A correspondent kindly sent me some extracts of a English translation of Henri Crouzel’s book on Origen.[1] On p.37-38 I find an English translation of the list of Origen’s works, as given by Jerome in letter 33. This is very useful information, and I reproduce it below.
On Genesis 13 books;[3] assorted homilies 2 books; on Exodus scholia; on Leviticus scholia; Stromateis 10 books; on Isaiah 36 books; also on Isaiah scholia; on Hosea about Ephraim 1 book; on Hosea a commentary; on Joel 2 books; on Amos 6 books; on Jonah 1 book; on Micah 3 books; on Nahum 2 books; on Habakkuk 3 books; on Zephaniah 2 books; on Haggai 1 book; on the beginning of Zechariah 2 books; on Malachi 2 books; on Ezekiel 29 books. Scholia on the Psalms from the first to the fifteenth;[4] also a book on each of the Psalms[5] 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 20, 24, 29, 38, 40. On Psalm 43, 2 books; on Psalm 44, 3 books; on Psalm 45 1 book; on Psalm 46, 1 book; on Psalm 50, 2 books; on Psalm 51, 1 book; on Psalm 51, 1 book; on Psalm 53, 1 book; on Psalm 57, 1 book; on Psalm 58, 1 book; on Psalm 59, 1 book; on Psalm 62, 1 book; on Psalm 63, 1 book; on Psalm 64, 1 book; on Psalm 65,1 book; on Psalm 68, 1 book; on Psalm 70, 1 book; on Psalm 71, 1 book; on the beginning of Psalm 72, 1 book; on Psalm 103, 2 books. On the Proverbs 3 books; on Ecclesiastes scholia; on the Song of Songs 10 books and two other volumes which he wrote in his youth; on the Lamentations of Jeremiah five volumes. Also the Monobibla;[6] four books On Principles;[7] two books On the Resurrection and two others on the Resurrection which are dialogues; a book on certain problems of the Proverbs; the dialogue against Candidus the Valentinian; a book on martyrdom.
Of the New Testament; on Matthew 25 books; on John 32 books;[8] scholia on certain parts of John, 1 book; on Luke 15 books; on the epistle of the apostle Paul to the Romans 15 books; on the epistle to the Galatians 15 books;[9] on the epistle to the Ephesians 3 books; on the epistle to the Philippians 1 book; on the epistle to the Colossians 2 books;[10] on the first epistle to the Thessalonians 3 books;[11] on the second epistle to the Thessalonians 1 book; on the epistle to Titus 1 book; on the epistle to Philemon 1 book.
Also homilies on the Old Testament: on Genesis 17;[12] on Exodus 8;[13] on Leviticus II;[14] on Numbers 28; on Deuteronomy 13; on Jesus, son of Nave (Joshua) 26; on the book of the Judges 9; on the Passover 8; on the first book of the Kings 4;[15] on Job 22; on the Proverbs 7; on Ecclesiastes 8; on the Song of Songs 2; on Isaiah 32; on Jeremiah 14;[16] on Ezekiel 12. A homily on Psalms 3, 4, 8, 12, 13; 3 on Psalm 15; on the Psalms 16, 18, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27; 5 on Psalm 36; 2 on Psalms 37, 38, 39; 1 on Psalms 49, 51; 2 on Psalm 52; 1 on Psalm 54; 7 on Psalm 67; 2 on Psalm 71; 3 on Psalms 72 and 73; 1 on Psalms 74 and 75; 3 on Psalm 76; 9 on Psalm 77; 4 on Psalm 79; 2 on Psalm 80; 1 on Psalm 81; 3 on Psalm 82; 1 on Psalm 83; 2 on Psalm 84; 1 on Psalms 85, 87, 108, 110; 3 on Psalm 118; 1 on Psalm 120; 2 on Psalms 121, 122. 123, 124; 1 on Psalms 125, 127, 128, 129, 131; 2 on Psalms 132, 133, 134; 4 on Psalm 135; 2 on Psalm 137; 4 on Psalm 138; 2 on Psalm 139; 3 on Psalm 144; 1 on Psalms 145, 146, 147, 149, Scholia on the whole Psalter.
Homilies on the New Testament: on the Gospel of Matthew 25; on the Gospel of Luke 39; on the Acts of the Apostles 17; on the second epistle to the Corinthians 11[17] on the epistle to the Thessalonians 2;[18] on the epistle to the Galatians 7; on the epistle to Titus 1; on the epistle to the Hebrews 18. A homily on peace. A (homily) of exhortation to Pionia. On fasting. On cases of monogamy and trigamy[19] 2 homilies. At Tarsus[20] 2 homilies. Also scholia by Origen. Two books of letters from Firmilian,
Gregory and various persons: the epistles of the synods of Origen’s case are in Book II. Nine books of letters from him to various people; the letter in defence of his works is in Book II.
I imagine the footnotes that Crouzel gives are also useful:
3. Eusebius says 12: HE VI. XXIV, 2.
4. Perhaps it should be to the twenty-fifth: cf. Eusebius’s Iist below.
5. The psalms are numbered according to the Greek, not the Hebrew, system.
6. Etymologically: books (or Bible) only. We have no idea what that meant.
7. The famous Peri Archon or De Principiis.
8. 22 according to Eusebius HE VI, XXIV, 1: but we have Books XXVIII and XXXII.
9. This figure is certainly wrong. The von der Goltz codex only speaks of five volumes
covering the whole of the epistle and notes the verses commented on in each volume. See E. von der Goltz, Eine textkritische Arbeit des zehnten bezw. sechsten Jahrhundert. Texte und Untersuchungen XVII 4. Leipzig, 1899. p. 95. Jerome also mentions five books in Letter 112 to Augustine, §4.
10. In reality 3 books of which the von der Goltz codex notes the verses on which each
comments: see previous note.
11. A long passage of the third book is quoted in Latin translation by Jerome in Letter 119 to Minervius and Alexander, §§9-10 .
12. Sixteen homilies are usually reproduced but a Homily XVII is given in PG 13. 253-262: its text is the same as that of part of the De Benedictionibus Pamarchorum of Rufinus and it is eliminated as unauthentic for that reason, a faker being thought to have made up a homily of Origen out of that passage of Rufinus. I confess myself sceptical about this solution and think the opposite equally plausible: the early Fathers having no idea of literary etiquette – shown in numerous cases, the typical examples being Ambrose of Milan – Rufinus may well have sent to Paulinus of Nob who was asking for a treatise one which began by reproducing a homily by Origen which Rufinus had himself translated. In Letter 72 to Evangelus Jerome mentions a homily on Melchisedec which is no longer extant.
13. We have 13 of them.
14. We have 16 of them.
15. That is of Samuel.
16. These are the 14 that Jerome translated, but we have 22 and also in the Philocalia fragments of homilies 21 and 39.
17. Perhaps we should read the ‘first epistle’, for we have numerous fragments on it published by Cl. Jenkins in the Journal of Theological Studies IX-X, 1908-1909. Jerome says in Letter 48 to Pammachius §3 that Origen gave long expositions of this epistle. On the other hand we have no fragments on 2 Corinthians.
18. First or second?
19. These words mean in the primitive Church those who have been married once and
those who have been married three times successively. Three simultaneous marriages would have been illegal in the Greco-Roman world .
20. There is no other evidence of a stay by Origen in Tarsus. From this point on we
reproduce the text as corrected by P. Nautin.
Isn’t it odd that nobody has ever thought it worthwhile to produce an English translation of all of Jerome’s letters? This awkward, difficult man stands at the foot of all western biblical studies, and is of incredible importance for the history of Christianity in the west. Yet the majority of his works – written in simple Latin – remain untranslated.
- [1]H. Crouzel, Origen, tr. A.S. Worrall, T&T Clark, 1989.↩
His Biblical commentaries alone has got to be a desideratum – and not just for Christians. He got his Hebrew Bible from rabbis and he must have consulted them for interpretations of difficult passages. Actually I vaguely recall that he DID consult them here and there.
He’s prolific, writes with high style, and is rude. I suspect that a lot of translators suddenly get fed up with him, especially when he seriously crosses one of their opinions or favorite people. 🙂
That said, there’s a lot of his letters that have been translated, a lot, but they’re in all different batches. And then there’s different numbering systems, just to make it all less fun.
There’s probably a lot of translators that shy away from translating letters that might or might not be by Jerome, too. But I don’t see why that should be a problem; works attributed to an author by mistake are useful for scholars and general readers to know also, especially if they were influential.
You’re probably right!! In why it hasn’t been done. Ah if I were rich …
In 1963, the Ancient Christian Writers series (now published by Paulist Press) published The Letters of St. Jerome. Volume I: Letters 1-22, translated by Charles Christopher Mierow. Mierow had died in 1961 and had apparently left translations of “almost a third” of Jerome’s letters, but only this volume was ever published.
Now, more than half a century later, the Ancient Christian Writers series has commissioned the distinguished Jerome scholar Professor Neil Adkin of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln to translated the letters not published in 1963. (See http://www.francis-cairns.co.uk/Neil%20Adkin.html, but note it says in one place that Adkin is doing volumes II–VII of the ACW Jerome and in another place that he is doing volumes II–VI.)
We will all owe Professor Adkin a debt of gratitude when all of Jerome’s letters are finally in English.
Thank you very much for these details.
I suppose even Mierow’s manuscript would still be copyright under our asinine and oppressive laws.
Adkin’s project has been around awhile. I wonder if it is actually progressing. But it would be wonderful if it was.
A lot of the letters untranslated elsewhere are translated on the Epistolae site, because it’s dedicated to letters to and from women in ancient and medieval times. The translations not taken from PD sources are generally quite good; most of them seem to be by Amy Oh.
Amy Oh is apparently at the U of South Florida these days, teaching Latin. She did Latin/philology at U of Illinois Urbana.
What a find! thank you!! I must look at this.
Well, maybe not “a lot” of untranslated Jerome, but still, there’s some pretty long stuff there. I remember seeing it when it was first set up and was pretty puny, but it’s gotten a lot bigger since then. (I found it again through Jerome, in fact, because Beatus quoted some stuff from Jerome that both had a Latin version up and was translated there.)
Pope St. Gregory the Great has some letters back and forth also (under Gregory I), and there are some other early people. The one I particularly noticed yesterday was one from Pelagius, to that same Demetrias lady who apparently collected letters from Jerome and a bunch of other famous people about her potential vocation. I had no idea that correspondents spammed famous people back then too…. 🙂
I think the idea of “letters to ladies” is a good one; we get something from the selection criterion.
I do wish the content wasn’t scattered over all those little pages, tho.
Hello Roger, I wonder if you could help me chase down the “approved list” of Origen’s “orthodox” writings as enumerated by Jerome. This is referred to in the Decretum Gelasianum:
“likewise some works of Origen, which the blessed man Jerome does not reject, we receive to be read, but we say that the rest with their author must be refused.”
Much appreciated!
No idea – sorry!