The Homilist and His Congregation in Antioch
ST. JOHNCHRYSOSTOM
THE HOMILIST AND HIS CONGREGATION
IN ANTIOCH
(11) Presuming that the Genesis homilies were delivered in Antioch before Chrysostom's elevation to the See of Constantinople in 398, we can deduce from the text something of the situation in which they were delivered and the congregation to whom they were addressed. If there is truth in the suggestion that Chrysostom was in the habit of moving from church to church to preach, this congregation nevertheless remained the same recipient of the 67 homilies, of which 32 had been delivered on the weekdays of Lent by the time that intermission for Easter came. From this fact, and from their considerable length, we conclude the homilies were not a minor component of an even longer daily liturgy. They commenced with the reading of the text of Scripture (from a variant of the Greek Septuagint version of the Hebrew OT, as we shall see below), which Chrysostom then began to comment on, verse by verse, word by word, even taking individual syllables, as was his manner and was evidently acceptable to his
Antiochene congregation-except when he had something else particular to say, such as the opening exhortation on fasting (Homily 1) or that stinging rebuke of those who attended horse racing (Homily 6).24 The members of the congregation seemed a typical group of lay people, from family situations, preoccupied with secular affairs, and yet prepared to assemble daily for a lengthy scriptural homily on a fairly empty stomach in Lent. They are not ignorant people: Chrysostom flatters them in Homily 19 with the ability to choose between variant interpretations of the difficult verse 4.8. They are presumed to be readers of Scripture at home: "I recommend you to have constant recourse to this remedy, and apply yourself diligently to the reading of Sacred Scripture, not only when you come along here, but at home, taking the sacred books in your hands and earnestly absorbing the benefit of their
24. R. Hill, "On giving up the horses for Lent," CleR 68 (March 1983) 105-106.