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John Chrysostom: source notes

John Chrysostom: source notes

Works: Homilies on Romans; on 2 Corinthians; Commentary on Galatians. Edition/translation: NPNF¹ vols. 11–13, as on New Advent.

Back to justification · reasoning · conventions

S1: Hom. 7 on Romans (Rom 3:27)

  • Source: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/210207.htm
  • Text: “But what is the law of faith? It is, being saved by grace. Here he shows God’s power, in that He has not only saved, but has even justified, and led them to boasting, and this too without needing works, but looking for faith only.”
  • Context: Polemic against Jewish boasting.
  • Bears on: Q2, Q1
  • Status: verified (English)

S2: Hom. 8 on Romans (Rom 4:5)

  • Source: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/210208.htm
  • Text: “For reflect how great a thing it is to be persuaded and have full confidence that God is able on a sudden not to free a man who has lived in impiety from punishment only, but even to make him just, and to count him worthy of those immortal honors.” On Ps 32: “Is it him that triumphs in works, or him that has enjoyed grace? Him that has obtained pardon and a gift?”
  • Context: In one sentence on Rom 4:5 he joins acquittal (“free … from punishment”), “make him just”, and “count him worthy”. This is the clearest case of the undistinguished blend.
  • Bears on: Q1, Q6
  • Status: verified (English)

S3: Hom. 11 on 2 Corinthians (2 Cor 5:21)

  • Source: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/220211.htm
  • Text: “that we also might become, he did not say ‘righteous,’ but, righteousness, and, the righteousness of God. For this is [the righteousness] of God when we are justified not by works, (in which case it were necessary that not a spot even should be found,) but by grace, in which case all sin is done away.”
  • Context: Exchange language.
  • Bears on: Q1, Q6
  • Status: verified (English)

S4: Comm. Galatians 2 (Gal 2:16–17)

  • Source: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/23102.htm
  • Text: “It deserves special notice, how at the outset he says that a man is not justified by the works of the Law; but as he proceeds he speaks more strongly”. On 2:17: “If faith in Him, says he, avail not for our justification, but it be necessary again to embrace the Law…”
  • Context: In this passage he reads ἔργα νόμου as the Mosaic Law, with circumcision and Sabbath in view.
  • Bears on: Q2
  • Status: verified (English)

Topic: original-sin

See original-sin reasoning.

OSN S1: Homily 10 on Romans (Rom 5:19)

  • Source: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/210210.htm
  • Text: “But how would it follow that from his disobedience another would become a sinner? For at this rate a man of this sort will not even deserve punishment, if, that is, it was not from his own self that he became a sinner. What then does the word sinners mean here? To me it seems to mean liable to punishment and condemned to death. Now that by Adam’s death we all became mortals, he had shown clearly and at large.”
  • Context: The Greek reading of Rom 5: humanity inherits mortality and liability, not personal guilt.
  • Bears on: O2, O4
  • Status: verified (English)

Topic: other-sacraments

See other-sacraments reasoning.

OSR S1: On the Priesthood III.6

  • Source: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/19223.htm (public-domain English translation)
  • Text: “Is any sick among you? it is said, let him call for the elders of the Church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.”
  • Context: Priests’ power to remit sins, citing Jas 5.
  • Bears on: K2, K3
  • Status: verified (English)

OSR S2: On the Priesthood III.6

  • Source: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/19223.htm (public-domain English translation)
  • Text: “And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up: and if he have committed sins they shall be forgiven him.”
  • Context:
  • Bears on: K3
  • Status: verified (English)