John Chrysostom

There are 138,162 words in the Greek New Testament (Greek was the original language of the New Testament). Get this! John of Antioch (347-407) (later named Chrysostom) went into seclusion in the desert for two years to memorize the entire New Testament. That’s right–all 138,162 words. Some suggest he memorized the entire Bible, but I’m sticking with the more conservative number!  Imagine, downloading the entire New Testament into your brain.
John became a gifted preacher in the early church. (If his name sounds familiar, I wrote about his Easter sermon on April 10.) The city where he preached, Constantinople, served as headquarters for the eastern Roman Empire.  The rich and famous, including Emperor Arcadius and Empress Eudoxia, lived there. John was both eloquent and uncompromising in his preaching.  He spoke candidly about the abuse of wealth and said in a sermon, “It is foolishness and public madness to fill our cupboards with clothing and allow others created in God’s image to stand naked and trembling in the cold so that they can hardly hold themselves upright.”  When Empress Eudoxia erected a statue in her honor near the church where John was preaching, he proceeded to condemn her and her cronies for their vanity and ostentatious manner.  She took offense and complained to her husband who banished him to the furthest region of the empire where he died in route. John prayed sentence prayers every hour of the day and night to keep God’s presence before him.  While I’ve listed half of them here, you can access all of them by entering John Chrysostom’s “24 Prayers for Each Hour of the Day.”  You can pray them collectively or one every hour of the day: