As I did a few months ago, this Lutheran recommends that we outside the Church of Rome look at the featured Verbum books this month.
The Freebie is Origen’s Homilies on Luke. Origen was probably the most important theologian and exegete of the 3rd century. He was near indispensible for those who followed him, and yet was also startling original, and, well, there are a few reasons he is NOT Saint Origen. I have not read all of these homilies, but did run into a selection of them in the Routledge Early Church Fathers Origen volume years ago, and Homily 18 – on Jesus in the Temple – did make an impression on me:
Learn where they who seek him find him. Then you too, when you seek him along with Joseph and Mary, might be able to find him. They sought him and, Scripture says, “they found him in the temple”: not in any other place, but “in the temple”; and not simply “in the temple,” but “in the midst of the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.” You too, therefore, seek Jesus “in the temple” of God. Seek him in the Church. Seek him among the teachers who are “in the temple” and do not leave it. For, if you seek him in this way, you will find him.
Origen. (2009). Homilies on Luke and Fragments on Luke. (T. P. Halton, Ed., J. T. Lienhard, Trans.) (Vol. 94, p. 77). Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press.
I still have not decided what I think of his allegorical interpretations, but I see here that Origen is driving towards reading the Scriptures Christologically – a method of reading that has been of great importance for the church. As a freebie, it should be almost self-recommending – and is more important than that. By the way, these Homilies are not in the common Ante Nicene set, so not only is this easier to read and using more recent scholarship, but is a totally new text.
The two dollar book is an important primary source for the history of atonement theory. Peter Abelard here in commenting on Romans develops what has been described as the “moral example” theory of the atonement. This is not my understanding personally, but it is THE primary source for it before 19th century liberalism, and so is an important book for a theological library.
For four bucks there is an early Greek commentary on Revelation. To be honest, I know nothing about it. But at that price, it is quite appealing.
Also highly discounted are the Homilies of John Chrysostom on the Gospel of John. These are in NPNF, but these are more modern editions. The man can preach….
The surviving fragments of Origen’s exegetical work on John are collected in another volume.
And finally we have Saint Jerome’s commentary on Galatians. It is evidently highly dependent on Origen, and so is the work of two of the best exegetes of the early church.
If you have found sets like the IVP Ancient Christian Commentary at all interesting, these sale volumes show there is a LOT more good stuff to which we can listen. Go to https://verbum.com/monthly-sale#free to add them to your library this month at a good price.
