Mark Huggins: (ps.)Chrysostom’s Catechetical Homily on Pascha (CPG 4605): A Case Study in Approaching the Question(s) ofPseudepigrapha

(ps.)Chrysostom’s Catechetical Homily on Pascha is an ideal case study in an examination of important questions concerning the study of pseudepigrapha, particularly those of John Chrysostom. The text has been incorporated into the Pascha vigil for over 1,000 years in Eastern Orthodox churches under Chrysostom’s name. However, in the 17thc. Saville pronounced it spurious. Montfaucon followed suit, and most scholars have accepted this pronouncement uncritically. Despite 400 years of considering the text spurious, I am aware of no evidence ever being produced to support the claim nor any analysis having been conducted. Moreover, a study of the text’s rich manuscript tradition reveals its intricate relationship with monastic catecheses from the 9th– 13thc., liturgical typika from Sicily to Jerusalem and Georgia, as well as apocryphal literature, such as the Gospel of Nikodemos. Finally, this text is intimately connected to the Byzantine reception of John Chrysostom; it has played a major role in making Chrysostom “the most important Father of the Orthodox Church”, in the words of Vasiliki Tsamakda – to such a degree that among Eastern Orthodox Christians today this Catechetical Homily is by far the most well-known text bearing Chrysostom’s name. Because of this text’s wide popularity and close connections to both monastic and popular, apocryphal religious traditions over a thousand years, I believe that the Catechetical Homily on Pascha offers the ideal case study for Chrysostomic pseudepigrapha.