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Cyril, Bishop of Alexandria (412-444), is best known as a protagonist in the christological controversy of the second quarter of the fifth century. Readers may be surprised therefore to find such polemic absent from this early work on the twelve minor prophets of the Old Testament. Cyril appears in this work as a balanced commentator, eclectic in his attitude and tolerant of alternative views.

The Letters appearing here in translation were written approximately between the years 410 and 420. This period in Augustine's life coincides with the ending of the long controversy with the Donatists and the spread of the Pelagian errors concerning nature and grace. When compared with earlier letters there is more emphasis in these letters on intellectual and doctrinal matters.

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. Does Theodore deserve either or both of these extreme assessments? Why did his adversaries allow this one work to survive the flames untouched? Is it because, as has been said in facile repetition, "it contains nothing of Christological import"? The truth emerging from a reading of the Commentary is that both views are wide of the mark. Theodore does not entertain a Christological interpretation of verse after verse in the manner of his Alexandrian contemporary Didymus, but he situates these twelve prophetic figures from the eighth to the sixth century of Israel's history within an overall Christological perspective. True to his school's accent on historia, however, he prefers to look for a factual basis to their prophecy (a problem in the case of Jonah), is less sensitive to the moving imagery of a Hosea or a Micah than modern readers would appreciate, and is unfamiliar with the genre of apocalyptic, which appears especially in Joel and Zechariah. Theodoret of Cyrus in the decades after Theodore's death had his works open before him as he commented on prophets, just as modern commentators will also appreciate his work. ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR: Robert C. Hill is retired from the faculties at the University of Sydney and the Australian Catholic University and continues to serve as an adjunct professor at the Australian Catholic University. He has translated many volumes in the Fathers of the Church Series, particularly those of the Old Testament commentaries of the Antioch Fathers, including John Chrysostom's Commentary on Genesis and Theodoret's Commentary on the Psalms. His translations of the Psalms commentaries of Theodore and Diodore are forthcoming.PRAISE FOR THE BOOK: "With this translation of Theodore's work on the prophets, Hill continues to make invaluable contributions to our familiarity with and appreciation of the Greek Church Fathers' biblical commentaries. . . . Hill's translation makes accessible this critical example of Theodore's reading of the Bible and, for those interested in the history of the LXX, provides an intriguing glimpse of a local version of the Greek biblical text." -- C. Thomas McCollough, Religious Studies Review "The translation is clear, readable, and, if spot checks can be presumed typical, accurate. Hill also provides an extended introduction that provides, on the whole, balanced and insightful comments that profit one's evaluation of Theodore's and the general Antiochene approach to biblical interpretation. . . . [T]his is a valuable work for libraries and for interested patristic and Scripture scholars. It enlarges our knowledge of how a leading Antiochene biblical scholar of the late fourth and early fifth centuries interpreted Scripture." -- Frederick McLeod, Journal of Early Christian Studies

In 1953, the Fathers of the Church series published selected sermons of St. Peter Chrysologus (ca. 406-50), Archbishop of Ravenna and Doctor of the Church, thereby making thirty percent of his authentic sermons available to an English-speaking audience. With the publication of this volume all of Chrysologus's authentic sermons up to number 72 are now available in English.

The Constantinian revolution of the early fourth century produced changes that would affect profoundly and permanently the fabric of traditional Greco-Roman society and early Christian spiritual life. This volume brings together writings from Pacian of Barcelona and Orosius of Braga, two notable Iberian authors and orthodox partisans of the turbulent late fourth and early fifth centuries.

The book of Zechariah is ""the longest and most obscure"" of the Twelve Minor Prophets, Jerome remarked. That may have been the reason why in 386 he visited the Alexandrian scholar Didymus the Blind and requested a work on this prophet. Though long thought to be lost, the work was rediscovered in 1941 at Tura outside Cairo along with some other biblical commentaries. As a result we have in our possession a commentary on Zechariah by Didymus that enjoys particular distinction as his only complete work on a biblical book extant in Greek whose authenticity is established, which comes to us by direct manuscript tradition, and has been critically edited. Thus it deserves this first appearance in English. A disciple of Origen, whose work on Zechariah reached only to chapter five and is no longer extant, Didymus's commentary on this apocalyptic book illustrates the typically allegorical approach to the biblical text that we associate with Alexandria. Even Cyril of Alexandria in the next generation will lean rather to the historical style of commentary found in the Antiochene scholars Theodore and Theodoret, whose works on the Twelve are also extant and who had Didymus open before them. Didymus alone offers his readers a wide range of spiritual meanings on the obscure verses of Zechariah, capitalizing on his extraordinary familiarity with Holy Writ (despite his disability), and proceeding on a process of interpretation-by-association, frequently invoking also etymology and number symbolism to plumb the meaning of the text. No wonder he remarks, ""The reader who understands it is a seer""; such is the richness of the hermeneutical offering.

Fulgentius, bishop of Ruspe (ca. 467-532), is considered the greatest North African theologian after the time of St. Augustine. This volume gives English readers for the first time an opportunity to study a representative selection of the writings of this early sixth-century author. It also presents Fulgentius's biography, the Life, for the first time in English.

The second volume of the Letters of Barsanuphius and John completes the collection of these monastic writings, which provided both spiritual and practical advice to a variety of sixth-century interlocutors from diverse walks of life. Distinctive to this volume are many colourful letters that will attract the interest of historians of this period.

As the vestiges of the Roman political machine began to collapse in the fifth century A.D., the towering figure of Pope St. Leo the Great came into relief amid the rubble. His sermons provide invaluable data for the social historian. This volume presents the first English translation of the complete Sermons.

The complete text of the Letters of Barsanuphius and John appears here in English for the first time. John Chryssavgis's faithful and deft translation brings vividness and freshness to the wisdom of a distant world, ensuring its accessibility to contemporary readers. Addressed to local monastics, lay Christians, and ecclesiastical leaders, these remarkable questions and responses (850 of them) offer a unique glimpse into the sixth-century religious, political, and secular world of Gaza and Palestine during a period torn by doctrinal controversy and in a context shaped by the tradition of the early desert fathers.