Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews By Oecumenius: also known as The Pseudo-Oecumenian Catena on Hebrews

By John Litteral

Oecumenius is a Greek Early Church Father of the 6th century who wrote commentaries on the Acts of the Apostles, Paul's Epistles, the Catholic Epistles, and the book of Revelation. Many scholars today do not agree that the Oecumenius who wrote the commentary on Revelation is the same one who authored the other commentaries, and they refer to those other commentaries as being "Pseudo-Oecumenian". Though I am not majorly dogmatic about the authorship, I do hold to the tradition that it is the same Oecumenius who authored all of the commentaries. I explain my stance in the introduction of the book, but ultimately, I leave it up for the readers to decide.
As for the commentaries on Paul's Epistles, Oecumenius wrote these commentaries in the form of a catena instead of the typical Bible commentary of commenting on the Scripture text based upon his own insight and creativity. His catena on the Epistle to the Hebrews is a compilation of excerpts from multiple Early Church Fathers such as Theodoret of Cyrus, John Chrysostom, Cyril of Alexandria, Gennadius of Constantinople, Gregory of Nyssa, etc. Among the many excerpts that Oecumenius gleaned from among the Early Church Fathers, he also comments in many places where he wanted to add his own insights. Also, among all the excerpts that Oecumenius himself used to form his catena, there are many extra excerpts in this work from Photius of Constantinople that were added by later manuscript copyists.
The commentaries by Oecumenius have been held in high esteem throughout the centuries. Great theologians such as Cornelius a Lapide quoted him throughout his own commentaries. As for me, I place great value upon all of his commentaries because he does an excellent job providing clear and well balanced interpretations of the Scriptures, which has been my main motivation for taking on the work of translating his commentaries into English so that more people can read and benefit from his commentaries on Scripture the way I have over the years. Lord willing, I will continue this labor of love by translating as many of his Bible commentaries as I can. I have also translated and published the commentaries by Oecumenius on the Catholic Epistles.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0FT35QPB8
• ISBN13: 9798267527262
• Release Date: September 2025
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 206 Pages
• Weight: 0.62 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.0" x 9.0"