In Praise Of Saint Paul

St. John Chrysotom has left us as many as two hundred and fifty homilies on the Epistles of St. Paul, which are generally considered to constitute the finest commentary ever written on the Epistles of the apostle of the Gentiles. The collection of sermons contained in this volume testify to his close knowledge of St. Paul's writings as well as to his deep admiration and attachment to Paul's many virtues. Reading them we can easily see what he meant in the introduction to his commentary on the Epistle to the Romans: "As often as I hear the Epistles of St. Paul read, twice a week, or often three or four times, I rejoice each time over this spiritual trumpet, and I exult and am kindled with holy desires, when I hear the voice which is to me so dear and familiar, and then I imagine that I see him before me, and that I hear him speak." The saint preached these sermons at Antioch sometime during his twelve-year stay there after his ordination.

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"Besides Jesus, no one has kept me from despair, or taken me deeper into the mysteries of the gospel, than the apostle Paul." —John Piper No one has had a greater impact on the world for eternal good than the apostle Paul—except Jesus himself. For John Piper, this impact is very personal. He does not just admire and trust Paul. He loves him. Piper gives us thirty glimpses into why his heart and mind respond this way. Can a Christian-killer really endure 195 lashes from a heart of love? Can a mystic who thinks he was caught up into heaven be a model of lucid rationality? Can an ethnocentric Jew write the most beautiful call to reconciliation? Can a person who lives with the unceasing anguish of empathy be always rejoicing? Can a man's description of the horrors of human sin be exceeded by his delight in human splendor? Can a man with a backbone of steel be as tender as a nursing mother? If we know this man—if we see what Piper sees—we too will love him. Paul's testimony is a matter of life and death. Piper invites you into his relationship with Paul in the hope that you will know life, forever.

THE present Volume completes the set of St. Chrysostom’s Commentaries on the Epistles of St. Paul, with the exception of that to the Hebrews, the Translation of which is preparing for the press. The edition of the original by MR. FIELD has afforded the advantage of an improved text, in fact of one as good as we can hope to see constructed from existing Mss. Aeterna Press