Chrysostomic Trajectories: The Homilies on John and Syriac Exegesis from Lazaros of Beth Qandasa to Moses bar KephaBiblical Exegesis from Eastern Orthodox Perspectives 1Syriaca.org: The Syriac Reference PortalThe National Endowment for the HumanitiesThe International Balzan Prize FoundationDavid A. Michelsoncbsc_adminRecord added to Zotero bycbsc_adminSyriaca.org: The Syriac Reference Portalhttp://syriaca.org/cbss/WRF3G4RI/tei
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2025-05-20-05:00
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CREATED: This bibl record was autogenerated from a Zotero record.NestorKavvadasChrysostomic Trajectories: The Homilies on John and Syriac Exegesis from Lazaros of Beth Qandasa to Moses bar Kephahttp://syriaca.org/cbss/WRF3G4RIhttps://www.zotero.org/groups/a_comprehensive_bibliography_on_syriac_studies/items/WRF3G4RIhttps://www.zotero.org/groups/4861694/items/WRF3G4RIMichaelAzarAthanasiosDespotisJames BuchananWallaceFresh Perspectives on St John Chrysostom as an ExegeteLeidenBrill2025281-300Biblical Exegesis from Eastern Orthodox Perspectives 1The extent of John Chrysostom’s influence on West Syrian Christian exegesis of John is impressive even for an author of such renown, outweighing by far even the impact of Cyril’s commentary on the Fourth Gospel. Perhaps the most striking case of dependence on Chrysostom is a still-unpublished Syriac commentary on John, written by the West Syriac scholar Lazaros of Beth Qandasa (9th century). While in several parts of the commentary dedicated to the first and middle chapters of the Gospel of John Lazaros draws also on several authors other than Chrysostom, as Lucas van Rompay has shown, a look at Lazaros’ commentary on the final chapters (John 19–21) shows that his text becomes there a faithful reproduction of Chrysostom’s homilies. However, faithful reproduction was not the only way in which West Syrian authors received Chrysostom. As a comparison with certain passages of the commentaries on John by Moses bar Kepha and Nonnus of Nisibis shows, John Chrysostom was often received by Syriac interpreters in a non-linear way, amalgamated with other exegetical or apocryphal traditions directly or indirectly connected with the Gospel of John, such as the view that Golgatha was the very place where Adam had been buried, or that the wood out of which the cross was made was taken from the “tree” where Abraham had found a ram to sacrifice instead of Isaac. Mapping Chrysostom’s West Syriac reception would not only shed light on how commentators worked with their sources, but also help understand better what made them turn to Chrysostom—rather than to other renowned exegetes—in the first place.
Kavvadas, Nestor. “Chrysostomic Trajectories: The Homilies on John and Syriac Exegesis from Lazaros of Beth Qandasa to Moses Bar Kepha.” In Fresh Perspectives on St John Chrysostom as an Exegete, edited by Michael Azar, Athanasios Despotis, and James Buchanan Wallace, 281–300. Biblical Exegesis from Eastern Orthodox Perspectives 1. Leiden: Brill, 2025.
Nestor Kavvadas, Chrysostomic Trajectories: The Homilies on John and Syriac Exegesis from Lazaros of Beth Qandasa to Moses Bar Kepha, in Fresh Perspectives on St John Chrysostom as an Exegete, ed. Michael Azar, Athanasios Despotis, and James Buchanan Wallace, Biblical Exegesis from Eastern Orthodox Perspectives 1 (Leiden: Brill, 2025), 281–300.