Die neuen Psalmenhomilien

Die Reihe Die Griechischen Christlichen Schriftsteller der ersten Jahrhunderte (GCS) veröffentlicht seit 1897 (zuerst in Leipzig, dann in Berlin) die Ergebnisse des Akademieprojektes Griechische Christliche Schriftsteller, begonnen in der damaligen Königlich Preußischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, unter dem Titel Die alexandrinische und antiochenische Bibelexegese fortgeführt in der Berlin-Brandenburgischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. Sie bietet in großen kritischen Ausgaben mit historisch orientierenden Einleitungen und Registern diejenigen Werke, die ursprünglich im griechischsprachigen Teil des antiken kaiserzeitlichen Christentums entstanden sind und nicht von den anderen großen Editionsreihen herausgegeben werden. Für die ersten drei Jahrhunderte wird dabei Vollständigkeit angestrebt.

The series is devoted to Christian texts from the Greek-speaking parts of the ancient Roman Empire. Published since 1897 (first in Leipzig, then in Berlin) by the Royal Prussian Academy under the project Griechische Christliche Schriftsteller, which was continued by the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy, the series offers large critical editions accompanied by historical introductions and indices of those works that have not been included in other major editions. When complete, the series will provide complete coverage of the first three centuries.

The editio princeps of Codex Monacensis Graecus 314, the collection of Origen's Homilies on the Psalms was discovered by Marina Molin Pradel in april 2012. The Munich manuscript is the major text discovery on Origen, seventy years after the find of the Tura papyri in 1941. The 29 homilies provide the original Greek text of four Homilies on Psalm 36, translated by Rufinus into Latin at the beginning of the fifth century, together with twenty-five new sermons. Only parts of them were known through tiny excerpts preserved in the exegetical anthologies of the catenae. The list of the sermons essentially corresponds to the catalogue of Origen's Homilies on the Psalms in Jerome's Letter 33. It includes two homilies on Ps. 15, four on Ps. 36, two on Ps. 67, three on Ps. 73, one on Ps. 74, one on Ps. 75, four on Ps. 76, nine on Ps. 77, two on Ps. 80, and one on Ps. 81. Beyond recovering for us Origen as the great interpreter of the Psalms, the sermons throw new light on his life and thought, and provide insights into the situation of the Church in the third century CE.
The critical text has been edited by Lorenzo Perrone in cooperation with Marina Molin Pradel, Emanuela Prinzivalli and Antonio Cacciari.