Pseudo-Chrysostom

Pseudo-Chrysostom is the designation used for the anonymous authors of texts falsely or erroneously attributed to John Chrysostom (died 407). Most such works are sermons, since more than 500 of John's actual sermons survive.^[1]

Several works written by heretics were attributed to Chrysostom, which has ensured their survival. They are an important witness to the spirituality and mindset of certain heretical movements of the 4th and 5th centuries. Three Easter sermons of Pseudo-Chrysostom are thought to be by Apollinaris of Laodicea, the 4th-century opponent of Arianism who lapsed into the heresy that bears his name, Apollinarism. Two sermons for the octave of Easter have been identified as written by an Anomoean. These works are in Greek. The Opus imperfectum in Matthaeum, a series of sermons on the Gospel of Matthew, were written in Latin by an Arian bishop in the 5th or 6th century.^[1]

The Pseudo-Chrysostom sermon on the glorious cross, In venerabilem crucem sermo, was widely copied in its original Greek and also translated into Armenian, Latin, Old Nubian, Old Russian (East Slavic) and Syriac. The Old Nubian text is the longest surviving text in that language.^[2][3] The Coptic Pseudo-Chrysostom sermon on the archangel Raphael, In Raphaelem archangelum, was also translated, revised and expanded in Arabic, Ge'ez (Ethiopic) and Old Nubian.^[4]

Three sermons on Job have been attributed to Chrysostom but were in fact written by Severian of Gabala.^[5] The Second Apocryphal Apocalypse of John is presented in some manuscripts as a sermon of Chrysostom.^[6][7]