Two volumes of Chrysostom's commentaries on the Sages. Volume One includes the commentary on Job. Volume Two includes the commentary on Proverbs and the commentary on Ecclesiastes. "The Fathers, especially of the East, did not leave us many commentaries on the Wisdom Books of the Old Testament, even though frequently citing the figure of Job and Solomon's proverbs in their other works. This neglect may perhaps be accounted for by a reluctance to see the sages as recipients of inspiration in the same fashion as psalmists and prophets, Wisdom often seeming to be the fruit of human experience. It is therefore doubly gratifying that recent scholarship has unearthed commentaries on the text of Job, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes by the celebrated preacher of Antioch, John Chrysostom. Not only do these texts complete the already huge corpus of his works, but they reveal the response of a Greek Father to this distinctive sapiential material, which the ancients found challenging, sometimes pragmatic, sometimes quaint. We may debate the Fathers' degree of appreciation of biblical Wisdom; but, as Chrysostom says of Proverbs, "it makes no trifling contribution to our moral life." Volume One includes the commentary on Job. "
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St. John Chrysostom Commentaries on the Sages
Mr. Robert Hill has provided those interested in the Book of Job a valuable translation of St. John Chrysostom's commentary on the work. Buyers should know that St. John Chrysostom's commentary, as it was left to us, seems to be more in the form of notes set down for a possible future sermon rather than a complete systematic review. The commentary is long and detailed on the first few chapters of Job and progressively becomes shorter and shorter.
