“The Antiochian method focuses on the plain, obvious meaning of the text of Scripture (Cole 1964, 87). Its basic focus is understanding the message of the original author. This is why it is called the Historical-Grammatical approach to hermeneutics. Antioch insisted on both an historical context and the normal use of human language. It did not eliminate figures of speech, prophecy, or symbols, but forced them to be linked to the purpose, historical setting, and style of the original author, along with the original author’s choice of genre.”
Bob Utley
http://bible.org/seriespage/contextual-method-biblical-interpretation
“The Antiochian school seeks to explain the obvious grammatical and historical sense, which is rich enough for all purposes of instruction and edification. It takes out of the Word what is actually in it, instead of putting into it all sorts of foreign notions and fancies.”
Philip Schaff
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf109.iii.xiii.html
“In the fourth and fifth centuries a rival school arose in Antioch to challenge the Alexandrian insistence on allegorical interpretation. Scholars of this school dismissed allegorical meanings as so much nonsense and insisted on reading for the historical and grammatical meaning. What the text said was what it meant. It did not convey some abstract philosophical concepts. In keeping with a historical focus, these scholars emphasized the humanity of Jesus. They examined chronology and sequence of events, which had little meaning to those who read everything as allegories…The most famous representative of the School of Antioch was John Chrysostom (c. 347-407), a beloved preacher in Antioch. He was famous as a teacher of Orthodoxy. Chrysostom focused on the simple reading of a text rather than what he called a lofty meaning from philosophers. Many of his sermons have been preserved, and are still powerful today.”
Maxine Clarke Beach
http://www.amazon.com/The-Bible-Bridges-Millennia
“Chrysostom’s virtual uniqueness is that he did not subscribe to any hermeneutic or methodology, since this would amount to introducing an extra-textual authority over the biblical texts. For him, scripture is its own interpreter…The biblical texts are the reality of God imparted through their being read aloud in the midst of the congregation, disregarding the value of the sermon that follows. The sermon, much less a theological treatise, is at best an invitation to hear and obey the text. Assessing the shape of an invitation card has no value whatsoever when it comes to the dinner itself; the guests are fed by the dinner, not by the invitation or its phrasing (Luke 14:16-24; Matthew 22:1-14).”
V. Rev. Dr. Paul Nadim Tarazi
http://ocabspress.com/index.php/chrysostom-bible.html
“[John Chrysostom] understood that God’s word is to be channeled to every new generation as it stands in its written form, not for the people to comprehend…rather… for the people to do—it is instruction… not a mental proposition about God and his activity; rather it is ordinances, commandments, and statutes to be observed.”
V. Rev. Dr. Paul Nadim Tarazi
http://www.ocabs.org/journal/index.php/jocabs/article/view/62/32
“There is as much a far cry between the [Bible] and the theories about it as there is between a living organism and the theories about it.”
V. Rev. Dr. Paul Nadim Tarazi
http://ocabspress.com/index.php/chrysostom-bible.html
“[The Antiochian school] contended that the spiritual sense was in no way seperable from the literal sense…the exegetes of the Antiochian school were united in their single-minded concern to preserve the integrity of history and the natural sense of language.”
Walter C. Kaiser, Jr., Moises Silva, An Introduction to Biblical Hermeneutics
http://books.google.com/books?id=ONJ8e-dmWeAC&source=gbs_navlinks_s
“Representing the tradition of the apostle John, the [Antiochian school] of thought accepted the Scripture as its own best interpreter…they sought the literal meaning of a text, as understood in the light of its grammatical and historical background.”
Robert A. Baker, John M. Landers
A Summary of Christian History