interpretation. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2000.
- Theodoret of Cyrus. Commentary on the Letters of St. Paul. Trans. Robert Charles Hill. Brookline: Holy Cross Orthodox Press, 2001.