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)

Doctrine F09

See F09 reasoning.

F09 S1: Homily 17 on Hebrews

Source: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/240217.htm (public-domain English translation)
Text: “What then? Do not we offer every day? We offer indeed, but making a remembrance of His death, and this [remembrance] is one and not many.”
Context:
Bears on: F09.2
Status: verified (English)

Doctrine T12

See T12 reasoning.

T12 S1: Homily 29 on 1 Corinthians

Source: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/220129.htm (public-domain English translation)
Text: “This whole place is very obscure: but the obscurity is produced by our ignorance of the facts referred to and by their cessation, being such as then used to occur but now no longer take place.”
Context:
Bears on: T12.1
Status: verified (English)

Doctrine S12

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S12 S1: Homily 17 on Hebrews

Source: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/240217.htm (public-domain English translation)
Text: “Why of many, and not of all? Because not all believed.”
Context:
Bears on: S12.2
Status: verified (English)

Doctrine S04X

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S04X S1: Homilies on 1 Corinthians 27

Source: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/220127.htm (public-domain English translation)
Text: “Why so? Because he poured it out, and makes the thing appear a slaughter and no longer a sacrifice.”
Context: On 1 Cor 11:27, why the unworthy are ‘guilty of the body’.
Bears on: S04.3
Status: verified (English)

S04X S2: Homilies on 1 Corinthians 28

Source: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/220128.htm (public-domain English translation)
Text: “What do you say, tell me? Is this Table which is the cause of so many blessings and teeming with life, become judgment? Not from its own nature, says he, but from the will of him that approaches.”
Context: On 1 Cor 11:29: judgement comes from the communicant, not the table.
Bears on: S04.3
Status: verified (English)

Doctrine S11X

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S11X S1: Homilies on John 46

Source: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/240146.htm (public-domain English translation)
Text: “For if a man comes to Him, says some one, what need is there of drawing? But the words do not take away our free will, but show that we greatly need assistance.”
Context: On John 6:44, against the Manichaeans.
Bears on: S11.3
Status: verified (English)

Doctrine S05X

See S05X reasoning.

S05X S1: Homilies on Philippians 3

Source: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/230203.htm (public-domain English translation)
Text: “2 Kings 20:6 If the remembrance only of a just man had so great power when deeds are done for one, how great power will it not have? Not in vain did the Apostles order that remembrance should be made of the dead in the dreadful Mysteries.”
Context: Chrysostom on helping the departed.
Bears on: S05.3
Status: verified (English)

Doctrine S18X

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S18X S1: Homilies on Matthew 44.1

Source: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/200144.htm (public-domain English translation)
Text: “For in fact that which she had essayed to do, was of superfluous vanity; in that she wanted to show the people that she has power and authority over her Son, imagining not as yet anything great concerning Him; whence also her unseasonable approach.”
Context: Chrysostom on Matthew 12:46–50.
Bears on: S18.4
Status: verified (English)

S18X S2: Homilies on Matthew 44.1

Source: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/200144.htm (public-domain English translation)
Text: “So likewise on this occasion too, He both healed the disease of vainglory, and rendered the due honor to His mother, even though her request was unseasonable.”
Context: Chrysostom on Christ’s answer to his mother.
Bears on: S18.4
Status: verified (English)