St Paul and the Jews According to St John Chrysostom’s Commentary on Romans 9-11

Abstract

St John Chrysostom is known not only as the greatest preacher in a Christian pulpit , and the most prominent doctor of the Orthodox Church, but also as the preacher of the eight sermons Adversus Judaeos. These discourses were delivered in Antioch in 387, when Chrysostom was a priest. In them Chrysostom accumulates against the Jews bitterness, sneers and jibes. Yet, it clearly appears that Chrysostom didn’t have personal relation ships with the Jews, as, for example, was the case with Justin the Martyr, Jerome or Augustine. His attack aims stopping his flock’s tendency of sharing in the Jewish festivals, and this tendency says much about the relationships of the two communities in Antioch - unthinkable in later times and maybe difficult for us to understand.