Abraham in the Works of John Chrysostom

1. Literary, Rhetorical, and Exegetical Influences

1 Literary, Rhetorical, and Exegetical Influences 1. Introduction John Chrysostom received a classical education as a young man and by all accounts excelled in that education.1 As a student, John was formed in a program of Greek classical education that, as J. N. D. Kelly observes, had scarcely undergone any serious modification since the fourth century before Christ.”2 Although John later became a Christian, he did not leave this education behind. John used the philosophical and rhetorical methods he learned from his teacher Libanius, the preeminent rhetor of his day, to help mold his congregation into his conception of a faithful Christian community. In the same way, John was also the member of a particular Christian circle, located in Antioch, which had its own literary and exegetical tradition that helped shape John’s theological and pastoral outlook. In this chapter I will examine the literary, rhetorical, and exegetical tradition that Chrysostom inherited and to which he subscribed. As subsequent chapters will demonstrate, this tradition influenced John’s presentation of Abraham throughout the corpus of his works. It is certainly ironic that John, who devoted so much homiletical space to the disparagement of sophistry and philosophy, was so adept at using these methods for his Christian purposes. Much of John’s skill as an orator flowed from his natural talent. Much can also be attributed to the sophistic formation he received from Libanius. Libanius was a staunch defender of the historic, Greco-Roman religious cult but was nevertheless responsible for the classical 1. Chrysostomus Baur, John Chrysostom and His Time, trans. M. Gonzaga, 4 vols. (Vaduz, Liechtenstein: Büchervertriebsanstalt, 1958), 1:22ff. 2. John Norman Davidson Kelly, Golden Mouth: The Story of John Chrysostom, Ascetic, Preacher, Bishop (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1995), 6. 11 education of such prominent Christians as John Chrysostom and his classmate, Theodore of Mopsuestia. In many ways, John and Libanius were engaged in similar enterprises. Both sought to promote their own particular vision of how the fourth-century world should function. Where Libanius promoted a pluralistic society based on established classical modes of virtue, Chrysostom desired an exclusive Christian religious environment with its own particular model of virtue as the standard. Chrysostom used the sophistic techniques of encomium and diatribe that he learned from Libanius to convince his flock that his particular vision of civic and moral virtue was superior. Chrysostom’s ultimate goal was the formation of his flock in accordance with his understanding of virtue. Greek philosophical schools, most notably the Stoics and Sophists, were engaged in a similar program of formation, and Christians like John borrowed from their pedagogical tradition. The Stoics were especially concerned with forming virtuous men. John and other Christians appropriated their methods as they attempted to define their own particular Christian virtue. One noteworthy Stoic technique was to present a virtuous exemplar to be imitated by members of their philosophical school. As we will see in the following chapters, Chrysostom used Abraham as such a model throughout his works. Chrysostom was well acquainted with Greek classical literature that was the basis of his education. As a Christian homilist and exegete, however, John had his own Christian literary tradition, a preeminent element of which was the scriptural text composed of the Old and New Testaments. Although John was familiar with and utilized a variety of Old Testament editions, the Lucianic recension was the basis for his exegesis. John’s classical training did not provide him with the skills necessary to work with the Hebrew text. His ignorance of Hebrew, however, did not deter him from occasionally referencing the original language of the Old Testament in order to make an exegetical point. Within the scriptural text, Paul’s epistolary corpus was central to John’s Christian theological outlook in general and his understanding of Abraham in particular. The large number of homilies Chrysostom offered on the Pauline corpus bears witness to this influence. Therefore, Paul’s numerous references to Abraham in his epistles provided Chrysostom with ample material from which he fashioned his rhetorical presentation of Abraham’s virtue. Paul’s interpretation of Abraham within the Christian context helped John articulate to his audience the relationship of Abraham to the Christian narrative and that of the Christian community to Israel. If John was educated in a particular school of Greek philosophical and rhetorical thought, he also came from a particular Christian tradition of 12 | Abraham in the Works of John Chrysostom [18.188.20.56] Project MUSE (2024-04...