2 Matt. xxiv. 45. Some Mss. of Chrysostom have the future katasthsei, shall make ruler, but all Mss. of the New Testament have the aorist kate/sthse, made ruler.
4 In some editions tbe words "tend my sheep" are added here.
18 The passage is awkwardly expressed in the original. What Chrysotom says is that he will mention an event which has recently occurred as an evidence of Basil's chartacter, because if he referred to events which were no longer fresh in people's recollection, the accuracy of his statements could not be tested, and he might be suspected of partiality.
3 This may be only a rhetorical expression, but perhaps there is an allusion to a custom which prevailed in some churches, that the worshippers after receiving the cup applied the finger to the moistened lip, and then touched their breast, eyes and ears.
4 The caution mentioned just now in note 3 must he repeated here. A comparison of passages in the writings of Chrysostom and his contemporaries proves clearly enough that they did not hold that the elements of bread and wine were transmuted into the body and blood of Christ in such a sense as to cease to be bread and wine. The authenticity of the letter of Chrysostom to C'sarius is doubtful, but whoever the writer may have been, he is clearly representing the current orthodox belief of the Church in his day. He maintains, in opposition to the Apollinarian or perhaps the Eutychian heresy, that there are two complete natures in the one person of God the Son Incarnate, and illustrates it by the following reference to the holy elements in the Eucharist "Just as the bread before consecration is called bread, but when the Divine Grace sanctifies it through the agency of the priest it is released from the appellation of bread, and is deemed worthy of the appellation of the `Lord's Body, 0'although the nature of bread remains in it, and we speak not of two bodies, but one body of the Son : so here the Divine nature being seated in the human body, the two together make up but one Son -one Person."
5 Some Mss. omit the word pi/stewj "of faith," having in its place to/te "at that time."
6 In the Liturgy which bears the name of St. Chrysostom, the following invocation of the Holy Spirit occurs: "Grant that we may find grace in thy sight that our sacrifice may become acceptable to Thee, and that the Good Spirit of thy grace may rest upon us, and upon these gifts spread before Thee, and upon all Thy people," and presently the deacon bids the people, "Let us pray on behalf of the precious gifts (i. e., the bread and wine) which have been provided, that the merciful God who has received them upon His holy spiritual altar beyond the heavens may in return send down upon us the divine grace and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost."3.
14 2 Cor. xi. 9; I Thess. ii. 9.
17 Chrysostom himself experienced the truth of this, for it was through the influence of Eudoxia, the wife of the Emperor Arcadius, that he was deposed from the See of Constantinople and banished.
18 I Cor. xiv. 34 ; I Tim. ii. 12.
19 Possibly the building, not the body of Christians is here signified : for in the contest between Damasus and Ursicinus for the See of Rome, A.D. 367 , which Chrysostom probably had in his mind, 137 persons are said to have been slain in one of the Churches in a single day.
20 According to another reading the passage must he rendered, "shun the burden at the outset."