Catena aurea in quatuor Evangelia
- Language:
- Latin
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- No scanning noise detected (automatic measure over the whole text, not checked by hand)
- Extent:
- ~88,800 words · 422 passages
Cite this work
- APAThomas Aquinas. (n.d.). Catena aurea in quatuor Evangelia. Digital reproduction: SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/thomas-aquinas/catena-aurea-in-quatuor-evangelia
- MLAThomas Aquinas. Catena aurea in quatuor Evangelia. Digital reproduction, SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/thomas-aquinas/catena-aurea-in-quatuor-evangelia.
- ChicagoThomas Aquinas. Catena aurea in quatuor Evangelia. Digital reproduction, SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/thomas-aquinas/catena-aurea-in-quatuor-evangelia.
Reference to the edition that SigPhi reproduces: SigPhi is its digital reproduction, not its publisher. The edition's year is not in the metadata (hence "n.d."), and the translator appears only when recorded.
What it is about
A commentary on the four Gospels made entirely of quotations: for each verse, Aquinas threads together what the Greek and Latin Fathers had said, one after another.
Context and history
It matters to know what Aquinas is doing here: he is not writing his own doctrine but selecting and arranging. The work is a compiler's — 'catena' means chain — and what is his is the choice and the assembly, not the sentences. It has a further value as a source: he quotes Greek authors barely known in the thirteenth-century West, and for some passages this is the oldest witness surviving in Latin.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
Hieronymus. Quia faciem hominis Matthaeus significat, quasi de homine exorsus est scribere, dicens liber generationis. Rabanus. Quo exordio satis ostendit generationem Christi secundum carnem suscepisse narrandam. Chrysostomus, super Matth. Iudaeis enim Evangelium scripsit, quibus superfluum erat exponere divinitatis naturam, quam cognoscebant; necessarium autem fuit eis mysterium incarnationis ostendere. Ioannes autem cum gentibus Evangelium scripsit, quae non cognoscebant si Deus filium habet; ideo necessarium fuit primum illis ostendere quia est filius Dei Deus, deinde quia carnem suscepit. Rabanus. Cum autem parvam libri particulam teneat generatio, dixit liber generationis. Consuetudo enim Haebraeorum est ut voluminibus ex eorum principiis imponant nomina, ut est Genesis. Glossa. Planior autem sensus esset: hic est liber generationis, sed hic est mos in multis, ut visio Isaiae, subaudis: haec est: generationis autem singulariter dicitur, quamvis multae per ordinem replicentur, quia propter Christi generationem ceterae hic indicuntur. Chrysostomus in Matth. Vel ideo librum hunc generationis nominat, quia haec est totius dispensationis summa, et radix bonorum omnium, Deum hominem factum esse: hoc enim facto alia secundum rationem sequebantur. Remigius. Dicit autem liber generationis Iesu Christi quia noverat scriptum esse: liber generationis Adae; et ideo sic exorsus est, ut opponeret librum libro. Adam novum Adae veteri, quia omnia per istum sunt restaurata quae per illum sunt corrupta. Hieronymus in Matth. In Isaia autem legimus: generationem eius quis enarrabit? Non ergo putemus Evangelistam prophetae esse contrarium, ut quod ille impossibile dixit esse effatu, hic narrare incipiat, quia ibi de generatione divinitatis, hic de incarnatione dictum est. Chrysostomus in Matth. Nec tamen parva aestimes te audire, hanc audiens generationem. Est enim valde auditu mirabile quod ineffabilis Deus ex muliere nasci dignatus est, et habere progenitores David et Abraham.…