Ancient Christian Witness

"The present Bible Commentary Series is not so much in honor
of John Chrysostom as it is to continue and promote his legacy as an interpreter
of the biblical texts for preaching and teaching God’s congregation, in order to
prod its members to proceed on the way they started when they accepted God’s
calling. Chrysostom’s virtual uniqueness is that he did not subscribe to any
hermeneutic or methodology, since this would amount to introducing an
extra-textual authority over the biblical texts. For him, scripture is its own
interpreter. Listening to the texts time and again allowed him to realize that
“call” and “read (aloud)” are not interconnected realities; rather, they are one
reality since they both are renditions of the same Hebrew verb qara’. Given that
words read aloud are words of instruction for one “to do them,” the only valid
reaction would be to hear, listen, obey, and abide by these words. All these
connotations are subsumed in the same Hebrew verb šama‘. On the other hand,
these scriptural “words of life” are presented as readily understandable
utterances of a father to his children (Isaiah 1:2-3). The recipients are never
asked to engage in an intellectual debate with their divine instructor, or even
among themselves, to fathom what he is saying. The Apostle to the Gentiles
followed in the footsteps of the Prophets to Israel by handing down to them the
Gospel, that is, the Law of God’s Spirit through his Christ (Romans 8:2;
Galatians 6:2) as fatherly instruction (1 Corinthians 4:15). He in turn wrote
readily understandable letters to be read aloud. It is in these same footsteps
that Chrysostom followed, having learned from both the Prophets and Paul that
the same “words of life” carry also the sentence of death at the hand of the
scriptural God, Judge of all (Deuteronomy 28; Joshua 8:32-35; Psalm 82; Matthew
3:4-12; Romans 2:12-16; 1 Corinthians 10:1-11; Revelation 20:11-15).
While
theological debates and hermeneutical theories come and go after having fed
their proponents and their fans with passing human glory, the Golden Mouth’s
expository homilies, through the centuries, fed and still feed myriads of
believers in so many traditions and countries. Virtually banned from dogmatic
treatises, he survives in the hearts of “those who have ears to hear.” His
success is due to his commitment to exegesis rather than to futile hermeneutics.
The latter behaves as someone who dictates on a living organism what it is
supposed to be, whereas exegesis submits to that organism and endeavors to
decipher it through trial and error."