The Psalms, along with the Gospels, were the staple diet of early Christians eager to develop their spiritual life. From the school of Antioch we are fortunate to have at least partial commentaries on the Psalms from its four major figures, including Theodore, bishop of Mopsuestia in the early fifth century and later regarded as "The Interpreter" by the Syriac church. A work of his early career, this Psalms commentary shows Theodore under the influence of his master Diodore in adopting a historical interpretation, referring individual psalms to David's life, later kings of Israel, Assyrians, and Babylonians, but rarely to Christ. This commentary illustrates the typical hermeneutical strengths and weaknesses of Antiochene interpretation. Biblical and patristic scholars in a range of disciplines will be pleased to have this significant work available from The Interpreter. Paperback edition available from the Society of Biblical Literature (www.sbl-site.org).

The Fourth Century was crucial to both the Christian Church and Judaism: it saw the formulation of Christian doctrine and the completion of the Palestinian Talmud. Christianity was now the favoured religion of the Roman Empire, but Judaism remained a vital force. In this meticulously researched study Leopold Lucas explores the arguments and attitudes of the Church Fathers from Basil to Augustine. A picture emerges of a strenuous intellectual struggle between Christians and Jews. Thanks to their political ascendancy, the Christians emerged victorious. But the same pressures that excluded the Jews from authority in the Christian State resulted in their preservation as a necessary and hence tolerated minority faith in Mediaeval Europe.

A new look at the conversion of the emperor Constantine to Christianity. The conventional wisdom has it that before the final definitive battle in 312 with his rival Maxentius for the senior Augustuship of the Roman Empire, he appealed to the Christian God for victory. When it was his he became a Christian and made the labarum, with its Christian symbols the military standard of the Roman armies. Elliot argues that this "miraculous" conversion is the stuff of legend and the reality is that there are many indications that Constantine's Christianity developed earlier and along normal lines. This is more than a scholarly debate over dates. It focuses on the point that this more mature character of Constantine's Christian faith had an important shaping impact on his imperial policy toward Christianity. It gave greater nuance and depth not merely to his Edict of Milan in 313 but also to the way that he approached Christian legal status, Christian structures and worship and even the great issues raised and dealt with by his convocation of the first Council of Nicaea in 325. It is an interpretation that will help to shape future discussions of the Emperor Constantine and his reign.

St. John Chrysostom delivered his "Homilies on Genesis" sometime between A.D. 385 and A.D. 388, while still a priest at Antioch. In the homilies in this volume - the last of three - Chrysostom concludes his examination of the lives and virtues of the Old Testament patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph as recounted in the last three chapters of Genesis. Known for his eloquent preaching, Chrysostom delivered these final 22 homilies after Pentecost. His motive for examining the accounts of the lives of the patriarchs is to show how the just forebears of the Israelites, in a time when both the Law and the Gospel were yet unpreached were able to live Christian lives with only simple trust in God and the balanced, almost ingenuous, manners of antiquity. His interest in the events and characters of Genesis is largely moral, even moralistic; he tends to see Scripture as hagiography. His style of commentary, although not really thorough exegesis, arises out of his deep conviction of the divine inspiration of Scripture, hence the habitual attention to detail, "not idly or to no purpose" being his frequent comment on the precision of the text. As an exegete, Chrysostom may seem disappointing to those grounded in the methods of modern biblical scholarship, since he largely ignores any sense of Scripture other than the literal and is generally unaware of how to resolve difficulties and appreciate subtleties that a knowledge of the original text would provide. What he lacks in scientific accuracy, however, he more than compensates for with his earnest practice of pastoral care. This final volume of the homilies includes a general index for these volumes and an index of biblical citations, the latter indicating the rich scriptural diet Chrysostom's congregation - who came daily for his homilies - enjoyed.