In 2012 Dr. Marina Marin Pradel, an archivist at the Bayerische Stattsbibliotek in Munich, discovered that a thick 12th-century Byzantine manuscript, Codex Monacensis Graecus 314, contained twenty-nine of Origen’s Homilies on the Psalms, hitherto considered lost. Lorenzo Perrone of the University of Bologna, an internationally respected scholar of Origen, vouched for the identification and immediately began work on the scholarly edition that appeared in 2015 as the thirteenth volume of Origen’s works in the distinguished Griechische Christlichen Schrifsteller series. In an introductory essay Perrone provided proof that the homilies are genuine and demonstrated that they are, astonishingly, his last known work. Live transcripts, these collection homilies constitute our largest collection of actual Christian preaching from the pre-Constantinian period. In these homilies, the final expression of his mature thought, Origen displays, more fully than elsewhere, his understanding of the church and of deification as the goal of Christian life. They also give precious insights into his understanding of the incarnation and of human nature. They are the earliest example of early Christian interpretation of the Psalms, works at the heart of Christian spirituality. Historians of biblical interpretation will find in them the largest body of Old Testament interpretation surviving in his own words, not filtered through ancient translations into Latin that often failed to convey his intense philological acumen. Among other things, they give us new insights into the life of a third-century Greco-Roman metropolis, into Christian/Jewish relations, and into Christian worship. This translation, using the GCS as its basis, seeks to convey, as faithfully as possible, Origen’s own categories of thought. An introduction and notes relate the homilies to the theology and principles of interpretation in Origen’s larger work and to that work’s intellectual context and legacy.

In 2012 Marina Molin Pradel, an archivist at the Bavarian State Library discovered that CMG 314, a long-neglected Byzantine manuscript , contained twenty-nine homilies by Origen, the most important and most talented genius of early Christianity. He delivered these homilies around 259 CE, shortly before arrest and torture during the Decian persecution would put an end to his work. Thus, along with the Contra Celsum, Origen’s lengthy defense of Christianity, written after 248, when that persecution was clearly impending, they enable readers to appreciate Origen’s fully-developed thought. Except for the four of these homilies that had been translated into Latin in the fifth century, scholars of Origen thought that all the homilies on the Psalms had been lost. In 2015 Lorenzo Perrone of the University of Bologna, an eminent Origen scholar, assisted by a team including Dr. Pradel, produced a magnificent critical edition of the text. In 2017 the editors of this volume organized a colloquium in Washington, DC, generously hosted by the program in Early Christian Studies. The authors of this volume, a group of American and Canadian scholars, invited Professor Perrone to address the discovery of the homilies and his edition, and to join their discussion of their interpretation. This volume represents the group’s energetic investigations and discussion over the two days of the conference. The essays address Origen’s use of language, his philosophical interests, his relationship with Judaism, and his scholarly patrimony in the next century.