'Anomalous' Biblical Quotations in the Pseudo-Origenian Homiles on the Gospel of Matthew (CPG 1510-17)

The essay investigates some aspects of the Pseudo-Origenian homilies (CPG, 1510-1517 and CPL, 668-675) that have been only partially transmitted by Paul the Deacon's Homilary, and collected by Jacques Merlin in the edition of Origen's works published in 1522 by Badius Ascensius. Germain Morin has so far been the only scholar to suggest that some of these homilies shared the same authorship, while considering others extraneous based on sometimes weak conjectural criteria. Nevertheless, a noteworthy characteristic unites all these homilies: the form of their biblical citations frequently deviates from Jerome's Vulgate text, often aligning with readings attested by surviving witnesses of the Veteres Latinae or in the writings of patristic authors active prior to Jerome's revision of the biblical text. In some instances, biblical citations even appear to correspond closely to the Greek biblical text, with a literal degree of translation that for the NT can exceed that of the Vulgate or, at least, be equivalent to it. The examples examined raise unresolved questions not only about the original background of these homilies, but perhaps also about their original language.