Journal: Priscilla Papers
Volume: PP 05:3 (Summer 1991)
Article: John Chrysostom’s First Homily on the Greeting to Priscilla and Aquila
Author: Anonymous

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PP 5:3 (Summer 1991) p. 16

John Chrysostom’s First Homily on the Greeting to Priscilla and Aquila

(Romans 16:3-4) One of the church’s outstanding Bible expositors was St. John Chrysostom (died AD. 407). He preached consistently through the Scriptures, and many of his sermons are still extant. Here, for the first time in English, is his first sermon on Prsicilla and Aquila. Translated from the Greek, by Catherine Clark Kroeger, Ph.D., CBE President, author, and classical scholar.

1. I think many of you are surprised at this section of the apostolic reading (Romans 16), especially to meditate upon this incidental and non-essential portion of the epistle, because of its having nothing but frequent salutations in quick succession. To-day then, departing from the former line of argument, I am myself prepared to turn elsewhere, to advance this thesis in order that you may learn that in the sacred Scriptures there is nothing of less importance, nothing non-essential, even if it be one jot or one tittle. Indeed even a simple greeting opens for us a great sea of thoughts. Why do I say “a simple greeting?” Frequently the addition of a single letter introduces a whole significance of meaning. This is to be seen in the naming of Abraham. (Genesis 17:5 where Abram becomes Abraham)

Would it not be inappropriate for one who had received a letter from a friend, to read only the body of the epistle and not also the salutation which lay below, and especially to surmise the disposition of the one who had written it? Since it was written by Paul—rather not by Paul, but by the grace of the Spirit the letter was composed for an entire city and for so great a people, and through them to the entire world.

To decide that something of the Scriptures is secondary in importance, and simply to skip over and not to reflect upon it, has made everything upside down. For this is what fills us with great indifference: not to read all the Scriptures. We decide those which we think to be more clear, and selecting these, make the rest to be of no account. Not to wish to go through the entire corpus of Scripture, to think that something is secondary in importance and superfluous—this leads to the heresies! For this reason, we study all of it diligently, not only what appears trifling, but also what seems difficult to comprehend and oppressive. A thorough-going knowledge of the Scriptures has been neglected and slighted.

Those excited at the sight of a horse race can tell with complete accuracy the names and herd and pedigree and birthplace and rearing of the horses, also their age and racing ability, and which horses, if matched against which, will seize the victory, and what horse from what...

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