HistoricalChristian.Faith

John Chrysostom on the Old Testament Canon

Dates: c. 347–407 AD (John "Chrysostom" — "the golden-mouthed" — presbyter and the foremost preacher of Antioch from 386, archbishop of Constantinople from 398; trained under Diodore of Tarsus in the Antiochene school of exegesis, the tradition usually associated with the shorter, Hebrew-sized canon. The citations below come from his Antiochene preaching of the 390s — the Four Discourses on Lazarus, the Homilies on 1 Corinthians and on Philippians, and the sermon Against Marcionists and Manichaeans) · Wikipedia
Verdict on the deuterocanon: YES — cites Sirach, Wisdom, the Greek Susanna, Baruch, and Tobit as Scripture; leaves no canon-list. Chrysostom draws up no catalogue of the Old Testament books, so he renders no formal canon-verdict. But in the pulpit he reaches for the disputed books with the same formulas he gives Moses, the Psalms, and Paul: Sirach adduced "from the Divine Scriptures," Wisdom under "it is written," the Greek Susanna ranked beside the Psalms as a scriptural instance, and Baruch pressed — "in the book of Jeremiah" — as a prophecy of the Incarnation, with Tobit set beside Paul and the Psalter as a witness on almsgiving. His practice puts the greatest preacher of the Antiochene school, the school usually invoked for the narrower canon, on the "using" side of the divide — beside the Cappadocians Basil, Gregory of Nyssa, and Gregory of Nazianzus, whose lists and usage likewise pull apart.

Claims & evidence

Sirach adduced "from the Divine Scriptures": "Do not deprive the poor of life"

In the second of his Four Discourses on Lazarus (II.3), preaching that withholding our goods from the poor is itself a kind of robbery, Chrysostom announces that he will prove the point from Scripture — and the chain of testimony he then unrolls runs Malachi straight into the deuterocanonical Sirach (4:1) without a seam, both gathered under the one heading "the Divine Scriptures":¹

I will, from the Divine Scriptures, bring testimony showing that not only robbery of other men's goods, but also the not imparting our own good things to others,——that this also is robbery, and covetousness, and fraud… And, again, in another place, it is said, "Do not deprive the poor of life," (Ecclus. iv. 1.)

The label "the Divine Scriptures" is announced over the whole proof, and Sirach is folded into it beside Malachi as one of its witnesses — the disputed book used not as edifying garnish but as the very Scripture summoned to settle a moral question.

Wisdom of Solomon under "it is written": "Thou hast mercy upon all"

In the fourth Homily on Philippians, expounding why the priests, kings, and prophets of Israel were anointed with oil — a type, he says, of God's mercy to man — Chrysostom grounds the point in a verse of the deuterocanonical Wisdom of Solomon (11:23), introduced with the bare citation-formula he reserves for Scripture:²

For, "Thou hast mercy upon all," it is written, "for Thou canst do all things." (Wisd. xi. 23.)

The "it is written" attaches the very formula of canonical citation to a Greek-only book — the standing Jerome, his near-contemporary, would deny Wisdom when he ruled it out of the Hebrew canon.

The Greek Susanna ranked with the Psalms as Scripture: "O thou that art become old in evil days"

In the fifteenth Homily on 1 Corinthians, illustrating how one and the same word ("old") carries now a good and now an evil sense in Scripture, Chrysostom gathers his examples — and sets the Greek addition to Daniel (Susanna, Daniel 13:52) on exactly the same footing as two Psalms:³

"They waxed old, and they halted from their paths." And again, "I have become old in the midst of all mine enemies." And again, (Daniel chapter 13, verse 52. Hist. Susan.) "O thou that art become old in evil days."

The Susanna verse is adduced as a scriptural instance of the word's usage, chained with Psalm 17 and Psalm 6 under the same "and again" — the Greek-only narrative treated as Scripture without qualification, the very portion Jerome would brand among the parts of Daniel "not in the Hebrew."

Baruch pressed as Incarnation prophecy "in the book of Jeremiah": "this is our God"

The use rises from edifying to doctrinal. In the sermon Against Marcionists and Manichaeans (§3), marshalling the prophets who foretold that God would take flesh and walk among men — against the Marcionite denial of a real Incarnation — Chrysostom strings Isaiah, the rod of Jesse, and David together, and into that chain of prophecy he sets Baruch (3:35–37), reckoning the book part of Jeremiah's prophecy:⁴

And Baruch in the book of Jeremiah says "this is our God: no other shall be reckoned by the side of Him: He found out every path of knowledge and gave it to Jacob His servant, and Israel his beloved. After these things also He appeared upon the earth, and held converse with men."

The passage carries probative weight in a controversy over the reality of Christ's coming in the flesh — the word of Baruch set among Isaiah and David as binding prophecy, and ascribed, in the Greek and Latin manner, to "the book of Jeremiah." It is the same Incarnation proof-text that Irenaeus, Hippolytus, Gregory of Nazianzus, Epiphanius, and Ambrose all pressed from this book.

Tobit set beside Paul and the Psalter on almsgiving: "Alms do deliver from death"

A softer use, but still a citation. In the same fourth Homily on Philippians, urging the people to works of mercy, Chrysostom heaps up testimonies — from Titus, from the Psalms — and folds in Tobit (12:9) among them as "a certain other one who saith":⁵

Listen to a certain other one who saith, "Alms do deliver from death" (Tob. xii. 9.); If Thou takest away pity, "Lord, Lord, who shall stand" (Ps. cxxx. 3.)

Tobit is braided into a chain of scriptural witnesses on almsgiving, set without seam beside Paul to Titus and Psalm 130 — the disputed book living in Chrysostom's preaching as one voice among the sacred authorities.

Notes

• An Antiochene on the "using" side. Chrysostom's value to the canon question is that he is the greatest representative of the Antiochene school — the tradition usually cited for a sober, literal, Hebrew-anchored exegesis and the narrower canon. Yet in the pulpit he cites the deuterocanon as Scripture as readily as the Alexandrians and Cappadocians did. The datapoint cuts against the tidy map that aligns the longer canon with Alexandria and the shorter with Antioch: the line between "using" and "listing" runs through schools, not around them.
• Graded force, like the other "using" Fathers. Of the five citations, the strongest are the explicit-formula uses — Sirach "from the Divine Scriptures," Wisdom "it is written," Susanna ranked beside the Psalms — and the doctrinal Baruch prophecy wielded against the Marcionites. The Tobit citation is the softer kind, a witness braided into a chain of moral testimony. Graded together they make Chrysostom a many-sided "using" witness, not a one-off.
• List versus usage. Chrysostom belongs with the Fathers who read the disputed books as Scripture while drawing up no narrowing list — the same gap that runs through Athanasius, Cyril, Basil, and the two Gregories. The datapoint is weighed in the Arguments on whether the early church reckoned these books Scripture.

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