those, who frequently used to contend with the Catholic people regarding religion. We can glean nothing further from that source concerning the city where these homilies were delivered: we can form no judgment from the homilies themselves. But the seventh homily on the first Epistle to the Corinthians, in our edition (Vol. 10, p. 53), teaches that these homilies on John were delivered before the homilies on the Corinthians. Since, however, that homily on the Corinthians was delivered at Antioch, as will be proved in its proper place, it follows from this that these homilies on John were also delivered at Antioch. Furthermore, that passage of the seventh homily on the Corinthians reads thus: "For He says to them, 'You neither know me, nor my Father' (John 8:19). How then did He say above, 'You know me, and you know whence I am' (John 7:28)?" But what the manner of this reading is, and what his own opinion is, already stated in the Gospels, and since we A frequently turn to the same subject, we refer the readers to that place. He sends, namely, his homilies on the Gospel of John, to the fiftieth homily, where, explaining these words (ch. 7, v. 28, col. 279), "And you know me, and you know whence I am," he shows how they are best reconciled with the other passage of the same Gospel (ch. 8, v. 19), where he says that the Jews know neither him nor his Father. It is therefore certain and indubitable that Chrysostom delivered these homilies at Antioch before he delivered the homilies on the first and second Epistles to the Corinthians, which were likewise delivered at Antioch, as we shall prove in its proper place.
§ II. 1. At what time he delivered these homilies. 2. Why he preached these while the dawn was breaking. 1. We have already said in the Preface to the Homilies on Matthew, that Chrysostom could not have delivered the Homilies on Matthew to the people during the three first years in which he was a presbyter, because, clearly, in those B three years, 386, 387, 388, he delivered so many long homilies that it seems hardly possible that he could have added others. Certainly, as will be said at greater length in the Life of Chrysostom, it is hardly credible how many sermons he delivered during these first three years of his priesthood: Panegyrics for the feasts of the Saints throughout the year, others on the books of Scripture, and others on various subjects. And so, for this reason, we determine that the Homilies on Matthew were delivered after the year 388, and we shall assign these, which seem to have been spoken after the Homilies on Matthew, to a time after that year. To assign the very year in which he began these homilies is not within human capability. It is certain, indeed, that they were delivered from the year 389 to the year 398, at the beginning of which he was raised to the Constantinopolitan see; but the year itself, or even the years, to determine—for it does not seem that 88 homilies were delivered in one and the same year—this is a difficult task. Let us see, however, if we can glean anything further about that matter. Since the Homilies on Matthew, which are ninety in number, preceded these, and are thought to have been delivered after the year 388; and since those ninety homilies on Matthew do not seem to have been completed in a single year, we probably assign to them the years 389 and 390. These, however, on John, we C reasonably determine were delivered after the year 390, namely from this year to the year 394 or 395. We cannot assign the whole of that span which intervenes until the year 398, when he was elected bishop of Constantinople. Because, as is known to us, after the Homilies on John, he delivered a huge number of other sermons at Antioch, namely the Homilies on the Epistles to the Corinthians, the first of which is completed in 44 homilies, the second in 30, and those longer ones; and he preached on the other Epistles of Paul, not a few, at Antioch, after he had finished these on John, as will be proved in its proper place by various arguments. We cannot, therefore, cast these Homilies on John into the last years of his presbyterate; but we probably designate the time for them to be from the year 390 to the year 394 or 395. With the sequence thus established, everything seems to fit.
Nor could he have completed all these 88 sermons in one year, if he had delivered single homilies every fifth day, as he himself hints a little before the end of the first Homily, where he says such things: col. 27: "Let no one say to me, that there is a brief time between this and the next sermon. For it is permitted, not only in the space of five days, but even in a single moment of time, to change one's whole life." Even if he had preached only every fifth day, he could not have completed these 88 sermons in one year. But if he only preached every fifth day, as he says, how can that be squared with what he says at the beginning of Homily 25, col. 147, "For we do not preach daily, but twice a week, and that for a brief part of the day, so that we may lighten the labor, we exhort you to attend the sermon and be attentive." If twice a week, certainly he D did not preach only every fifth day, but more frequently. Indeed, these things can be reconciled if we say that he used to preach now less frequently, now more frequently.
2. But what Chrysostom says regarding the time of day when he delivered these homilies is altogether singular. For in Homily 31, col. 182, he speaks thus: "But if the Samaritan woman exhibits such zeal, that she might learn what is useful, and sits by Christ, even if she does not know him: what pardon shall we obtain, we who know him, who stand not by a well, not in the desert, not at midday, not scorched by solar rays; but at dawn, under this roof we enjoy the shade and pass the time pleasantly, yet we do not patiently listen to anything, but grow sluggish from laziness?" Thus, at dawn, that is, at the morning hours as the dawn was breaking, he delivered these discourses; though he was not accustomed to delivering the other sermons at the first peep of day. But in these homilies explaining the Gospel of John, we discover many things done beside the custom. First, that they are by far shorter than all the others. Second, that they were delivered as the dawn was breaking; third, that the moral exhortations are, contrary to custom, very brief. Fourth, that their primary aim, in most of the homilies at least, seems to be to instruct the audience to do battle against the heretics who abuse the Gospel of John. For indeed, when he had issued the first homily as a kind of preface,