PREFACE. S. CHRYSOSTOM'S Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians is continuous, according to chapter and verse; instead of being arranged in Homilies with a Moral or Practical application at their close, as in his exposition of other Epistles. It was written at Antioch, as Montfaucon infers from a reference which the Author makes, upon ch. i. 16 (p. 21), to other of his writings, which certainly were written about the same time in that city. Vid. Hom. de Mutat. Nom. tom. iii. p. 98, ed. Ben. The year is uncertain, but seems not to have been earlier than A. D. 395. The Homilies on the Epistle to the Ephesians have been by some critics assigned to his Episcopate at Constantinople, in consequence of certain imperfections in their composition, which seemed to argue absence of the comparative leisure which he enjoyed at Antioch. There is a passage too in Homily xi. p. 232, 3, which certainly is very opposite to the Author's circumstances in the court of Eudoxia. Yet there are strong reasons for deciding that they too were delivered at Antioch. S. Babylas and S. Julian, both Saints at Antioch, are mentioned familiarly, the former in Homily ix. p. 207, the latter in Homily xxi. pp. 344, 5. Monastic establishments in mountains in the neighbourhood are spoken of in Homily vi. p. 167, and xiii p. 250a; and those near Antioch are famous in S. Chrysostom's history. A schism too is alluded to in Homily xi. p. 232, as existing in the a Vid. also xxi. p. 340. |