The Nature of the Homily in the Corpus of Origen: Insights from the Greek Homilies on the Psalms and Jeremiah
In this article, I problematise the scholarly understanding of Origen’s exegetical homilies, typically understood as condensed and simplified versions of his exegetical commentaries for a mixed audience. This assessment was necessarily based mainly on the homiletic material in Latin translation by R...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2025
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| In: |
Vigiliae Christianae
Year: 2025, Volume: 79, Issue: 2, Pages: 117-149 |
| Further subjects: | B
Origen of Alexandria
B Origen’s Homilies on Jeremiah B Origen’s Homilies on the Psalms B late antique literacy B psalms exegesis B early Christian exegesis B early Christian homilies B OLD TESTAMENT EXEGESIS |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | In this article, I problematise the scholarly understanding of Origen’s exegetical homilies, typically understood as condensed and simplified versions of his exegetical commentaries for a mixed audience. This assessment was necessarily based mainly on the homiletic material in Latin translation by Rufinus and Jerome, who had condensed and rearranged the material. However, the 2012 discovery of Codex Monancensis 314, Origen’s Homilies on the Psalms, more than doubled the number of Origen’s homilies in the original Greek, thus providing much more material with which to analyse the nature of the homily in Origen’s corpus. I argue that the very technical and textually oriented nature of the Greek homilies on the psalms and Jeremiah, the latter of which were previously the only extant set of Greek homilies, provide evidence that Origen’s target audience was an elite (literate) one, and that the exegetical teacher had the same pedagogical goals in his homilies as he did in his commentaries. |
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| ISSN: | 1570-0720 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Vigiliae Christianae
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1163/15700720-bja10100 |
