The prophecy against Nineveh. Divine pedagogy and hermeneutics in Theodore of Mopsuestia’s Commentary on the book of Jonah
(2024) Oxford Patristics Conference — Location: Oxford (5.August.2024)
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- Theodore is seen as a literalist: he very rarely draws on a second meaning of the biblical text. In his In Ionam, although he justifies the typological reading in his preface, the Interpreter never mentions it in his commentary. Consequently, we can believe in his fidelity to the letter, which earned him the label of ̓Ιουδαιόφρων. However, the book of Jonah resists literalism. The story it tells is above all a "sign" to use the word of the gospel (Mt 12:39-41). Moreover, despite the absence of the term παιδεία, divine pedagogy is omnipresent: God gives lessons to men (Jonah, the sailors and the Ninevites) and he even seems to give one to himself. In Theodore's commentary, this pedagogy is the place of unity between the Testaments, the means of salvation and the method of dialogue between God and his prophet. These three themes are highlighted through three hermeneutical procedures employed by Theodore. If the typology of the preface and the literalism of the commentary are well known, the third procedure, which leads Theodore to “increase” the text concerning the prophecy against Nineveh (Jo 3, 4), is surprising and casts doubt upon Theodore's literalist thesis. We will end our presentation by highlighting this process of “increasing” the text, which may have been the source of criticism from Leontius of Byzantium.
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Rixhon, N. (2024). The prophecy against Nineveh. Divine pedagogy and hermeneutics in Theodore of Mopsuestia’s Commentary on the book of Jonah. Oxford Patristics Conference, Oxford. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/271696