Hymns, Homilies and

Hermeneutics in Byzantium

Edited by

Sarah Gador-Whyte
Andrew Mellas

LEIDEN | BOSTON

For use by the Author only | © 2021 Sarah Gador-Whyte and Andrew Mellas
 Contents

Foreword vii
Notes on Contributors ix

Introduction 1
Sarah Gador-Whyte and Andrew Mellas

part 1
Hermeneutics of Preaching

1 The Homiletic Audience as Embodied Hermeneutic: Scripture and Its

Interpretation in the Exegetical Preaching of John Chrysostom 11
Wendy Mayer

2 John Damascene’s Homily on the Withered Fig Tree (CPG 8058): Parable
in Action, or Exegetical and Panegyrical Preaching in Interaction 30
Fr Damaskinos (Olkinuora) of Xenophontos

3 John Damascene on the Transfiguration of the Lord: Mystical Homiletic

Performance and Eschatological Hermeneutics 47
Vassilis Adrahtas

4 Andrew of Crete’s Great Canon, Byzantine Hermeneutics,

and Genesis 1–3 67
Doru Costache

part 2
Performing and Experiencing Christianity

5 Knowledge in Song: Liturgical Formation and Transformation

in Romanos the Melodist 89
Sarah Gador-Whyte

6 Is There Room for Doubt in Christian Faith? Romanos the Melodist

and John the Monk on the Apostle Thomas 107
Mary B. Cunningham

For use by the Author only | © 2021 Sarah Gador-Whyte and Andrew Mellas
 vi Contents

7 The Tears of a Harlot: Kassia’s Hymn On the Sinful Woman and the
Biblical Mosaic of Salvation 124
Andrew Mellas

8 Looking, Listening and Learning: Justinian’s Hagia Sophia 139

Brian Croke

9 “Blessed Is He Who Has Come and Comes Again”: Mimesis and

Eschatology in Palm Sunday Hymns and Processions of Twelfth-Century
Jerusalem 168
Daniel Galadza

part 3
Tradition and Reception

10 Syriac Hymnography before Ephrem 193

Scott Fitzgerald Johnson

11 The Eye of the Soul in Plato and Pseudo-Macarius: Alexandrian

Theology and the Roots of Hesychasm 216
Eva Anagnostou-Laoutides

Index 239

For use by the Author only | © 2021 Sarah Gador-Whyte and Andrew Mellas
 Notes on Contributors

Vassilis Adrahtas
works in the School of Humanities and Communication Arts, Western Sydney
University

Eva Anagnostou-Laoutides
is Associate Professor in Ancient History and Australian Research Council
Future Fellow (2017–2021), Macquarie University, NSW, Australia.

Doru Costache
is Senior Lecturer in Patristic Studies at the Sydney College of Divinity and
Honorary Associate of the University of Sydney’s Department of Studies in
Religion.

Brian Croke
is an Honorary Associate in the Department of Classics and Ancient History at
the University of Sydney.

Mary B. Cunningham
is Honorary Associate Professor of Historical Theology at the University of
Nottingham, United Kingdom.

Sarah Gador-Whyte
is a Research Fellow in Biblical and Early Christian Studies in the Institute for
Religion and Critical Inquiry at the Australian Catholic University.

Daniel Galadza
is Fellow at the Centre for Advanced Studies at the University of Regensburg.

Scott Fitzgerald Johnson

is Associate Professor of Classics and Letters at the University of Oklahoma.

Wendy Mayer
is Professor and Associate Dean for Research at Australian Lutheran College,
University of Divinity.

For use by the Author only | © 2021 Sarah Gador-Whyte and Andrew Mellas
 x Notes on Contributors

Andrew Mellas
is Senior Lecturer in Byzantine and Liturgical Studies at St Andrew’s
Theological College (Sydney) and an Honorary Associate of the Medieval and
Early Modern Centre at the University of Sydney.

Fr Damaskinos (Olkinuora) of Xenophontos

is University Lecturer at the School of Theology of the University of Eastern
Finland.

For use by the Author only | © 2021 Sarah Gador-Whyte and Andrew Mellas