The Library
1774 works catalogued century by century, from the literature the Bible was written among to the present — each with a note on what it is, why it lasted, and where to read it.
301–400
7 works
c. 375–390
Greek
Diodore of Tarsus · d. c. 390
A reading of the Psalms that begins by refusing allegory outright: the historical setting comes first, and a psalm about David is about David. Where a further sense is admitted it is theoria, a heightened view of the same events, never a meaning that dissolves them.
386–387
Greek
John Chrysostom · c. 347 – 407
Twelve sermons preached at Antioch against Eunomians who claimed to know God's essence. Chrysostom points at the seraphim, who cover their faces, and asks what a man is doing measuring what angels will not look at directly — then closes each sermon by begging his congregation not to leave before the prayers.
386–387
Greek
John Chrysostom · c. 347–407
Eight sermons attacking members of his own congregation who attended synagogue festivals, in language of extreme violence.
387
Greek
John Chrysostom · c. 347–407
Twenty-one sermons preached to a terrified Antioch after a riot toppled the imperial statues and the city awaited punishment, holding the congregation together week by week.
c. 386–389
Greek
John Chrysostom · c. 347 – 407
Sixty-seven sermons working through Genesis at Antioch, reading it as history rather than allegory and returning constantly to the idea of condescension — that scripture speaks of God walking in the garden the way an adult speaks to a child, stooping to be understood.
c. 390
Greek
John Chrysostom · c. 347–407
Ninety sermons working through the whole gospel, insisting on the plain sense of the text and turning relentlessly to the poor at the church door.
c. 390–410
Greek
Theodore of Mopsuestia · c. 350–428
A historically grounded reading of the minor prophets that refuses to find Christ under every verse, insisting each oracle first meant something to its own hearers.
401–500
3 works
c. 388–420
Syriac
Theodore of Mopsuestia · c. 350–428
Sixteen instructions on the creed, the Lord's Prayer, baptism, and the eucharist, surviving complete only in Syriac after the Greek was destroyed.
447
Greek
Theodoret of Cyrus · c. 393–c. 460
Three dialogues against the view that Christ's humanity was absorbed into his divinity, arguing that the Word remained unchangeable and impassible while genuinely human.
c. 449–450
Greek
Theodoret of Cyrus · c. 393–c. 460
A history from Arius to 428 written from the Antiochene side, preserving many letters and conciliar documents in full.
501–600
2 works
c. 512–518; surviving in Syriac
Greek, surviving in Syriac
Severus of Antioch · c. 465 – 538
Around three hundred short hymns for the cathedral office at Antioch, arranged by the eight tones — for the feasts, for the martyrs of the city, for earthquakes, for the dead, and for rain.
c. 560–599
Greek
Anastasius I of Antioch · d. 599
Homilies and short treatises by a patriarch deposed by one emperor for resisting Justinian's late Christology and restored by another at Gregory the Great's request, including a sermon on the transfiguration and a defence of the impassibility of the Word.
801–900
1 work
c. 850
Syriac
Ishodad of Merv · 9th century
Commentaries on the whole Bible in the Antiochene manner, preserving the readings of Theodore of Mopsuestia and other authors whose Greek texts were destroyed.
13 of 1774 works