CHAPTER XIII

THE SCHOOL OF ANTIOCH

A theological School was organised at Antioch and taught by the presbyter Malchion, during the episcopate of PAUL of Samosata, 260-272. PAUL was a brilliant, but a morally disagreeable man; a favourite and courtier of Queen Zenobia. He represented the high-water mark of theological speculation in his day, but his views brought him into disrepute and the neglect of his writings has resulted in their practical destruction.

The "Celebrated Chronographer," JULIUS AFRICANUS, 175-242, whom some regard as among the most learned of early Christian writers, was a forerunner of the school and an early representative of the scientific spirit that ruled its interpretation of Scripture. The School of Alexandria may be regarded as the headquarters of the allegorists; the School of Antioch made historical exposition the cardinal point of its teaching.

JULIUS AFRICANUS was essentially a historical critic. In a Letter to Origen concerning the Apocryphal Book of Susannah, he offers several proofs that the work is 'spurious.' This Letter is the only complete work of his now extant; but parts of a Letter to Aristides exist, and there are a few fragments of his 'accurately laboured' Chronology. Both these works are evidences of his interest in the historical setting of the Christian faith and in the historical interpretation of the New Testament records.

The School of Antioch emerges into the light of dependable tradition under the headship of LUCIAN, 240-312, a rare scholar after ORIGEN's own heart. He was a native of

Samosata; he studied at Edessa, and going thence to Antioch, he there became head of the School.

His chief work in literature was the revision of the Syrian Text of the New Testament; in conjunction with his colleague DOROTHEUS, he prepared a revised edition of the Septuagint, which became so popular as to receive the name of the Vulgate a name now universally given to the Latin version by JEROME.

Under his influence the School of Antioch became the nursery of the Arian doctrine; "many of the Arians and Semi-Arians were his pupils, and did not consciously deviate from his teaching." He fostered the historical temper; followed the inductive method, and reverenced Aristotle. Among his well known disciples were Eusebius of Nicomedia, Menophantis of Ephesus, Theognis of Nicaea, Maris of Chalcedon, Leontius of Antioch, Athanasius of Anazarbus, Asterius the sophist, and Arius the arch-heretic. These appealed to him as an authority in doctrine, calling themselves Collucianists.

The great period of the School began when DIODORUS of Tarsus, 330-394, became its leader. If not the founder, he was "the chief promoter of the rational school of Scriptural interpretation of which his disciples, CHRYSOSTOM and THEODORE and THEODORET were such distinguished representatives."

DIODORUS was equally vigorous as an antagonist of Arianism as he was of the heathenism that Julian attempted to re-establish. His writings roused the Emperor to upbraid him as "the great Nazarene" who had "deserted the philosophy of Athens for the boorish theology of fishermen."

Most of his writings were works of controversy, against Jews, pagans or heretics; the others were expositions of doctrine and Scripture. They have all perished; his Arian opponents burned sixty of his books, and time and neglect

have destroyed the rest, with the exception of a few frag

ments.

JOHN of Antioch, 345-407, surnamed CHRYSOSTOM, is not only the most illustrious member of the School of Antioch, but also the most famous of the Greek fathers, the greatest of the old Greek preachers, and perhaps the most popular orator of the Eastern Church. He is the outstanding figure in the first of the four great controversies that disturbed the relations between the Churches of Antioch and Alexandria during the fifth century.

His life has been divided into five epochs2 "(a) His life as a layman at Antioch till his baptism and admission as a reader, A. D. 347-370; (b) his ascetic and monastic life, A. D. 370-381; (c) his career as deacon, presbyter and preacher at Antioch, A. D. 381-398; (d) his episcopate at Constantinople, A. D. 398-404; (e) exile, A. D. 404-407."

CHRYSOSTOM won his reputation as a preacher when he delivered Twenty-one Sermons on the Statues, 387, after the mob had destroyed some statues of the Emperor and expected drastic punishment. These Sermons make one of the most remarkable series of discourses of which the history of preaching has any record. They are models of the purest cast. "Neither Cicero nor Demosthenes ever produced

greater, or more elevated, or more lasting effects on their hearers than St, Chrysostom

His Homilies, which number over six hundred, reveal the "art of engaging the passions in the service of virtue, and of exposing the folly as well as the turpitude of vice, almost with the truth and spirit of a dramatic representation." Thus in Homily xiii.:

What a day did we see last Wednesday.

This

was the day when that fearful tribunal was set in the city, and shook the hearts of all, and made the day seem no better than the night.

2 Dictionary of Christian Biography. Vol. I., P. 518.

These things then beholding, I cast in my mind "That Dread Tribunal'; and I said within myself, 'If now, when men are the judges, neither mother, nor sister, nor father, nor any other person, though guiltless of the deeds which have been perpetrated, can avail to rescue the criminals, who will stand by us when we are judged at the Dread Tribunal of Christ? Who will dare to raise his voice? Who will be able to rescue those who shall be led away to such unspeakable punishments?'

In a work entitled The Priesthood, written to excuse his avoidance of the bishopric in 370, he pictured his life as a monk in the desert, with all its advantages above the anxious life of an overseer of the Church. This book is reckoned among the ablest, the most instructive, and the most eloquent of all his writings. He wrote Against the Opponents of the Monastic Life, 374; a short treatise entitled A Comparison of the King and the Monk, 374; and also Two Letters to a Young Widow; in all of which he extolled the life of the desert. During his years of exile he published the stoical treatise, No One Is Injured except by Himself; and an Apology, To Those Who Are Scandalised by Adversity.

The Expositions of Scripture, for which he is most celebrated, and which covered the whole of the Bible, are not all extant. Those which do remain exhibit all the characteristic qualities of the Antiochene method of interpretation; the sound historical temper, the grammatical criticism, and the healthy common sense, which served as a necessary antidote to excessive allegorism.

THEODORE of Mopsuestia, 350-428, although a less popular figure than Chrysostom, was a more independent thinker and a more important theologian. He applied the historical method of Biblical interpretation more thoroughly

than any member of the School, but his style was prosaic and monotonous.

As the real founder of the Nestorian heresy, his work is best considered in connection with that teaching. His book on The Person of Christ against Apollinarius of Laodicea, like his criticisms of the title of "the mother of God," applied to Mary, was sober, thoughtful, and essentially ethical. He crossed swords with AUGUSTINE in a work called The Teaching that Men Sin by Nature and Not by Consent.

His brother POLYCHRONIUS of Apamea, d. 430, is known only by fragments of Expositions, which show how well he followed the traditions of the School. An Exposition of Ezekiel is the only one of his works that exists in anything like completeness. His style is clear and concise, contrasting favourably with the loose and complex manner of THEODORE. "His maner of exposition is scholarly and serious, breathing at the same time an air of deep piety."

It remains to recall the name of THEODORET, 386-458, whose theological sympathies were also with the school of his native city. Surrounded by gnostics, sympathetic towards Nestorians, and unwilling to subscribe to the creed of Nicæa; he was bound to justify his own views. He wrote a Refutation of Cyril's Twelve Anathemata of Nestorius, 430; three Dialogues, against CYRIL'S teaching, under the title Eranistes, 446,-a "work of remarkable interest and of permanent value for theological students," and an Apology for Christianity; which consisted of ten addresses on Providence. These addresses show THEODORET'S "literary power in its highest form, as regards the careful selection of thoughts, the nobility of his language, the elegance and purity of his style, and the force and sequence of his arguments."

In praise of primitive Christianity, and in opposition to "Hellenism" he wrote On Curing the Influence of the Greeks, 438, the last and most perfect of the Graeco-Christian Apolo