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Chrysostom and Symeon (Acts XV, 14)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 August 2011
Extract
The circumstances and the proceedings of the Council of Jerusalem, as they are presented in the Acts of the Apostles, will come readily to every reader's mind. Gentile converts at Antioch had been disturbed by Judaeo-Christians who insisted on the rite of circumcision; so that a delegation was sent from the Syrian community to consult the apostles and presbyters of the mother church. Paul and Barnabas, veteran missionaries now, were chosen to lead the band. The session in the Holy City opened with a general discussion, which subsided when St. Peter rose to speak:
Brethren, you know that in former days God made choice among you that the Gentiles should hear from my lips the word of the gospel, and believe. And God, the Knower of hearts, bore them witness, giving to them the Holy Spirit, just as to us; and He made no distinction between us and them, having purified their hearts with the faith.…
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- Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1953
References
1 Acts xv, 7–11.
2 Ibid., 12.
3 Ibid., 13–21.
4 Ibid., 14. On the text, see below, f.n. 11.
5 Cf. The Jewish War IV, 159, and H. St. J. Thackeray's note (Loeb Classical Library: London-New York, 1928).
6 “Σίμων” is here the reading of B and ψ, to speak only of uncials, and is preferred by Westcott and Hort, apparently alone among modern editors. The great body of evidence, uncial and minuscule, is for “Συμεών”. In the Latin Vulgate, a converse ratio holds: “Simon” (or “Symon”) is the usual text; “Simeon” is exceptional (see the continuation of Wordsworth, and White, , Nouum Testamentum … Latine III, ii, Oxford, 1949Google Scholar, ad loc.).
7 Acts ix, 4 and 17; xxii, 7 and 13; xxvi, 14.
8 Ibid., x, 5; cf. 18 and 32. See, on all this, Cadbury, Henry J., The Making of Luke-Acts (London, 1927), c. xviGoogle Scholar, “Language and Style”; in particular, on variations of names, pp. 225–227. “The literal Semitic form of Simon Peter's name, ‘Simeon’, occurs only once, and that in the speech of James at the council of Jerusalem” (p. 227). Cf. Blass-Debrunner, , Grammatik des neutestamentlichen Griechisch7 (Göttingen, 1943), § 53, 2Google Scholar, in both text and Anhang.
9 See, however, f.n. 11.
10 Adversus Haereses III, xii, 17 (Harvey, W. W., editor, Cambridge, 1857: II, 69)Google Scholar.
11 The reading Συμεών is invariable in the Greek codices of Acts. In the Latin, however, “Simon” is widely read (see Wordsworth, and White, , Nouum Testamentum … Latine, Actus Apostolorum, Oxford, 1905, ad loc., apparatusGoogle Scholar). This argues an exegetical opinion identical with that of Irenaeus: Symeon and Simon are one.
12 Frederick C. Conybeare, “The Commentary of Ephrem on Acts,” in J. H. Ropes, The Text of Acts = Foakes-Jackson, F. J. and Lake, Kirsopp, The Beginnings of Christianity III (London, 1926), p. 373Google Scholar ff.
13 Baur, C., Der Heilige Johannes Chrysostomus und seine Zeit II (Munich, 1930), 84Google Scholar.
14 Hom. XXXIII, i (IX, 253 D). References to Chrysostom's works, unless otherwise specified, will be to the Benedictine edition of the Opera Omnia. The page numbers are those of the first edition (Paris, 1718–1738), which reappear in the medial margin of the second edition (Paris, 1834–1839), and as bracketed inserts in the reprint by Migne.
15 Opera Omnia, Henry Savile, editor, Eton, 1613, IV, 795.
16 “‘Der Goldene Mund’ von Antiochien und Konstantinople, Johannes Chrysostomus, der grosse Prediger, war zu gleicher Zeit kein leerer Schwätzer, sondern ein klarsehender, scharf denkender, sorgfaltig schreibender Philolog, der sich in die heilige Schrift vertieft” (Caspar René Gregory, Einleitung in das Neue Testament, Leipzig, 1909, p. 369). There is reason to affirm that the Homilies on Acts were published without a final, careful revision by the author's hand; but his spirit as exegete is in full evidence. Take, for example, one of his general observations on the author of the Book of Acts: Ὁ γὰρ ἱστοριογράφος πολλὰ ἐπιτέμνει, καὶ πολλοὺς συνάγει καιρούς (Hom. XX, i [IX, 169B]).
17 The Homilies of Chrysostom, S. John on the Acts of the Apostles, Part II = Library of the Fathers of the Holy Catholic Church XXXV (Oxford, 1852)Google Scholar, Preface.
18 Smothers, E. R., “Le Texte des Homélies de saint Jean Chrysostome sur les Actes des Apôtres,” Recherches de Science Religieuse XXVII (Paris, December, 1937), p. 513 ffGoogle Scholar.
19 Catena in Acta SS. Apostolorum…, ed. by Cramer, J. A. (Oxford, 1838), p. 248Google Scholar. The source of the lemma is by oversight omitted.
20 In Chrysostom's time, the Feast of the Purification was already celebrated in Jerusalem (Peregrinatio Aetheriae xxvi: Éthérie Journal de Voyage, edited by Pétré, Hélène, in Sources Chrétiennes, Paris, 1948, p. 206Google Scholar). Symeon's prayer appears as a vesper hymn in the Apostolic Constitutions VII, xlviii, 4, of the same epoch (Didascalia et Constitutiones Apostolorum, ed. by Funk, F. X., Paderborn, 1905, p. 458Google Scholar; for the date, see p. xix). It is included in the set of canticles at the end of the Codex Alexandrinus (569r).
21 Oratio XXXIX, In sancta lumina, xiv (P. G. XXXVI, 349); for the date, see col. 333 f.).
22 Hom. XXXIII, in initio (IX, 253 C).
23 Ibid. (253 DE).
24 In Mathhaeum Horn. II (VII, 24 AB; in Field's, Frederick edition, Cambridge, 1839, 1, 20Google Scholar).
25 Acts xv, 12.
26 Hom. XXXIII, i (IX, 255C). Chrysostom's license in the use of demonstrative pronouns is well known. See Field's edition In Matt., vol. III, Index II, s. v. ἐκεῖνος.
27 His series of four sermons at Antioch, De mutatione nominum, is an illustration. Why was Saul's name changed to Paul? After much discussion, and the examination of parallels from Old and New Testament, Chrysostom, in sporadic passages, reaches the following conclusions: (1) Saul of Tarsus received his original name from his parents. They were not prophets; and it has no special significance. (2) It was important that he should continue to be known by this name after his conversion, so that Christians everywhere would really believe that the zealous evangelist and the former persecutor were one. (3) After his election to the apostolate, it was fitting that the Holy Spirit give him a new name, just as the purchaser of a slave gives him a new name, to signify dominion. Hence Παῦλος δοῦλος Xριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ κλητòς ἀπóστολος. (4) The name of Paul is significant because of the apostle and saint who bore it, not intrinsically, like Simon's name, Peter.
28 C. Baur, op. cit., I, 262.
29 In Ioannem Hom. XXXIV, iii (VIII, 199 E).
30 Proverbs xxvi, 11.
31 I, 32 C.
32 In Gen. Hom. VI, i (IV, 40 AB). With this, the paraphrase In Epist. Iam ad Tim. Hom. V ad finem (XI, 578 B) is almost identical.
33 VI, 309/10.
34 In Acta Hom. XXXI, iv (IX, 246 D, last lines of the column. Cod. mich. 14 here reads τòν ἑαυτοῦ ἔμετον).
35 Von Soden and Merk, on II Pet. ii, 22, retain the authority of Chrysostom, without specific reference, for ἔμετον.
36 It is enough to refer to The Beginnings of Christianity (above, f.n. 12), which marks an epoch in the critical study of the Acts of the Apostles, and, for later titles, to Dom Jacques Dupont, O.S.B., Les Problemes du Livre des Actes d'après les travaux recents = Analecta Lovaniensia Biblica et Orientalia, Ser. II, fasc. 17 (Louvain, 1950)Google Scholar.
37 Mélanges Jules Lebreton I (Paris, 1951)Google Scholar = Recherches de Science Religieuse XXXIX, 203 ff.
38 P. 204.
39 L. c.
40 P. 205.
41 PP. 205/6.
42 Pp. 206–210.
43 Above, p. 205.
44 Above, p. 205–208.
45 With no evidence of a tradition, “Niger” appears in a list of New Testament names said by St. Epiphanius to be of the Seventy-two Disciples (Luke x, 1 and 17): Panarion, P 50 (ed. K. Holl I, Leipzig, 1915, p. 232, 9). I find no earlier mention of him, outside the Book of Acts.
46 In Acta Hom. XXVII, i (IX, 215 E–216 A).
47 Above, p. 209.
48 Chrysostom, In Matt. Hom. VIII, iii (VII, 124 A), notes that Symeon, at the Presentation, was nearing his end: μέλλων ἀπιέναι.