Gennadius of Constantinople - Biblical Works

Biblical Works

John Moschus said of Gennadius to have been very mild and of great purity. Gennadius of Marseilles said of Gennadius was lingua nitidus et ingenio acer, and so rich in knowledge of the ancients that he composed a commentary on the whole Book of Daniel. The continuation of Jerome's Chronicle by Marcellinus Comes tells us (according to some manuscripts) that Gennadius commented on all epistles of Saint Paul.

Gennadius wrote a commentary on Daniel and many other parts of Old Testament and on all the epistles of St. Paul, and a great number of homilies. Of these only a few fragments remain. The principal fragments of his biblical works include Genesis, Exodus, Psalms, Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, and Hebrews, and are interesting specimens of 5th century exegesis. Some fragments are collected in Migne, Patrologia Graeca, LXXXV, chiefly from the two catenae of John Antony Cramer on Romans; a few passages are found in the catena of Aecumenius, others in the catenae of Nicephorus Callistus Xanthopulus, and a few in the Vienna MS. gr. 166 (46).

Gennadius is seen to have been a learned writer, who followed the Antiochene school of literal exegesis. Romans, a series of explanatory remarks on isolated texts, is his most important work, and although he fails to grasp the great central doctrine of the epistle, he shows thought and spiritual life.