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Alexandrian and Antiochene Exegesis and the Gospel of John

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Alexandrian and Antiochene Exegesis and the Gospel of John ALEXANDRIAN AND ANTIOCHENE EXEGESIS AND THE GOSPEL OF JOHN ALEXANDRIAN AND ANTIOCHENE EXEGESIS AND THE GOSPEL OF JOHN By MIRIAM DECOCK, M.A., B.A. A Thesis Submitted to the School of Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy McMaster University © Copyright by Miriam DeCock, December 2018 McMaster University DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (2018) Hamilton, Ontario (Religious Studies) TITLE: Alexandrian and Antiochene Exegesis and the Gospel of John AUTHOR: Miriam DeCock, B.A. (Briercrest College), M.A. (McMaster University) SUPERVISOR: Professor Peter Widdicombe NUMBER OF PAGES: viii, 327 ii Lay Abstract In this thesis I seek to provide an answer to the question of whether there were two distinct schools of scriptural interpretation in the two major centres of Alexandria and Antioch in the church of late antiquity. Traditionally scholars have characterized the Alexandrian exegesis as allegorical or spiritual and Antiochene as historical or literal. In recent decades, scholars have sought to do away with the distinction, tending to focus on the school members’ shared training in rhetoric and grammar. I argue that the traditional distinction ought to be maintained, but I draw attention to a critical distinction between the two schools, namely, the ways in which the exegetes of the two centres apply Scripture to their respective church settings. I demonstrate this by comparing the interpretations of five passages from the Gospel of John by two Alexandrian authors, Origen and Cyril, and two Antiochenes, John Chrysostom and Theodore of Mopsuestia. iii Abstract In this thesis I argue, against much recent scholarship on early Christian exegesis, that the traditional distinction between the two exegetical schools of Alexandria and Antioch, the allegorists and the literalists respectively, ought to be maintained. Despite much overlap in terms of the school members’ training in grammar and rhetoric (one of the major arguments put forward by those who wish to do away with the two schools), a critical distinction lies in the ways the exegetes of the two early Christian centres used Scripture for the spiritual development of their audiences. This I demonstrate through a close analysis of the exegetical treatments of five passages from the Gospel of John by four authors, two Alexandrians, Origen and Cyril, and two Antiochenes, John Chrysostom and Theodore of Mopsuestia. I attend to my authors’ use of a shared exegetical principle that Scripture is inherently “beneficial” or “useful,” and therefore it is the exegete’s duty to draw out Scripture’s benefits, whether from the literal narrative or by moving beyond the letter to the non-literal plane. Examination of this principle allows us to understand these authors’ rationale—namely, the spiritual development of their audiences—for providing either a literal or a non-literal reading, rather than simplistically designating Alexandrians as “allegorists” and Antiochenes as “literalists.” I demonstrate that other than one brief instance, the Antiochenes remain at the literal level of the text to draw out Scripture’s benefits, whereas in every case the Alexandrians draw out benefit from the literal and the non-literal levels of the text. Moreover, I argue that one of the distinctive features of Alexandrian exegesis was that one of the most important benefits provided by the biblical text was its direct application to these authors’ contemporary church settings, situations, and even to the individual Christian souls. iv Acknowledgements I am grateful to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Ontario Graduate Scholarship, and McMaster University for the financial support necessary for completing this thesis. I wish to thank my supervisor, Dr. Peter Widdicombe, for his incisive reading of innumerable drafts of the thesis, and for his critical engagement with and encouragement of my work. I am grateful for the opportunity to have learned from such a rigorous and exacting scholar, who clearly loves his subject matter a great deal. I would also like to thank my second committee member, Dr. Stephen Westerholm, who repeatedly found ways to simplify what seemed to be complicated problems that arose throughout the course of this project. Thanks also to my third committee member, Dr. Daniel Machiela, for his encouragement and interest in my work. I would also like to thank Dr. Eileen Schuller for her friendship and encouragement over the years. I wish to thank a number of colleagues from the Religious Studies Department, without whom my time at McMaster would have been much less enjoyable. I am grateful for the friendship and support of Michael Johnson, Graham Baker, Whit Ross, Chris Emms, and Adel Hashemi. I am also thankful for the friendship of two members of a previous cohort of McMaster Religious Studies students, of Early Christianity in particular, Greg Wiebe and Dan Opperwall, both of whom talked through different aspects of my work at various points along the way. I wish to thank my family and friends for their encouragement and confidence in my ability to complete this thesis. Finally, I am particularly grateful to my husband, Caleb, for his support, humour, and generosity with me as I completed this project. v TABLE OF CONTENTS 0.0 Introduction 0.1 Brief Statement of Thesis...........................................................................................1 0.2 Why the Gospel of John? ...........................................................................................4 0.3 The Four Exegetical Works of My Study ..................................................................6 0.4 Origen and the Two Schools ......................................................................................9 0.5 Terminology .............................................................................................................29 0.6 The Main Argument of this Thesis ..........................................................................34 0.7 The “Usefulness” of Scripture .................................................................................36 0.8 The Chapters of this Thesis......................................................................................52 1.0 Introducing the Evangelist John, his Gospel, and its Interpretation in the Schools of Alexandria and Antioch .....................................................................................................55 1.1 Origen’s Preface.......................................................................................................57 1.2 Chrysostom’s Introductory Homilies on John .........................................................70 1.3 Theodore’s Preface ..................................................................................................81 1.4 Cyril’s Preface .........................................................................................................88 2.0 The Cleansing of the Temple of John 2 in Alexandrian and Antiochene Exegesis ..100 2.1 Origen ....................................................................................................................102 2.2 Chrysostom ............................................................................................................111 2.3 Theodore ................................................................................................................114 2.4 Cyril .......................................................................................................................120 3.0 The Samaritan Woman at the Well of John 4 in Alexandrian and Antiochene Exegesis ..........................................................................................................................................131 3.1 Origen ....................................................................................................................133 3.2 Chrysostom ............................................................................................................155 3.3 Theodore ................................................................................................................168 3.4 Cyril .......................................................................................................................174 4.0 The Healing of the Man Born Blind of John 9 in Alexandrian and Antiochene Exegesis ...........................................................................................................................193 4.1 Origen ....................................................................................................................195 4.2 Chrysostom ............................................................................................................200 4.3 Theodore ................................................................................................................207 4.4 Cyril .......................................................................................................................211 5.0 The Good Shepherd Parable of John 10 in Alexandrian and Antiochene Exegesis ..230 vi 5.1 Origen ....................................................................................................................232 5.2 Chrysostom ............................................................................................................237 5.3 Theodore ................................................................................................................248 5.4 Cyril .......................................................................................................................258
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