Catena aurea in quatuor Evangelia
- Language:
- Latin
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- Clean text
- Extent:
- ~88,800 words · 422 passages
Cite this work
- APAThomas Aquinas. (n.d.). Catena aurea in quatuor Evangelia. SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/thomas-aquinas/catena-aurea-in-quatuor-evangelia
- MLAThomas Aquinas. "Catena aurea in quatuor Evangelia." SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/thomas-aquinas/catena-aurea-in-quatuor-evangelia.
- ChicagoThomas Aquinas. Catena aurea in quatuor Evangelia. SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/thomas-aquinas/catena-aurea-in-quatuor-evangelia.
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.
Super montem excelsum ascende, tu qui evangelizas Sion; exalta in fortitudine vocem tuam, qui evangelizas Ierusalem; exalta, noli timere. Dic civitatibus Iudae: ecce Deus vester; ecce dominus Deus in fortitudine veniet, et brachium eius dominabitur, ecce merces eius cum eo. (Is. 40, 9-10). Evangelii praenuntiator apertus Isaias propheta, evangelicae doctrinae sublimitatem, nomen et materiam breviter comprehendens, evangelicum doctorem ex persona domini alloquitur, dicens super montem excelsum ascende tu, et cetera. Ut autem ab ipso Evangelii nomine sumamus exordium. Augustinus contra Faustum. Evangelii nomen Latine interpretatur bonum nuntium vel bona Annuntiatio; quod quidem cum aliquod bonum annuntiatur, semper dici potest, proprie tamen hoc vocabulum obtinuit Annuntiatio salvatoris. Narratores quippe originis, factorum, dictorum, passionum domini Iesu Christi proprie dicti sunt Evangelistae. Chrysostomus super Matth. Quid enim his bonis nuntiatis fiat aequale? Deus in terra, homo in caelo, amicitia Dei ad nostram facta naturam, prolixum solutum praelium, Diabolus confusus, mors soluta, Paradisus apertus. Et haec omnia super dignitatem nostram, et cum facilitate nobis data sunt, non quia laboravimus, sed quia dilecti sumus a Deo. Augustinus de vera religione. Cum enim omnibus modis medeatur animis Deus, pro temporum opportunitatibus, quae mira sapientia eius ordinantur, nullo modo beneficentius consuluit generi humano, quam cum unicus filius consubstantialis patri et
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