St. John Chrysostom delivered his Homilies on Genesis sometime between A.D. 385 and A.D. 388, while yet a priest at Antioch. In the homilies in this volume, the last of three, Chrysostom concludes his examination of the lives and virtues of the Old Testament patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph as recounted in the last three chapters of Genesis. Known for his eloquent preaching, Chrysostom delivered these final twenty-two homilies after Pentecost. His motive for examining the accounts of the lives of the patriarchs is to show how the just forebears of the Israelites, in a time when...

Shortly before his death (ca. 460), as his health was failing, Theodoret decided to undertake a monumental project of exegesis. In the more than two decades of his episcopacy, he had commented on both the prophets and the sapiential literature of the Hebrew Scriptures. Now he would expound the historical books. For his commentary on the Octateuch, he adopted the format of question and answer. This device allowed the expositor to focus attention on particularly challenging passages that could give rise to misunderstanding. Long experience had taught him that "careless reading of holy Scripture...

Shortly before his death (ca. 460), as his health was failing, Theodoret decided to undertake a monumental project of exegesis. In the more than two decades of his episcopacy, he had commented on both the prophets and the sapiential literature of the Hebrew Scriptures. Now he would expound the historical books. For his commentary on the Octateuch, he adopted the format of question and answer. This device allowed the expositor to focus attention on particularly challenging passages that could give rise to misunderstanding. Long experience had taught him that "careless reading of holy Scripture...

Early Christians were fed by their pastors a solidly scriptural diet from both the Old and the New Testaments. The commentary on Daniel by Theodoret, a member of the school of Antioch and fifth-century bishop of Cyrus, illustrates the typically Antiochene approach to biblical texts and shows the commentator posing key questions such as, What is prophecy? or What does a prophet do? While demonstrating the moderation for which his approach to the Bible became proverbial, Theodoret here instructs his readers to see in the dreams and visions of Daniel the pattern of prediction and fulfillment...