BIBLICAL CHAINS. — Title, neither original nor appropriate, given to commentaries on the Bible formed from extracts by various authors. The first compilers more aptly called them in Greek ἐκλογαί, ἐξηγήσεις, συναγωγαί, in Latin excerptae or collectanea. This type of writing arose after a period of intense production, when the human mind, as it were weary of creating, found abundant harvest for an easy collection. Thus the first exegetical chains appeared toward the end of the patristic age, and reached their greatest flourishing, and particular importance for ecclesiastical literature, among the Greeks.
I. GREEK CHAINS
The first and most illustrious author of biblical chains in the Greek language is the rhetorician Procopius (v.), of Gaza in Palestine (first three decades of the 6th century). He commented in the manner described above on the Octateuch, the Books of Kings, Isaiah, and the three books attributed to Solomon (Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs). Of the Octateuch, on account of its great length, he himself made a compendium, thus setting the example of a genre akin to the chains proper (partial edition in PG 87; his program ibid., 21). Among those who followed in his footsteps, the most noteworthy for fruitfulness and breadth of work is Nicetas, metropolitan of Heraclea in Thrace (11th century), who composed chains on Job, the Psalms, the Major Prophets, the Gospels, and the Letters of St. Paul. Lesser lights include a Philotheus (7th century?), a priest Andrew (8th century?), John the Drungarius (9th century), the deacon Polycrates (9th century?), Nicholas of Mouchalos (12th century), and Macarius Chrysokephalus. Most of the manuscripts (numbering in the hundreds) are anonymous; moreover, more than the name of the compiler, it is important to know the internal composition.As for the physical arrangement, biblical chains are distinguished into four classes: 1° corona: in the center of the page (or leaf) stands the biblical text, with the commentaries arrayed all around it; this is the most grandiose and elegant form; 2° columnar: text and commentary face each other in two symmetrical columns; 3° alternating: the text, divided into short sections and marked with repeated quotation marks in the margin, is followed by the commentary without interruption across the full width of the page; 4° marginal: on the margins of a codex that contained only the text, explanations of the Fathers are recorded at the most difficult or significant points; this is the lowest class, of little or no use.
As for the number of authors excerpted, after Procopius one observes an evolution: at first only two (at most three) are chosen, one from the Antiochene school and the other from the Alexandrian, so as to present the two senses, the literal and the mystical; then the number gradually increases, drawing indiscriminately from all quarters; finally, the very bulk of the work, having grown like an avalanche, leads to abridgments, not so much of the series of authors as of their extracts.
Of capital importance, moreover, for deriving from the chains all the benefit we may expect, is their treatment of the names of the excerpted authors and their text. The best and most accurate chains at the beginning of each extract indicate the author, usually in red and in large letters, but also with abbreviations that may give rise to ambiguity. In the course of time, compilers and copyists became progressively less diligent, to the point of omitting the names altogether, creating difficulties of identification and verification for the scholar. As for the text, to fit an excerpt into the series of the chain it may be necessary at the beginning and end to make some stylistic adjustments. But not all compilers are content with this: some tamper unnecessarily with the words of the cited author, muddying the pure waters of tradition.
In short, to extract from the immense and confused mass of Greek chains sound and lasting fruits, one must first sift them carefully. First, the various chains on the same biblical book must be classified, and for this work the ground has already been prepared for the entire Bible (S. Karo and J. Lietzmann, for a large part of the Old Testament Mgr. (now Cardinal) Faulhaber, for the Gospels J. Sickenberger and J. Reuss, for the Letters of St. Paul K. Staab, all Catholics except the first two). Then each class, each type, duly reconstructed through comparison of the copies that have come down to us, must be precisely evaluated for its skill and fidelity in transmitting both the name and the wording of every author excerpted. Only after such a rigorous examination can the abundant materials preserved in the chains be safely utilized. A long and patient labor, but a rewarding one; it is estimated that more than half of the rich and varied exegetical literature of the Greek Church has come down to us only through the chains. Recent proofs of the method and productivity of this critical work are found in the Berlin edition of the Greek Fathers of the first three centuries, and in the volumes by K. Staab, *Pauluskommentare aus der griechischen Kirche*, Münster 1933, and by R. Devreesse, *Le commentaire de Théodore de Mopsueste sur les Psaumes* (I-LXXX) (Studi e Testi, 93), Vatican City 1939.
II. ORIENTAL CHAINS
Often complementary to the Greek chains are those in Syriac, Armenian, and Coptic, whether translated from the Greek or composed or expanded on the basis of indigenous authors. The Syriac literature deserves special mention. Severus the Monk (9th century) is the best-known compiler of a chain for the entire Bible; anonymous are an earlier one (7th century), of which the British Museum Syriac ms. 852 is a copy, and another known by the title *Gannat bussāmē* or “Garden of Delights” (12th century) on the liturgical pericopes for the entire year. But the commentaries of Isho‘dad of Merv (9th century) and of Dionysius bar Salibi (12th century), and the *Treasury of Mysteries* of Gregory Bar Hebraeus (13th century), also partake much of the nature of chains. From the Syriacs such compilations passed, through translations or adaptations, to the Christian Arabs, and from the Arabs or Copts to the Abyssinians.III. LATIN CHAINS: THE GLOSS
Among the Latins this compilatory genre was less in use, at least at first. Before the Carolingian Renaissance, two meager figures appear, worn by time and hidden in the shadows of libraries: the *Scholia* of St. Victor of Capua (d. 553) and the *Expositio in Heptateuchum* by a Roman deacon John, somewhat later (cf. Pitra, *Spicil. Sol.,* I, pp. 5-lxv, 263-301). In the Carolingian age it was understood and sought that biblical commentaries be formed from extracts of the Fathers; but few took the trouble to indicate accurately the author of each excerpt, as did Rabanus Maurus (d. 856), approaching the true type of chain (PL 107-108; his disciple Walafrid Strabo was wrongly credited with the *Glossa ordinaria*, PL 113-114).In the profound renewal of studies that took place in the 12th century, characterized by a return to the Fathers’ sources, just as in dogmatic theology the *Sentences* of Peter Lombard soon became the textbook of the schools, so too for the study and understanding of Holy Scripture the *Glossa* rapidly gained an equal place, arising at that time and for a similar need. The same Lombard composed glosses on the Psalms and the Letters of St. Paul, drawing his material from St. Augustine, St. Jerome, St. Ambrose (or Ambrosiaster), and Cassiodorus.
BIBLICAL CHAINS — Chain on Job, Codex Vat. gr. 749, fol. 77 (4th century), in uncial script, of 11 leaves, 230. This page contains Job 10:7b-9, and is an example of the corona chain (*Kettenkatene*) in which the biblical text, written in larger letters in the center, is framed in the three outer margins by the commentary formed of successive extracts from known exegetes. Each exegetical passage (called a *scholion*) is preceded by the author’s annotation (called the *lemma*). A series of signs (here four) serves to relate the various scholia to the four biblical stichs placed in the center. In this codex each lemma (the author’s name in the genitive; mainly Olympiodorus, Julian of Aeclanum, St. John Chrysostom, and Polycrates) is written in red.
and others; and that work of his remained in esteem as the "great gloss" or "magisterial gloss." But the one that, due to its widest diffusion, was called the Glossa ordinaria resulted from the compilation of particular glosses on individual books, written by various compilers. It seems certain that the cradle and center of this work was the school of Anselm or Ansellus of Laon (d. 1117). In manuscripts and editions (many from the early days of printing up to the late seventeenth century), the Glossa ordinaria usually takes the form of a chain either in a crown or column layout, often accompanied, as a summary or complement, by the so-called interlinear gloss, consisting of concise explanations inserted between the lines of the biblical text. Yet within the immense quantity of glossed Bibles or parts of Bibles preserved in major libraries, there is also great variety that still awaits classification and assessment so that a proper critique and history of the Glossa may be written. This is an immense task, begun only in recent years and far less urgent and fruitful than that on Greek chains, since we possess the complete works from which the Glossa draws its extracts. Among its many forms, however, one stands out for the abundance of texts, excellence of doctrine, and felicity of exposition: the Expositio continua of St. Thomas Aquinas on the Four Gospels, soon adorned by posterity with the title *Catena aurea*, still printed today (Turin 1938) and read (Italian trans. by P. A. Del Corona, San Miniato 1902–1903).
IV. MODERN TIMES
With the Renaissance and the new avenues it opened for studies, the vein of biblical chains did not cease, especially in Italy. After the *Catena aurea super Psalmos* by the French Carthusian Fr. du Puis (de Puteo; Paris 1522), there followed the *Catenae* on Genesis, Exodus, and the Psalms by L. Lippomano (Paris 1546, 1550, and Rome 1585), the *Glossae magnae in Genesim* by A. Martinengo, general of the Lateran Canons (Padua 1597), and the *Caeli Davidici* of the Theatine V. Giliberto (Naples 1639–44), enormous folios that drown in their own bulk.
Biblical chains — *Catena* on the Epistles of St. Paul. Cod. Vat. lat. 2869, f. 26 (11th cent.). A codex of 97 folios, now lacking the beginning and end, containing from 1 Corinthians 6:13–18 to Ephesians 5:10–13. It is an example of the two-column chain format, following the method inaugurated by Procopius of Gaza (6th cent.). The script is minuscule, but the biblical text is in semi-uncial letters. The passage commented upon here is 1 Corinthians 13:1.
More modest are the *Catena in Job* by A. Cermelli (Genoa 1636) and the *Collectanea seu Catena Patrum* on the Acts of the Apostles by L. Sanseverino (Naples 1665), though these too retain the old style, drawing on ancient Fathers and aiming at an ascetical-moral purpose. Yet after the magnificent flowering of commentators that made the century following the Council of Trent the golden age of Catholic exegesis, chains began to be composed solely of recent authors—precisely those who had most succinctly explained the literal sense of Scripture, such as A. Gagny (Gagnano), E. Sa, D. Menochio, and G. Tirino. With these and, in addition, J. Estius, the Franciscan G. de la Haye compiled his *Biblia magna* (Paris 1643, 5 vols.). The *Biblia sacra... cum selectissimis litteralibus commentariis*, issued in Venice (1745–57; 28 vols. in 8°), drew on a number more than double that of authors, including the great Bossuet. From the Protestant side, works in the same genre include the *Critici sacri* (London 1680; 9 vols.) and the *Synopsis criticarum* of M. Poole (ibid. 1669–74; 5 vols.). Meanwhile, the same seventeenth century saw the publication of the largest number of Greek chains in print, chiefly through the efforts of the Jesuits Cordier and Poussines (Possinus).
For the nineteenth century, one might cite, for example, *La chaîne d'or sur les Psaumes* by Abbot J.-M. Péronne (Paris 1879; 3 vols.) and the *Commentary on the Psalms from primitive and medieval sources* by the Anglicans Neale and Littledale (London 1860–1874; 4 vols.). Even in our own time, the monumental work of the priest and professor G. Bellino, *Gesù Cristo nelle S. Scritture e nei SS. Padri e Dottori* (Turin 1911–15; 9 vols.), consists of commentaries and homilies on the Gospels, drawn from the Greek and Latin texts of the most distinguished writers of early Christian and medieval times.
The seed of biblical chains is not yet extinct and will likely continue to yield new fruit.