"For what is the profit, when His table indeed is full of golden cups, but He perishes with hunger?”
I have heard it said that many priests have just one sermon in them, an image or message that they can’t help but return to over and over again throughout their preaching ministry. This was almost certainly the case for one of the greatest preachers of the late fourth century, the “Golden-Mouthed” John Chrysostom (c.347-407). In the many homilies that he delivered during his priestly ministry in Antioch and then as Patriarch in Constantinople, John repeatedly returned to the image of God judging the nations based on their care for the most vulnerable found in Matthew 25:31-46.
John Chrysostom frequently invoked this passage even when his homilies began elsewhere. In Matthew 25:31-46, God judges the nations as decisively as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, with the crucial determining factor being whether people cared for God in the most vulnerable. Both the righteous and condemned are surprised to discover that God has been appearing to them throughout their lives in the faces of the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, and prisoners. God considers the truly righteous to be those who fed the hungry, gave a cup of water to the thirsty, welcomed the stranger, and visited the prisoners; the condemned are those who turned the poor away. Here God’s identification with the most vulnerable is complete: “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.”[1] Swiss theologian Rudolf Brändle has explored how this passage served as the integrative force for much of John Chrysostom’s theology.[2]
Regarding wealth, John argued that Christian communities needed to prioritize donations to the least of these in society over other kinds of institutional support, primarily through the giving of alms. He pointed out that while the Gospels do not condemn gifts for the building up of church buildings or the beautification of worship, this ‘sweetest passage’ explicitly condemns those who neglected to make gifts to the poor. Whereas both types of giving are allowed and important, gifts to aid the ‘least of these’ take priority.
In John Chrysostom, we find someone willing to speak hard truths in the face of Christianity’s comfort with wealth and neglect of the poor. Tragically, his tendency to criticize the wealthy and bluntly point out the hypocrisies of the Church ultimately resulted in his condemnation, exile, and death. It was only after he died in exile in Pontus in 407 that the Church began to recover an appreciation for the significance of his preaching. Even today, however, Chrysostom’s homilies are often studied more for their excellent form than for the passionate social and economic concerns expressed throughout.
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Born in the middle of the fourth century, John Chrysostom’s father was a high-ranking military officer who died when he was still a child. Raised a Christian by his widowed mother, he began his career by studying law with the rhetorician Libanius but ultimately left this profession to become an ascetic hermit-monk. John returned to Antioch, however, when it became clear that his health could not sustain the rigors of asceticism. He was ordained a deacon in 381 and a priest in 386.[3] John appears to have flourished as a priest in Antioch. Over the next twelve years, he would become known for his zealous preaching on materialism, wealth and poverty, and on matters that concerned the lives of the common people of the city, a reputation that earned him the Greek surname Chrysostom, meaning “golden-mouthed.”[4] [5]
It is very likely that Homily 50 was delivered during the latter part of John’s priesthood in Antioch and reflects some of his culminating thoughts about a city that was both highly prosperous and as prominent a Christian stronghold as Rome, Constaninople, and Alexandria.[6] [7] Indeed, in Antioch by the middle of the fourth century, a majority of citizens were Christian and Christians were well-represented on the city’s council.[8] This did not prevent, however, extreme disparities in wealth and poverty. Rudolf Brandle notes: “The prosperous citizens had great palaces with marble pillars and halls, decorated with statues and frescoes. Some of the walls were covered with gold, and gold could even be found on the roofs. The splendor of the houses was matched by the luxury of the furnishings. The Antiochan upper class also showed their wealth in clothing and jewelry.”[9] John appears to have been particularly rankled by ostentatious displays of luxury and how this contrasted with the sufferings of the poor. He likely alienated more than a few Christians when he pointed out in a baptismal class that “Countless poor people have to go hungry so that you can wear a single ruby.”[10]
The wealth and splendor of Antioch’s great palaces extended to the city’s Christian churches with one of the finest examples being the octagonal Great Church, also known as the Golden Church on account of its gilded wooden dome.[11] This was likely the site of where John preached Homily 50. This means that when he said “For what is the profit, when His table indeed is full of golden cups, but He perishes with hunger?” and urged congregants to prioritize almsgiving over church splendor, he was pointedly doing so in a highly decorated space of polished marble, brass, gold, and precious stones.[12]
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John Chrysostom is frequently described as eloquent, outspoken, and tactless, and these characteristics are on full display on Homily 50.[13] This homily is a pleasure to read and was made all the more so in my case because I used the London publisher W. Smith’s 1885 translation which includes such pleasurable lines as “[Jesus] doth not even this, but departs, and in mid-sea permits the storm to arise, so that they might not so much as look for a hope of preservation from any quarter; and He lets them be tempest-tost all the night, thoroughly to awaken, as I suppose, their hardened heart.”[14]
As the starting point for Homily 50 was Matthew 14:13-36, John first dwelled on the fear the disciples must have felt as they were tossed and turned in the boat on the waters. John then transitioned to focus on the sick in Gennesaret who came in droves to meet Jesus so that “they might touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched it were healed.”[15] In this story of the sick coming to touch Jesus’ cloak, John saw an example of what it meant to worship Christ’s body. This allowed him to begin a passionate argument on the meaning of the Eucharist. “Let us also then touch the hem of His garment, or rather, if we be willing, we have Him entire. For indeed His Body is set before us now, not His garment only, but even His Body; not for us to touch It only, but also to eat, and be filled.”[16] Then, under the golden dome of Antioch’s Great Church, Chrysostom asked the gathered congregants:
“Wouldest thou do honour to Christ’s body? Neglect Him not when naked; do not, while here thou honourest Him with silken garments, neglect Him perishing without of cold and nakedness. For He that said, This is my Body, and by His word confirmed the fact, This Same said, Ye saw me an hungered, and fed Me not; and, inasmuch as ye did it to not to one of the least of these ye did it not to Me.[17]
Although John Chrysostom is generally not considered a theologian because he did not compose treatises on theological controversies like Basil of Cesarea or Augustine of Hippo, in Homily 50 we hear him exploring the theological significance of the Eucharist in light of God’s coming judgment of the nations as described in Matthew 25:31-46.[18] In Chrysostom’s rhetorical theology, to worship the body of Christ in the Eucharist means that we must first worship the body of Christ in the most vulnerable:
“For what is the profit, when His table indeed is full of golden cups, but He perishes with hunger? First fill Him, being an hungerd, and then abundantly deck out His table also. Dost thou make Him a cup of gold, while thou givest Him not a cup of cold water? And what is the profit? Dost thou furnish His Table with cloths bespangled with gold, while to Himself thou affordest not even the necessary covering? And what good comes of it?”[19]
At the heart of Chrysostom’s argument is an awareness of hypocrisy -- or the “great gulf” as he terms it -- caused by the Antiochian Christians’ expression of Eucharistic devotion through investments in church splendor over almsgiving. John warned: “Let this then be thy thought with regard to Christ also, when He is going about a wanderer, and a stranger, needing a roof to cover Him; and thou, neglecting to receive Him, deckest out a pavement, and walls, and capitals of columns, and hangest up silver chains by means of lamps, but Himself bound in chains in prison thou wilt not even look upon.”[20]
Interestingly, Chrysostom didn’t ultimately condemn such investments but asked the congregants of the Great Church to prioritize making gifts to aid the most vulnerable. In this, he managed to find a ‘middle way’ that remains sound advice for churches today.
John asked his hearers to reconsider their priorities by imagining Jesus’s reaction to the splendor of their churches: “For tell me, should you see one at a loss for necessary food, and omit appeasing his hunger while you first overlaid his table with silver; would he indeed thank thee, and not rather be indignant?” He goes on to describe Jesus as accounting such liturgical hypocrisy “an insult, and that the most extreme.”[21]
John offered almsgiving as a means of bridging this embarrassing gulf, a way that a Christian community that is lavishly devoted to the Eucharist could lavishly worship the body of Christ in the poor. “And these things I say, not forbidding such offerings to be provided; but requiring you, together with them, and before them, to give alms. For He accepts indeed the former, but much more the latter.”[22] In this, Chrysostom was asking the Antiochian community to reflect on which investments are ultimately lasting. While today investments in buildings are oftentimes described as long-term, Chrysostom highlighted that gifts to the poor pertain to the eternal, and that while gifts to church buildings are not prohibited by the Gospels, ‘the sweetest passage’ forcefully condemns Christians’ failure to give to the least of these.
While John Chrysostom began Homily 50 with a focus on Matthew 14:13-36, he ultimately explored the meaning of the Eucharist in light of God’s judgment of the nations as described in Matthew 25:31-46. According to Swiss theologian Rudolf Brändle, this was by no means unusual. He notes in his chapter for Wealth and Poverty in Early Church and Society that “These verses from Matthew constantly accompanied the great preacher in his Antiochian period (386-397)” and that “[John] takes up this passage in about 170 quotations and 220 allusions” over the homilies that remain.[23] Brändle holds that the passage serves as “the integrative force behind the central thoughts of John Chrysostom’s theology” and concludes “[John’s] decisive theological ideas collect and order themselves around the power emanating from this passage as though crystallizing around a nucleus.”[24]
A Brief Aside:
This seems like as good a time as any to briefly address one of the more bizarre concerns I’ve occasionally encountered while working in the Episcopal Church. This is the worry that the Church has become confused about its role and become overly involved in providing social services. I recall one boorish Episcopalian saying “We’re called to worship Christ, not be social workers!” Yet in Antioch - that is, in the very city where followers of Jesus were first called Christians[25] - one sees in the Great Church a more integrative model.
Partly as a result of Chrysostom’s preaching and leadership, the Great Church became known as a site of both liturgical splendor and significant social services. Early church historian Helen Rhee notes that John led multiple churches in Antioch, including the Great Church, to “organize major relief efforts for widows, orphans, virgins, beggars, homeless immigrants, the sick, and the poor through church-administered orphanages, hostels, and hospitals.”[26] Even as he critiqued the congregants’ focus on church splendor, Chrysostom’s homilies also included descriptions of the Great Church’s extensive ministries including a hostel for immigrants, a hospital for the incurably sick, and four dining halls where widows had regular meals.[27] The organizational support for these services was impressive and rigorous. There was a register of widows and “the priest or deacon charged with these lists was responsible for ensuring that no unworthy widows, or others who could live from their own means, tainted the table of the poor.”[28]
Beyond Antioch, there is even more extensive evidence of Christian churches serving as a social safety net for the poor in the fourth and fifth centuries. A particularly striking example is fifth century papyrological memos between Egyptian churches that offer insight into the day-to-day logistics of an extensive social safety network for the poor. In one of the memos, an unidentified Christian in hagia ekklesia requested a coat for a widow named Sophia from the steward of Saints Cosmos and Damian church. “[The steward] is assumed to have a store of coats ready for just such a request. This is not surprising; churches are known to have stockpiled clothes for charity.”[29] The writer of this essay, Adam Serfass, goes on to describe how when civil officials inventoried the possessions of one North African church in the early fourth century, they found 82 women's’ tunics and 47 pairs of women's shoes. “These items were surely meant for distribution to widows supported by the church.”[30]
Personally, I find such evidence to be profoundly moving. Alongside the theological treatises and powerful homilies that remain from this period, these memos requesting specific aid, inventories of shoes and winter cloaks, and descriptions of a registrar of widows all speak to the origins of who Christians are. Such evidence reveals the extent to which Christians have long been engaged in the work of distributing food, clothes, and relief aid to the most vulnerable, and support models of churches and institutions that prioritize offering social services to their communities.
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Tragically, there is a miserable end to John Chrysostom’s story, an undoing that seems to have begun with a promotion.
In 398, John was unexpectedly called from Antioch to Constantinople to be ordained Patriarch. As was the case in Antioch, John preached forcefully against abuses of wealth and power, though in Constantinople he did so in the shadow of the Roman emperor Arcadius’ court and clergy. He did more than just preach, however. One of John’s early acts was to cut the budget of the bishop’s household and use the funds to support existing hostels and hospitals. He also began planning to build several more.[31] In what might be considered a fourth century example of NIMBY-ism, John encountered forceful opposition to his proposal for building a leper colony just outside the city. The landed proprietors whose villas adjoined the proposed colony protested the project.[32] Helen Rhee concludes that “the combination of his brutal honesty, asceticism, tactlessness, and uncompromising intensity for reform, joined with the enmity of the Patriarch of Alexandria and empress Eudoxia, brought about his downfall.”
John was deposed in 403, just five years after he arrived in Constantinople. He was recalled only to be deposed again and was subsequently exiled to Armenia. Tellingly, it is at this point that the work on the leper colony ceased.[33] [34] When it became clear that John was still able to have wide influence and argue his cause through correspondence, he was sent to Pontus at the eastern end of the Black Sea. He died as a result of the journey in 407.[35]
It was only after his death that John’s reputation was restored. Thirty one years after being exiled to Pontus, John’s relics were brought back to Constantinople and received by emperor Theodosius II, the son of emperor Arcadius and Eudoxia.[36] And while today Chrysostom’s homilies are studied for their excellence of form, considerably less attention is paid to his passionate perspective on issues of wealth and poverty that are woven throughout.
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Over the past few months, I’ve had the opportunity to explore the socioeconomic dimensions of the Eucharist through writings of Paul, Justin Martyr, and now John Chrysostom. Each in their own way, these three early church leaders interpret the Lord’s Supper as profoundly connected to the lives of the poor. This socioeconomic dimension is frequently missing from many descriptions of what it means to celebrate the Eucharist today, and so I’d like to conclude by briefly reviewing what each has said on this topic.
A Meal for Rich and Poor
As I wrote about in this blog post, the earliest historical record of the words of institution occurs in 1 Corinthians 11:17-34, a text that Paul wrote at some point between 53-57 CE. The words of institution first appear as part of Paul’s chastisement of the wealthy Corinthians for having separated themselves out from the poor when celebrating the Lord’s Supper. Specifically, Paul was accusing the wealthier Corinthians of bringing their own food and drink to the assembly, separating themselves out from those who were hungry, and eating their meal among members of their own social class.[37] This infuriates him. “When you come together, it is not really to eat the Lord’s supper. For when the time comes to eat, each of you goes ahead with your own supper, and one goes hungry and another becomes drunk. What! Do you not have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you show contempt for the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing?”[38]
Paul warned that these wealthy Corinthians ate and drank judgment against themselves because they had failed to ‘discern the body.’[39] Paul sees this phrase as connected to the need to wait for one another, share a common meal, and his subsequent discourse on the church as the body of Christ in the following chapter of 1 Corinthians 12. While the broader Roman culture encouraged the wealthy to separate themselves out from the poor for status-specific dining, Paul notes “The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you’, nor again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you. On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and those members of the body that we think less honourable we clothe with greater honour, and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect; whereas our more respectable members do not need this.”[40]
Paul emphasizes that the Lord’s Supper is a place where the wealthy and the poor come together to share a common meal. Based on 1 Corinthians 11:17-34, one might ask the following of any Eucharistic service: Is this an example of the wealthy separating themselves out from the poor for a status-specific meal? Based on Paul’s insistence that the Corinthians take time to ‘discern the body’, one might also ask: Is this an example of one part of the wealthy saying to the most vulnerable, ‘I have no need of you?’
‘Presider as Guardian of All in Need’
The same focus of the Eucharist being a gathering that bridges socioeconomic divides continues in Justin Martyr’s First Apology, as I wrote about extensively here. Written around 155 CE, Justin likely wrote this to the Roman emperor Antonius Pius in response to the burning at the stake of Bishop Polycarp of Smyrna. In First Apology, Justin strains to address the main accusations against Christians including atheism, immorality, and disloyalty to the Roman emperor.
As part of this lengthy argument, Justin included a general outline of how Christians assembled for worship in the second century. While not exactly a worship bulletin preserved in amber, this outline gives a glimpse into how second century Christians worshipped on Sundays. One of the most significant aspects of this outline is the extent to which this description emphasizes the socioeconomic dimensions of the service.
Justin begins this section of First Apology by noting: “Those who have the means help all those who are in want, and we continually meet together.” In keeping with Paul’s emphasis in 1 Corinthians, Justin’s description of this second century Christian community highlights that this is intended to be a place where the wealthy and poor come together for a shared meal.
Justin described how the Christians assembled on a Sunday, heard a reading from “the writings of the prophets” followed by a discourse from the presider. After a moment of prayer, the service proceeds to a meal of bread, wine, and water with the remaining portion taken by deacons to those who could not be present. Finally, the community takes up a collection given to the presider specifically for aid to the poor. “Those who are prosperous and who desire to do so, give what they wish, according to each one’s own choice, and the collection is deposited with the presider. He aids orphans and widows and those who are in want through another cause, those who are in prison, and foreigners who are sojourning here. In short, the presider is the guardian to all those who are in need.”[41]
The collection described in Justin’s First Apology is kept within the assembly, with monies given to the presider for aid to the poor. It is also significant that this collection takes place after the shared meal and constitutes the final liturgical action of the Sunday service. Indeed, the collection to aid the poor plays such a prominent role in the Sunday service that one liturgical scholar, Gordon Lathrup, has suggested that second century Christians worship was marked by three focal points (word, table, and collection for the poor) rather than our customary two (word and table).[42]
Worshiping Christ’s Body
As described extensively above, John Chrysostom explores the theological significance of what it means to truly worship Jesus’ body in his Homily 50 on Matthew 14:13-36. He argues that to worship Christ’s body in the Eucharist requires us to also worship the body of Christ who comes to us in the hungry, the poor, and those in prison, as described in ‘the sweetest passage’ of Matthew 25:31-46. In his customarily blunt style, he speaks to the hypocritical gulf between Christians’ so-called Eucharistic worship and the tendency to neglect or even oppress the poor: “Let us flee then from this gulf; neither let us account it enough for our salvation, if after we have stripped widows and orphans, we offer for this Table a gold and jewelled cup.”[43]
He addresses this gulf by finding a middle way. While he doesn’t condemn the giving of gifts for golden cups, columns, and the general building up of the Church, he does say that Matthew 25:31-46 speaks to what Christian communities should prioritize. “For what is the profit, when His table indeed is full of golden cups, but He perishes with hunger? First fill Him, being an hungerd, and then abundantly deck out His table also.”[44]
For Paul and Justin Martyr, the Lord’s Supper represented a rare space in which the rich and poor came together to share a common meal. To what extent do Eucharistic celebrations in Episcopal churches represent the coming together across socio economic divides? In Justin Martyr’s description, there is an explicit focus on the Sunday service as providing food and financial aid to the most vulnerable in the community, even to the point of Gordon Lathrap seeing the collection for aid to the poor as a third focal point of the Sunday service. How might the weekly Sunday service -- including the meal itself -- generate food and financial aid for those in need? John Chrysostom preached that it was hypocritical to worship Christ’s body in the Eucharist while forgetting Christ’s body in the poor, and asked his congregation to reorder their priorities in donations toward those who were in desperate need on account of sickness, hunger, and imprisonment. Do our communities’ budgets and capital investments reflect this priority? While the Eucharist has come to have many layers of theological meaning, at least for Paul, Justin Martyr, and John Chrysostom, it’s clear that the meaning of this meal cannot be separated out from the lives and wellbeing of the most vulnerable in their midst.
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[1] Matthew 25:40
[2] Rudolf Brändle. “The Sweetest Passage” in Wealth and Poverty in Early Church and Society, Susan R. Homan, Ed., Baker Academic, 2008.
[3] Attwater, Donald. John Chrysostom. Penguin Dictionary of Saints. 1983. Page 194
[4] Rhee, Helen. Introduction to “Wealth and Poverty in Early Christianity” (Ad Fontes: Early Christian Sources) . Augsburg Fortress. Kindle Edition.
[5] Attwater, Donald. John Chrysostom. Penguin Dictionary of Saints. 1983. Page 194
[6] Homilies of S. John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople, on the Gospel of St. Matthew. Translated, with notes and indices., v.18. Published London: W. Smith,1885. Rights Public Domain in the United States, Google-digitized. Permanent URL https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39076002354541
[7] Rhee, Helen. Wealth and Poverty in Early Christianity (Ad Fontes: Early Christian Sources) . Augsburg Fortress. Kindle Edition.
[8] Golden Mouth: The Story of John Chrysostom--ascetic, Preacher, Bishop, J. N. D. Kelly
[9] Rudolf Brändle. “The Sweetest Passage” in Wealth and Poverty in Early Church and Society, Susan R. Homan, Ed., Baker Academic, 2008.
[10] Rudolf Brändle. “The Sweetest Passage” in Wealth and Poverty in Early Church and Society, Susan R. Homan, Ed., Baker Academic, 2008.
[11] Golden Mouth: The Story of John Chrysostom--ascetic, Preacher, Bishop, J. N. D. Kelly
[12] Rudolf Brändle. “The Sweetest Passage” in Wealth and Poverty in Early Church and Society, Susan R. Homan, Ed., Baker Academic, 2008.
[13] Attwater, Donald. John Chrysostom. Penguin Dictionary of Saints. 1983. Page 194
[14] Homily 50. Homilies of S. John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople, on the Gospel of St. Matthew. Translated, with notes and indices., v.18. Published London: W. Smith,1885. Rights Public Domain in the United States, Google-digitized. Permanent URL https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39076002354541
[15] Matthew 14:36
[16] Homily 50, part 3. Homilies of S. John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople, on the Gospel of St. Matthew. Translated, with notes and indices., v.18. Published London: W. Smith,1885. Rights Public Domain in the United States, Google-digitized. Permanent URL https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39076002354541
[17] Homily 50, part 4. Homilies of S. John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople, on the Gospel of St. Matthew. Translated, with notes and indices., v.18. Published London: W. Smith,1885. Rights Public Domain in the United States, Google-digitized. Permanent URL https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39076002354541
[18] Wet, Chris De. ‘John Chrysostom’. In Brill Encyclopedia of Early Christianity Online, edited by David G.Hunter, Paul J.J. vanGeest, and Bert JanLietaert Peerbolte. Accessed August 8, 2020. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2589-7993_EECO_SIM_00001763.
[19] Homily 50, part 4. Homilies of S. John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople, on the Gospel of St. Matthew. Translated, with notes and indices., v.18. Published London: W. Smith,1885. Rights Public Domain in the United States, Google-digitized. Permanent URL https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39076002354541
[20] Homily 50, part 4. Homilies of S. John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople, on the Gospel of St. Matthew. Translated, with notes and indices., v.18. Published London: W. Smith,1885. Rights Public Domain in the United States, Google-digitized. Permanent URL https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39076002354541
[21] Homily 50, part 4. Homilies of S. John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople, on the Gospel of St. Matthew. Translated, with notes and indices., v.18. Published London: W. Smith,1885. Rights Public Domain in the United States, Google-digitized. Permanent URL https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39076002354541
[22] Homily 50, part 4. Homilies of S. John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople, on the Gospel of St. Matthew. Translated, with notes and indices., v.18. Published London: W. Smith,1885. Rights Public Domain in the United States, Google-digitized. Permanent URL https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39076002354541
[23] Rudolf Brändle. “The Sweetest Passage” in Wealth and Poverty in Early Church and Society, Susan R. Homan, Ed., Baker Academic, 2008. Page 132.
[24] Rudolf Brändle. “The Sweetest Passage” in Wealth and Poverty in Early Church and Society, Susan R. Homan, Ed., Baker Academic, 2008. Page 136.
[25] Acts 11:20-21
[26] Rhee, Helen. Wealth and Poverty in Early Christianity (Ad Fontes: Early Christian Sources) . Augsburg Fortress. Kindle Edition.
[27] Hom. Matt 66.3
[28] Rudolf Brändle. “The Sweetest Passage” in Wealth and Poverty in Early Church and Society, Susan R. Homan, Ed., Baker Academic, 2008. Page 130.
[29] Serfass, Adam. Wine for Widows. Wealth and Poverty in Early Church and Society. Page 95
[30] Serfass, Adam. Wine for Widows. Wealth and Poverty in Early Church and Society. Page 95
[31] Rhee, Helen. Wealth and Poverty in Early Christianity (Ad Fontes: Early Christian Sources) . Augsburg Fortress. Kindle Edition.
[32] Rudolf Brändle. “The Sweetest Passage” in Wealth and Poverty in Early Church and Society, Susan R. Homan, Ed., Baker Academic, 2008. Page 132
[33] Rhee, Helen. Wealth and Poverty in Early Christianity (Ad Fontes: Early Christian Sources) . Augsburg Fortress. Kindle Edition.
[34] Rudolf Brändle. “The Sweetest Passage” in Wealth and Poverty in Early Church and Society, Susan R. Homan, Ed., Baker Academic, 2008. Page 132
[35] Attwater, Donald. John Chrysostom. Penguin Dictionary of Saints. 1983. Page 194
[36] Attwater, Donald. John Chrysostom. Penguin Dictionary of Saints. 1983. Page 194
[37] Malina, Bruce. Social Science Commentary on the Letters of Paul, 109-111
[38] 1 Corinthians 11:20-22
[39] 1 Corinthians 11:23
[40] 1 Corinthians 12:21-24
[41] 1 Apology 67 as translated by Gordan Lathrup, pg 45
[42] Lathrup, Gordon. Holy Things: A Liturgical Theology, page 45
[43] Section 4 of Homily 50. Homilies of S. John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople, on the Gospel of St. Matthew. Translated, with notes and indices., v.18. Published London: W. Smith,1885. Rights Public Domain in the United States, Google-digitized. Permanent URL https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39076002354541
[44] Section 4 of Homily 50. Homilies of S. John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople, on the Gospel of St. Matthew. Translated, with notes and indices., v.18. Published London: W. Smith,1885. Rights Public Domain in the United States, Google-digitized. Permanent URL https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39076002354541
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