Differences between the Catena Aurea and Ancient Christian Commentary

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COPLAND_3

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I have been working on a catena on the book of Acts, and I am nearly finished with the 3rd chapter. I have been aiming to make it resemble St. Thomas Aquinas’ Catena Aurea, and not so much like the Ancient Christian Commentary.

The Ancient Christian commentary is a catena, and so is the Catena Aurea, but they are different in the way they are put together. Let me give some distinctions between the 2
  1. St. Thomas took each passage in the Gospels and he gave quotes from the Early Church Fathers from their commentaries on the Gospels and from their writings where they gave interpretations, and he weaved them together to where they give the meaning of the Scripture, and it was done in a way that it is a free flowing commentary. But the Ancient Christian Commentary, though they do give quotes from the Early Church Fathers for the Scripture passages, they did not weave them together, but they gave separate excerpts, so it does not give you a free flowing explanation. And the difference that it brings to the reader is that the Catena Aurea gets to the point of the meaning, while the Ancient Christian Commentary requires the reader to sift through the excerpts to find the point.
  2. The most important (to me) distinction between the 2 is this; St. Thomas designed the Catena Aurea for edification only, what he gave from the Fathers was simply to provide you with the interpretation of each passage, though he gleaned the best quotes as a Catholic theologian and saint. But the Ancient Christian Commentary does not take that approach, they provide quotes, not to just provide edification, but (as they word it) to ‘give the reader the idea of the culture of the time and the early way of thinking and examples of a rather consistant anti-Semitism’. Now that may sound interesting, but I don’t look for that in a Bible commentary, I look for edification and the meaning of the Scripture at hand. They (ACC) also provide quotes from ancient Christian poets and their poems on certain passages, that do nobody any good as far as the meaning of the Scriptures.
Don’t get me wrong, I still find a lot of value in the ACC, but it does not work as good as a Bible commentary as the Catena Aurea. The only down fall is that St. Thomas did not do a catena on the whole Bible, but just the 4 Gospels. My plan is to eventually provide more catenas that are in the same spirit as the Catena Aurea.
 
I’m not really familiar with the ACC, but I do have and read the Catena Aurea. From your description, I would have to say that I would not be too interested in the ACC either, for the very point you make. It sounds like the ACC is a little too steeped in historical criticism for my taste. But would be good for those that study the Bible in a non-spiritual way.
 
The ACC does provide some good things, such as patrisitic material that has not been translated into English prior. I don’t want to sound too harsh against them, but as a Catholic student of the Bible I do recognize it’s distinctions from the work of St. Thomas. I have used the ACC volumes on the Gospels, and while they do provide some material that is great, it still falls way behind the Catena Aurea, St. Thomas was way ahead of his time.

One thing that the IVP press is doing is they are translating some early Church writings and commentaries that have not been translated before into English, such as Ambrosiaster, Theodore of Mopsuestia’s commentary on the Gospel of John, and some others! I have Ambrosiaster’s commentaries on Paul’s Letters and they are worth their weight in gold to me. I am waiting to get Theodore’s commentary on John, and the Incomplete Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew.

Their commentary on Acts is a disappointment to me. I have been making a catena on Acts and I see many opportunities that they missed. One is the commentary on Acts by Theophylact, they don’t even acknowledge his commentary on Acts whatsoever. Granted it has not been translated into English yet, but they have the resources to get that done much quicker that I can. I have contacted the Chrysostom Press, and they are planning to translate it, but they are working out some issues with the text. If I get access to to that Greek text I plan to translate parts from it for my catena.
 
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