John Chrysostom, known as the “golden orator,” was a master communicator, certainly one of the two or three greatest preachers in the church’s history. He was a follower of the Antiochian method of biblical exegesis. This tradition rejected the Platonic allegorizing of the Alexandrian school in favor of a concern for a grammatical, historical, theological method of interpretation.
Chrysostom’s Educational Background
John, afterward surnamed Chrysostom (“golden-mouthed,” so-named for his preaching), was younger by fifteen or twenty years than Basil and the Gregories. He was of a distinguished and wealthy family in Antioch and, under the devoted care of a widowed mother, received every possible educational advantage. The great teacher Libanius had now returned to his native Antioch and found in John a favorite pupil, whom he would have wished to make his successor as professor of rhetoric and kindred subjects. In the great city, John saw the world and sharpened that penetrating knowledge of human nature for which he was remarkable. For a short time, he practiced law, and Libanius warmly commended some of his speeches at the bar. But he turned away, weary and disgusted, from the thousand corruptions of society and government. After his mother’s death, he went into retirement with several friends and spent several years in the close study of the Scriptures. Among other and greater results, it is said Chrysostom knew almost the whole Bible by heart. In these studies, they were directed by Diodorus, the head of a neighboring monastery, and afterward a bishop and author of long famous commentaries and other works.
Diodorus founded what then appeared to be a new school of biblical interpretation, a reaction from the well-known tendency of the older school of Alexandria. He shrank from allegorizing and held closely to “the literal and historical meaning of the text.” His copious writings have perished, except a few fragments. But Diodorus lives forever in his theological pupil, Chrysostom. It is among the greatest distinctions of Chrysostom that his interpretation is almost entirely free from the wild allegorizing that had been nearly universal ever since Origen. It is a delightful contrast to turn from the other great preachers of the time (including Augustine), with their loose interpretations and fanciful spiritualizing, to the straightforward, careful and usually sober interpretations of Chrysostom. His works are not only models of eloquence, but a treasury of exegesis. And for this, the world is mainly indebted to Diodorus. Chrysostom had much native good sense, it is true, but so had Athanasius, Basil, and Augustine. But Chrysostom’s early studies of Scripture were directed by a truly wise and able instructor; and his good sense enabled him to seize the just principles of interpretation set before him, to develop them still more ably, and to recommend them far more widely than the instructor himself.
Chrysostom’s Preaching
Chrysostom long shrank from the work of preaching and the office of priest, the difficulties and responsibilities of which he had so impressively stated in his little work on the priesthood. He wrote this and other valuable works while holding minor offices in the church, but was ordained and began preaching only at the age of thirty-nine. He died at sixty, after three years of exile. Thus, his actual career as a preacher lasted only eighteen years, twelve years at Antioch and six at Constantinople. In these years he preached almost daily, leaving about one thousand sermons (many of them reported by others) that have descended to us.
We cannot fully discuss the characteristics of Chrysostom’s preaching. It must be admitted that he is by no means always correct in his interpretations, particularly in the Old Testament, being ignorant of Hebrew, and often misled by the errors of the Septuagint. It must also be conceded that his style often wearies us by excessive copiousness, minute and long-drawn descriptions, multiplied comparisons, and piled-up imagery. But we must always remember that this did not look to excited throngs as it does to us. Under such circumstances, a certain rhetorical exaggeration and exuberance seems natural, as a statue placed high upon a pillar must be bigger than life-size.
But admit what you please, criticize as you please, and the fact remains that Chrysostom has never had a superior, and it may be gravely doubted whether he has had an equal in the history of preaching. He does not, it is true, show such consummate art as the great Greek orator Demosthenes. But the finish and repose of high art is scarcely possible, and scarcely desirable, in addressing the preacher’s heterogeneous audiences, comprising persons so different as to culture and interest in the subject. Demosthenes has everywhere a style as elegant and purely simple as the Venus de Medici or the Parthenon; Chrysostom approaches in the exuberance of fancy, in the multiplication of images and illustrations, and in curiously varied repetitions, to a Gothic cathedral. Demosthenes is like the Greek tragic drama, strictly conformed to the three unities; Chrysostom is more like the romantic drama. I cannot say like Shakespeare—the Shakespeare of preachers has not yet appeared. But why should one not someday appear? One who can touch every chord of human feeling, treat every interest of human life, draw an illustration from every object and relation of the known universe, and use all to gain acceptance and obedience for the gospel of salvation? No preacher has ever come nearer to this than Chrysostom, perhaps none, on the whole, so near.
A Syrian Greek and a Christian Greek, Chrysostom, in no small measure, combine the Asiatic and the European, the ancient and the modern. The rich style and blazing passion of an Asiatic is united with the power of intellect and energy of will that marks Europeans; while the finish and simplicity of Greek art are not so much lacking as lost in the many-sidedness of Christian thought and Christian heart. His style certainly ranges the whole gamut of expression. While it is generally elevated, often magnificent, and sometimes extravagant, it occasionally becomes homely and rough as he lays bare human follies and vices. Chrysostom is undoubtedly the prince of expository preachers. And he has very rarely been equaled in the treatment of moral subjects.