| Abstract
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While the early life of John Chrysostom remains largely obscure to us, scholars have been able to reconstruct the chronology of sermons given by John in Antioch. There is, however, less clarity on the date of John’s polemical treatises such as De Babyla contra Iulianum et Gentiles and the Demonstratio. Taking into account archaeological and literary evidence on the translation of the remains of the martyr Babylas, descriptions of space and buildings as well as historical allusions and intertextual references in these and other works, the present paper argues that both treatises were written and composed as a unity in late 386 or early 387, when the remains of Babylas were translated to their final resting place. Both treatises show that John came up with a number of polemical motifs only after he was appointed as a priest and thus illustrate the heated atmosphere in Antioch of 386/7. While the early life of John Chrysostom remains largely obscure to us, scholars have been able to reconstruct the chronology of sermons given by John in Antioch. There is, however, less clarity on the date of John’s polemical treatises such as De Babyla contra Iulianum et Gentiles and the Demonstratio. Taking into account archaeological and literary evidence on the translation of the remains of the martyr Babylas, descriptions of space and buildings as well as historical allusions and intertextual references in these and other works, the present paper argues that both treatises were written and composed as a unity in late 386 or early 387, when the remains of Babylas were translated to their final resting place. Both treatises show that John came up with a number of polemical motifs only after he was appointed as a priest and thus illustrate the heated atmosphere in Antioch of 386/7.
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