Commentary on the Twelve Prophets (Fathers of the Church)

Friend of John Chrysostom and pupil of Diodore of Tarsus, the founder of the method of exegesis practiced in Antioch, Theodore was appointed bishop of Mopsuestia in Cilicia in 392. His pedigree thus seems impeccable, as was his early reputation as a commentator on the Bible, which earned him the sobriquet "The Interpreter." More than one modern scholar has been prepared to class Theodore as "the foremost exponent of Antiochene exegesis." Yet not long after his death in 428—coincidentally, but significantly, the year Nestorius acceded to the see of Constantinople—Theodore became the object of intemperate criticism by the likes of Cyril of Alexandria for his Christological views. His works were condemned by the fifth ecumenical council of 553, and only the Commentary on the Twelve Prophets, here appearing in English for the first time, survives entirely in Greek.

It would not have been this work that earned Theodore an unsavory reputation. Though he is typically Antiochene in focusing on the historical background of each of the Twelve prophets, and thus avoids the elaborate search after levels of spiritual meaning he would have found in the Alexandrian Didymus, he engages in no Christological debate, simply setting the divine economy as the context of the prophets’ ministry. He moves systematically through the Twelve in the order they appear in the Antioch text (itself an object of interest to students of the Septuagint), despite his lack of Hebrew and of familiarity with the genre of apocalyptic. If we regret his insensitivity to the more moving criticism of social injustice in these prophets, we concede he has succeeded in his aim, "With God’s grace, to bring clarity" to the Twelve, and are grateful that the work escaped the flames of prejudice.