Commentaries

This chapter offers a brief history of the genre as it emerges and develops in early Christian Biblical exegesis. It traces its beginnings in Hellenistic literary-rhetorical education and genres, dedicates a section to Origen and his invention of the biblical commentary, looks into commentary topics and the implications and consequences of 'scientific' commenting, outlines briefly the history of an Antiochene and a Latin tradition, and concludes with a section on Jerome, Augustine and later developments. The chapter demonstrates that the development of the commentary in the context of early Christian biblical interpretation is an important stepping stone in the transition from late Hellenistic exegetical genres to the development of Byzantine and Medieval genres such as catenae (chain commentaries) and medieval lemma commentaries