gave them : bread from heaven to eat”). This is followed by an exegetical “he gave them bread from heaven” in Jn 6,32-48, then the theme “to eat” Jn 6,49-58). The closing the beginning and at the corporated into the text as Borgen suggests. Those homilies of the Fathers which set out to comment on biblical texts and which have been influenced directly or through the N T by their Jewish counterparts can also be classified as midrash, and this tradition should be

doi:10.4324/9780203056202-66

Chapter

ABSTRACT

The pattern is to begin with a citation of Scripture usually from the Pentateuch (in the homily of Jn 6 it is in v. 31 : “ h e gave them bread from heaven to eat”). This is followed by an exegetical paraphrase of each part of the text in a successive sequence (e.g., first the theme of “he gave them bread from heaven” in Jn 6,32-48, then the theme “to eat” in Jn 6,49-58). The closing statements refer back to the main statement at the beginning and at the same time sum up points from the homily as a whole. Commonly within the homily there is a subordinate citation (e.g., Jn 6,45) to which a few lines of commentary are devoted.