MARRIAGE AND FAMILY LIFE

 

GUIDELINES FOR AN ORTHODOX MARRIAGE

(St John Chrysostom’s commentaries on man-woman relations,  marriage and conjugal abuse)

4.  Methodology


The analysis in this essay was premised on a careful reading of Chrysostom’s commentaries referring to man-woman relations, especially in the context of marriage and conjugal abuse. The author read in full over twenty homilies in the original Greek of which seven were cited in this work. [1]  The identification of which homilies to scrutinise was premised on: a) biblical verses that referred to man-woman relations and marriage which usually pertained to the epistles of St Paul, and b) on pertinent references made by previous works on Chrysostom written in either English or modern Greek. While the study cannot be considered comprehensive, an attempt was made to summarise what would be considered essential understandings in the Orthodox tradition pertinent to the themes examined here.

As a principle, the original Greek passages or terminologies that were selected for citation were included in footnotes. This was deliberate and emanates from the overall argument of this paper that religious traditions ought to be approached within their proper epistemological frameworks, of which the indigenous language makes an essential component. In general, the English translations that were consulted in preparation of this paper did not make transparent always their logic/method for translating Chrysostom. Translation, however, should be considered a crucial stage due to the malleability of the Greek language and the ways in which the Church Fathers tended to redefine terms that were previously widely in usage.[2] Due to limited space, it was not possible to provide such an exercise here. References are made to available works where the reader can find an English translation. However, the author’s altered/adapted renderings in English of all the passages cited in the text and in the footnotes are readily available upon request.[3]

An important terminological comment that needs to be made regards the translation of the term ‘γάμος’ which has been rendered in most existing works uniformly as ‘marriage.’ It was felt that giving this translation in all instances that Chrysostom used the word would risk obscuring the expansion in the meaning of  γάμος’ when it was employed to refer to the post-fall condition (after the disobedience of the first couple and the expulsion from heaven). In commentaries referring to the non-existent relations of man and woman in the heavenly state, Chrysostom clearly used the word ‘γάμος’ to refer to the lack of carnal attraction and sexual union.[4] Following the fall from heaven, however, this primal carnal attraction acquired the understanding of marriage as sacramental and spiritual bond which was intended for the salvation of the fallen humanity. Under Chrysostomean logic, God apprehended the fall and had providentially created the close bond between man and woman (with woman originating from man) that would provide the substructure for marriage to serve the ends of salvation in the post-fall condition. It follows from this that whichever spousal dynamics Chrysostom considered ideal for marriage, he strictly referred to the post-fall married state and this differed from man-woman relations in the heavenly state and the state of virginity.


[1] These were accessed through the Index of Migne’s Patrologia Graeca made available online by the initiative of the Aegean University, Department of Cultural Technology and Communication.
[2] Panayiotis Nellas, Deification in Christ: Orthodox Perspective on the Nature of the Human Person (New York: St Vladimir’s Press, 1987), 16.
[3] It should be observed that some of the English renderings cited in the text were reproduced from existing translations by English-speaking scholars; however, minor or major changes were made to approximate better the nuances of the original according to the discernment of the author. Italics were used to signify the changes proposed.
[4] This reflects in the very etymology of the noun ‘γάμος’ which derives from the verb ‘to sleep with’ (‘γαμέω/γαμώ’).



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